Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hi, I'm Nat Towson. You're listening to American Power. I'm your host, speechwriter, comedian, other kinds of writer, and most nobly, of course, podcast host. I am joined, as always, by our panel of experts, our policy and military expert, Chad Scott. Chad, how's it going?
It's going well. Super glad, excited for this conversation.
Me too. And our energy expert, renewable oil, the entire energy sector, you know him as Mr. Global. I'm here with Mr. Matt Randolph.
Hey, Matt, how are you?
I'm doing great. And I'm very excited because we do have a special guest today. And I want to jump right into that conversation so we can get into the meat of it. Today, we are joined by Congressman Adam Smith.
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Chapter 2: How does Congressman Adam Smith view presidential war powers?
He's a ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee and one of the longest serving voices in Congress on national security, military readiness and U.S. foreign policy. And Congressman Smith previously served as chairman of the committee and has spent decades overseeing the Department of Defense, U.S.
military operations, weapons procurement, force readiness and America's broader strategic posture in the world. He's been deeply involved in debates surrounding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the current situation in the Middle East, China, support for Ukraine, Russia. There's so much we're excited to talk to him about, including the current conflict with Iran.
And he represents Washington's 9th Congressional District, is widely regarded as one of the key congressional figures in shaping democratic defense and national security policy. Please welcome to American Power, Congressman Adam Smith.
Well, thank you, Nat. Appreciate the opportunity.
Of course. Congressman, we're really excited to talk to you today. And we want to talk initially about the we're currently pertaining to Iran. I think it's what's on people's minds right now. So I'm going to want to start with that.
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Chapter 3: What military strategies are being considered in the conflict with Iran?
And we are well past the May 1st deadline for the War Powers Resolution. And I actually want to ask, Chad, did you want to jump in and ask a more specific question about that? Because that's where I'd like to start the discussion today.
Yeah, Nat. So as Nat was alluding to, Congressman, when it comes to Iran, we were past that May 1st deadline, war powers resolution, the 60 days where a president is supposed to end unauthorized hostilities unless Congress authorizes them. The president seems to be getting around this by saying the ceasefire is in place, but let's be honest, I feel it like it really only exists on paper.
We all somewhat know that a blockade is broadly seen as an act of war. The U.S. conducted further strikes on May 7th, but the administration said, quote unquote, that was below the threshold of hostilities, which I don't know how much more hostile you can get than striking the enemy.
But given the president's stance on Iran, do you believe Congress still has a meaningful decision-making role here or Or has his presidency effectively taken over that Article 1 war power from Congress? And practically speaking, what can Congress do now? Do they pass new authorizations forth to withdraw, restrict funding?
Or are you guys in Congress just left trying to catch up after the president has already committed U.S.
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Chapter 4: What insights does Chad Scott provide on military actions and deterrence?
forces?
Yeah, there's two separate conversations here. One is the policy around the Iran war itself, which is deeply troubling. And I know we'll get into that in a little bit when we talk about that piece of it. The only problem with the analysis that you have is it sort of takes us down a procedural path, which is fine. I think it is really important. Who has the power to commit forces?
How do you handle that? But right now in the short term, The more important part is we are stuck in a bad place and Iran never should have got in there in the first place. So how do we get out of it? But with that said, I will walk down the procedural role. And yes, this is a 200 plus year battle between the executive and the congressional branch.
The founding fathers made the president the commander in chief of our armed forces, which empowers him to use those armed forces as he sees fit. And then very vaguely gave Congress the power to declare war.
Chapter 5: How does energy independence relate to the current conflict?
They do not define what war is or anything about it.
and historically the president has exercised his power as commander in chief in a way that congress has been very very hard pressed to stop so as a practical matter yes the the president and all presidents have had this power and they've used it in a variety of different ways um gosh president clinton you know started hostilities against serbia and kosovo without congressional approval that ended before 60 days
But Congress actually voted on it and we voted it down. It was a tie vote, but it didn't pass and he went ahead anyway. You know, Barack Obama initiated hostilities against Libya and asked for congressional approval. Sorry. He notified Congress that this was happening. After 60 days, he said hostilities had ceased.
