First, lets look at the power of Congress. The primary power of Congress is in Article I Section I of the constitution:
All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
Legislation is what gives the federal government the power to function. If the action is not covered in the constitution or legislation then there is nothing the President or the Supreme Court can do. The President has precisely two options with legislation, blocking the legislation with a veto or implementing the legislation.
There is no such thing as a signing statement for the president to say I will do what I want to despite what the legislation says. It is unconstitutional for the President to act outside the law legislated by Congress or in the Constitution. That is a period.
To enforce its rule Congress has the right to remove people from office, including members of Congress, members of the executive branch, and members of the Supreme Court. While the President has the right to nominate and remove from the executive branch, Congress also has the right of approval and removal. While the president has the right to nominate in the judicial branch, Congress has the right of approval and only congress has the right of removal.
While the people have the right to elect to Congress only the Congress has the right to approve and remove themselves.
The power to legislate and the power to decide who can run serve in the three branches of government is vested in the Congress according to the Constitution.
Within Congress "All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other Bills." This is the gold. The House, (note the Senate does not agree) interprets this clause to include all appropriations bills. If you don't have the gold to spend, then ya cannot spend it according to the House's theory. Thus the house refuses to consider as a matter of history appropriations bills originating in the Senate. Basically the House takes to itself the sole power to originate all bills for spending money.
Further, the constitution says: "No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time."
Now, this means that for the government to buy toilet paper there must be a law enabling the government to buy that toilet paper. The law to raise the money to buy the paper must originate in the House of Representatives. This is not the presidency.
Many other powers that President Bush claims are part of the presidency really are not.
The point is the constitution gives Congress through legislation the power to end the war in Iraq. If the President does not sign the legislation and the legislation is tied to funding then the president does not get the money to spend.
If the president acts irresponsibly by spending money he does not have, i.e. keeping the troops in Iraq; then Congress can get rid of him.
Either the Democrats can exercise their power or they are responsible for not ending the war in Iraq. With power goes responsibility. The War in Iraq is no longer a Republican War it is now a Democratic War. Failure by democrats to face this reality is a failure of Democratic Leadership.
Failure to accept this responsibility will be punished in the 2008 elections.
Comments are closed on this story.