Instead of creating jobs or passing legislation, Speaker of the House John Boehner announced today that House Republicans are suing President Obama using his presidential power to issue executive orders.
Boehner told House Republicans that he will be announcing within days, or maybe next week, that the House, a.k.a. House Republicans, will be suing President Obama over his use of executive orders.
According to Roll Call:
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Boehner told the House Republican Conference during a closed-door meeting Tuesday morning that he has been consulting with legal scholars and plans to unveil his next steps this week or next, according to sources in the room.
Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said further action is necessary because the Senate has not taken up bills passed by the House targeting executive actions. The House has passed a bill expediting court consideration of House resolutions starting lawsuits targeting executive overreach and another mandating that the attorney general notify Congress when the administration decides to take executive action outside of what has been authorized by Congress.
“The president has a clear record of ignoring the American people’s elected representatives and exceeding his constitutional authority, which has dangerous implications for both our system of government and our economy,” Steel said. “The House has passed legislation to address this, but it has gone nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate, so we are examining other options.”
Boehner told the Republicans that he didn’t know which executive orders that the House was going to sue Obama over. What Speaker Boehner announced today boils down to this: House Republicans are mad because the Senate won’t pass their bills, so they are going to sue President Obama over something. They aren’t sure what yet, but they are definitely going to sue the President Of The United States.
One might think that before they went to court, House Republicans might try to come up with a reason for suing the president. Logic has never been a friend of these Republicans, so the odds are that Boehner made the decision to sue the president and then decided that he would work out the details later.
Executive orders have been used since George Washington was president. Courts have long held that executive orders are legal. After seeing their attempts to block President Obama’s legislative agenda fail, Republicans are turning to the courts in the hope that the judicial branch will obstruct this president. The Boehner lawsuit isn’t about checks and balances. It isn’t about the separation of powers. Any potential lawsuit from the House Republicans will be all about political obstruction.
House Republicans are doing anything that they can think of distract the nation from their abysmal job performance. They are even willing to take President Obama to court if it means keeping people from asking questions about why Republicans won’t create jobs while trying to take away healthcare from millions.
The truth is that Boehner and the Republicans are suing Obama for carrying out his duties and being president. The truth is that Republicans had no problem with Bush’s executive orders, or Reagan’s executive orders. The issue that they have isn’t with executive orders. It’s because Barack Obama is the President Of The United States.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
