1999 Ron Paul 18:1 Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Chairman, I move to
strike the requisite number of words.
(Mr. PAUL asked and was given permission
to revise and extend his remarks.)
1999 Ron Paul 18:2 Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Chairman, I rise in
support of the Fowler amendment and
in opposition to H. Con. Res. 42.
1999 Ron Paul 18:3 Today we are going to have a vote on
whether or not troops should be authorized
to go to Kosovo. If we vote in
favor of this, we are voting for war.
This is not a war resolution in the conventional
sense of the Constitution,
but in this day and age it is about as
close as we are going to come to since
we have ignored the Constitution with
regards to war powers essentially since
World War II. If we vote for troops to
go to Kosovo, we are complicit in a potential
war and the responsibility
should be on the shoulders of those who
vote to send the troops.
1999 Ron Paul 18:4 I strongly urge that we not send the
troops. It is not our fight. We are not
the policemen of the world. It weakens
our national defense. There are numerous
reasons why we do not need to send
more troops into another country
someplace around the world. Every
time we do this it just leads to the next
problem.
1999 Ron Paul 18:5 It is said that we should not have
much to say about foreign policy because
the Constitution has given responsibility
to the President. The term
“foreign policy” does not even exist in
the Constitution. The President has
been given the authority to be the
Commander-in-Chief; to lead the troops
after we direct him as to what he
should do. He is the commander. We do
not have a military commander, we
have a civilian commander. But we do
not forego our right to debate and be
concerned about what is happening on
issues of troop deployment and war.
1999 Ron Paul 18:6 A report put out by those who sponsor
this resolution had this to say.
“This measure does not address the underlying
question of the merits or misgivings
of sending U.S. forces into
Kosovo.”
We are not even supposed to
debate the merits and misgivings of
sending troops. Why not?
“Instead, the
purpose of this resolution”
they go on to say,
“is to give the House an opportunity
to fulfill its constitutional responsibility
of authorizing the deployment
of U.S. troops into potentially
hostile situations.”
In other words, we
are to do nothing more than rubber
stamp what the President has asked
for.
1999 Ron Paul 18:7 Where does the President claim he
gets his authority? Does he come to us?
Has he asked us for this? No, he assumes
he has the authority. He has already
threatened that what we do here
will have no effect on his decision. He
is going to do what he thinks he should
do anyway. He does not come and ask
for permission. Where does he get this
authority? Sometimes the Presidents,
since World War II, have assumed it
comes from the United Nations. That
means that Congress has reneged on its
responsibility.
1999 Ron Paul 18:8 We do not just give it to the President,
we give it to the President plus
the United Nations or NATO. And when
we joined NATO and the United Nations,
it was explicitly said it was not
to be inferred that this takes away the
sovereignty and the decision-making
powers of the individual countries and
their legislative bodies. And yet we
have now, for quite a few decades, allowed
this power to gravitate into the
hands of the President.
1999 Ron Paul 18:9 After Vietnam there was a great deal
of concern about this power to wage
war. First, we had Korea. We did not
win that war. Next we had Vietnam.
And with very sincere intent, the Congress
in 1973 passed the War Powers
Resolution. The tragedy of the War
Powers Resolution, no matter how well
motivated, is that it did exactly the
opposite of what was intended.
1999 Ron Paul 18:10 What has actually happened is it has
been interpreted by all our Presidents
since then that they have the authority
to wage war for 6090 days before we
can say anything. That is wrong. We
have turned it upside down. So it is up
to us to do something about getting
the prerogative of waging war back
into the hands of the Congress.
1999 Ron Paul 18:11 It is said that we do not have this authority;
that we should give it to the
President; that he has it under the
Constitution based on his authority to
formulate foreign policy. It is not
there. The Congress has the responsibility
to declare war, write letters of
marks and reprisals, call up the militia,
raise and train army and regulate
foreign commerce. The President
shares with the Senate treaty power as
well as appointment of ambassadors.
The President cannot even do that
alone.
1999 Ron Paul 18:12 We have the ultimate power, and
that is the power of the purse. If the
power of the purse is given up, then we
lose everything. Because we have not
assumed our responsibilities up until
this point, it is up to us to declare that
the President cannot spend money in
this manner. I have legislation that
would take care of this; that the President
cannot place troops in Kosovo unless
he gets explicit authority from us
to do so. If he does it, the monies
should be denied to the President, unless
we want to be complicit in this
dangerous military adventurism.
Notes:
1999 Ron Paul 18:11
letters of marks and reprisals probably should be
letters of marque and reprisal.
1999 Ron Paul 18:11
raise and train army probably should be plural: raise and train armies.
