Let’s Remind Those Wimps In Congress What The Constitution Says

by Chip Wood / Personal Liberty Digest

THINKSTOCK

Congress has finally returned from its five-week summer vacation. Now our Senators and Representatives are supposed to knuckle down and deal with some fairly serious issues.

At the top of the list is what to do about the Muslim terrorists running the Islamic State. The cries to “do something” increased exponentially after they beheaded two American journalists and posted the videos on the Internet.

President Obama brought some well-deserved scorn down on his head when he admitted last month that his administration has not yet agreed on a strategy of how to deal with the terrorists. In remarks last week, the President went from promising to “degrade and destroy” the Muslim terrorists to making their threats “manageable.”

Vice President Joe Biden was much more dramatic, promising that the U.S. would chase ISIS “to the gates of hell.” However, he did not say how we were going to do it — or what we’d do when we caught them.

During his meetings with NATO members last week, the President managed to get nine other nations to agree that they’d do something to help counter the growing threat of Islamic terrorism in the Middle East. There was no unanimity on exactly what those measures might be, but everyone agreed that it would not include those notorious “boots on the ground” that Obama has promised to avoid.

Now the President says he’s ready to announce a plan. He will address the nation tomorrow night to tell us what it is.

Whatever U.S. actions the President recommends, there is one thing his spokesmen have been clear that he definitely will not do. He will not ask Congress for a declaration of war, as the Constitution requires.

And here’s what’s even worse: Most members of Congress, including the leaders of both parties, are perfectly fine with that abnegation of their Constitutional authority.

Yes, both Republicans and Democrats are more than content to let our imperial president do whatever he wants when it comes to confronting the Islamic State. With elections just two months away, the last thing Democrats want to do is to be forced to vote on going to war. And even most Republicans seem delighted to avoid being put on the spot.

Oh, a few of them have said something about paying lip service to Congress. Even Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is sounding more amenable to taking military action against ISIS. A few days ago he declared: “If I were President, I would call a joint session of Congress. I would lay out the reasoning why ISIS is a threat to our national security and seek Congressional authorization to destroy ISIS militarily.”

Of course, “seek[ing] Congressional authorization” is emphatically not the same thing as a formal declaration of war, which is what the Constitution requires.

That same Constitution gives the House of Representatives the authority to say how money will be spent by the federal government. But those wimps in Congress have seldom exercised their Constitutional prerogatives here, either.

The Founding Fathers knew that unchecked government always and everywhere posed the greatest threat to our “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” That’s why they did their best to “bind men down with the chains of a Constitution.”

Too bad there are so few men (or women) in Washington today who will live up to that sacred responsibility.

Until next time, keep some powder dry.