Political Quotes

“Today 227 years ago on September 17, our Founding Fathers signed our Nation's most precious document, the U.S. Constitution. Article I, section 8 of the U.S. Constitution states: Congress shall have the power to declare war. The President does not have that power, only Congress. Congress gives our President the power to defend our country; however, that authority remains subject to checks and balances, particularly by this body. As such, if the President believes a state of war exists between ourselves and ISIL--the comments made by both the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State indicate that he does--then let him make it constitutional by first coming to Congress and asking for that declaration. Today, the House will vote on the President's request to authorize assistance to train and arm the Syrian rebels. I have long opposed arming the Syrian opposition out of the fear that these weapons will fall into the hands of Islamic radicals such as ISIL. Rather than supporting relatively unknown opposition groups in Syria to battle these forces, the Islamic State, we must instead turn to our longstanding allies, the Kurds. The Kurds have shown repeatedly that they have the capacity, the tenacity, and the will to stand up to ISIL. With our support, the Kurdish Peshmerga, together with the Iraqi security forces, will be able to successfully annihilate the evil forces of ISIL.…”