should the president have askedç congress to declare an act of war? he could have asked for declaration of war or authorization for use of military force. unfortunately, he didn t do either. and do you think there s any prospect of being able, through the budget process, especially in the house of representatives where the amendment process is so limited, do you have any parliamentary procedure you can use in the budget process to actually get this question to a vote? well, we d have to have the cooperation of the rules committee in order to bring it up, either to have the amendment made an order or have it brought up under unanimous consent. fact of the matter is this is the only way for congress to be able to assert its constitutional, institutional prerogative to make or declare war, and the president has
didn t want it in the hands of an executive. they wanted it in the hands of a direct representative of the people. the war powers act actually needs to be challenged because in it congress essentially ç provides a vehicle for seeding to the executive the ability to wage war. this is not an academic issue. it a president can take this country into a war straining greater the military, causing huge expenses that we don t know how we are going to pay for, didn t come to congress, this is a problem. congressman, the president believes he had to take action quickly as soon as the u.n. authorized it to save lives, save lives of the rebels and the people of libya that the dictator was threatening. the president said this leader was threatening to go door to door. gadhafi said i will find you in your closet and get you. with the leader threatening his own people like that, with time of the essence to save lives,