King: Defunding Planned Parenthood possible

JOHNSTON - U.S. Rep. Steve King, the staunch conservative from western Iowa, discussed the art of the possible in Congress during a wide-ranging interview for Iowa Public Television's 'Iowa Press.”

In King's estimation:

' Defunding Planned Parenthood is entirely possible.

' Stopping approval of a multination agreement to reduce Iran's nuclear capabilities is possible, but may fall short due to party loyalty.

' Generating congressional support for a federally financed insurance program for bird producers would be very difficult because of the industry's narrow geographic representation.

' And changing the life terms of U.S. Supreme Court justices is possible but highly unlikely because of the difficult process to amend the U.S. Constitution.

King compared the issue of Planned Parenthood - conservatives have been upset by secretly filmed videos showing employees of the women's health care provider discussing saving aborted fetuses for medical research - with the ACORN scandal, in which secretly filmed videos showed employees of the community organizing group for the poor describing how to conceal income and prostitution activities.

Many Republicans in Congress have expressed outrage at the Planned Parenthood videos, but some Democrats have defended the organization.

'These Planned Parenthood videos very much reflect the revulsion that we saw inside ACORN, only in a physical way and a revolting way and an intrinsic human value way,” King said during the taping Wednesday. 'I think it's unconscionable if Congress can't figure out how to simply cut off all funding to Planned Parenthood. …

'It's procedurally possible. It's practical. If it's the will of the people, we should do that. I think the odds right now are just about even.”

King also believes it's possible there is enough opposition to the agreement to reduce Iran's nuclear arsenal that Congress will have the votes to override President Barack Obama's veto. Such action would require Democratic support in Congress.

King said his own 'not particularly reliable” vote count shows nearly enough votes to override a veto, and he said the opposition of Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., could provide shade for other Democrats who oppose the bill but are hesitant to vote against Obama.

King acknowledged, however, vote counts can change when it's time to press the button.

'Even though I might be able to look at that today and say, ‘I think we could actually count the votes in the House and Senate to override a presidential veto, I know that under real circumstances that changes because they don't want to say no to their president.”

King said generating enough votes to pass a federal insurance program for bird producers would be even more difficult because the issue affects the districts of so few members of Congress.

The discussion arose as a possible response to future incidents such as the bird flu that decimated many Iowa poultry and turkey farms this spring.

Generating sufficient support for a new insurance program 'would be very difficult,” King said. 'I stand there almost the lone guy among 434 others, trying to get their attention.”

King was even less optimistic about the prospects of changing the life terms of U.S. Supreme Court justices.

King, who was upset by the reasoning used by the Supreme Court in recent rulings on the federal health care law and same-sex marriage, plans to introduce a constitutional amendment that would reduce justices' terms to eight to 10 years and have them elected by regions.

But King acknowledged the difficulty of passing a constitutional amendment, which must be proposed by a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate or by two-thirds of state legislatures, and then approved by three-fourths of the states.

'We know how hard it is to amend the Constitution,” King said.