President Obama Does NOT Have Constitutional Authority To Insist The Senate Accept The START Treaty As-Is!

So now President Obama is telling the senate NOT to change anything in the START treaty he recently sent to them for approval. Got news for you sir. The constitution gives you no such power to insist on that. In fact, the constitution says you may make treaties (only!) "by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate".

Pardon me, sir, but the constitution does NOT say the senate is to be a rubber stamp for treaties you want to make. You do NOT have the power/authority to force them to accept it as-is from you. In fact, you have a constitutional responsibility to hear them out and negotiate compromise in good faith. It has to do with the whole balance of powers thing so that tyranny has a better chance of being prevented.

If the Russians want to bluster over this treaty and threaten us over any attempt to negotiate a change or two, that's their problem. We are a constitutional democracy which means any treaty the Russians desire to make must be done within our laws. They have no basis or right to assume, much less dictate(!), otherwise. If they want to be our partner in international relations they should respect our laws. Yielding to them would be a capitulation of weakness on our part.

When the president heard from the senate that they want to discuss one element of the treaty he should have told the Russians that he supports that instead of telling the senate to butt out and rubber-stamp the treaty. In effect, the president is disrespecting both the constitution and the senate in favor of submitting to the will of the one power on earth that could anhililate us in a heartbeat if we're ever foolish enough to allow them a significant upper hand. It's not good for our republic for a president to be behaving this way.

The discussion about the element of contention is very interesting. Several members of the senate are saying that the opening statements of the START treaty would limit our development of DEFENSIVE missile systems, even of missile systems for the purpose of defending ourselves from countries other than Russia! The President responded by saying it would NOT limit such development. But guess what? The Russians(!) have CONFIRMED it WILL limit our development of defensive missile systems. That is their objective in that wording! Good grief Mr. President. If the biggest superpower threat to us has admitted they ARE trying to limit us that way in a wording of their choosing, doesn't that validate our senate's concerns? Isn't it therefore their constitutional duty to consider the implications of that? For that matter shouldn't YOU consider the implications too if even the Russians believe it to be true?

For a guy who taught constitutional law President Obama has amazing ignorance of the extent of his authority and too little respect for either the senate or the constitution that he swore to uphold (ie, enforce).