Transcription
Alright, welcome back. In this video, we're talking about checks on the president. Let's do it.
Alright, so one of the big themes of this unit is the idea that there's often tension between Congress and the president. And one example of this is whenever there is a nomination by the president that requires Senate confirmation. So, depending on the job that the president is appointing or nominating somebody for, the role of the Senate can create tension. So let's consider a few of these jobs.
One role that the president nominates and the Senate confirms are cabinet secretaries. These are the heads of the 15 major executive departments. The president will nominate somebody and it requires Senate confirmation for that person to receive the job. So this requires or can cause some tension between Congress and the president. It's important to note, by the way, just a small detail, that while they both have a role in the person getting the job, they serve at the will of the president once they have the job, meaning that only the president can fire or remove a cabinet secretary.
Another position where the president nominates and the Senate confirms are ambassadors, but these are often less controversial because they have a smaller role in the day-to-day governing of the U.S. government.
Another position that the president will choose people for are members of his White House staff, but these do not require Senate confirmation. So this removes that tension because the Senate has no role in determining who will be part of the White House staff. So what exactly is the White House staff? Well, these are the president's closest advisors. They are the people who work directly in the White House with the president, often advising him on domestic and foreign policy, making his speeches, his press secretary, all these sorts of roles. These are members of the White House staff, and they do not require Senate confirmation.
Now, perhaps the area that creates the most tension between Congress and the president is in the area of judicial appointments. The president nominates federal judges, and the Senate confirms them. But why are these the most contentious, even more than cabinet secretaries? Well, that is because federal judges have this job for life. So this is a hugely important decision that's being made. So the Senate is often very strict about who they confirm or don't confirm. And again, if you've been watching recent politics and in the last couple of years, you saw when President Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to be a Supreme Court justice. This was extremely contentious because once he was confirmed, he now has this job for life.
Foreign policy is another area that we can see that tension between Congress and the president really on display. In fact, the Constitution created this tension. It gave the president the role of commander-in-chief. We need he's in charge of the troops. He says where they go and how they fight, all these different things. Whereas Congress was given the power to declare war. So Congress declares the war, but the president is in charge of the actual fighting of that war. So again, this creates tension between the president and Congress.
Now, the president typically has some significant advantages in making foreign policy. He is commander-in-chief. Additionally, he has the power to make treaties, while the Senate merely confirms them. He also has the intelligence services reported directly to him. So the heads of the Defense Department and the State Department, the intelligence services like the CIA, they all report directly to the president because he is head of the executive branch. So again, he has these sorts of advantages built-in when it comes to foreign policy.
But there are things Congress can do. Congress has the power of the purse. So they can threaten to, or they can actually take away money for fighting those wars or for funding the military, although that is politically very costly. And so it doesn't happen as much as Congress may threaten for it to happen. But that is an important role that Congress does have to try to influence foreign policy. Additionally, they do have their confirmation powers, so confirming the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State, their ability to ratify treaties, even though again, presidents have to we avoided treaties recently and instead make executive agreements because again, that allows them to have more power. But again, you see this fighting, this tension over who has more power in the area of foreign policy. It's clearly the president, but Congress has done what they could do, such as making legislation like the War Powers Resolution to try to take back some of that power from the president, to try to limit his ability to fight wars without them directly approving them. So Congress has tried to maintain some authority in this area.
Additionally, with things like executive orders, which are allowed and the president can do them without congressional approval, sometimes Congress does try to make legislation that would make those executive orders either pointless or it have the law that would override that executive order.
Alright guys, so that's it for another video. Until next time, this has been a Little Money Production.
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