is it time to knock back the president's sweeping, creeping war powers?

[mopinko]

i have said several times that i just hope twitler breaks some things that need breaking.
seems to me this would be a good time to reset the creeping war powers that the last half dozen presidents have stretched beyond the constitution.

he didnt even notify the gang of 8.
no way the aumf stretches all the way to iran.
and he has already been warned about this.

count #3- starting an unauthorized war.

might even buy us a bit of time w the rest of the world.

[H2O Man]

1. Recommended.

[Sherman A1]

2. K&R

[Wounded Bear]

3. Probably about 20 years too late...

there are a few thing Pres Obama did that I wasn't really comfortable with, but Congress was sleeping on the job again.

[kentuck]

4. Yep!

Should have been done already.

[Demsrule86]

5. It is past time...no one person should be able to take us to war or drop a nuke either.

[pecosbob]

6. I was about to post something similar earlier, but I'm vague on the constitutional requirements

for notifying Congress or the Gang of Eight. I think the Executive does have a constitutional obligation to notify and so his actions could justify an additional article of impeachment, but I think this is a dark alley to navigate with an unclear outcome legally.

[mopinko]

8. well, it has gotten murkier and murkier, but only congress can declare war. a prez

has the "war power" to act in an exigent circumstance. that is only supposed to be good until congress has time to act, but since jfk, at least, we have been stretching that.

[pecosbob]

9. IMO not quite as cut and dried as the issues of Ukrainian Aid and Obstruction of Congress

[mopinko]

10. still a legit article to debate.

and press. let them get out of it.

[pecosbob]

12. Agreed...

The line in the sand would be a lot clearer if preceeding administrations had actually been taken to task for their criminal wars in Nicaragua and Iraq.

[mopinko]

13. at least those had a plan.

i agree w joe- he threw dynamite into a tinder box.
i'll add- a tinder box of his own incompetent making.

[lostnfound]

7. Way past time. Nt

[MineralMan]

11. Sure, but you realize that such a thing would have to pass

both in the House and Senate and be signed by Trump? What do you suppose the odds are of that happening?

Reality.

[mopinko]

14. it's not about legislation. it's already in the constitution.

an article of impeachment over this would reset the window.

[MineralMan]

15. Unfortunately, you're not correct on that.

What's in the Constitution is that the President is Commander in Chief. No war has been declared, either, and Congress long ago passed a bill giving the President the power to take military action in emergent situations prior to notifying Congress. He has 48 hours to do that notification.

It is about legislation. The Constitution only has broad statements regarding Presidential power. Congress makes laws that provide the details of what can and cannot be done.

Right now, Trump can order military action as he sees fit without Congressional permission in advance. Changing that would require a new law, passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the President.

[mopinko]

16. yeah, that's not necessarily what i am talking about, but

it could put it on the agenda once sanity returns.

but we both know that how these things actually operate is more in the vein of perception and precedent. and for that, imho, the window is about to shift.
on top of all the other blunders by these idiots on the world stage, at least a public discussion is inevitable.

and we can throw in the prez's tariff powers while we are at it.
he has so very far overstepped his actual legal authority. obama would have been impeached for thinking derry butter and italian cheese have national security implications. yeah, i know, useless trope, but it's still true.
he has gotten away w it because we are all so very exhausted.

this moron has shown that putting trust in the seat of power is a mistake.

[sarisataka]

17. Fun fact about the War Powers Resolution

Nixon vetoed it.

He believed it to be an unconstitutional limitation on his authority as Commander in Chief.

[mopinko]

18. do you mean vetoed?

[sarisataka]

19. Yes, I blame auto correct

Because I never make mistakes

Fixed, thanks

[mopinko]

20. yeah, i tried to make sense of that for a second, then ran it through my autocorrect brain.

i do find it kinda fascinating how written language has gotten so squishy, but people still understand. i, obviously, enjoy breaking the rules and tweaking the spellings. i wonder what happens when the rules are not there as a reference for the new meaning. like a joke about someone no one remembers.

things i think about.

[ck4829]

21. Yes. K&R