Political Quotes

“There are a couple of other things that I do want to speak to today. Today, the House Armed Services Committee had before it the Acting Secretary of Defense as well as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Issues were raised during that committee hearing about readiness, specifically about the efforts of the President to circumvent the Constitution of the United States and to take unto himself the appropriation power, which is clearly laid out in the Constitution as the power of Congress. Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution clearly says that there shall be no money taken from the Treasury except by appropriation law. That is the power of the purse that is given to Congress. The Founders were very clear that, if the President would have not only the power of carrying out the law, but also the power of appropriation--that is, money to carry out the law--we would have a completely different system. In fact, we would have an imperial presidency. They didn't want that, and they wrote very clearly into the Constitution that no money shall be taken from the Treasury without an appropriation. Now, the Congress acted on this issue, acted on the issue with an appropriation bill, and Congress did not agree with the President. Instead of the $5 billion, $6 billion that the President wanted for his border wall, Congress said no and provided $1.3 billion for border security, including some fences in some locations.…”