It is obvious the president was not given enough power under the Constitution. This is in part because Article II of the Constitution was written in a short period of time with little thought. Many presidents have had to make unclear decisions with little information about the circumstance in the Constitution and the president is beginning to take over the government due to increasing implied powers. However the president’s power has recently proven that it has outgrown the constitution and is swiftly evolving. The Constitution gave the president broad but vague powers, including the authorization to appoint judges and other officials with the Senate’s consent, veto bills, lead the military as commander and chief and make sure “that the Laws be faithfully executed.” Many of these powers however are shared with the Legislative Branch, and cause conflict within the government. The Executive Branch was supposed to be much less significant than the Legislative Branch. In fact, James Madison wrote, “Rarely if ever happen that the executive constituted as ours is proposed to be would have firmness enough to resist the legislature,” in his notes during the Constitutional Convention. Partially due this and not wanting to offend George Washington, whom was expected by the founders to be the first president, the founders focused very little on Article II of the Constitution. The largest role the president is supposed to play in the government is making sure that laws are followed. However, the Constitution does not explain how the president is supposed to do this. As a result, future presidents have had to interpret the Constitution and assume implied powers that were not directly stated in the Constitution. Barak Obama was never supposed ... ... middle of paper ... ...t is too late. Works Cited Annenberg. "Topic Overview Unit 7." Annenberg Learner. Annenberg, 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2013. Jrank. "The Executive Branch And The Constitution." Executive Branch. Jrank, 2013. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. Krieger, David. "The War on Iraq as Illegal and Illegitimate by David Krieger." The War on Iraq as Illegal and Illegitimate by David Krieger. Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2013. Linder, Doug. "Presidential Powers: An Introduction." Exploring Constitutional Law. Exploring Constitutional Law, 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2013. McMahon, Robert. "Balance of War Powers: The U.S. President and Congress." Council on Foreign Relations. Council on Foreign Relations, 1 Sept. 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2013. United States Senate. "Official Declarations of War by Congress." United States Senate. United States Senate, n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
The case of Clinton v. City of New York brought about some constitutional issues like whether or not the president should be able to have the kind of power that he does. The Snake River Farmers’ believe that President Clinton, actually any president shouldn’t be allowed the power to delete a portion of any bill. I believe that it is okay for the President to have some sort of power. The question has been brought ...
Can you imagine president controlling your life? The constitution use three different forms to make a group or a person from getting too much power on his hands. The are three types of power that each contusion have in order to keep power equal. One of them is Legislative Branch Congress “Can approve Presidential nominations”(Document C). It’s a example how governments try to keep power equal.
According to John Acton in 1887, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely”, meaning that if unlimited power is given to any one person, they can be corrupted by it. The framers of the Constitution recognized this and built in a plan to prevent this from happening and a result of this, the Constitution spreads power equally between the three branches of government: The Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches. These built-in checks and balances are very important to our government, because they keep one branch from gaining too much power over another. This balance of power prevents any branch of our government from being “corrupted absolutely”. This thesis will argue that this part of the Constitution is as important today as it was when first
... in office and how the congress will act toward the President; whether he be a President that demands respect or one who forfeits it and whether the Congress gives in to the demands of the Executive or if the Congress comes down on t he Executive like a hammer on a nail. This can be accomplished by viewing the circumstances in which a President takes office, the manner in which he carries himself during his term, and the way in which the President leaves as Commander in Chief. Conclusion: The President has neither gained nor lost power. There exists the same balance between Executive and Congress as there was when Washington was sworn in as America's first President. The only difference between then and now, is the fact that today we must wade through the layers of insignificance and precedents that history has forged against us, the political thinker and historian.
Yes, I think Congress has too much power. Because under the constitution, Congress has the most important power and that is to make/change laws. (The powers of Congress-http://www.ushistory.org/gov/6a.asp) In this paper I will explain to you how Congress has too much power by, it being split into two large bicameral legislatures, they have the power of impeachment, and they have the power to approve the spending of federal money.
Walzer, Michael. Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations. New York: Basic Books, 1977.
