Tag: boehner lawsuit
U.S. House of Representatives Votes To Sue Obama

U.S. House of Representatives Votes To Sue Obama

Washington (AFP) — The Republican-led House of Representatives voted Wednesday to sue President Barack Obama for allegedly overstepping his powers, a move swiftly denounced by his Democratic allies as a cynical election-year stunt.

By a party-line vote of 225 to 201, the House voted to resort to the unprecedented move of taking the president to court for not having stringently followed the letter of the law while implementing his signature “Obamacare” health care reform bill.

The measure, which would empower House Speaker John Boehner to start the legal proceedings, is meant to rein in a president besotted by power, the top House Republican said from the floor of the chamber.

“This isn’t about Republicans or Democrats. It’s about defending the Constitution that we swore an oath to uphold, and acting decisively when it may be compromised,” Boehner said.

“Are you willing to let any president choose what laws to execute, and what laws to change?”

Boehner told his fellow lawmakers that Obama violated the country’s founding document by not adhering rigidly to the wording of the law when implementing the health reform law.

Obama, for his part, has been derisive in dismissing the suit, making it a punchline again during a speech in Kansas City, Missouri.

“Instead of suing me for doing my job, I want Congress to do its job and make life a little better for the Americans who sent them there in the first place,” he said to cheers and applause from a supportive crowd.

“And by the way,” he added, “you know who’s paying for this suit they’re going to file? You.”

– ‘Sickening’ vote –

Lawmakers in Obama’s Democratic party wasted no time decrying the vote.

Top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi invoked her outrage over the vote, in a fundraising email sent to supporters late Wednesday.

“Just now, I watched Republicans vote for the first lawsuit against a President in U.S. history,” she wrote, in her appeal for donations.

“House Republicans took to the floor of the House and compared President Obama to a tyrant,” Pelosi said.

“It’s sickening. This is nothing but disgraceful politics — and total disrespect for our president.”

The language of the measure accuses Obama of “executive overreach,” and charges him with “failing to faithfully execute the law with respect to the implementation” of the law popularly known as “Obamacare.”

“This resolution seeks to protect Congress’s constitutional prerogative and asks the court to fulfill its duty to guard the lines of separation” between the executive and legislative branches of government, it adds.

The move toward a lawsuit is the latest sign of extreme gridlock and discord in Washington, with the two major political parties constantly at loggerheads, and Obama and his congressional opponents unable to work together to pass and enact legislation.

The discord is heightened by the fact that mid-term elections to replace the entire House and a third of the U.S. Senate are just a few months away.

The suit is seen by some analysts as a Republican strategy to pique the interest of voters who might otherwise be unmotivated to go to the polls during November’s legislative vote.

AFP Photo/Chip Somodevilla

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House’s Vote To Sue Obama Is Historic Foray Into Checks, Balances

House’s Vote To Sue Obama Is Historic Foray Into Checks, Balances

By Michael A. Memoli, Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — The House’s vote to sue President Barack Obama is the first such legal challenge by a chamber of Congress against a president, and a historic foray in the fight over constitutional checks and balances.

Wednesday’s nearly party-line vote followed a feisty floor debate and offered a fresh example of how the capital’s hyperpartisanship has led both parties into unprecedented territory, going to new and greater lengths to confront one another.

Two years ago, the Republican-led House became the first to hold a sitting Cabinet secretary in contempt of Congress, after lawmakers accused Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. of defying their request to turn over records about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Fast and Furious gun-running operation.

Last year, the Democratic-controlled Senate changed the body’s long-standing filibuster rules in response to what they said was blatant obstruction by the minority GOP of presidential nominations, including the first-ever filibuster of a nominee for Defense secretary.

November’s elections could further exacerbate tensions in Washington, especially if Republicans — who already hold the House — gain control of the Senate. They need a net gain of six seats to do so.

The House approved the resolution to sue in a near party-line vote, 225-201. It authorizes House Speaker John A. Boehner to file suit in federal court on behalf of the full body “to seek appropriate relief” for Obama’s failure to enforce a provision of the Affordable Care Act that would penalize businesses that do not offer basic health insurance to their employees.

That provision’s effective date has been delayed by the administration twice and now won’t fully take effect until 2016. The GOP-led House has voted to repeal the law, even as it seeks to sue Obama for failing to enforce it.

When he unveiled the suit, Boehner insisted it was about more than just Obama. “This isn’t about Republicans and Democrats. It’s about defending the Constitution that we swore an oath to uphold, and acting decisively when it may be compromised,” Boehner said Wednesday.

Lou Fisher, a constitutional scholar, said the House vote was a new iteration of the push-and-pull between the executive and legislative branches dating back to the nation’s founding. Never before had either the House or the Senate sought to challenge a president’s authority in the courts.

