The President has claimed that he may ignore the request of the legislature to submit a request for war funding in the budget this year, according to Air Force Times. In keeping with his history of appending signing statements to legislation that he signs he issued a "signing statement" with last year's defense budget that said he would construe the provisions in a manner consistent with the President's power as Commander in Chief. This allows him a way to ignore the legislature if he chooses and do as he likes. If he doesn't want to submit a request for war funding than he will interpret the law in a way that says he does not have to submit the request.
The Constitution grants the legislature the enumerated power to "raise and support armies," which means that the President, although the legislation does not day it is required that he should submit an honest request. A legislatively written request to the President is similar to a lower-ranking military person receiving a "suggestion" from a superior. The legislature needs to know exactly what the President needs equally as much as a superior needs a subordinate to follow the suggestion.
The people have a right ot know how much we plan to spend on the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan in the budget year because after all the President is fond of telling us that it is our money. We also have a right to not have our legislators abused by supplemental request that are not supplemental at all and drive our deficit up rather than reducing it. The voters come down on their representatives for spending too much, however, it is hard to expect them to cut off funding with troops in the field. The President needs to stop his refusal to request the money through a standard budget process.
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