Boehner leads charge to sue President Obama
WASHINGTON — The House will vote next month on legislation authorizing a campaignseason lawsuit accusing President Barack Obama of failing to carry out the laws passed by Congress, Speaker John Boehner announced on Wednesday. In a memo distributed to House members, Boehner, R-Ohio, accused Obama of “aggressive unilateralism” and said if left unchecked, it would give the president “king-like authority at the expense of the American people and their elected legislators.” White House press secretary Josh Earnest dismissed any suggestion that the president has failed to act within the law in issuing executive orders or taking other actions. “We feel completely confident that the president was operating within his authority as the president of the United States to take these steps on behalf of the American people,” he told reporters. Whatever the outcome of the suit in the courts, Boehner’s announcement guarantees creation of yet another political struggle between Republicans and Obama and his Democratic allies in a campaign already full of them. Rep. Steve Israel of New York, who chairs the Democratic campaign committee, said Boehner planned a “politically motivated lawsuit,” and predicted the voters would punish Republicans for it. He accused the speaker of a “reprehensible waste of taxpayers’ money and a desperate political stunt meant to gin up the Republican base at a time when House Republicans are historically unpopular.”