The main powers of the executive branch rest with the President of the United States of America. Powers granted to him by the constitution include serving as commander in chief of the armed forces; negotiating treaties; appointing federal judges, ambassadors, and cabinet officials; and acting as head of state. The president also has a cabinet which includes officials such as the attorney general and the secretaries of State, Treasury, Defense, Interior, Agricu...
The Founding Fathers who made the Constitution did not intend for the president to be a major domestic policymaker. Article II establishes that Congress, not the President, as having the policymaking power. Congress is to legislate and the president is to take care that laws are executed the way they were supposed to be. The president is given the authority to recommend legislation that is necessary and expedient but has no written power to get it passed. Nowhere in the constitution is does it state that the president will be chief domestic policymaker. Yet this is actually what has occurred. The president is expected by the people and Congress alike to propose legislative programs and use the influence of the office to make sure it is
The President of the United States is commonly referred to as the most powerful man in the world. The President is the head of the country which boasts the world’s largest economy, commander and chief of the most powerful military in the world, and has command authority over the largest active nuclear arsenal in the world. However, his power is not unlimited. Throughout the history of the United States, some presidents have attempted to go beyond the powers granted to them. Most of these attempts have ended in scandal. Regardless of whether these actions were for the good of the nation or for personal gain, laws must be obeyed. Otherwise the United States would become the same tyrannical government our forefathers fought to escape from.
Presidential power has become a hot topic in the media the in recent years. There has been extensive debate about what a president should be able to do, especially without the involvement of Congress and the American people. While this debate has become more publicized since the Bush administration, similar issues of presidential power date back to Truman and the Korean War. As with much of the structure of the U.S. government, the powers of the president are constantly evolving with the times and the executives.
The United States government is designed with checks and balances to ensure that no one branch can become more powerful than another. Though this may be the case, it is still possible that one branch of the our government can still be more powerful than the others. The equality of power in our government has constantly changed over the course of the life of the United States. Although these changes have occurred, we still have not made all of the branches equal and the inequality has been due to meet the demands of the time. For example, in 1938 our country was facing a depression and nothing was getting done. So, Roosevelt took it upon himself to give the Executive branch more power, to then in turn, help the country creep back out of the hole it had dug itself. After the country didn’t need the reform bills and the size of the government that Roosevelt had put it, things were then downsized and put into a more stable equilibrium. Though there were attempts to make everything equal, the Legislative Branch now holds the majority of the power, and is the most powerful branch that our government has.
The reason why I find this branch so important is because it is the channel through which most people will see government in action. The majority of people living in our nation are going to see much of their news regarding politics by observing the cabinet, public administrators, and especially our president. These executives have the power to shape our ideologies simply through their speech and mannerisms. An unpopular president can influence public opinions on government as a whole significantly, simply through his own work. This makes the job of the executive branch multidimensional.
The power of the Executive branch has expanded over time to become the most authoritative division of government. In contrast to the Constitution’s fundamental designer, James Madison, who predicted the Legislative branch would dominate due to it’s power in making laws and regulating taxes/spending, the executive powers have proven to be superior and ever broadening. Since the birth of the Republic, the President has sought to protect his rights and seek beyond his restriction of power. Setting the precedent as early as 1795, George Washington refused to relay documents relating to the Jay Treaty to the House of Representatives and saw his actions as a justified act of “executive prerogative.” Moreover, weaving throughout the Nineteenth century, presidents such as Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln conceived and added functions, such as the extensive use of the veto and the president’s direct and active role as Commander in Chief to their executive tool-belt.
James Bamford, A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and The Abuse of America’s Intelligence Agencies (United States of America: Doubleday, 2004), passim.
Several aspects of the executive branch give the presidency political power. The president’s biggest constitutional power is the power of the veto (Romance, July 27). This is a power over Congress, allowing the president to stop an act of Congress in its tracks. Two things limit the impact of this power, however. First, the veto is simply a big “NO” aimed at Congress, making it largely a negative power as opposed to a constructive power (July 27). This means that the presidential veto, while still quite potent even by its mere threat, is fundamentally a reactive force rather than an active force. Second, the presidential veto can be overturned by two-thirds of the House of Representatives and Senate (Landy and Milkis, 289). This means that the veto doesn’t even necessarily hav...