ARTICLE ONE AND STUNTS

Erick Erickson


Speaker John Boehner intends to draft
legislation in the House of Representatives that
would authorize a suit against the president of
the United States. The legislation would only
pertain to the House, so it would not need the
Senate's consent. Given the partisan
composition of the House, the legislation will
pass. Speaker Boehner will use taxpayer
dollars to sue President Obama over President
Obama's use, or disuse, of his powers.
The suit will have a legal basis. In fact, there
are some legitimate complaints about the
president's use of the executive branch to
modify his health care law without
congressional consent. There are plausible
justiciable bases for the suit. But the suit is
mostly a political stunt. A suit of this nature,
filed at year's end, would wind its way through
the district and appellate courts, finally
reaching the Supreme Court most likely after
President Obama is out of office.
The House Republicans collaborated with their
Senate colleagues and gave President Obama a
blank check to increase the debt ceiling to
March of 2015. Now they want to spend
additional taxpayer dollars to ask federal
courts to stop a president they themselves
enabled.
Contrast this run to the judiciary with the
House's own powers. The founders of the
nation gave the House of Representatives two
exclusive powers. The first is the power of
impeachment. Reasonable people may disagree
on this, but it seems unwise to try to impeach
President Obama.
Currently, the Senate is controlled by
Democrats. Were the House to impeach the
president, the impeachment would go
nowhere. The media and even some
Republicans would attack the House
Republicans. Control of the Senate, which now
seems very likely, could slip from Republican
hands. Black voters, already under a barrage
of propaganda claiming Republicans want to
impeach the president, would be mobilized to
go defend the first black president.
It would end badly for the Republicans.
Speaker Boehner, just the other day, said as
much. Impeachment, wisely, is not on the
table. At this point, it is not even a sure thing
that the Republicans have the votes within
their own caucus to attempt it.
But there is another exclusive power given to
the House of Representatives by the founders.
James Madison, the chief architect of our
constitution, described this exclusive power of
the House in Federalist 58 as "the most
complete and effectual weapon with which
any constitution can arm the immediate
representatives of the people, for obtaining a
redress of every grievance, and for carrying
into effect every just and salutary measure."
"The House of Representatives cannot only
refuse, but they alone can propose, the
supplies requisite for the support of
government. They, in a word, hold the purse,"
James Madison wrote. But the House of
Representatives will not use the power of the
purse to rein in the president. It would be the
right thing to do. It resolves the claims
Republicans make about the president's abuses
of power, defunding each one, without
resorting to political stunts in courts using
taxpayer dollars.
But it will not happen. The House Republicans,
as much as they are afraid of a political
disaster involving impeachment, are horrified
of being blamed for a government shutdown.
The prior government shutdown certainly saw
a decline in Republican popularity, but it was
a mixture of those angry they did not keep up
the fight and those angry they fought at all. It
was also short term.
Therein lies why this lawsuit is a political
stunt. The founders gave the House of
Representatives the power to stop much of
what they complain about by withholding the
funds to continue the shenanigans. But they
gave the president a blank check to raise the
debt ceiling and have themselves continued to
fund Obamacare and all the other agencies
they are upset about.
They will run to the courts and ask the courts
to stop the president while they keep the cash
flowing to fund the very abuses they are using
our taxpayer dollars to file a lawsuit over.