A major thrust of the Bush Administration has been to abrogate the classic checks and balances of the Constitution — at the very time he has profound influence over Congress and the Supreme Court and the Media and the Public.
Ask yourself for a moment: what kind of Constitutional scholar is Bush? Stop laughing — whose idea is this? Someone is tweaking, amending and editing the Constitution and we don’t actually know who it is or what their motives are.
Much has been made of Bush never vetoing anything. These “signing statments” are essentially line-item vetoes; he’ll ignore what he chooses. Congress and the Court have no process for reviewing, objecting or over-riding these stealth vetoes.
Bush’s strange need to leave a paper trail everywhere is beginning to look like Nixon’s tapes. Hopefully, they will contribute to his undoing. They definitely will give History real substance to judge his administration by.
Had enough? mjh
Bush challenges hundreds of laws – The Boston Globe
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | April 30, 2006
WASHINGTON — President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.
Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ”whistle-blower” protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research.
Legal scholars say the scope and aggression of Bush’s assertions that he can bypass laws represent a concerted effort to expand his power at the expense of Congress, upsetting the balance between the branches of government. The Constitution is clear in assigning to Congress the power to write the laws and to the president a duty ”to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” Bush, however, has repeatedly declared that he does not need to ”execute” a law he believes is unconstitutional. …
Far more than any predecessor, Bush has been aggressive about declaring his right to ignore vast swaths of laws — many of which he says infringe on power he believes the Constitution assigns to him alone as the head of the executive branch or the commander in chief of the military.
Many legal scholars say they believe that Bush’s theory about his own powers goes too far and that he is seizing for himself some of the law-making role of Congress and the Constitution-interpreting role of the courts.
Search Results (v2)
Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (2006); Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (2005); Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (2004); Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (2003); Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (2002); Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (2001)
For: “”statement on signing””