So there was never a vote in Congress, even though hostilities had not ceased after 60 days. So, yes, as a practical matter, the president's a natural executive authority. He's one person who has to make one decision. We're 535. We have to figure out some way to agree. That gives the executive greater power.
Now, I think the courts have expanded that power in a very unwise, unconstitutional way in a series of rulings.
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of global oil markets on U.S. energy policy?
But just as a natural matter, one person, executive branch controlling all of that is going to have more power than a body of 535 people. Now, what we can do and what we've been voting on is to disapprove the war. It's basically saying, no, you have to stop this war until you get congressional approval. So we can do that.
Now, thus far, no Republicans or, sorry, a couple of Republicans have voted for it. Those things haven't passed. So the other thing we can do is cut off money, something that was done to help in the Vietnam conflict. So we can do those two things.
Right now, the biggest role that Congress plays in all of this is to drive public opinion because most presidents, the current one seems to be an exception to this rule, but most presidents do respond to public opinion. And if a war is widely unpopular and Congress is part of driving home that message, that will cause the president to recalculate. This president seems somewhat immune to that.
And the Republican Party seems somewhat immune to public opinion right now. So that isn't working as well. But that's what we can do. But the bottom line answer to your question is, yes, the president has a lot more power than we do.
Chapter 7: What legislative actions can Congress take regarding military engagements?
We have to be persistent and creative to try to contain and control his use of the military.
Well, thank you, sir. So now I know you, me and you were talking offline and you had a really great question that pertained to this that came.
Yeah, I was curious because vote on a 2023 bill about sanctions in Iran and limiting the president's power to add or remove sanctions. And you voted against that. I'm curious if you could talk about the motivation behind that vote and whether you regret it or whether you feel how you feel it factors into the current crisis.
Well, the sanctions are different than war.
Yes, I'm curious how you feel that it connects.
Entirely different conversation. Look, I want to give the executive branch, you know, power to do foreign policy. And certainly sanctions have historically been something that the president has had a fair amount of control over. So I see it as an entirely different conversation. And look, I am not unmindful of the challenge that Iran presents.
Now, I think the maximum pressure campaign of using sanctions was actually working before we stupidly stumbled into this war.
Iran was a player in the Hamas negotiations.
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Chapter 8: What future developments can we expect in U.S.-China relations?
And what I believe was taking place was President Biden was negotiating a release of hostages while at the same time we were trying to get kind of rein in the powers of Republicans, trying to rein in the powers of the president.
I didn't want to tie the president's hands to negotiate. I've long been of the opinion, and this war, I think, is proving me correct, that as difficult as the Iranian problem is and as problematic as they are, that diplomacy and negotiations is the better option than war.
So, yes, I wanted to preserve the president's decision space to make those decisions, to confront the Iranian challenge without stumbling into the catastrophe that is the current conflict in the Middle East.
I actually want to kick it over to Mr. Global for a second and talk to you a little bit about the energy sector. Matt, is there a question that you'd like to lead with here? I have a few thoughts myself.
Sure. Yeah. Today, the president announced that he wants this gas tax holiday. This was something that came up in 22. And one thing I noticed immediately was that a lot of the folks that were against this in 2022 are suddenly big fans of it. I heard Mike Lee come out today and he suddenly wants to get rid of the federal gas tax program. permanently in 2022. He called it every name in the book.
I was just curious, because I opposed it in 22 and now. Honestly, it's one of those things that I don't think it's the end of the world if it passes. It's not something I'm passionate about. I just believe in letting the markets do what they will. And I think this sort of extends things that don't need to be extended.
But I just wanted to get your thoughts on the gas tax and how you look at that and how you feel about it, honestly.
Sure. There are several different layers here. Let me try to walk through this quickly. I think it is important to frame the conflict in Iran. And essentially, you know, the president has said all manner of different things, but putting apart what he said and you can see what happened.
It's very clear that when he started this war, he was convinced that a three, four, five week bombing campaign could essentially break the Iranian regime. either hopefully overthrow it or put them to the point where they would capitulate to whatever we want. That's what the president thought. That was really stupid. Okay.
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