Priebus To Obama: 'Our Constitution Is Not A List Of Suggestions'

President Barack Obama has not gotten the message that his executive overreach is not welcome, according to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. 

“For years, the administration has neglected our borders and precipitated the current crisis through its executive order,” Priebus said Monday afternoon. “President Obama’s reactionary response does not solve the root problem of our broken immigration system and the American people simply don’t trust him with two in three Americans disapproving of his handling of immigration.

Obama announced that his administration will be conducting its own overhaul of the immigration system in the wake of Congressional inaction and an ongoing crisis of unaccompanied minors illegally entering the United States Monday. 

According to Priebus, Obama’s Monday announcement which finds him acting as a “one man legislative branch” is “disturbing.”

“After being rebuked 13 times by a unanimous Supreme Court in just 3 years and with the House of Representatives filing a lawsuit to curb Obama’s presidential overreach, you’d think this administration would get the message,” he said. “Our Constitution is not a list of suggestions. Our Founders were not mistaken when they created three separate branches of government.”

Obama made his announcement the same day the Supreme Court handed down its decision on Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, narrowly finding in favor of the plaintiff — a point to which Priebus alluded in his reaction to the president’s announcement. 

“The President didn’t like the Supreme Court’s affirmation that religious liberty trumps his failed, one size fits all healthcare law. He wants a comprehensive immigration overhaul that’s his way or the highway. But that doesn’t give him the power to rewrite the Constitution or the law,” Priebus said.

Obama, in announcing his executive intentions, pointed specifically at the tea party as part of the problem holding up immigration reform in Congress. 

“[Republicans] have proven again and again that they are unwilling to stand up to the tea party in order to do what’s best for the country. And the worst part of it is a bunch of them know better,” Obama said in his Rose Garden announcement.

Joe Carr, a tea party Republican challenging Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander this cycle, called the comments “embarrassing and shameful.” 

“How can working Americans trust President Obama and the Senate to enact any kind of new immigration policies when they have so willingly and negligently refused to enforce the current laws as written,” Carr said, going on to attack Alexander for supporting amnesty.