Cole: Boundaries Of Executive Power Must Be Defined

Congressman Tom Cole

As our founding fathers clearly described in Article I of the Constitution, “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States.” Unfortunately, President Barack Obama has shown a consistent pattern of executive overreach throughout his time in office by repeatedly choosing to bypass Congress and unilaterally change laws on his own.

While there have been numerous instances in which the president has gone around Congress to change laws or implement them however he chooses, this unconstitutional behavior has been most obvious through his handling of Obamacare. Since implementation of the law began, the president has unilaterally changed the law more than 20 times. For example, the president twice delayed the business mandate but still required that individuals purchase health plans. Even though I agreed with the relief afforded to businesses, the president did not go through the proper channel.

In response to the recurring overreach related to the president’s signature piece of legislation, Speaker John Boehner recently revealed that he would lead the House in suing the president. Along with this announcement, the Speaker introduced a draft resolution for consideration “Providing authority to initiate litigation for actions by the president inconsistent with his duties under the Constitution of the United States.” This resolution to keep the president accountable to his own law was the topic of Wednesday’s hearing last week in the Rules Committee. As a member of the committee, I am supportive of this course of action by the House because it allows the courts to determine whether the president has acted within the powers designated to the executive branch.

While some have cried for impeachment, I do not believe that is an achievable goal nor is it constitutionally correct since we are not dealing with high crimes or misdemeanors. We are instead dealing with a president who clearly doesn’t understand the appropriate limits of his power. Furthermore, never have senators from either party voted to impeach a president of their own party. To put this in perspective, at least 22 Democrats would have to agree with the 45 Republicans in the Senate for impeachment to even move. That said, impeachment proceedings would clearly not be successful.

Instead, I agree that this lawsuit is the most appropriate venue for keeping the president accountable to the power designated to chief executive, starting with his implementation of the healthcare law. If the courts find that the House is correct in charging the president, which I believe they should, it follows that his previous orders should be nullified, forcing him to consult Congress.

Clearly, the president needs the boundaries of his power defined, and I think this lawsuit is a step in the right direction.