AFP
Washington
President Barack Obama, in an interview broadcast yesterday, has dismissed as a “stunt” a Republican threat to sue him and refused to apologise for using executive orders that infuriate his critics in Congress.
Speaker of the House John Boehner announced on Wednesday that he would file suit against Obama because “the president has not faithfully executed the laws” of the nation.
However, the US president took issue with Boehner’s announcement, saying that the top Republican in Congress declined to specify where the commander-in-chief had failed in that regard.
“You notice that he didn’t specifically say what exactly he was objecting to,” Obama told ABC News during a visit to Minnesota on Thursday. “The suit is a stunt.”
“I’m not going to apologise for trying to do something while they’re doing nothing,” the president said of Republicans in Congress.
Republicans complain that the Senate, controlled by Obama’s Democrats, refuses to take up House-passed legislation that would create jobs and improve the economy.
Democrats counter that Republicans are doing everything in their power to sink the Obama presidency.
“What I do worry about is that right now we’ve got a Republican Party that seems to only care about saying no to me,” Obama told ABC.
“What I’ve told Speaker Boehner directly is, ‘If you’re really concerned about me taking too many executive actions, why don’t you try getting something done through Congress?’”
Boehner has clashed with Obama for years.
“We elected a president ... we didn’t elect a monarch or king,” Boehner said in his letter to lawmakers announcing his intention to file suit.
Boehner’s office said that dismissing the suit as a stunt “only reinforces (the) frustration” of Americans who feel Obama has overstepped his authority – from the implementation of the controversial healthcare law to rules curbing greenhouse gas emissions and the White House’s release of five Taliban detainees in exchange for a US Army sergeant’s freedom.
“The American people, their elected representatives, and the Supreme Court have all expressed serious concerns about the president’s failure to follow the Constitution,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel declared.