An increasingly exasperated President Obama ridiculed Republicans Friday for filing a lawsuit over his use of executive power, contending that the GOP is “suing me for doing my job.”
“They don’t do anything except block me and call me names,” Mr. Obama said of House Republicans in a speech in Minneapolis. “If you’re mad at me for helping people on my own, why don’t you join me and we’ll do it together?”
Mr. Obama was referring to GOP Speaker John A. Boehner’s announcement this week that he will lead the House in a lawsuit against the president for overstepping his bounds with executive actions. The president has taken more than 20 executive actions this year on issues such as raising the minimum wage for federal contractors, saying he must act when Congress blocks his agenda.
“Now Republicans are mad at me for taking these actions,” Mr. Obama said. “They’ve decided they’re going to sue me for doing my job.”
He joked in an exasperated tone, “I might have said in the heat of the moment during one of these debates when I said I wanted to raise the minimum wage, ’So sue me if I do.’ I didn’t think they were going to take me literally.”
Mr. Obama criticized the GOP for blocking a nationwide increase in the minimum wage, for failing to support his initiatives on equal pay and for extending unemployment benefits.
“If we make some basic changes, we can create more jobs,” he said. “I know that it drives you nuts that Washington isn’t doing it. It drives me nuts.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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