House Speaker John Boehner said something quite significant last week during an interview with Talk Radio Network's Laura Ingraham. Speaking of President Obama's vow to take unilateral executive actions because, in the chief executive's words, "we can't wait for Congress to do their job," Boehner offered this observation: "We are keeping a very close eye on the administration to make sure they are following the law and following the Constitution. We have the ability to limit their use of funds to try to bring this administration to heel."
Boehner is right, Congress can indeed limit what presidents can do simply by denying them the funds or by limiting how those funds can be spent. As political scientists Wilmoore Kendall and George Carey wrote in their "Basic Symbols of the American Political Tradition," Congress "has all the ultimate weapons in any showdown with either of the other two branches" of the federal government. But the question for the House speaker is why are we just now hearing him issue this warning to Obama nearly a year after voters restored Boehner's party to majority status in the people's house? The Republican victory of 2010 represented a historically deep rejection of Obama's programs. Not only did voters put a GOP majority in control of the House, they also elected legions of new Republican governors and state legislators in the most massive off-year victory for the party since before the Great Depression.
Time for Boehner and House GOP to bring Obama to heel | Examiner Editorial | Editorials | Washington Examiner
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