Hold the presses! Something good might come out of the Congress concerning our Constitution. Not only that, the main sponsor of a bill to curtail the 1973 War Powers Act is a.....Republican (gasp!). Not just any Republican of course, we are talking about Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) who was made famous by changing French Fries to Freedom Fries in the Congressional lunchroom. Of course now he is one of the few Republicans on the Hill that wants to end the war, so it isn't too surprising. Nevertheless, his statements on the bipartisan bill are music to my ears.
From The Sun Journal:
Jones submitted the bill Sept. 25 and announced it Thursday at a press conference with three of five co-sponsors. One of them, Rep. Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts, a Democrat, is a member of the House subcommittee on foreign affairs which will first hear the bill. Also present were Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and Rep. Wayne Gilchrest of Maryland, both Republicans. The other co-sponsors are Rep. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii and and Rep. Robert Brady of Pennsylvania, both Democrats.
The bill would prevent U.S. involvement in another long war without congressional approval. But Jones said it was not drafted in response to last week’s “World War III” comment by President George Bush or to new numbers released this week by the Congressional Budget Office putting the cost of the Iraq War through 2008 at $610 billion and predicting a cost through 2017 of as much as $2.4 trillion.
“This has nothing to do with Iraq,” said Jones, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee and was one of the first Republican congressmen to oppose the war in Iraq.
Well, it does and it doesn't Mr. Jones. The reason it is being brought up has a lot to do with Iraq, and how the President took us to war over there. Also true, it does have to deal with the Constitution and how the Congress gave away much of their war powers with that 1973 legislation. It is about time that Congress become a co-equal branch in this government as the Founding Fathers had set it to be originally.
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