Ryan: Obama tenure replete with lawlessness

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) accuses President Barack Obama of leading an “increasingly lawless presidency” because of his embrace of executive orders on major issues like health care.

Ryan who is the chairman of the House Budget Committee made his criticism in an interview with “This Week” on ABC News on Sunday.

During his State of the Union speech, the US president promised to adopt necessary measures without legislation “to expand opportunity for more American families.”

The 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee said that Obama has been issuing executive orders instead of working with Congress and that is “creating a dangerous trend which is contrary to the Constitution.”

“We have an increasingly lawless presidency where he is actually doing the job of Congress, writing new policies and new laws without going through Congress. Presidents don’t write laws, Congress does,” the Republican lawmaker added.

When the host of the program, George Stephanopoulos, explained that executive orders issued by Obama are not higher than those of other recent presidents, Ryan answered:

“It’s not the number of executive orders, it’s the scope of the executive orders. It’s the fact that he’s actually contradicting law, like in the health care case [when Obama delayed provisions of the Affordable Care Act], or proposing new laws without going through Congress, George, that’s the issue.”

Ryan, however, rejected the idea of impeaching the US president despite his criticism that Obama has violated the US Constitution.