Sen. Ted Cruz: I Don’t Think President Obama ‘Has the Authority’ to Order Syria Strike

ABCNews.com ^ | Sep 8, 2013 10:11am | Benjamin Bell

[SoConPubbie]

Contradicting President Obama’s assertion, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said this morning on “This Week” that the president does not have the authority to order a military strike on Syria without Congressional approval.

“I don’t think he has the authority,” Cruz told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

“It would be contrary to the Constitution,” he added later, when Stephanopoulos asked him if acting without Congressional approval would be an impeachable offense, as some republicans have suggested.

President Obama said last month that while he was in favor of a military strike on Syria and believed he could order one without Congressional authorization, he would seek the approval of Congress before he ordered military strikes against the Middle Eastern nation for its alleged use of chemical weapons last month that the United States says killed close to 1,500 people, including more than 400 children.

The president will address the American people Tuesday night in a nationally televised addressed. The day before, he’ll sit down for interviews with the country’s five major networks and PBS.

An unofficial tally by ABC News suggest that a resolution to strike Syria would fail in the House of Representatives and a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll found that nearly 6 in 10 Americans opposed a unilateral U.S strike on Syria.

[SoConPubbie]

	"If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures." - Alexander Hamilton "We don't intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all." -- President Ronald Reagan "A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice." - Thomas Paine 1792 "It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." - Samuel Adams "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams

[SoConPubbie]

Ted Cruz Ping!

[SUSSA]

Cruz is right!

[Viennacon]

Cruz is right, as usual.

I heard he was going pheasant shooting with Steve King in Iowa next week. Wish I could go.

[rockabyebaby]

He doesn’t have the authority to do a lot of things, but that hasn’t stopped him, he will do what he wants, when he wants, because NO ONE is going to stop him, not dems, not republicans, not “we the people”, dems don’t care, repubs are sitting on their hands looking the other way and “we the people” are not being heard, our representatives and this administration do not care what “we the people” want.

[Diogenesis]

[ken5050]

If he had ordered the strike, before saying he was going to Congress, and citing the War Powers Act..there would have been a little dust-up over his authority to do so, but it would have blown over in a few days. Now, by asking Congress to approve it, and assuming Congress refuses, to then go ahead would be in effect inviting impeachment.

Maybe that's what he wants..

[cripplecreek]

I don’t think a president should be able to order military action without congressional approval unless the nation, our soldiers, or embassies are attacked.

Sadly it appears that those are the only times Obama doesn’t want military action.

[blueunicorn6]

Good grief. For decades, we listened to the Democrats make fun of “The Domino Theory”. Now, the Democrats want us to think they believe in a domino theory for the Middle East? Hahahahahahahahahahahaha! Put some syrup on that theory Democrats, and eat it!

[ThunderSleeps]

Since when has hussein even appeared to give a rat’s backside about the Constitution? He is going to do what he wants, lie about it, and blame others for his inevitable failures.

[factoryrat]

Makes you wonder why the lackeys in the federal government are so afraid of this POSOTUS. Maybe it has to do with the fact that almost ALL of the politcians in the federal government are in bed with the people who pull obama’s strings. We’re way past the point of pitchforks and torches.

[Idaho_Cowboy]

Now, by asking Congress to approve it, and assuming Congress refuses, to then go ahead would be in effect inviting impeachment.
Maybe that's what he wants..

---

Could be. The media would lionize him as a martyr to the big bad, puritanical, witch-hunting, Limbaugh listening Republicans. It would be the only way I can think of to play the race card on the issue of Syria.

With Obama it is always about his ego and how he can look better than his political rivals. He doesn't care about the country or is working to destroy is; probably both.

[Whenifhow]

5:46 Minutes
Sen. Ted Cruz Makes the Case Against Attacking Syria on This Week with George Stephanopoulos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnsS0ozbFbI

[vox_freedom]

[QQQQ]

It will be more then impeachment. He will do nothing. Muslims have a long memory. O is in the office now but in a few years he will be ex-president and he knows this.

[DoughtyOne]

Exactly right. He doesn’t have the authority to do a lot of what he has been involved in.

[KC_Lion]

[spacejunkie2001]

I love Ted. I was alittle concerned this AM watching this though, as Ted stated emphatically that Assad did the gassing. I thought there was a lot of evidence that the rebels did it and, at the least, none of us know the truth.

[thegrump]

If he had ordered the strike, before saying he was going to Congress, and citing the War Powers Act..there would have been a little dust-up over his authority to do so, but it would have blown over in a few days. Now, by asking Congress to approve it, and assuming Congress refuses, to then go ahead would be in effect inviting impeachment.

Maybe that's what he wants..

You may have a point there. Maybe he does want to get Impeached and play the race card again so he gets a race war. I know that is a stretch of thought. We may not even have a Country after he starts WWIII.

[Marguerite]

“I don’t think he has the authority,” Cruz told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
“It would be contrary to the Constitution,”

Article I of the Constitution unequivocally gives Congress, not the president, the “power to declare War.”

The president can defend against an actual or imminent enemy attack without waiting for Congress. In that case, a state of war would already exist independent of any US action. But the Assad regime has not attacked the US and does not seem likely to do so in the near future.

Obama wrote in 2007 that “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.”