Executive branch's importance

Though at times it seems as though the president and the executive branch call all the shots in our government, this just isn't the case. The executive is not the most important branch for mainly this reason: That congress makes the laws, the executive branch enforces it. “The President of the United States administers the Executive Branch of our government. He enforces the laws that the Legislative Branch (Congress) makes.” http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/teacher_lessons/3branches/1.htm. The executive branch cant force the people to do certain things, because they don't have the power to do what they want necessarily, whereas congress can make any law they see fit, and even force the executive to acknowledge it and enforce it (except of course if the law is unconstitutional).

Two presidents can show how congress was the most important branch of the time (or how they could have been) and these would be president Johnson and president Johnson (Lyndon B. Johnson and Andrew Johnson). “Of greater significance, on 7 August the U.S. Congress overwhelmingly passed the so-called Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which enabled Johnson to employ military force as he saw fit against the Vietnamese Communists.” http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq120-1.htm . The 88th congress had the ability to force the president to not be allowed to retaliate in a way he saw fit. The president needs congresses approval to use the military (in large cases at least) in order for him to be able attack another country. This congress had the potential to never allow the Vietnam war to happen (by not nay on the gulf of tonkin resolution), they just didn't see it coming. The lesson here is that congress is the only branch of government to declare war, or military action, not the executive branch, who still needed congress to allow the country to go to war.

Andrew Johnson shows a presidency under which the executive branch was severely limited by congress. The 40th congress constantly by-passed Johnson's veto power and basically didn't allow him to accomplish anything while the Legislative branch had the ability to employ reconstruction the way they wanted. In fact, this congress had over-rided a presidential veto on an important bill for the first time up to that point. They put restrictions upon the president and basically ran the country by themselves, they created the 14th amendment and the civil rights act of 1866, giving more rights to blacks. “In March 1867, the Radicals effected their own plan of Reconstruction, again placing southern states under military rule. They passed laws placing restrictions upon the President. When Johnson allegedly violated one of these, the Tenure of Office Act, by dismissing Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, the House voted eleven articles of impeachment against him. He was tried by the Senate in the spring of 1868 and acquitted by one vote.” http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/aj17.html


Edward J. Marolda, “Summary of the Tonkin Gulf Crisis of August 1964”, history.navy.mil, July 13th, 2005 <http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq120-1.htm > October 21th, 2008.

“Andrew Johnson”, thewhitehouse.gov, (date unavailable), <http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/aj17.html > October 21th, 2008.

“Three branches of government”, the Truman library (date unavailable), <http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/teacher_lessons/3branches/1.htm > October 21th, 2008