The lawsuit

I have made a conscious effort to ignore the GOP's increasingly vituperative anti-Obama fulminations. Discussing their bullshit issues with this president is an unsatisfying task, because exposing their bullshit as bullshit would necessitate coming to Obama's defense. And I don't want to defend the guy. I'd rather critique the president for non-bullshit reasons.

But now there's a lawsuit that the House has filed over Obamacare, and it's a joke. Our nation's right-wing screwballs remind me of an attention-seeking child who, because his screams were ignored, has taken to peeing on the carpet.

The lawsuit — filed against the secretaries of Health and Human Services and the Treasury — focuses on two crucial aspects of the way the administration has put the Affordable Care Act into effect.

The suit accuses the Obama administration of unlawfully postponing a requirement that larger employers offer health coverage to their full-time employees or pay penalties. (Larger companies are defined as those with 50 or more employees.)

In July 2013, the administration deferred that requirement until 2015. Seven months later, the administration announced a further delay, until 2016, for employers with 50 to 99 employees.

A year's delay? So?

I was under the impression that the Republicans didn't like the employer mandate. So let me get this straight -- is the House suing Obama because he did something that agreed with what the Republicans wanted?

The suit also challenges what it says is President Obama’s unlawful giveaway of roughly $175 billion to insurance companies under the law. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the administration will pay that amount to the companies over the next 10 years, though the funds have not been appropriated by Congress. The lawsuit argues that it is an unlawful transfer of funds.

Congress voted for the law. How can paying the money be unlawful?

That issue involves subsidies known as cost-sharing reductions, which the federal government pays to insurers on behalf of people whose incomes range from the poverty threshold to two and a half times the poverty threshold ($11,670 to $29,175 a year for an individual).

And that's what this has always been about. The subsidies are the one truly good thing about Obamacare.

Here's how the Dems should frame the issue: "House Republicans sue to make working people pay more for health care." If they let the Republicans frame the issue their way, they'll lose in the court of public perception, regardless of what happens in an actual court.

There's also talk about an additional lawsuit concerning immigration. Basically, their new strategy is to sue and sue and sue Obama for not being a Republican.

When I think of the obsequious way the Democrats in Congress grovelled before Dubya over the course of eight long years...! I mean, what about the lies that got us into the Iraq war? A lot of money was spent based on a gross misrepresentation of the facts. In the business world, that kind of con-artistry might land a miscreant in court.