Defying Congress on amnesty for illegal immigrants and construction of a major oil pipeline is President Barack Obama's "desperate attempt … to remain relevant" despite being repudiated by voters this month — and a blatant show of disrespect for a co-equal branch of government, says Sen. Mike Lee.
"Particularly in light of the election that just happened two weeks ago, this is a good time for him to begin … working with Republicans, not trying to thwart everything that they're inclined to do," the Utah Republican told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner on
Newsmax TV Monday.
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Lee said that on immigration and the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline, Obama is becoming an increasingly lonely and isolated objector to the will of Congress and the American public.
He also said it is time for lawmakers of both parties, in both chambers, to stand up for the institution and its constitutional role in making policy, and demand the president "show us some respect."
Lee predicted that a bill approving construction of the transcontinental oil pipeline — which the House has already approved — will clear the Senate in short order and land on the president's desk.
The question is whether he signs it or issues what many observers say will be a veto.
Lee did not hazard a guess either way, but said: "This is something that an overwhelming majority of the American people wants to pass. It's something that a [two-thirds] supermajority within the House and the Senate of the U.S. Congress wants to pass.
"It seems that one of the few people in the United States who doesn't want it to move forward is the president," said Lee, arguing that it is "contrary to common sense" to oppose a major infrastructure project that will create "tens of thousands" of jobs and help reduce American dependency of foreign oil.
"Apparently, he doesn't want that," Lee said of the president. "I don't understand why."
The fight over immigration also pits the president against clear majorities that disapprove of his promise to declare amnesty on his own, without Congress, for perhaps millions of illegal immigrants, said Lee.
Lee said that in the midterm, nearly three-quarters of voters told pollsters they "strongly opposed the idea of the president using his executive authority to grant amnesty unilaterally," and in that number were many amnesty supporters who considered it a "bad idea" to grant amnesty by presidential decree.
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Lee noted that Obama himself
opposed the idea not long ago.
"He acknowledged, 'Look, I do not have the authority to do this on my own.... That's not how our constitutional system works,' " said Lee.
To help remind the president of his earlier position, "we might need some Democrats to come along with us," said Lee, calling on colleagues across the aisle "to join with Republicans" instead of "having to protect the president over and over an over again as he tramples on the Constitution."
He dismissed the prospect of Congress either shutting down the government or impeaching the president in response to executive action on amnesty, saying that it's the White House fanning such rumors.
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