FOX "Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace" - Transcript: Presidential Executive Orders

Interview

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WALLACE: Congressman Becerra, I've got to say -- I went back and I read not the whole 2,000 pages, but I read the key parts of the health care law. And it seems to be very specific when it comes to the employer mandate.

Let's put it up on the screen. "Effective date: the amendments made by this session," this is in the employer mandate, "the amendments made by this section shall apply to months beginning after December 31, 2013."

But, Congressman, as you well know, unilaterally, without coming back to Congress, the president has delayed the employer mandate from 2013, to '14, to '15, and now to '16. What gives him the authority to rewrite what seems to be a very clear law?

BECERRA: Chris, it's the same authority that every president has had, to make sure that the laws are administered and executed in a way that helps all Americans. The president simply providing small businesses with a flexibility they need to be able to start adopting the law.

BECERRA: Small businesses support the flexibility and the president is making sure that we implement this in a way that puts into effect the purpose of the law, which is to give people more health security. So if this were against the Constitution, someone would have sued by now and the president would have had to stop. The reality is the president has used his executive powers less often than almost every president before him.

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WALLACE: In fact, article one, section one of the Constitution gives Congress all legislative powers. Forget the politics for a moment, Congressman Becerra. I would think as the congressman you would be upset at the idea of any president, and you're right, there are other presidents of the other party who have done it. Any president going around Congress to this extent.

BECERRA: If you were going around Congress to rewrite law that would be different than trying to use the flexibility you're given by the Congress to execute the law. The president is not trying to rewrite. The president has never said I'm going to go it alone. The president said I'm going to work with Congress. But where Congress decides not to act, remember, this is perhaps the greatest do nothing Congress we've seen. You have a Republican speaker who said he will not -- he will be the brick wall.

WALLACE: But the law says ...

BECERRA: That will not permit the president's tax.

(CROSSTALK)

WALLACE: When the law says, the health care law the employer mandate shall begin after December 31st 2013, isn't that pretty specific?

BECERRA: It will begin after December 2013. The president ...

(CROSSTALK)

BECERRA: Well the president said we'll start it after 2013, but we're going to make sure it works well for small businesses. And the fact that -- what he's trying to do is make things work. When Congress can't pass bills, when Congress shuts down the government, the president can't just sit there. What he is saying is I won't wait.

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WALLACE: That is the way the Constitution is written. The president is supposed to just sit there?

BECERRA: No, he is just supposed to sit there? If we have an emergency, the president is just supposed to sit there?

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WALLACE: an emergency with ObamaCare?

BECERRA: But you never know if something might happen if we just start to talk about a foreign threat here, sir.

I would hope that we would never have a chief executive who would twiddle his thumbs because Congress can't get it acts together.

WALLACE: ok.

BECERRA: We need to move. We need to move.

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WALLACE: All right. Let's talk about the merits of this latest delay, not the legality, but the merits of it. This is the delay of the employer mandate for companies, that -- small to medium sized companies that have between 50 and 99 employees. Congressman Becerra, isn't this really all about politics? That the White House was worried that those companies were either going to fire people or reduce their hours to below 30 hours, would they be considered part timers so that they wouldn't be laid off just before the November election? Or that those companies would throw these people on to the, you know, take away their coverage and throw them on to the exchanges and pay the fine? Isn't this really about protecting the president politically and Democrats like yourself?

BECERRA: Chris, it's about flexibility for those businesses because what we're seeing is for the first ...

WALLACE: But this time in our -- the law was passed in 20 ...

BECERRA: Let me try to finish my response.

WALLACE: The law was passed in 2014.

BECERRA: This is the first time ...

WALLACE: I'm going to start with ...

BECERRA: This is the first time ...

WALLACE: It's been four years.

BECERRA: If you recall this is the first time in our history that we're actually going to give Americans a chance to have health security where they can have the peace of mind that they will not go bankrupt simply because they used their hospital or doctor.

WALLACE: Sir, forgive me. That's -- I'm asking you, the small companies have had the knowledge of what the employer mandate was going to be since the law was passed in 2010. They've had four years. Why do they need flexibility now?

BECERRA: Because you're seeing quite of a few chances that are taking place that require the insurance carriers and the employers to take on certain responsibilities. And you want to make sure that those responsibilities are taken on in a way that work for not just the business person, but also the employees. And what we've seen is over 12 million Americans today have that health security that they didn't have before. That's important. Make it work right. That you tweak it here and there. That's within the president's discretion. And it provides the flexibility that small business owner would like to have.

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