Contending that US President Barack Obama exceeded his constitutional powers in the way he has enforced the 2010 healthcare law, a sharply divided US House of Representatives approved a Republican plan to file an election-season lawsuit against him.
Democrats say the lawsuit is a campaign-year stunt designed to draw conservative voters to the polls in congressional elections in November. They also say it may be a prelude to an effort to impeach Obama, a suggestion which top Republicans say is groundless.
Republicans say Obama has gone too far in selectively enforcing parts of the healthcare overhaul, the signature legislation of his presidency, such as by delaying the requirement that many employers provide health insurance for their workers.
They say they are protecting the US Constitution’s division of powers. Republicans have not laid out a timetable for actually filing the suit.
The House vote on Wednesday was 225 to 201. No Democrats voted for the plan.
Speculation about impeachment of Obama has been popular among conservative activists and some legilstors, despite House Speaker John Boehner’s dismissal of the idea. Democrats have capitalized on the speculation, sending fundraising pleas to their own supporters saying that Republicans are out to impeach Obama and ruin his presidency.
Republicans, who are expected to keep their House majority after November’s elections and hope to gain control of the Senate, say Obama has enforced laws as he wants to, dangerously shifting power to the presidency from Congress.
Obama said the vote to file a lawsuit is taking away from time the legislators could be spending on issues important to US citizens. He described the measure as a “political stunt” and said he took actions on his own because Congress is not doing anything to help him.
Every Republican legislator opposed Obama’s healthcare overhaul.
Republicans say Obama has illegally changed the law by using executive actions that do not require congressional approval. The White House and Democrats say he has acted legally and within his powers as chief executive.
Republicans say there are other examples of Obama exceeding his powers. These include allegedly failing to notify Congress in advance when he traded five Taliban members held at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for the captive US Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, and unilaterally preventing the deportation of some children who were suspected of illegally immigrating to the US.
Despite these accusations, Republicans intend to limit their lawsuit to a narrow claim: that Obama has failed to faithfully carry out the healthcare law that, according to polls, remains poorly received by the public.
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