(Washington, DC) – Reaction to President Barack Obama’s latest executive order has been swift and angry. On Friday, the president issued an order declaring government offices will be closed on Friday December 26, 2014. Republicans are vowing to stop the order from taking effect.

“This sort of scorched earth approach to governing has got to be stopped,” House Speaker John Boehner told a hastily called news conference. “The American people expect their government to be working for them,” he said from the clubhouse foyer at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda before the House leadership adjourned to the golf course.

“It is the purview of the Congress to shut down the government,” Boehner added. “It cannot be done by executive order. As the president said himself, he is not an emperor.”

The Speaker brushed aside criticism that the House will be in session a total of only 17 days from October through December. “This is about a president who ignores his oath to uphold the Constitution. If we have to, we will file a lawsuit to stop him,” Boehner said angrily, his face turning from its usual bright orange to deep red.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a presumed presidential contender, declared the president’s action a “fiscal disaster waiting to happen.” He claimed the one day closure will cost the government billions in lost productivity and demanded that funds be found to make up for the loss. “Before we go around closing offices, we need to cut programs to be sure the taxpayers aren’t left holding the bag,” Cruz told reporters. “And I think we start with Obamacare and immigration reform.”

“This is the sort of thing you would expect from a socialist Muslim,” former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said on Fox News. “He’s trying to move the most important holiday on the Christian calendar, which is to say the only calendar there is in this Christian nation and around the world, super-specially at this time of year, so he can have another day to face Mecca. He needs to be reminded the White House is the people’s house, Sean. It has an East Room, but it doesn’t have a Mideast Room.” Palin was speaking on the Fox News hastily arranged special program “Escalating the War on Christmas.”

When asked for his view of the executive order and reaction to it, soon to be Majority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said, “It is not only illegal, it is immoral and repulsive. And frankly it is totally unnecessary. I’ve been in the Senate since 1985 and have never worked a single Friday.”