The Powers of the President

When I refer to the "powers" of the President, I refer only to those delegated to him in the Constitution of the United States. Any other "power" he takes is a usurpation, is unconstitutional, and is therefore illegal and would, if the document were faithfully followed, render him liable to impeachment (or being shot, the latter being usually more preferable).

These duly constituted powers of the chief executive are recorded in Article 3 of the Constitution. It consists of four paragraphs; the normal reader could read them in probably less than two minutes. I will briefly list those powers:

1. He is Commander in Chief of the armed forces and militia, when called into the actual service of the United States. This portion in italics is a direct quote from the Constitution. In other words, no war, no power. Of course, sometimes presidents start wars just so they can use this power to get lots of people killed, but that wasn't the intent of the founders of this country.

2. The President may require the opinion of his Cabinet members on matters that pertain to their departments. But, then again, he may not require it; it's his choice. If he wants to mind his own business, well and good. What a novel concept.

3. He can grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the country, except impeachment. He can't pardon himself, albeit he ought to need to every month.

4. He has the power--only with the "advice and consent of the Senate"--to do the following:
--make treaties;
--appoint ambassadors and other public ministers, judges of the Supreme Court, and "all other officers of the United States," if said appointments are not already established by law;
--and Congress has the right to give him authority to appoint "inferior officers." Keep him busy and out of trouble.

5. He has the power to fill all vacancies in the Senate that happen during the recess of the Senate (he couldn't have appinted a successor to Edward Kennedy, for example, because the Senate was in session at the time of the Chappaquiddick Phantom's death); whatever appointment the president makes here, however, expires at the end of the next session.

6. He can, "from time to time" give a "State of the Union" address to Congress, but the Constitution does not define when "from time to time" is. The less often, the better for the country, but he does it once a year now.

7. He can recommend to Congress certain measures (i.e., a budget or a bill) for their consideration, something which they can wholly ignore if they wish, and he is powerless to do anything about that.

8. On extraordinary occasions (perhaps when he is lonely, and if you were married to Hillary Clinton, you'd probably want to be alone a lot, too), he may call together both houses of Congress (or either of them), and then dismiss them if they can't agree on when they ought to go home. The sooner, the better. For the country.

9. He is to receive ambassadors and other useless foreign officials.

10. And "he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed," whatever that means, and "shall commission all the officers of the United States," something that has already been said.

11. Further, he may run off to Denmark and attempt to obtain, for his hometown, a location for the Olympic games.

12. He may, from time to time, with nobody's advice and consent except the pea-brains with whom he surrounds himself, fire CEOs of major corporations and take over the automobile industry, the banking industry, education, and whatever else takes his fancy.

13. He may bully Congress into passing laws, such as reforming a health care system, of which 80% of the American people have said they are satisfied.

14. He can run around the world condemning his own country and climbing into bed with every dictatorial thug who hates the United States and would like nothing more than to have a president (for life) who runs around the world condemning his own country and climbing into bed with them.

15. And on these trips, he can take his wife with him to waste as much of the taxpayers money as she possibly can in three or four days.

Well, that's enough. It's all right there, folks, Article 3 of the Constitution. At least the first 10 points are. All the rest make this country a tyranny.