Congress is Vital

Relinquishment of Powers by Congress

Please let me remind you of eight important powers of Congress mentioned in my previous post.

SPECIFIC CONGRESSIONAL POWERS (RESPONSIBILITIES)

Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution

· To Lay and collect Taxes, Imposts and Excises, to pay Debts… · Provide for the common Defence… · To borrow money on the credit of the United States… · To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations… · To establish a uniform Rule of naturalization… · To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court… · To declare War… · To provide and maintain a Navy…

Members of Congress, both Senators and Representatives, take the following Oath of Office.

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”

Congress has relinquished some of its power to the Executive Branch, and this has the effect of weakening the balance established in the Constitution.

An egregious example is that of being too subservient to a President’s marching orders. These orders may be related to legislation he wants directly or in support of his political party. In either case, members of Congress may not be honoring their oath or their personal integrity when they support particular legislation. This has the effect of strengthening the Executive Branch and/or the Party in power. Would we have better approaches now to tariff policy or to our country’s position in the war of Ukraine vs Russia war if Congress had exercised its constitutional powers?

Another example is allowing the Executive Branch to use executive orders to take actions over matters which Congress should be legislating. In immigration, climate change, federal debt, and more, thoughtful problem solving and legislation would have reduced friction in our country and produced timely, effective, and inexpensive solutions.

Congress was given the power to Declare War. A recent review of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution of 1964 reveals how Congress yielded much of this power to the President on fairly shaky grounds, memorable to me personally as naval officer who barely missed being retained on active duty a year later rather than going back to school. The review also revealed how the War Powers Resolution of 1973 struck some middle ground between the constitution and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution by Congress’s clawing back some of its war powers. Admittedly, this issue is sensitive and complex due to the advent of nuclear weapons, modern technology, and amazing communications, but the fact remains that the U.S. has been involved in some unfortunate, expensive, and unpopular military activities in the past fifty years. Congress is closer to the citizens than the Executive Branch and has a role to play.

One can make the argument that Congress lets power on really important matters slip between its fingers because it is overloaded with an enormous number of topics, most of which are less important than a much shorter list of vital issues. This may not be “relinquishment of power”, but evidence of allowing the federal government to accept too many tasks. Prioritization is important!

Finally, in addition to the issues raised above, Congress is shown by its low public approval ratings not to be good at solving many major problems that it does tackle. There are reasons for this, and I promise to delve deeply into them in future posts.

I plan to make posts on the 1st and 15th of each month. Two topics that I will be discussing in detail with future posts are:

· Federal Debt

· Electoral Methods for members of Congress

Tom Mast, author