House Speaker John Boehner applauds during President Barack Obama’s second inaugural address on Jan. 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

VIDEO: http://www.mrctv.org/videos/boehner-no-appetite-defund-unconstitutional-acts-obama

(CNSNews.com) – House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) indicated today that if President Barack Obama takes actions that exceed his constitutional authority, the House of Representatives has no plans to use its own constitutional authority to withhold funding from those actions.

At his weekly press briefing, CNSNews.com asked Boehner: “You’ve said you disagree with calls to impeach the president over abuse of power via executive actions. But under the Constitution the House actually has the power of the purse. So, if the President takes actions that exceed his Constitutional authority, will you withhold funding for those actions in the next must-pass appropriations bill?

“There’s a lot of ways to deal with this issue,” Boehner responded. “But we’ve got a Republican House and we’ve got a Democratic Senate. And there are a lot of things we’ve passed here that the Senate clearly has not passed.

“Now, when it comes to that issue, some of these actions that you could defund, there clearly isn’t, I wouldn’t guess, an appetite in the United States Senate to withhold those funds,” Boehner continued. “That’s why we’ve decided that the more direct approach of suing the president is the right path to go down here.

“Listen, I’m for upholding the Constitution,” said Boehner, “and I’m for protecting the interest of the House vis-à-vis the power grab that’s going on by the White House. And while he has the authority to issue executive orders, he does not have the authority to unilaterally change laws in our country, which he has done.”

Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7 of the U.S. Constitution says: “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.”

Federal spending laws regularly include language prohibiting the Executive Branch from using funds for certain purposes.

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