I've heard this a lot from my friends: "it doesn't matter who gets elected president, they don't have much power anyway". The executive branch has more power then most people think. The fact is, the presidents of the past 20 or so years have abused their powers, as they've exercised power beyond what is allowed in the Constitution. The goal of this article is to highlight some of the president's powers and how their powers affect our society.
Past Presidents and undeclared wars
Art 1 Sec 8 of the Constitution says that "The Congress shall have power to...declare war". It says nothing about the executive branch (the president) having power to declare war on his own. Barack Obama started the war in Libya without asking Congress for its approval. In other words, the war in Libya is undeclared and technically is illegal based on the Constitution.
Naturally I'm going to tie this back to Ron Paul. Ron Paul recognizes that presidents of the past 30 years have repeatedly started wars without Congressional approval. Ron Paul promises to ask Congress - and therefore the people - if it is necessary for our country to send our troops, guns, and planes into another country for war.
On top of this, Ron Paul is against wars at all unless a country is on our soil attacking us. He supports a withdraw of all our troops from all our military bases all over the world. Watch this vid for examples of America's militarism over the past 50 years, most of it arguably unnecessary had our leaders taken a different approach.
The president has the power to appoint the head of the Federal Reserve
The president has the authority to appoint the head of the Federal Reserve, who has a tremendous amount of power in affecting monetary policy. During the early Bush years, Greenspan was the Fed chairman.
This may shock some of you, since this is the first time you’re hearing this – but Greenspan was largely responsible for the housing bubble. I’m not saying Greenspan was the only reason for the housing bubble, but he was the major reason.
Before I go any further, let me explain how the Federal Reserve affects our money supply. This is the short and simple explanation. When the Fed sets the interest rate low, the effect is that people can borrow money for a low interest rate, and at the same time people who save their money in a bank get a low yield. So you can say when the interest rate is very low, borrowers are rewarded while savers (people who put their money in the bank) are punished.
For nearly four years, starting just after September 11, 2001, Greenspan kept the federal funds rate below 3 percent (very low!). For a full year, starting in July 2003, Greenspan kept the rate at 1 percent (even lower!). When the rate is that low for that long, it becomes remarkably cheap to borrow money for just about anything. With this, the Federal Reserve influences people’s behavior. People started buying houses with the cheap money and at the same time people avoided putting their money in a bank to be saved. Why? If they put their money in the bank, they’d get no return on their money because a very low interest rate set by the Federal Reserve means a very low yield for saving at a bank. So many people buying so many houses led, of course, to the housing bubble, which, of course, led to the housing bust. Today we are seeing the result, as air is still being let out of the housing bubble.
Ron Paul is the only GOP candidate that saw what Greenspan was doing back in the early 2000's was creating a bubble. (Gingrinch has recently claimed that he saw the bubble coming, but he's full of crap and a fraud. I have found no evidence of Gingrinch predicting the housing bubble - in fact, he helped fuel it as a lobbyist). In 2001, Ron Paul gave a speech saying that keeping the interest rates so low by the Federal Reserve was dangerous and would create a bubble.
Ron Paul plans to remove the current Fed chairman - Bernanke - and appoint a chairman who does not subscribe to the Keynesian policies of Greenspan or Bernanke.
The President has the power to veto bills passed through Congress - including those bills that violate our civil liberties
I really should have put this at the top of this article because I think this is very important. Congress and the President are threatening our civil liberties RIGHT NOW as we speak. This is serious stuff, I mean it's in our face right now and there are many people who just haven't heard about it because the mainstream media isn't talking about it.
There are two bills in particular that Congress is assaulting us with: NDAA and SOPA. Watch this video to learn more about this bills (thanks to SymphonicDrift for this vid).
Ron Paul is the ONLY candidate who has said he will fight against these bills if elected president. It appears President Obama will not veto either bill, although I hope I am wrong.
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