King's Fight Against Gov't Shutdown Falls Short

Rep. Peter King has never been one to mince words and with the government headed toward its first shutdown in nearly two decades Monday, his harshest words were directed at his fellow Republicans. 

King, R-Seaford, was one of only five House Republicans to vote against a final hour spending measure Monday night that was doomed to fail in the Democrat-controlled Senate because it defunded the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. 

King did not lay down without a fight, however, as he spent Monday attempting to lead a moderate coup against the Republican leadership, according to a Daily Beast report. 

“It’s going nowhere, there’s no endgame,” King told fellow Republicans before the vote, referring to the standoff, the report says. “It’s bad for the Congress. It's bad for the government, bad for the country.”

King said the effort to dismantle Obamacare "goes against the whole spirit of the Constitution," the report says. 

In the end, though, House Speaker John Boehner sided with the hardline Republicans, including Sen. Ted Cruz, of Texas, whom King has called "a fraud," according to a New York Times article. And today the U.S. government is shutdown for the first time since 1995. 

Do you agree with Peter King that attempts to defund Obamacare goes against the spirit of the Constitution? Sound off in the comments section below.