On Laura Ingraham’s Friday radio broadcast, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) explained why relying on a court case wouldn’t be the only step in tackling President Barack Obama’s perceived overreach with his executive power, in particular in dealing with immigration.
Roberts explained to Ingraham how it would be important to test Obama’s resolve as it pertains to the wishes of Congress and cited the Keystone Pipeline and immigration as two of those so-called tests.
“I think this is the first big test,” he explained. “There are two, really. The first is the pipeline. Isn’t it amazing that finally the Democrats and Harry Reid, in order to save a seat in the Senate have agreed to have a vote on the pipeline – only to find out that the president now says again that he’ll veto. He just doesn’t think that State Department study is finalized after — my lord, that’s been going on for two years. And the other one is the executive amnesty. Now there are ways to get at that. I think we could it in the courts but I think the power of the purse is the preferred order.”
Roberts insisted that the lawsuit should be allowed to continue, but mentioned the effort of presumptive Senate Budget Committee chairman Sen. Jeff Sessions’ (R-AL) insistence on using the power of the purse to stop the president.
“[I] think we ought to have that court case, at least to get that done,” he added. “But we have to rely on the power of the purse and that’s why Sen. Jeff Sessions has introduced it and that’s why he has a growing number of senators behind him.”
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