Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Veto holds...

In what was no surprise to anyone, House Fails to Overturn War Spending Veto. The only really good thing is perhaps as they start all over again there may not be as much pork attached to the new bill.

The main focus seems to be on dueling opinions on was this bill constitutional. The President:
"Finally, this legislation is unconstitutional because it purports to direct the conduct of the operations of the war in a way that infringes upon the powers vested in the presidency by the Constitution, including as commander in chief of the Armed Forces," Bush said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi:

"Congress is exercising its right as a co-equal branch of government to work cooperatively with the president to end this war," she said. Of Bush's decision to send about 30,000 reinforcements to Iraq to help quell the country's rampant violence, she said, "This administration should get a clue. It's not working. This is the fourth surge they have proposed."

One resource with information on the topic of War Powers of the President:
The purpose of the War Powers Resolution is to ensure that Congress and the President share in making decisions that may get the U.S. involved in hostilities. Portions of the War Powers Resolution require the President to consult with Congress prior to the start of any hostilities as well as regularly until U.S. armed forces are no longer engaged in hostilities (Sec. 3); and to remove U.S. armed forces from hostilities if Congress has not declared war or passed a resolution authorizing the use of force within 60 days (Sec. 5(b)). Following an official request by the President to Congress, the time limit can be extended by an additional 30 days (presumably when "unavoidable military necessity" requires additional action for a safe withdrawal).

4 comments:

Scott G said...

Is there a way to impeach our whole government? Do we have a federal process for recall elections?

Unknown said...

It'd be nice if there was a way to do it in one fell swoop...

:-)

Flo said...

Oh yeah, the Pres, Congress, the whole bunch of them!! How sweet would that be???

Hooda Thunkit (Dave Zawodny) said...

"The only really good thing is perhaps as they start all over again there may not be as much pork attached to the new bill."

You wish.

Face it, this is full contact politics and requires the thickest of both hide and wit.