Take Back the House First
Published on January 5, 2010
The answer, of course, is no. While it is true that the president holds a great amount of power to influence both domestic and foreign policy, there is nothing permanent that he can do without the compliance of Congress. On the other hand, there is a great amount that Congress can do regarding domestic and foreign policy that the president can do little about (just look back to Bill Clinton’s relationship with a GOP-controlled Congress). So where does the real power reside in our government?
Despite our system of checks and balances, the ultimate authority of the government resides first in “We the people,” and through them their elected representatives in Congress. Article I of the U.S. Constitution grants all legislative powers to the Congress, including the power to tax, to regulate commerce, to “promote the Progress of Science,” and to declare war and “raise and support Armies.”
Currently, many Americans, in particular those who are right-of-center on the ideological spectrum, look with great disdain at Barack Obama. Many people on the right make comments such as, “He’s going to lead this country towards socialism,” or “Obama is going to raise our taxes and ruin the economy.” Much of this reminds me of when George W. Bush was president and his opponents accused him of being a tyrant for curtailing civil liberties through the PATRIOT Act and starting an “illegal war” with Iraq. All of this is pure nonsense.
First of all, President Obama cannot raise one tax on his own and neither can he arbitrarily change the fundamental nature of the U.S. economy. Only Congress can do that, with or without the president’s blessing so long as they can override the presidential veto—and that’s only if the president decides to use it. On matters of war and national security, such as the 2002 Iraq War Resolution, the GOP-controlled Congress first had to give President Bush approval to take military action against Saddam Hussein, a vote that also had the support of 82 Democratic representatives and 29 Democratic senators. Regarding the 2001 PATRIOT Act, that legislation had the support of 145 Democratic representatives and 48 Democratic senators, hardly the work of one man or even one party.
All of this will be important to remember when it comes time to vote in the 2010 midterm election. This year Congress will once again tackle important issues facing the country and Obama will be pushing his liberal colleagues hard to pass his agenda before the election results could possibly take away his friendly majority. Therefore, the fastest way for center-right voters to limit the amount of power Barack Obama has to “change” the country is to support any Congressional candidate with an ‘R’ next to their name and put the GOP back in control of the House. Voters may not be able to remove Obama from the presidency in 2010, but they can severely derail his plans of increasing the size and scope of government and then build momentum to defeat him in 2012.