What Are The Congressional Powers

Congress, the elected representatives from each state that is responsible for legislating law. The Founders enumerated, in the Constitution, exactly what the powers of Congress are. Article One, Section Two, Paragraph Five: “The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.” Article One, Section Three, Paragraph Six: “The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two-thirds of the Members present.” These are important at the moment as the Speaker of the House has declared a formal impeachment inquiry.

The enumerated powers of Congress are in Article One, Section Eight:

The Congress shall have the Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts, and Excises, to pay the Debts and Provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts, and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow Money on the credit of The United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Time to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of Particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; - And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Those are the powers that Congress has. Any and all other powers are reserved to the several States and the people. Since we, the people, elect our representatives to fulfill these duties, they cannot be delegated to any other persons, offices, agencies, or departments. As I have stated in previous articles, there are a plethora of rules and regulations that are set by the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the EPA, the Department of Human Services, the Department of Homeland Security, the IRS, etc. In other words, Congress has delegated legislation to persons, agencies, offices, or departments that have not been elected to represent us in any way. Congress has been derelict in its’ duties.

For the last several weeks, Congress has been trying to get the President to use military force against Turkey for its’ force against the Kurds in Syria. The President cannot do this without the consent of Congress, and they refuse to take a vote on the subject. To make matters worse, Turkey is a NATO member. The United States cannot use military force against a NATO ally without consequences. Article Five of the NATO Charter states that if one member is attacked it is an attack on all members and all members will go to the aid of the attacked nation. If the United States was to attack Turkey, then the other twenty-seven nations would have to come to the aid of Turkey against us. The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives would love for President Trump to do something that inept so they would have good reason to impeach him.

Article Two, Section Four states: “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” So far, after four investigations conducted by the FBI, the Senate, the House, and the Special Prosecutor, there has been no crime of any kind committed by the President. Now the House has started another inquiry into some manufactured crime and are conducting interrogations, sorry, interviews, with former employees of the State Department and White House.

All these interviews are being done in secret, in the SCIF room, by Rep. Adam Schiff. He, alone, knows what is being said. The Democrats are the only ones that can subpoena witnesses. The President is not allowed to have his attorney present at any of these interviews, Republicans are not allowed to cross-examine any of these witnesses or call any of their own, and no one is allowed to read the transcripts of these interviews without a Democrat present. In other words, the President is not being afforded due process and only negative testimony is being given.

It was leaked that a Ukrainian official was interviewed and refused to say that the President committed extortion or blackmail, in essence, a quid pro quo, when asking for assistance in an open and ongoing corruption investigation regarding the 2016 election and possible abuse of power, a quid pro quo, by then-Vice President Joe Biden. Rep. Schiff attempted to coerce this official into saying the President did something that he had not done.

The Democrats have been demanding impeachment since Donald Trump was elected. By that, I mean less than forty-eight hours after the election and a month and a half before he was inaugurated. He was not supposed to win the election. He is a Washington outsider. He is not one of the political elites. He isn’t a politician. He is getting things done that our elected officials haven’t for decades. He is ruffling feathers and draining the political swamp of Washington, DC. And the Democrats, and some Republicans, aren’t liking that very much. Thus, this insane obsession to impeach him and get him out of office, or at the very least, keep him from being re-elected to a second term.

Yes, the House of Representatives has the sole power of impeachment – for treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. The Constitution does not say a President can be impeached because the opposing party doesn’t like him. What the Democrats are attempting to do is overturn the 2016 election against the will of the people of the United States. It is a silent coup to take control of the government. Some conservative talk show hosts have theorized that the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and the Chairmen of several committees would like to rid the White House of both President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence and make the Speaker President. That would give the Democrats control; at least until next November.

As it is, there is nothing Constitutional about this impeachment. There has been no crime committed; they are searching for something to convict him on. There has been no vote of the whole House for this inquiry. There has been no due process. Rep. Schiff is using banana republic tactics for his kangaroo court. The inquiry was started because of a phone call between heads of state that should have been classified and has since been made public that supposedly proved Trump was forcing the Ukrainians to investigate a political rival, Joe Biden (who is running for President but hasn’t been nominated to be the candidate). The transcript of the call was made public and there was no quid pro quo. The whistleblower is not known to anyone except Rep. Schiff and he is not producing the witness or interviewing him/her. The whistleblower did not have firsthand knowledge but was going on overheard conversations and there have started to be questions as to whether there really is a whistleblower at all. Rep. Schiff declared for two years that he had incontrovertible evidence of Russian collusion, but the Mueller Investigation proved there was no collusion. Rep. Schiff recited, on record, to the House a transcript of the President’s call to the Ukrainian President that was a total fabrication. In a nutshell, Rep. Schiff is a liar and a charlatan; not one to be trusted at all.