By: Davon Singh
Contributor
On July 30, House Republicans passed a resolution that gave Speaker of the House John Boehner the authority to sue President Barack Obama.
What’s so strange about this entire situation is the reason the President is being sued. Obama is being sued because, ac- cording to Republicans, he is inadequately enforcing the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare.
Yes, you read that right. Republicans are mad at the President for not enforcing the healthcare law they strongly oppose.
This is the same law they have tried to repeal 54 times. Fun fact: these repeal votes have cost taxpayers over $54 million.
Is this what being fiscally conservative means? By the way, members of Congress have no standing to sue, because they have not suffered any actual injury. The lawsuit will most likely be tossed.
The New York Times called the lawsuit “Mr. Boehner’s version of what might be termed impeachment-light — a way to send a signal that Republicans would fight the President’s efforts to revise laws Congress had passed while not going as far as many on the right would like.” The most important part of that quote is the end, “while not going as far as many on the right would like”.
In a recent CNN poll, 57 percent of Republicans believe Obama should be impeached. Overall, only 33 percent of Americans believe Obama should be impeached.
“In a recent CNN poll, 57 percent of Republicans believe Obama should be impeached.”
Still, prominent conservative voices havecalled for impeachment including former Governor of Alaska and Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin, Rep. Michele Bachmann, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.
The lawsuit has already started to back- fire on Republicans.
On July 28, two days before the resolution to sue Obama was passed, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced in a single day they had raised $1 million. Since then, Democrats have raised over $7.6 million.
Democrats, who are usually useless, have finally learned how to play the game. They have successfully woven together the lawsuit and impeachment talk to motivate their base.
Republicans, on the other hand, are not looking so good. In a recent Gallup poll, their favorable rating was at 34 percent and their unfavorable rating was at 59 percent. This is the ninth year in a row their favorable rating was lower than their unfavorable rating.
But Republicans need not worry about these poll numbers. As Stephen Colbert famously said “We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in reality, and reality has a well-known liberal bias.”