Barack Obama: John Boehner's lawsuit 'a stunt'

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President Barack Obama is calling House Speaker John Boehner’s plan to file a lawsuit against the president a “stunt.” “The suit is a stunt, but 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?’” Obama told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Thursday.

Boehner, along with other House Republicans, is arguing that the president is misusing his political power and said on Wednesday that he does not believe that Obama is “faithfully execut[ing] the laws.” The speaker also sent a memo to House Republicans on Wednesday afternoon that mentioned what he feels are general examples of Obama misusing his powers, such as executive actions on health care, energy, foreign policy and education.

“Well, you’ll notice that he didn’t specifically say what exactly he was objecting to,” Obama said. “I’m not going to apologize for trying to do something while they’re doing nothing.” Stephanopoulos drew upon Boehner’s quotes during his interview, asking Obama to reflect on when the speaker said “we elected a president … we didn’t elect a monarch or king.” “Right now we’ve got a Republican Party that seems to only care about saying ‘no’ to me,” Obama said.

He later added, “You’re going to squawk if I try to fix some parts of [government] administratively that are within my authority while you’re not doing anything?”

Boehner’s office quickly responded to Obama’s comments on Friday morning.

“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 said in a statement. “Dismissing them with words like, ‘smidgen’ or ‘stunt’ only reinforces their frustration.”

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