The War Powers of Congress

[babylonsister]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_bruce_mo_070110_the_war_powers_of_co.htm

Emphasis is mine.

January 10, 2007 at 12:11:47

The War Powers of Congress

by Bruce Morris

snip//

Here are the Congress's powers regarding warfare, found in Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution.

To declare war . . . and make rules concerning captures on land and water;
To raise and support armies. . . ;
To provide and maintain a navy;
To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;
To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States.

With regard to funding, the Constitution gives Congress the power to:

lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States.

Of course, we know that all bills regarding national spending must originate in the House of Representatives.

Here are the President's powers with regard to warfare, in Article II, Section 2:

The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States

What the Constitution called the Militia, we now call the National Guard.


Without making this a legal research paper, suffice it to say that the intent of the founders in making the President the Commander in Chief was to place the military under civilian, and therefore voter, control. It was NOT designed to make the President a military officer or the military a pawn of the President. Despite this fact, the Supreme Court has given the President rather expansive powers when acting as Commander In Chief in times of war. But the subject at hand is the power of Congress over warfare and its ability to prevent or alter President Bush's proposed surge of American troops into Iraq.

snip//

Now you know. Don't let your Representatives and Senators shirk their Constitutional duties in military matters by claiming they don't have the power.

[Kagemusha]

1. The argument before the final "snip" is painfully weak

The regular forces are in perpetual actual service. Certainly there's no question that the 3rd Infantry Division, the 4th Infantry Division, the 101st Airborne, and so on and so forth, are in the actual service of the United States of America. Certainly there's no question that Bush is using wide discretion granted to him by Congress through its creation of active forces, through its creation of reserves, through its regulations concerning the National Guard, and through its funding thereof.

The only issue is if the War Powers Act requires Bush to get permission before increasing troop #'s in a foreign country. The letter of the statute says he must. Bush believes that this is contrary to the Constitution, which forsees that if Congress doesn't want Bush to use the forces placed at his disposal, it should cease to place them at the disposal of the United States, the military command of which falls to the President. So, Bush thinks this is a fight that will either never be litigated or that he will win, and the War Powers Act unconstitutionally restricts the power of the President to command standing armies, including their reserve components.

Endeth the sermon.

[babylonsister]

3. Perhaps, and I might have picked the wrong paragraph. Did you

read the entire article?

[indepat]

2. The decider will decide what his and the Congress's powers are so no need for

the Constitution, or that is how the game has been played, in reality, for almost 72 months.