It angered me when President Obama in 2009 said doctors were so greedy, they might perform unnecessary surgery on a child (yes, the President of the United States actually said this) just to collect a few extra bucks. It was so far from what I knew of doctors, especially the ones who saved my daughter’s life on the day she was born. I found the president’s claim so offensive, I ran for the Senate – so I could help undo the damage inflicted on our health care system by the president’s health care law.

That law did include at least one honest provision: a requirement that forced Congress to buy coverage on the Obamacare exchanges. The “Affordable Care Act” has caused more than 5 million people to be dropped off the health care plans they chose and liked, and they found themselves having to buy coverage on the exchanges. Over and over, Wisconsinites have contacted my office about how the plans they found on the exchanges were worse and more expensive than what they had. At least the law decreed that members of Congress and their staffs would be in the same boat.

But they’re not. Members of Congress and their staffs, alone among all Americans forced to buy coverage on the Obamacare exchanges, can get a tax-preferred contribution from their employer toward the premiums. No one else dumped onto the exchanges gets such a break. That’s simply not fair.

It’s not legal, either: The law doesn’t allow it. Congress gets this special treatment only because President Obama decreed it through a ruling last summer from his Office of Personnel Management. He had no legal authority to do so.

That’s why I am suing. I explained this at the Heritage Foundation in Washington this week. You can see my explanation here (my part starts at 5:20):

Obamacare is harmful to health care and to our freedom on many levels. It hurts far more people than it helps, which is why President Obama must keep on ignoring the law to paper over its flaws. He does not have the legal authority to rewrite laws unilaterally and repeatedly, but he does it.

We have a Constitution. Under it, the president’s job is to implement law, not to decree it. We must respect that Constitution, and the president’s actions endanger it. That is the primary reason I filed this lawsuit.

Also of interest: The video includes comments from Joseph Morris and Andrew Kloster, two legal experts who explained why the special deal for Congress deserves a lawsuit.