Anthony Beilenson Quotes

it would be so dangerous for the Executive in a single Person to negative a Law that the People will not accept of it.

The President should have full opportunity ... of opposing whatever appropriations seemed to him objectionable without imperiling the success of others.

It had better be known in the outset whether the President is the head of the government or the registering clerk of the Senate.

I consider the veto power ... to be used only ... to protect the Constitution from violation; secondly, the people from effects of hasty legislation where their will has been probably disregarded or not well understood; and thirdly, to prevent the effects of combinations violative of the rights of minorities.

The filibuster is the most important check on raw Presidential power.

A democracy cannot wage war. When you go to war, you pass a law giving extraordinary power to the President. The people of the country assume when the emergency is over, the rights and powers that were temporarily delegated to the Chief Executive will be returned to the states, counties and to the people.

Hoover was a patriot in his heart, but he definitely exceeded his power.

I suppose this [Watergate] is an example of the dangers of letting down your guard against increased executive powers–no matter what the circumstances. Not that the danger was not real, but in this case the risk of the remedy was as great as the disease. There was a willingness to accept without challenge the Executive's claim to increased power. That's why we acted as we did, and it was a mistake.

Government is not a bottom line enterprise. You can get yourself elected ... but you can't fire the legislature if they won't do what you want.

I cannot agree to destroy the harmonious working of the Constitution for the sake of getting rid of an Unacceptable President.

When voting on the confirmation of a presidential appointee, always vote no, because if he or she is confirmed, it won't be long before your vote is proved politically correct.

No merely legislative body could control a single, concentrated Executive ….

If there is one certain truth to be collected from the history of all ages, it is this: that the people's rights and liberties, and the democratic mixture in a constitution, can never be preserved without a strong executive, or, in other words without separating the executive power from the legislature.

Congressional power has not so much been usurped by the Presidency as given up to the Presidency by Congress.

The most important benefit that I can confer on the country by my Presidency is to insist upon the entire independence of the executive and legislative branches of government

No branch of government should ever be able to combine the power of the sword with the power of the purse.

Can it be pretended that it is any longer the government of the U.S., any government of Constitution and laws, wherein a General, or President, may make permanent rules of property by proclamation?

We have not found a way to give Congress control without depriving the President of essential power.

Congress, rather than administrative agencies should fashion any policy that is not only of great economic importance but also one that has divided the faiths and loyalties of classes of people.

The Founders of this Nation entrusted the lawmaking power to the Congress alone in both good and bad times … the President's power to see that the laws are faithfully executed refutes the idea that he is to be a law-maker.

From time to time we must remind ourselves that the President has a role in the legislative process.

It may be said, indeed, that the Constitution has given to the Executive the power to annul the acts of the legislative body by refusing to them his assent.

A system that is built on checks and balances does not do well in an ideological climate.

At present the direction of our affairs, foreign and domestic, has again come to be almost wholly in the hands of the Senate, because there are in the Senate a few courageous men who have dared to take control from the Executive.

The veto is a President’s Constitutional right, given to him by the drafters of the Constitution because they wanted it as a check against irresponsible Congressional action. The veto forces Congress to take another look at legislation that has been passed.