This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Thursday, June 16, 2011.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The President argues that dropping bombs on Libya doesn't fall under the purview of the War Powers Act,

obligating the President to justify warmaking.

John Samples, director of the Cato Institute Center for Representative Government,

argues that congressional abdication has long aided presidents who want to make war without

congressional permission.

We spoke yesterday.

Members of Congress have brought a lawsuit against President Obama.

This happened earlier a little

over 10 years ago with regard to Kosovo. In the current suit it's

acknowledged that past courts have not recognized standing for members of Congress to enforce the war

powers or the Constitution in general.

So this is less I think an actual attempt to get a court to stop President Obama in Libya,

and more something that has happened before, which is Congress starts doing things that are short of the kinds of efforts they should be making,

like actually stopping the money or insisting on the Constitution being carried out and do other things which is well say to the

president could we have more information or say to the president we might cut

off the money or in this case bring a lawsuit.

So it's a kind of signaling game in which at some point the hope is that the signaling

will be strong enough that the president will say,

oh, well, you know, I can't just brush aside these people and ignore them.

Now, there's not a lot of evidence that this particular president is going to respond because he's done more than any other president

...