John Boehner Can’t Name One Example Of Obama Breaking The Law In 12 Paragraph CNN Op-Ed

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Speaker of the House John Boehner spent twelve paragraphs writing about why he must sue President Obama, but what was missing from his CNN commentary was any examples of Obama breaking the law.

Boehner wrote, “But too often over the past five years, the President has circumvented the American people and their elected representatives through executive action, changing and creating his own laws, and excusing himself from enforcing statutes he is sworn to uphold — at times even boasting about his willingness to do it, as if daring the American people to stop him.”

That sounds dangerous, so what has the president done?

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Boehner continued, “That’s why, later this month, we will bring legislation to the House floor that would authorize the House of Representatives to file suit in an effort to compel President Obama to follow his oath of office and faithfully execute the laws of our country.”

This is another allegation that the president has broken laws, but which laws did he violate?

The Speaker continued to ramble on without offering the slightest hint of specifics, “Even worse, the President’s habit of ignoring the law as written hurts our economy and jobs even more. Washington taxes and regulations always make it harder for private sector employers to meet payrolls, invest in new initiatives and create jobs — but how can those employers plan, invest and grow when the laws are changing on the President’s whim at any moment? I don’t take the House legal action against the President lightly. We’ve passed legislation to address this problem (twice), but Senate Democrats, characteristically, have ignored it.”

Was Boehner writing about Obamacare, the EPA rules on coal power plants, raising the minimum wage for federal contractors, immigration? Who knows? Speaker Boehner certainly doesn’t.

Speaker Boehner aimless drifts for a dozen paragraphs, thirteen if you count a one sentence paragraph which I didn’t, and he says nothing that everyone hasn’t heard Republicans accuse Obama of ever since the day that he first he took office.

The most revealing thing about Speaker Boehner’s CNN op-ed is the complete lack of evidence that it contains. Boehner couldn’t articulate a clear reason for suing the president much less a specific example that could be deemed worthy of a lawsuit. Every executive action that Obama has taken has decades or centuries legal precedent behind it. The Speaker has been trying to dodge the fact that he has no legal grounds to sue on.

Speaker Boehner has been working on this lawsuit for six months. Over the course of the past half year, House Republicans have not found a single instance where President Obama has broken the law. If Boehner had a specific example of the president breaking the law, he would be using it. The fact that he has been trying to whip Republicans into a frenzy over this lawsuit without telling them why they are suing the president speaks volumes about the merits of what Rep. Boehner is up to.

This lawsuit is a gimmick that is designed to distract Republican voters from the fact that in 2010 and 2012 Republicans promised to repeal Obamacare, but here we are in 2014, and not only is the ACA the law of the land, but it is more popular than ever. Republicans promised to shut down the government until they got their way, and failed. Failure is the defining characteristic of Boehner’s time as Speaker.

The years of Republican majority control of the House have been wrapped in failure. The lawsuit is nothing more than a shiny distraction. Benghazi didn’t distract. This IRS conspiracy flamed out, so all Boehner has left is an empty threat to sue the president.

Democrats are raising record sums of money while conservatives see through the gimmicks. Speaker Boehner has unleashed a backlash from all sides. Just like his CNN op-ed Boehner’s speakership has been full of bluster but ineptly lacking in action.

In other words, every time John Boehner brings up this lawsuit, House Republicans take another step towards losing in 2014.



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