--- title: Paul Ryan: Sue Obama, Don't Impeach Him description: Rep. Paul Ryan said Republicans should continue with their plans to sue President Barack Obama over his executive actions and regulations canonical: https://time.com/3058670/paul-ryan-obama-impeach-sue/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-30T15:01:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:25:11.645Z article:section: Politics og:title: Paul Ryan: Sue Obama, Don't Impeach Him og:description: Rep. Paul Ryan said Republicans should continue with their plans to sue President Barack Obama over his executive actions and regulations og:url: https://time.com/3058670/paul-ryan-obama-impeach-sue/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2e121c7ca3dbb2ec/69869dc7810bbb30f4c92cea/unknown2.jpeg?branch=production&width=864&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 864 og:image:height: 486 og:image:alt: Paul Ryan og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Paul Ryan: Sue Obama, Don't Impeach Him twitter:description: Rep. Paul Ryan said Republicans should continue with their plans to sue President Barack Obama over his executive actions and regulations twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2e121c7ca3dbb2ec/69869dc7810bbb30f4c92cea/unknown2.jpeg?branch=production&width=864&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Paul Ryan: Sue Obama, But Don't Impeach Him > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Jul 30, 2014 3:01 PM UTC  Rep. Paul Ryan speaks to reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor on July 30, 2014. Rep. Paul Ryan speaks to reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor on July 30, 2014. Michael Bonfigli/The Christian Science Monitor by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Jul 30, 2014 3:01 PM UTC House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan said Republicans should continue with their plans to sue President Barack Obama over his executive actions and regulations, but should stop short of attempting to impeach him. “This does not rise to the high crimes and misdemeanor level,” Ryan told reporters Wednesday morning at a breakfast hosted by the _Christian Science Monitor._ The impeachment talk has been a steady theme among the GOP’s Tea Party wing and has been embraced in recent days by Democrats as a potent fundraising tool. “I see this as sort of a ridiculous gambit by the President and his political team to try and change the narrative, raise money and turn out their base for an upcoming election that they feel is not going to go their way,” Ryan said Wednesday, echoing House Speaker John Boehner’s comments Tuesday that the White House’s impeachment talk is a “scam.” “We have no plans to impeach the President,” Boehner said. But the White House has been hard at work keeping the issue alive. On Friday, White House Senior Advisor Dan Pfeiffer said he “wouldn’t discount” the possibility of impeachment. On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest read off a list of Tea Party Republicans who had made comments about impeachment, defending the White House’s decision to talk about the issue. Earnest would not say that Democrats should stop fundraising off impeachment, a tactic that has brought in more than $1 million to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “It is up to Democrats to make their own decisions about ensuring that their candidates have the resources necessary to run successful campaigns in the fall,” he said. Ryan, however, defended Republicans’ decision to file a lawsuit against Obama’s executive actions, saying that Congress’ traditional avenue of checking the executive branch—through budgeting—is unavailable because of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “What John \[Boehner\] is doing is expressing frustration that we are not using the power of the purse, so he’s trying to stand up for congressional prerogatives and that is why the lawsuit has intellectual merit, because we want to show that we’re not going to take this lying down,” he said. “The President is issuing executive orders and regulations that exceed the parameters of the statutes that gave him the authority in the first place.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3058670/paul-ryan-obama-impeach-sue/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3058670/paul-ryan-obama-impeach-sue/"},"headline":"Paul Ryan: Sue Obama, But Don't Impeach Him","datePublished":"2014-07-30T15:01:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:25:11.645Z","description":"Rep. 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