Congress will get its vote on the war with Iran

It appears Congress will finally get to vote on President Trump’s self-initiated war with Iran. It won’t be a direct vote on the war, even though Article I of the U.S. Constitution vests that power in Congress and not the executive branch. It will be an indirect vote providing funding for the war effort and replenishing our munitions — and perhaps other items.

But given Trump’s resentment at needing congressional support for his actions, the effort to pass a funding bill may not go well.

Iran’s theocratic regime has been a thorn in the side of freedom and of democracies, especially the U.S. and Israel, for nearly 50 years. It is long past time for that regime to be ousted or eliminated. Iran may not have been an “imminent threat” in the sense that it was about to attack the U.S., but it was a persistent and sometimes lethal threat to Americans, most recently through the regime’s primary proxies: Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. 

The political question isn’t whether the mullahs needed ousting. It is whether one man, President Trump, had the right and authority to unilaterally initiate a war that has implicated nearly a dozen non-combatant countries, taken thousands of lives — including American servicemen and women — costs more than $1 billion a day, and threatens the economies of several countries dependent on the oil and gas and associated products that pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

In short, Iran is not the limited and targeted action Trump took in Venezuela.

Congress has not declared war since 1941, after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. And yet the U.S. has participated in numerous wars and military actions, some long and very costly.  

Although it is clear that only Congress has the power to declare war, the Constitution also creates some ambiguity because it makes the president the commander-in-chief of the military. Over time, presidents have increasingly claimed more unilateral authority to initiate military action.

However, when past presidents have taken that step, they have often consulted with our allies in trying to build an international coalition. They have worked with Congress to ensure support and funding. Most importantly, they have made their case to the American people before initiating hostilities.

Trump did none of the above. As with nearly all of his actions since he returned to the White House, he claims the authority to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants.

When the media asked him why he didn’t consult with our major allies, Trump said, “You don’t want to signal too much. … We didn’t tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise.” He awkwardly went on to make a comment about Japan secretly attacking Pearl Harbor in front of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

Trump’s explanation was ludicrous. The media had been reporting for weeks that Trump was moving aircraft carriers and battleship groups to the Persian Gulf. If it was a secret, it was the worst-kept secret in Washington. Since the U.S. had already bombed Iran last June in conjunction with Israel, everyone knew an attack was possible — perhaps probable.

But Trump has berated most or our allies at one time or another and vilified and ostracized most Democrats, especially at his State of the Union address. Now he wants international participation in the war, and he needs congressional financial support for it. He will reportedly ask Congress to pass a supplemental spending bill for $200 billion.

Trump will need Senate Democrats to pass the supplemental funding. And he may not even have all Republicans on board. Some have already expressed concerns about the size of the supplemental spending bill — especially now that the federal deficit is on track to hit $2 trillion this year and the federal debt has just surpassed $39 trillion.

The funding fight won’t be pretty. It could turn into a stalemate, just like funding for the Department of Homeland Security.

If Trump can’t get Democratic support — and there’s a good chance he can’t — Republicans may try to move the bill through the reconciliation process, which avoids a 60-senator cloture vote. There are reports that some Republicans are pushing for a reconciliation bill so that they can spend even more taxpayer money.

Trump’s biggest challenge is his go-it-alone obsession, complicated by his tendency to lash out and blame others when things don’t go his way. And the Iran war does not appear to be going his way right now.

But the other problem is Congress’s decades-long trend of ceding its constitutional powers to the executive branch. The founders set up three branches of government to serve as a check against any one branch from gaining too much power. These days, the only time Democrats and Republicans rediscover the Constitution’s limits on executive authority is when the other party is in the White House.

Merrill Matthews is the Texas state chair of Our Republican Legacy.

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