Political Quotes

“The Constitution gave Congress the power to declare war. The Constitution gave Congress the power appropriate money for war. The Constitution gave us the power to raise and support armies and to provide and maintain a Navy. Why? Why didn't the Framers just give the President the power to declare and wage war? After all, the President is made Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy and militias when called into the actual service of the United States. It would have been a lot simpler to say let the President go to war whenever he wants. Why didn't they do that? Well, the Framers acted against a background of kings and princes plunging their populations into wars of vanity and political advantage to distract their people at home from the political problems of the kingdom, of the monarchy. And our Framers were emphatic that the awesome power of war, the power over life and death of our sons and daughters, the power over our national treasure not be vested in one man alone but, rather, in American democracy itself. The representatives of the people, the people of Maryland and Virginia and Florida and California and Idaho and Pennsylvania and Michigan and Alaska and Hawaii, that is who the Framers vested the power of war in: the Congress of the United States. Now, the structural problem is that, if the Nation is actually attacked or there is an imminent attack coming, the President may need to respond in self-defense.…”