The Republican-led House of Representatives has just voted to sue President Barack Obama over executive orders related to Obamacare — a law they wholly oppose, but mandate delays they support.
In an historic vote, Republicans opted to sue the President of the United States of America over an executive order he signed that delays the employer mandate portion of Obamacare — a law they oppose but a policy they support. Republicans have voted to alter, defund, or repeal the Affordable Care Act more than 50 times. Speaker John Boehner has said that the fact that the GOP supports Obama’s policy of delay strengthens their position.
The vote was 225-201. No Democrats voted for the measure, and five Republicans voted against it, although given the five, it’s likely they were in support of impeachment, not a lawsuit. TPM reports the five are Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY), Walter Jones (R-SC), Paul Broun (R-GA), Steve Stockman (R-TX) and Scott Garrett (R-NJ). All five have been outspoken critics of the Affordable Care Act and the President.
CNN’s Dana Bash confirms their “nay” voting reasoning:
225-201:House Republicans just voted to authorize suing the president. Looks like no D voted Yes. 5 GOP No votes b/c they want to go further
— Dana Bash (@DanaBashCNN) July 30, 2014
“Further,” meaning, impeachment.
Claiming that President Obama has failed to enforce the law — especially Obamacare — and thereby harming Congress is the key principle of their lawsuit. It is historic in that Congress has never sued another branch of government.Â
What is currently unknown is, assuming the lawsuit were allowed by the federal courts, what demands the House would make on the President were they to win.
The lawsuit is believed will cost American taxpayers several million dollars.
With less than five minutes left in the 15-minute vote, it was clearly a game of chicken — almost no one had yet voted, and they were waiting to see how their peers were going to vote:
The Washington Post reported the President mocked the GOP today over their attempt to sue him.
“Stop being mad all the time. Stop just hatin’ all the time,†Obama said at the Uptown Theater here in Kansas City. “Everyone sees this as a political stunt, but it’s worse than that because every vote they’re taking … means a vote they’re not taking to help people.â€
The GOP’s complaint, that the President is “not faithfully executing the laws of the country” is proved false by the number of executive orders the President has signed — compared to all other presidents over the past seven decades — in this chart by MSNBC: