The White House decision to allow healthcare insurers to wait until 2016 before canceling plans that don't comply with Obamacare is just another case of the president overstepping his authority, says Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn.
"What is so interesting to me is a year ago I offered a piece of legislation which was a one-year delay of all things Obamacare to put off the implementation because by the time we got to last summer, we knew that this was not on track and knew that this disaster was coming. Of course, the administration and the Democrats were all opposed to that.
"But what we were trying to do is to protect our constituents and protect the American people," the Tennessee congresswoman told Newsmax TV's John Bachman on "America's Forum" Wednesday.
"Now, what has happened is that people are saying, we don't like this law, we don’t like what we know about this law, and when they hear of another delay, they basically say, 'yep, there he goes again.' They're tired of the overreach and of this president acting like he is the imperial president, and they're sick of it."
Blackburn has represented Tennessee's 7th congressional district since 2003. She has served on the Committee on Energy and Commerce, the Republican Study Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Asked what is being done in Congress to stop Obama's power grabs, Blackburn replied, "There are a couple of things that we're doing. First of all, we continue to hold our oversight hearings and build a body of evidence. It's kind of tough, when you're trying to work within the rule of law and you're dealing with somebody who does not respect the rule of law and just goes willy nilly doing whatever they want to do, so that makes it a bit tough.
"Now, one of the things that we are doing legislatively is pushing the STOP act and this is a piece of legislation by Tom Rice out of South Carolina. This would allow us to hold the administration accountable and even take them to court on some of this overage. And by the way, we've got 27 oversight hearings this week alone. We'll continue to do our hearings and continue to call witnesses and try to pull back some of these actions that the different agencies are taking and the administration is taking."
Blackburn believes more time and effort has to be spent on investigating the scandal surrounding the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
"We haven't yet gotten to the bottom of this. What we want to do is find out if this was a politically motivated action by the administration and by the IRS and if it was for political purposes and for targeting of specific groups or individuals, and who was in charge of this. And then, we want to make certain to apply all of the penalties that they would be expected to face for having conducted or taken such an action."
As for the most common complaint she hears from her constituents at town hall meetings, Blackburn said, "The number one thing we hear is the amount that the insurance costs have gone up this year. From our small businesses, their insurance brokers are telling them their cost is going to escalate next year and they're just astounded with this.
"The president had made a promise. His promise was, 'your health insurance costs will go down $2,500 per family.' That was the deal. He had a way that he could save that money, and it has not happened."
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