In a 225-to-201 party-line vote, Republicans authorized the House to move forward with a lawsuit against Mr. Obama for his application of the Affordable Care Act, which they argue has been selective and intended to delay the law’s most undesirable aspects.

Later the president said that Republicans keep blocking and voting down every idea that would have an impact on middle class families. Obama said, “They haven’t been that helpful. They haven’t been as constructive as I would have hoped.” Obama later told Congress to come on and help a little bit, “Stop being mad all the time. Stop just hating all the time.”

The president said that the main vote that House Republicans have scheduled for today is to decide whether or not to sue me for doing my job. He said, “But think about this, they have announced that they are going to sue me for taking executive actions to help people. So you know, they’re mad because I’m doing my job, and, by the way, I told them, I said I’d be happy to do it with you. So the only reason I am doing it on my own is because you don’t do anything, but if you want let’s work together. Everybody recognizes this is a political stunt, but it’s worse than that, because every vote they’re taking like that is a vote they are not taking to actually help you. When they had taken fifty votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, that was time they could have spent working constructively to help you on some things. By the way, do you know who’s paying for the suit they are going to file? You. No, no, you’re paying for it, and it’s estimated that by the time the thing is done, I would have already left office, so it’s not a productive thing to do.”

I intend to bring to the floor in July legislation that would authorize the House of Representatives – through the House General Counsel and at the direction of the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) – to file suit in the coming weeks in an effort to compel the president to follow his oath of office and faithfully execute the laws of our country. The legislation would follow regular order and be considered by the Rules Committee following its introduction, prior to its consideration by the full House.

Under our system of government, the Judicial Branch has the power to resolve disputes between the Executive and Legislative Branches. When there is a failure on the part of the president to faithfully execute the law, the House has the authority to challenge this failure in the Judicial Branch by filing suit in Federal Court in situations in which:

There is no one else who can challenge the president’s failure, and harm is being done to the general welfare and trust in faithful execution of our laws;
There is no legislative remedy; and
There is explicit House authorization for the lawsuit, through a vote authorizing the litigation against the president’s failure.

I believe the House must act as an institution to defend the constitutional principles at stake and to protect our system of government and our economy from continued executive abuse. The president has an obligation to faithfully execute the laws of our country. When this legislation is introduced in the coming weeks, I ask that you review it and join me in supporting it when it goes before the House.

The Founding Fathers, the framers of the Constitution, wanted to form a government that did not allow one person to have too much control. With this in mind, the framers wrote the Constitution to provide for a separation of powers, or three separate branches of government. Each has its own responsibilities and at the same time they work together to make the country run smoothly and to assure that the rights of citizens are not ignored or disallowed. This is done through checks and balances. A branch may use its powers to check the powers of the other two in order to maintain a balance of power among the three branches of government.

Boehner and House Republicans have balked at the idea of immigration reform this year, saying they do not trust Obama to enforce any law they pass. (snip)

“What we've seen, clearly over the last five years, is an effort to erode the power of the legislative branch,” Boehner told reporters Wednesday. “I believe the President is not faithfully executing the laws of our country, and on behalf of the institution and our Constitution, standing up and fighting for this is in the best long-term interest of the Congress.”