Traditionally, such disputes have been handled through political trade-offs or, in the most extreme cases, the impeachment process outlined in the Constitution. In 1834, the Senate voted to censure President Andrew Jackson, although Fisher said the legitimacy of that step was questioned and the censure was later expunged.

Whether the lawsuit will become a new normal may depend on how it plays in November.

“Maybe that will be the test — who gets hurt more from this?” said Fisher, a former analyst on the separation of powers for the Congressional Research Service.

Individual members of Congress have sued presidents before. A special House panel also has represented the body in other lawsuits, most recently before the Supreme Court on the Defense of Marriage Act. The House or a House committee can sue an executive agency or White House officials to seek documents or testimony, since the House has an independent authority to investigate.

But Rep. G. K. Butterfield (D-NC) a former judge, said the latest suit introduces a host of new legal questions. “Do you really want to cede to the courts the authority to resolve disputes between the branches?” he asked. “Would you want the president to sue the House for missing a budget deadline? How would it end?”

Legal experts note that the Supreme Court has previously refused to get involved in political spats between Congress and the president, and for that reason the House lawsuit is expected to fail.
But Rep. Richard Nugent (R-FL), insisted the House needs to make a stand and “defend the Constitution.” He cited Obama’s own words as a senator challenging President George W. Bush for “mak(ing) laws as he goes along.”

Democrats called the suit a political stunt and defended Obama’s use of his executive powers, blaming congressional inaction and gridlock.

They warned that the House suit could be the first step toward impeachment, something that has become a staple of campaign messaging for the party and already generated millions in online donations.

Speaking on the House floor, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), noted how she, after being elected speaker in 2007, faced enormous pressure to launch impeachment proceedings against George W. Bush over the Iraq war. She said Boehner’s statement that the GOP had “no plans” to impeach the president did not go far enough. She questioned the use of the House’s time even on the lawsuit resolution.

“It is yet another Republican effort to pander to the most radical right-wing voters at taxpayers’ expense,” she said.

House Democrats used some of the time allotted for debate to press Republicans instead to allow votes on various proposals they say would boost the middle class.

Staff writers David Savage and Kathleen Hennessey contributed to this report.

AFP Photo/Jim Watson

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Need Campaign Cash? No Problem. Sue The President

Need Campaign Cash? No Problem. Sue The President

By William Douglas, McClatchy Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner has yet to formally file his lawsuit accusing President Barack Obama of overreaching his executive authority, but that hasn’t stopped Democrats and Republicans from making a mad dash for campaign cash off the threatened legal action.

No sooner did Boehner (R-OH), unveil a draft resolution authorizing the House of Representatives to proceed with the lawsuit than party campaign committees rushed to Twitter, email, and social media with the digital equivalent of tin cups, begging for donations.

“Hours ago, Republicans held a hearing to launch their biggest attack yet against President Obama — they’re suing the president,” alerted a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee email Wednesday asking for donations between $5 and $250 from 200,000 supporters. “Crushing that goal is the single most important thing we can do right now to get President Obama’s back. Can you chip in to help us hit our target?”

Republicans have been equally busy on the lawsuit money trail. On Facebook, the Republican National Committee placed a post seeking support for Boehner’s lawsuit, calling it an effort to “Stop this imperial presidency in Court.”

Type your name, email address and zip code in the petition signature section and it takes you to another page that states, “But to fully stop this Imperial President’s radical, unconstitutional actions and to hold him (Obama) accountable to the American people, we must get more principled conservatives elected to Congress.”

It then asks for donations to the RNC from $5 to $32,400 to “get more Republicans elected to Congress in 2014.”

Campaign finance watchdog groups say that, while the practice of using controversies or tragedies for fundraising purposes may appear unseemly, it’s perfectly legal and is becoming a growing part of today’s politics.

“This is standard procedure in the political/charity fundraising playbook to shake loose money from the money tree,” said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan campaign finance oversight group. “This is a clear reminder of how these controversies are the bread and butter of fundraising. They (political parties) hope it excites and incites their base.”

The proposed Obama lawsuit is the latest political skirmish to trigger a fundraising blitz. Both parties are also trying to turn political hay into campaign cash from the increasing chatter on the political right calling for Obama’s impeachment. And the health care law is now a standard fundraising tool, with Republicans making cash appeals to help elect members to kill it and Democrats asking for donations to preserve it.

Larry Noble, legal counsel for the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan, nonprofit campaign legal research group, said that the efforts are symbolic of the “fundraising demands” of the political parties and their candidates to “fundraise on anything.”

“There are a lot of things that they do in Congress with an eye towards fundraising, and they’re very open about it,” said Noble, a former Federal Election Commission general counsel. “There’s clearly an element to this about exciting your base and fundraising off it.”

AFP Photo/Jim Watson

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