House Panel Votes to Ok Lawsuit Against Obama

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday took another step toward authorizing a lawsuit against President Barack Obama, claiming he has overstepped his executive powers in carrying out his landmark healthcare reform law.

In a partisan vote of 7-4, the House Rules Committee approved the legislation, likely setting it up for consideration by the full House next week. The Republican initiative already has spawned a bitter debate with Democrats less than four months before mid-term elections that will determine the political control of Congress next year.

Any lawsuit likely would take years to wind through federal courts.

While the lawsuit would focus on Obamacare, Republicans have complained bitterly about the president’s actions on several issues.

For example, House Speaker John Boehner wrote in June that Obama’s use of executive orders, including raising the minimum wage for federal contractors and stopping deportations of undocumented youths brought to the United States by their parents, risked giving him a “king-like authority.”

But Boehner has tamped down calls from some fellow Republicans for impeachment proceedings against Obama, which would be a first step toward removing him from office.

House Republicans in 1998 spearheaded a successful drive to impeach President Bill Clinton, also a Democrat. Clinton served out his second term, however, after the Senate acquitted him of both articles of impeachment involving perjury and obstruction of justice. The episode damaged Republicans politically.

The lawsuit, if approved by the full House, would focus on Obama’s implementation of his landmark healthcare law, known as “Obamacare,” which Republicans have been trying to repeal for years. Republicans claim Obama went beyond his legal authority and bypassed Congress when he delayed some healthcare coverage mandates and granted various waivers.

But Democrats have decried the suit as an election-year political stunt and a waste of time and money. 

This article appeared in print on page 8 of the July 25th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.