The President of the United States
by
Matt Giwer (c) 1995 <4/2>

      There is continuing confusion over just what are the powers of the President of the United States. There is this document called the Constitution that is in fact his job description. These are clearly defined in Article II, Sections 2 and 3 of the Constitution. I have included them at the end.
      As part of remedial Civics 101, those are all there are. The President has no other powers. He has one other obligation that is the first sentence of Article II, Section 1,

Sect. 1. The executive power shall be vested in a president of the United States of America.

      This is the simplest statement of his job, to execute the laws of the land. To continue the civics lesson, he has no other job.
      The President has one other duty and that is to either sign a bill into law or to return it to Congress with his objections.
      The misunderstanding is most commonly found in the President submitting a budget to Congress. You will note the closest thing to that is the first clause of Section 3 in making recommendations.
      A related point is that the department Secretaries and heads of agencies are only extensions of the President and nothing more. They have no independent existence or powers. A President is his Secretary of State as much as he is his Surgeon General.
      In practice what the President does is submit an estimate of the money required for him to execute the laws of the land for the next fiscal year. At this point the President usually takes the opportunity to recommend for the consideration of Congress "such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient."
      You will note in this process he is only giving Congress a place to start in developing a budget for the next fiscal year and making suggestions. And deviation from the actual costs of executing the laws are not the budget but only recommendations. No matter what budget estimate he submits it is only Congress that can generate a budget and his only input to that process is to refuse to sign a budget bill unless his objections to it are not satisfied, this being the veto process, often incorrectly referred to as a power rather than as a duty.
      Lets take the common misunderstanding that a president is responsible for submitting a budget that contains a deficit. He is not. He is responsible for providing a budgetary estimate of the costs of executing the laws of the land, all of them, regardless of the bottom line. He is also, separate and distinct from this process, required to present a budgetary estimate of the expected revenues for that same year.
      No place is he even able to make changes that would reconcile those two numbers. On one hand he can not raise taxes and on the other he can not pick and choose the laws he will execute. A President may or may not wish to submit a balanced budget but that would be simply a wish. He does not have the power to do so. The revenue and expenditure numbers are what they are and he can not change them.
      Only Congress can reconcile those numbers either by changing the laws the President has to execute or by passing a law authorizing him to collect additional revenues. Other than overspending a budget authorization or failing to collect all revenues due there is nothing a President can do to increase the deficit. Only by acting in the other direction can he decrease the deficit.
      The confusion comes from a different quarter. That is that a President is the head of his political party. In light of the actual powers and duties of a President it is absurd to say, "I will eliminate the deficit" or "I will improve ..." or anything similar. It only only as the head of his political party that he can honestly make such a statement. It is only through the members of his party in Congress that he can possibly do any such thing.
      Although Presidents do love to use "I" the proper statement is "my party" not the first person pronoun. And this falsely elevates in the minds of many a partisan political objective to a legitimate Presidential function. It is not as though Presidents wish to avoid that implication.
      It is not the job of a President to balance the budget to provide a safety net for anyone, or to provide for national defense save insofar as provided by law. As head of his party he may pretend to any duty or responsibility he wishes as may anyone else pretend to exactly the same things. That he happens to hold the office of President does not make his claims any more credible than anyone else's claims including you and me.
      Now, back to our regularly scheduled misunderstandings.

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Article II.

Sect. 2. The president shall be commander in chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.

He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the supreme court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law. But the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the president alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.

The president shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their session.

Sect. 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States.