The provisions of the Constitution provide the Congress with the preeminent branch of government, established at the center of the national power. In this respect, the Congress enjoys significant but limited power. In particular, the Congress has three aspects of power, such as expressed powers, implied powers, and non-legislative powers. The expressed power is represented in Article I of the U.S. Constitution. It should be stressed, however, that the U.S. Constitution provides the Congress and the President with diverse responsibility in terms of military and political actions, but there are still significant debates on war powers and the other economic and political ends in the country.
According to the Article I, “The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all Duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States”. Therefore, its constitutional power is still under question, because there are other legislative branches which decide on the issue, such as the President’s power. In fact, there have always been ambiguities regarding different trends in possessing legislative, constitutional, and political influences. The shifts are predetermined by external factors as well, including trends in military field. Specifically, Mcmahon explains, “In the administration’s previous major military intervention, participating in NATO air strikes against the Libyan regime in 2011, it stated that prior congressional approval was not required because the limited military operations anticipated were not a war for constitutional purposes” (n. p.). However, it should be noted that Obama’s actions are consistent with the presidential powers, because they provide flashback to the World War II. While articulating his plans regarding Syria, the President emphasized his authority to take resolute actions in military interventions without approval on the part of the Congress. At the same time, the formal recognition should provide a stronger underpinning for underscoring the democratic nature of the political and constitutional power of the President.
In order to understand the complexity of relationship between the Congress and the President, it is essential to analyze the historical facts and how the presidents of the past century share powers and responsibilities with the Congress. For instance, under the President Clinton, the presidency is considered to be imploding. Some historians debate regarding Clinton’s impeachment which would leave legitimate ground similar to Andrew Johnson, whose presidency was weakened in the second part of the past century. However, the arrival of George Bush to the presidents in 2001, the former prominent of the ex-Presidents, had come to the forth. With regard to the above, the presidential power is still exaggerated because of the limited access of the Congress to legitimate and political actions.
It should be stressed that both congressional and presidential powers presented the subsequent development of the federal government. The President has derived through powers criticized by voluntarily approved Congress or assumed by default initiated by congressional inaction. As a result, crisis could arise and presidential authorities could response to these activities. Despite the fact that both congressional and presidential power has come to the forth, presidential power is still superior to the congressional power, because of the president’s prioritized privileges over the Congress. According to Welch, Gruhl, Comer, and Rigdon, “the president is one person, whereas Congress includes 535 members who are divided into two houses and hundreds of committees and subcommittees”. Therefore, it is evident that congressional leaders fight for articulating and developing political and economic goals along with the President. While the members of the Congress have the ability to negotiate and make long-term decisions, the President often fails to rely on the other authoritative powers and makes individual decisions which are often not discussed with the Congress. Nonetheless, it is still desirable to recreate the balance of powers and develop equilibrium between the responsibilities of the two parties concerned.
It should be noted that presidents introduce their official power from four major sources, such as explicit powers, implicit or implied powers, inherent powers, and delegated powers, which are provided to the Congress by the U.S. Constitution, but are also imposed on the President in various status. In general, the presidents are endowed with collective responsibility. Although the major advantage of the Congress lies in the possibility of constant negotiations, the President is still empowered with more information drawn from the bureaucratic executive branch. In the sphere of foreign affairs, the President is monopolized and receives important data from the intelligence agencies. Therefore, the President could keep the data in secret revealing only those facts which are supported by the members of the Congress.
Despite the evident advantages, the presidential power should not be overestimated. As such, most U.S. presidents since the World War II have been unable to share activities and events which influenced the national interest. The popular hero Dwight Eisenhower was not able to stagnate Cold War sentiment along with the creation of the military complex. Additionally, John Kennedy enjoyed extraordinary success among the U.S. citizens, but was still hindered in fighting for civil rights because of the limited legislative and political power. Further, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon were also unsuccessful in promoting their reforms related to military activities. Furthermore, Nixon’s imperial presidency was shaped, but was forced as a result of the obstruction of changes in judicial power as well as the inability of managing the Watergate scandal. In general, there should still be a balance of power which could help both the President and the Congress to reach a consensus.
The policy making gets more complicated because of the inability to balance between personal interests and interest of the nation. As a result, Presidents of the United States have always enjoyed executive power to make important political decisions and conclude executive agreements by promoting written or verbal reforms and proclamations. They also spread unilateral instruments for different purposes including those when they focus on crises requiring swift and decisive action and under the circumstances when they should also rely on congressional approval. Therefore, the Congress is a sort of motivation and challenge at the same time for the Presidents to reconsider the rationales for their decisions and analyze their actions. Additionally, Rudalevige argues, “The president is, of course, assigned the role of commander in chief. However, there is meant to be little to command without congressional approbation”. Therefore, the power of the President should not be superior to that of the Congress.
In conclusion, the constitutional power of the Congress plays an important role in affecting Presidents’ decisions. The latter are more important and authoritative, but they will have not power in case they are done without the Congress approval. Therefore, the previous history shows that many presidential decisions were not successful although their source of information was more valid and reliable. At the same time, the Congress is composed of numerous democratic representatives who are able to negotiate decisions and provide a substantial rational for them. Furthermore, the Congress has also many privileges in terms of recognition of their political and constitutional authorities, because they do not provide the President with sufficient power to executive specific laws and decisions.
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