House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions
With the August recess right around the corner, House Republicans have taken another step towards turning Speaker John Boehner's planned lawsuit against President Obama into reality,
approving a resolution in the House Rules Committee that will allow the full House to consider the lawsuit, most likely next week.
The lawsuit claims that President Obama overstepped his authority when the Treasury Department authorized transitional relief to Obamacare's employer mandate by delaying its enforcement, which, ironically, is actually the outcome that Republicans wanted to see.
That puts them in the position of arguing that while they agree with what the president did, they don't think that he had the authority to do it. It's kind of like suing a police officer for not giving them a speeding ticket when they were caught doing 70 in a stretch of road that just had its speed limit lowered to 55. That's not a strong legal position given that their lawsuit will be tossed if they can't show that they've been injured by the employer mandate delay, but House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions nonetheless defended the GOP's decision to sue, saying of President Obama's action:
This was not the way our system of government was designed to work. Laws are not a mere list of suggestions that a president can pick and choose.
Actually, the system is designed to give the executive branch discretion. And if Congress thinks the executive branch has misused its discretion, our system of government gives them all the power they need to change policy ... but that power comes from their ability to pass laws, including appropriations bills, not by asking the judiciary to intervene in disputes between one chamber of Congress and the executive branch.
If they really want President Obama to reverse his decision, maybe they should try another government shutdown. And if they don't feel strongly enough about the issue to risk the political fallout from another shutdown, then maybe they should just shut up.