The House will spend at least $350,000 on lawyers to sue President Obama

House Republicans have hired lawyer David Rivkin to pursue their lawsuit against President Obama. Rivkin, a partner at the Washington law firm BakerHostetler, is one of the originators of the legal theory undergirding the House's abuse-of-executive-authority suit. Specifically, the House says that Obama overstepped his powers by unilaterally delaying ObamaCare's employer health insurance mandate.

Rivkin and his associates can work up to 700 hours on the case — the contract hires him for $500 an hour but caps the fees at $350,000 through next January. Democrats are of course needling the proudly fiscally tight House GOP over the contract. "Only in John Boehner's world does it make sense to pay lawyers $500 per hour to work on a partisan lawsuit while refusing to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 for hardworking Americans trying to feed their families," said Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), who is (not coincidentally) heading up the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.