Posted on 09/06/2014 8:10:51 AM PDT by Kaslin
Resident Obama promised to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the Islamic State Friday, but do not expect him to ask permission from Congress anytime soon. The Daily Beast's Josh Rogin reports:
The administration has now reported to Congress three times under the War Powers Resolution about U.S. military force in Iraq; the first report was filed Aug. 8 and the most recent was filed Sept. 1. The reports notified Congress that the U.S. was waging war in Iraq for four distinct reasons: to protect American personnel in Erbil; to save the Yazidi minorities trapped on Mount Sinjar; to protect the Mosul Dam; and to save the people of the Shiite town of Amirli.
The War Powers clock expires Oct. 8, with a possible extension to Nov. 8. But the administration could argue that each new notification resets the clock and gives the president ongoing authority to attack in Iraq. To most in Congress, that’s disingenuous at best, because the strikes are all part of the same operation and are all against the same foe in the same country.
“It’s called the War Powers Act, not the Single Attack Powers Act. Technically you are not restarting the 60-day clock,” said a senior Senate aide involved in the debate.
During Obama’s war on Libya in 2011, he used military strikes well past the 60- or even 90-day deadline. Then he tried to claim there were no “hostilities” in Libya, to nullify the War Powers Resolution. This time around, Obama’s lawyers were more clever.
“The Libya episode taught him the lesson you can trust on 60 to 90 days, so instead they are trying to press the reset button on the clock,” the aide said. “In the end, the administration wants to hang this on the president’s authority under Article 2 (of the Constitution). The problem is, some of these strikes don’t fall under Article 2.”
“It’s a legal shell game,” a senior GOP senate aide said.
And war isn't the only policy arena where Obama is playing legal shell games to justify his unilateral policy making. At the very same press conference where he promised to destroy the Islamic State, Obama again promised to act unilaterally on immigration. "My expectation is that fairly soon, I'll be considering what the next steps are," Obama said in response to a question about when he will act on the issue.
Earlier reports suggest that the "next steps" Obama is considering include granting temporary amnesty to as many as 8 million illegal immigrants. This despite the fact that Obama once told amnesty activists, "the president doesn’t have the authority to simply ignore Congress and say, we’re not going to enforce the laws that you’ve passed."
Obama has also indicated that, despite never receiving authorization from Congress, he will also use taxpayers funds to bailout insurance companies that are losing money on Obamacare.
Obama never has to face the voters again. Only Congress has the power to check Obama's unprecedented use of executive power through the use of the appropriations process. And there are indications they will do so after November.
He had help with an incompetent nonConservative GOP leadership.
Your post makes absolutely no sense, as neither does your freeper name.
very barely at that
I think you’re being a”Trifle”Generous???
:: but the executive precedents he has established, the tyranny will remain. ::
Michelle is staying in the White Hut!?!
Oh....^tyranny^. Never mind.
The frightening thing of doing the changes/edicts after the mid-terms is that he still has the existing Democrat dominated Senate to ratify and approve it, even if they are all lame ducks to an incoming Republican majority.
as Americans, we overthrow ‘kings’ and toss them out on their butt
I really hope he slips up and declares himself king. I really do
Even if stepping down, he would still harass and agitate against undoing his policies.
We saw how Madelein Notsobright kept trying to back seat Bush during the Iraq war.
OTOH, I'm not aware of a single rat who moderated, who became conservative with time spent in office.
It would appear that the institution of congress itself tends to prod their members toward leftism.
That is why I regard repeal of the 17th Amendment so important.
Until the current crop of criminals in congress are routed and in prison for treason any "half stepping" is an exercise in futility because, any "threat is not a threat unless it is viable."
It would appear that the institution of congress itself tends to prod their members toward leftism.
**********
That’s a very perceptive and insightful observation. Someone shoud write a book about this.
I have some familiarity with the “workings” of congress and believe you hit on a key problem. Our representatives may have been regular folks back home but when they come to Washington DC they quickly contract the “disease” known as Potomac Fever. They become creatures of the system and its culture of big government and reckless spending.
People constantly call, write and ask them for this and that special favor, assistance or program and before long they come to believe that they have to be seen as “doing something” for their constituients. So you’re right, the institutional environment prods them toward liberalism.
And then there is pressure from the media, colleagues, and innumerable interest groups, lobbies and associations. It takes a strong person to stand up to these pressures and vote to reduce the size of government.
The thought on my mind is Louis XVI, then Caligula and then Julius Caesar.
Or, Congress could stop f***ing around, follow the Constitution and do this:
JOINT RESOLUTION Declaring that a state of war exists between the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq and the Government and the people of the United States and making provisions to prosecute the same.
Whereas the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq has committed unprovoked acts of war against the people of the United States of America:
Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the state of war between the United States and the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq which has thus been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and the President is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq; and, to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States.
Return to a federal republic is hardly a half step.
Apt term, ‘Potomac Fever.’
No it is not, and the statement was unless you arrest and hold trials on the present members of congress, albeit cutting the cancer out nothing will change, or half stepping to get the corruption out of the system.
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