Tensions between the White House and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives reached a peak Wednesday.
House Speaker John Boehner announced today that he plans to sue President Barack Obama for abusing his executive power.
"My view is the president has not faithfully executed the laws," he said in a press conference.
"What we have seen clearly over the last five years is an effort to erode the power of the Legislative Branch."
In a memo sent to House Republicans Wednesday, Boehner voiced concerns that the President's decisions in the areas of education, energy, foreign policy, and healthcare have been made with "king-like authority," and feared a shift in the "balance of power decisively and dangerously" towards the White House.
"On one matter after another during his presidency, President Obama has circumvented the Congress through executive action, creating his own laws and excusing himself from executing statutes he is sworn to enforce – at times even boasting about his willingness to do it, as if daring the America people to stop him," he wrote.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest called the proposed litigation a "taxpayer-funded lawsuit against the president of the United States for doing his job," during a press briefing.
"It seems that Republicans have shifted their opposition into a high gear," he continued. "Frankly, it's a gear that I didn't know previously existed."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called the lawsuit an evasion technique.
"I make of it as subterfuge," she told reporters. "They're doing nothing here. So they have to give some aura of activity.
"There really needs to be an adult in that room – the Republican caucus. I hope the Speaker is that adult, and I trust that he is. I have great respect for the Speaker."
Boehner plans to bring the lawsuit to the floor next month.
