Recent news articles have highlighted the alarming increase of presidential powers. In January 2016, the Supreme Court agreed to take up a case challenging the legitimacy of the executive actions by President Obama on immigration. Earlier this month, House Of Representatives Judiciary Committee established a task force to investigate the expansion in presidential power and executive overreach. The President is granted powers “he can exercise in his own right without formal legislative approval and those that require the consent of the Senate or of Congress as a whole” pursuant to the Article II of the Constitution (Wilson 370). As the head of state and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, the President is responsible for appointing heads
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Even though the Congress has not declared war since WWII, the President has been “wage[ing] war at will, without consulting Congress” (Lind, “The Out-of-Control Presidency”). President Bush only sought a Congressional vote before the Gulf War for the benefit of public relations. In military actions taken by the U.S. in Grenada, Panama, Somalia, Haiti, and Libya, the President dismissed the War Powers Resolution, a federal law aimed to validate the president's power to commit the nation to an armed conflict without Congressional consent. Supporters of the President may claim that at time of grave emergency when U.S. is being threatened, the President must “in his position as commander-in-chief assume authority, even before turning to Congress for legislative authorization” (Hoxie, “The Not-So-Imperial Presidency”). The fact remains that none of these military actions has risen to this level of actual or imminent threat to the U.S.; the only time when the President is authorized to wage war without congressional approval. President Obama pushed the envelope even further by not only creatively arguing that the U.S. troops deployed in Pakistan, Yemen, Libya and the attacks on ISIS do not meet the definition of “war” in the War Powers Resolution, but also structuring the Iran nuclear deal bypassing Congress with a signing statement. It is obvious that the President has ignored Congress, relied exclusively on overstepping his executive powers in implementing these foreign policies, and consequently distorted the balance of
Even though the Congress has not declared war since WWII, the President has been “wage[ing] war at will, without consulting Congress” (Lind, “The Out-of-Control Presidency”). President Bush only sought a Congressional vote before the Gulf War for the benefit of public relations. In military actions taken by the U.S. in Grenada, Panama, Somalia, Haiti, and Libya, the President dismissed the War Powers Resolution, a federal law aimed to validate the president's power to commit the nation to an armed conflict without Congressional consent. Supporters of the President may claim that at time of grave emergency when U.S. is being threatened, the President must “in his position as commander-in-chief assume authority, even before turning to Congress for legislative authorization” (Hoxie, “The Not-So-Imperial Presidency”). The fact remains that none of these military actions has risen to this level of actual or imminent threat to the U.S.; the only time when the President is authorized to wage war without congressional approval. President Obama pushed the envelope even further by not only creatively arguing that the U.S. troops deployed in Pakistan, Yemen, Libya and the attacks on ISIS do not meet the definition of “war” in the War Powers Resolution, but also structuring the Iran nuclear deal bypassing Congress with a signing statement. It is obvious that the President has ignored Congress, relied exclusively on overstepping his executive powers in implementing these foreign policies, and consequently distorted the balance of