Cantor Attacks Obama 'Imperial Presidency'

A day after the House passed a bill aimed at curbing President Barack Obama's ability to bypass Congress, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor blasted Obama's "imperial presidency."

Cantor on Thursday cited Obamacare delays and a lack of immigration enforcement as two ways in which Obama sidelined lawmakers to enact his own agenda, The Hill reported.

“Our founders created a series of checks and balances for our democracy to prevent any one of the three branches of government from becoming too powerful," Cantor said in a statement, The Hill reported. The statement was titled "The Imperial Presidency."

"Today, this system is under threat as the executive branch continues to bypass Congress and use executive action to promote its own agenda. Most evident of the administration’s blatant disregard for the rule of law is the president’s selective implementation of Obamacare."

Cantor charged that in some cases the administration is "ignoring the law, attempting to rewrite the law, or refusing to enforce the law."

In a direct blast at the president's signature healthcare law, Cantor said "the administration has engaged in a series of ad hoc announcements that ignore statutory deadlines, waive unwaivable provisions of the law, and even create benefits not authorized in law."

Cantor also alleged the president abused his power by refusing to enforce some immigration laws, including a directive last August "not to enforce laws in cases in which the illegal immigrant is the primary provider for a minor child, regardless of the child's immigration status, or in which the illegal immigrant is the parent or legal guardian of a child who is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident."

"This is another example of President Obama abusing his authority and unilaterally refusing to enforce the immigration laws by directing officials to stop removing broad categories of unlawful immigrants," Cantor said in his statement.

On Wednesday, the House passed a bill to give either the House or Senate legal standing to challenge any administration move to adopt a formal or informal policy not to enforce laws passed by Congress. It was introduced last week by Republican Reps. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, Darrell Issa of California and Bob Goodlatte of Virginia.

Gowdy said he didn't have much hope of it passage in the Senate.

"I think with the current constitution of the Senate, it probably is on life support," he said.

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