Rep. Steve King Thursday called Barack Obama a "spiteful" president and accused him of using the government sequester and shutdown to hurt Americans.
"This is a spiteful president . . . The American people need to understand that," the Iowa Republican told CNN. "Trying to run a government with a spiteful president, that locks our veterans out of the World War II Memorial — there's never been a barricade around there before."
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"This is a president that is not trying to do, with the tools he's got, the best that can be done for the American people," King added.
The president has so far refused to negotiate with Republicans over the a temporary spending measure tied to defunding Obamacare and the debt limit, and King wondered if a meeting scheduled Thursday between the White House and Republicans would be fruitful.
"He will be sitting down a second time, in the last week or so, talking to Republican leadership and a select team of Republican negotiators. We don't know if they'll negotiate it," King said.
King said he's "serious about entitlement spending," and added he supports a long-term approach through a balanced-budget amendment.
"I'd rather have a balanced-budget amendment, as a condition to raise the debt ceiling. If we could get that done, the states would ratify, and we could fix this problem for all time. We should talk about being on point how we solve the problem for the long-term," he said.
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