Why Should The Limit On The President Stay The Same?

In this paper we will compare the formal and informal powers if the President and we will explore how and why the Presidential powers have increased over time. The history of the Presidency is an account of aggrandizement; one envisions, today, a President with far reaching power, however, when looking at the Constitution alone we find a President with significant limits. Is the President of the United States the most powerful person in the world or merely a helpless giant?

When it comes to foreign affairs it is very important that the President has the ability to use executive privilege. For instance, if the United States was making a treaty with another country, both countries may have to give things up in order to come to an agreement, and everything considered by both sides as well as everything agreed upon should not be made public for everyone, including other countries to see. This is best stated in 1796 by George Washington after the House of Representatives requested that he give them information concerning his instructions to the United States Minister to Britain regarding the treaty negotiations between the United States and Britain. Washington replied by saying:

Many government officials try their hardest to stay in office or move higher up in order to keep their political influence intact, this being they are making a career out of politics. This was never intended to happen,and people who believe that there is no need for term limits are wrong. Term limits should stay in place, in fact maybe it would be wise to add a few more limits.

Weapons of mass destruction are ‘weapons that can devastate large areas and kill huge numbers of people’. There are 3 types of WMD’s; Nuclear Weapons, Biological Weapons and Chemical Weapons. In the world there are only 8 counties that own nuclear weapons and these include USA, Russia, UK, China, France, India and Pakistan and unofficially Israel. In this essay I will be looking at whether or not Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD’s) can be justified, we can link this to the just war theory. I will also be looking at the 1945 Atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima and whether or not it can be justified.

While some would argue that the framers of the Constitution did enough to limit the power of the President because of actions carried out by the leaders of the past, the more valid perspective is that these actions were made based on personal goals, and that judgements on these actions are justified based on opinions—not facts. From this, it can be concluded that the authors of The Constitution of the United States have placed enough rules, regulations, and checks to successfully limit the power of the President. In this modern American world, social and governmental society is continuously developing and evolving over time; important decisions that drive this evolution are made everyday by people of great importance. One of these important

If Congress should have term limits or not has been a long debated question that is suggested as an amendment to the qualifications division of the Constitution. There are outstanding arguments on both side of the issue 5; unconstitutionality versus limiting power and mixture versus seniority are just a few. Term limits are requirement to upload the founder’s objectives, to inhibit unfair advantages given to resident, and to permit an assembly of additional benefits. Opponents of term limits have said in today’s world we need men and women to represent them in congress and term limits which will remove legislators when the start to become useful to constituents.

Since the creation of the United States of America, the power of the President has increased dramatically. Specifically, regarding foreign affairs, the power of the President has greatly increased. According to foreign policy specialist Michael Cairo, the Constitution originally gave Congress the majority of war powers. While the formal powers of Congress include the power to declare war, raise and support an army, and regulate commerce, the President was only meant to mainly be Commander in Chief and negotiate treaties in regard to foreign affairs. The President’s role of leading the armed forces may seem like it would give him the authority on all issues regarding foreign affairs, but this power was granted to the President so that he could react quickly if a national emergency occurs. Although Congress was originally given the majority of war powers, Presidents have begun to utilize unilateral authority in the realm of foreign policy. In the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and more recently in Iraq and Afghanistan, the President deployed troops without a declaration of war from Congress.

The War Powers Act limits the power of the President of the United States to wage war without the approval of the Congress. The War Powers Act is also known as The War Powers Resolution. The purpose of the War Powers Resolution is to ensure that Congress and the President share in making decisions that may get the United States involved in hostilities. It prohibits the President from waging war beyond 60 days without the Congressional approval (MILNET: The War Powers Act of 1973). Authorization can be made in many forms such as a temporary waiver of the Act or via a Declaration of War (MILNET: The War Powers Act of 1973).

What defines a Weapon of Mass Destruction from other conventional weapons is no thin line. The broad gap that stands between your conventional ballistic missile and the Big Ivan, or Tsar Bomba as the Western front knows it, the largest human-created explosion in history. It holds the record at 50 Megatons of TNT, approximately 1,570 times the force of the bombs detonated on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Although WMD may seem to be a long-used term, the actual phrase can only date as far back as the early 20th century, around the era of World War One. As stated by Defining weapons of Mass Destruction by W. Seth Carus, “The men who created and adopted WMD as a term of art clearly wanted terminology that differentiated certain categories of weapons from conventional weaponry—nuclear and biological in the case of Bush and CBRN in the case of the CCA negotiators.”(Pg.39). The

Presidents after Franklin D. Roosevelt have viewed the Executive Branch as having supreme authority in foreign policy. George W. Bush justified the war on terror, Iraq, and Afghanistan that skirted congressional requirements by citing the Constitution. Bush believed that he was allowed to take these actions since he was “Commander in Chief” and had a duty to protect American. Bill Clinton used the same justification for his ordering of bombings in Afghanistan, and Sudan. I believe congress needs to lessen the power of the Executive branch on foreign policy. I firmly believe that President’s should be required to receive a declaration of war before they engage forces so America knows that congress has agreed too. The Supreme Court has weighed on the role of Legislative and Executive branch in foreign policy and sided on both sides.

Presidential power refers to the amount of power which the president has. The constraints to this power are time, information and bureaucracy mostly due to the checks and balances system.

The War Power can be found in Article 1, Section 8, clause 11 of the Constitution. The war power is the congressional power that states that congress can declare war without the president's consent. They also control the navy, and they make all the rules for the forces of the military. This power is important because in the case that another country attacks us then congress knows the correct procedure for declaring war. There is no limit on this power. I believe that there is no limit on this power because there shouldn’t be a limit. If congress needs to declare war then they should be able to without restriction.

To have more power than what is normally allowed, would that not be similar to that of a dictator? The issue of power in America goes all the way back to the creation of the Articles of Confederation. As history shows, that system ended in a complete failure because of how scattered it was on top of the power each state possessed. This was a huge problem for the country, so by March 4th, 1789, the United States Constitution went into effect and changed America forever. It addressed most problems at the time that the founders knew about such as the balance of powers (Checks and Balances), the right to bear arms, free speech, slavery, etc…. The fight between states and the federal government from the creation of the Constitution till now have laid down the law and the public’s interests that are at stake. The Checks and Balances system gives each branch of the government power to limit the other branches so that one can’t exert its power over the others and be dominant. Throughout American history, the Legislative and Executive branches have undergone the most fluctuating change regarding how much power one possesses over the other. Fast forward to 2017 and the Separation of Powers, Executive privilege, and Executive authority are being challenged by President Trump.

All members of the House of Representatives and the Senate will be allowed to serve in their positions for a total of twelve years. Members of the House may serve six two-year terms, and members of the Senate may serve two six-year terms. This is not limited to consecutive terms, meaning that if a member of the House serves for say four consecutive terms, and then either decides to take a year off or doesn’t get re-elected, they will still be eligible to serve in the House for two more terms, until the total of twelve years is reached. This amendment would overrule U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton (1995).

The War Powers Resolution of 1973 was the most important attempt to project Congress’s authority in foreign and military affairs (Volkomer, 177). This resolution limited the president’s freedom to use military forces in combat situations without having the approval of congress (Volkomer, 177). This resolution makes it so that the president sits down with congress and before the troops are sent into hostile situations.