Presidential Power Essay

Presidential Power

While the scope of modern presidential power far exceeds the very limited but potent powers that the President is given in Article II of the Constitution, it does not appear that those powers have increased dramatically over the last 20 years, especially when one compares the President's power with congressional power. It is important to keep in mind that most presidents have "used their implied and informal presidential powers to enhance their personal influence" (Annenberg Foundation, 2014). This began with Washington and, in many ways, it has grown over the course of history, resulting in an Executive Branch that is more powerful than anticipated at the time of the Constitution. However, while the President is, nominally, the head of the Executive Branch, it is critical to keep in mind that the Executive is extremely dependent upon the Congress. "Congress controls the purse strings for all the branches of government; Congress has approval authority over appointments within the Executive and Judicial branches and the Military" (Lillebo, 2007). What this means is that the President may be exercising an increasing amount of power, when compared to the powers explicitly outlined in the Constitution, but he cannot exercise them without the Congress, and this power goes beyond Congress having the power to override a Presidential veto. Congress controls the money, which means that it always has the power to limit the impact of the Executive. In a partisan system, what this has translated to is presidents with more power when the majority in Congress shares the Presidents political affiliation or when the majority of Congress is moderate. As a result, it becomes clear that presidential powers can only be increased if Congress allows the budget to pay for the exercise of those powers.By controlling the budget, the Congress controls the President.

References

Annenberg Foundation. (2014). The modern presidency: tools of power. Retrieved September

16, 2014 from Annenberg Learner website: http://www.learner.org/courses/democracyinamerica/dia_7/dia_7_topic.html

Lillebo, P. (2007). The Congress, political parties, and fair representation. Retrieved September 16, 2014 from Blue Ridge Journal website: http://www.blueridgejournal.com/brj-congress.htm

The Impact of the Two Major Political Parties on the Growth of the Modern Presidency

The two party systems is so grossly dysfunctional in modern America that is difficult to adequately describe how it has impacted the rights of individual Americans and their perception of the government. Both of the two major political parties have used propaganda and misinformation to maximize the public's perception of the power that the President has. When a President does something unpopular, the members of the rivaling political party point fingers at the President as if he has acted alone, without taking into consideration that very few presidential actions, including Executive Orders, are possible without Congress providing the funding for those actions. However, it is easier to play politics with those decisions and try to capitalize on them for the next election cycle than it is to try to get the average American to understand the foundational role that the Congress necessarily plays in any presidential exercise of power. Moreover, it is important to keep in mind that even the President's political party fuels this belief in the increasing power of the presidency, by taking credit for popular decisions that the President has supported.

For example, it has become very popular for Democrats to blame Bush for the second Iraq War. While he clearly pushed….....