Barack Obama Quotes

The president does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation. As commander in chief, the president does have a duty to protect and defend the United States. In instances of self-defense, the president would be within his constitutional authority to act before advising Congress or seeking its consent.

The power to make war is vested in Congress and not in the President. Congress has no constitutional authority to grant such authority to the president.

The involvement of the government in military adventures always results in the expansion, at least temporarily, of Presidential power.

No power but Congress can declare war, but what is the value of this constitutional provision, if the President of his own authority may make such military movements as must bring on war?

When President Obama in 2011 used military power against the Qaddafi regime in Libya, he did not even notify Congress. A few in Congress mumbled, but did nothing.

When a President asserts constitutional powers he needs to be pretty certain he has those powers.

[I am] against giving the power of war to the Executive, because [he is] not safely to be trusted with it.

I may in an emergency do things on military grounds which cannot be done constitutionally by Congress.

Every American war has brought a struggle between Congress and the Executive over war powers. The Constitution is somewhat annoyingly ambiguous on the point declaring that the President is Commander in Chief but empowering Congress to provide for the common defense, declare war, and raise and support armies.

Unfortunately, since its passage in 1973, the War Powers Resolution has been stripped of its original purpose and has instead served as a temporary, de facto authorization for the executive branch to use military force whenever it deems it necessary.

I do not believe the President requires any additional authorization from the Congress before committing US forces to achieve our objectives in the Gulf.

We have gone into a war, an unelected president sending us into a war that the Congress frankly had no right, I believe, to authorize.

Speaker John Boehner complained that Barack Obama ordered the U.S. military into combat in Libya without clearly defining the mission to the American people and Congress. See, apparently, you're only allowed to do that when invading Iraq.

Even the country's first president chafed at the limits placed on him by the writers of the U.S. Constitution. From the nature of the Constitution, ... I must approve all the parts of a bill, or reject it in toto.

Our firm view is that the president has no legal authority, none whatsoever, to commit American troops to war in the Persian Gulf or anywhere else without congressional authorization.

[In wartime] there is almost always an overstretch [for power] by the President.

The constitution has never greatly bothered any wartime President.

Without the authority of Congress, the President cannot fire a hostile gun in any case except to repel the attacks of the enemy.

The President [Theodore Roosevelt] has as much use for the Constitution as a tom cat has for a marriage license.

The powers that are surrendered [by Congress] to one President remain to be used by others.

I do not believe that the President has any powers at all except such as the Constitution expressly gives him or such as are necessarily inferred.

Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion … and you allow him to make war at pleasure. … If today he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may see no probability he would say to you, “Be silent!, I see if you don’t.”

We in America should see that no man is ever given, no matter how gradually or how noble and excellent the man, the power to put this country into a war

Since the 1st World War, U. S. Presidents have 18 times asked the Congress for authority to go to war or use military force. The Presidents have never been turned down by Congress.

He [the President] has the power, but that does not mean that he has the legitimate, constitutional right to use it.