Members Only The Party of No Agenda Suing the president shows just how deeply unserious Republicans are about the challenges facing the country.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is chair of the Democratic National Committee.

As the midterm elections near, Republicans are providing the American people with a crystal-clear picture of their party’s priorities—and they have nothing to do with growing the middle class, creating jobs or expanding opportunity for more Americans. They are focused on partisan stunts that serve a singular purpose: ginning up their far-right base ahead of November.

Today, House Republicans are moving forward with their latest partisan stunt—Speaker Boehner’s plan to sue the president. The House Rules Committee will meet today to map out their ridiculous lawsuit claiming an abuse of executive powers by President Obama— the very same powers that were used more often by every president since Grover Cleveland. And while rumblings about impeachment have long existed among the party’s fringe, this stunt has moved attacks on the president just for doing his job to the forefront of the Republican agenda.


A suggestion in May by a small group of Republican senators to propose a new “Contract with America” has seemingly been ignored by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Rather than proactively legislate, McConnell’s goal the last five and a half years has been to uniformly oppose President Obama. That strategy has hurt the American people, how the Senate functions and McConnell’s poll numbers in Kentucky, but hey—at least he won his primary.

We’ve already seen the GOP waste time and money on more than 50 votes to repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act. Setting aside that these redundant votes waste taxpayer time and money, their goal is to take away the benefits of health-care reform that millions of Americans are already enjoying. They even went so far as to shut down the federal government last fall, sticking the American people with the $24 billion tab. But then, the Obamacare website started to work, people enrolled in massive numbers and the American people liked their new affordable coverage.

So what did the GOP do? Embrace the health-care law and work to expand coverage to the people that elected them? Nope. They began a desperate search for a new issue—any issue—to fire up their extreme base.

We’ve watched the endless politicization of the tragedy in Benghazi, despite the fact that their conspiracy theories have been debunked. And now we know that House Republicans are planning to spend as much as $3.3 million on the special committee they created to investigate, yet again, these attacks. That is a bigger budget than they gave to the House Veterans Affairs and Ethics Committees this year!

Over the next six months, we’ll see if Republicans have anything more constructive than political stunts and partisan obstructionism to offer the American people. But a word of advice: Don’t hold your breath. We already have a clear picture of what the Senate’s agenda would look like if Mitch McConnell were in charge. Just a few weeks ago he said that the Senate would spend even more time voting on legislation to restrict women’s access to reproductive health care if he becomes majority leader.

The contrast between the two parties could not be clearer. The Democratic Party is focused on American families who will continue to suffer from problems that worsen with each day wasted by the GOP. We will not stop fighting to improve the lives of working Americans, from growing the middle class, creating more good paying jobs, passing common-sense immigration reform and raising the minimum wage.

Democrats will continue to push for the Paycheck Fairness Act because unequal pay doesn’t just hurt women—it hurts their families and our economy. More women than ever are acting as their family’s primary breadwinner—about 40 percent in households with children. Every unequal paycheck that goes by is another missed opportunity to rectify an inequality that can add up to more than $430,000 in lost wages over a lifetime.

Women also represent more than half of the workers who would benefit from an increased minimum wage. It is unconscionable that an American can go to work every day, 40 hours a week, and still remain in poverty. These are jobs that perform work that needs to get done, and I don’t understand what more we can ask of the people who fill them. I’m encouraged that individual states, municipalities and even companies have responded to President Obama’s call by increasing wages. But without congressional action, millions of Americans will be left behind.

As a country, we’re also falling behind in the investments that need to be made for success in the future. Crumbling roads and bridges not only pose public safety risks, but also hold back economic growth. Even more importantly, cuts to public education mean that we’re not fully investing in future generations.

Young Americans who pursue higher education understand that they are investing now in the possibility of a future with higher wages and a bridge to the middle class. But existing policies make that investment more costly than it needs to be. President Obama signed an executive order allowing additional federal direct student loan borrowers to cap their repayments to just 10 percent of their income. But days later, Senate Republicans blocked a student-loan refinancing bill that would make college more affordable and save the average borrowers $2,000 over the life of their loan.

Pay equality, increasing the minimum wage and student loans are downright simple relative to issues like comprehensive immigration reform and climate change. The fact that the full benefit of reducing carbon emissions won’t be felt for decades is not an excuse for delay, but all the more reason we need to act now.

The American people can’t afford to wait. President Obama and Democrats are offering real solutions that strengthen economic security for middle class families, invest in our future and ensure opportunity for all instead of the few.

President Obama made clear in this year’s State of the Union address that he would take action to address the critical issues facing our nation if congressional Republicans refused to act. And that’s exactly what he’s done. Come November, voters will have a choice between a Democratic Party trying to fix our nation’s problems and a Republican Party interested only in standing in our way.