Daily Kos

Bush to issue signing statement for vetoed bill?

Fri Nov 09, 2007 at 03:39:23 PM PDT

Will Bush issue a signing statement on the water resources bill that Congress has passed into law over his veto?

As we know from Charlie Savage excellent reporting on this topic Bush has issued numerous signing statements to bills he signed:

Since taking office in 2001, President Bush has issued signing statements on more than 750 new laws, declaring that he has the power to set aside the laws when they conflict with his legal interpretation of the Constitution. The federal government is instructed to follow the statements when it enforces the laws.

Will he now expand his dictatorial powers to bills he vetoes and are then overriden by Congress?

I see no rationale for him not to given he uses them to nullify laws legitimately passed by Congress, according to John Dean

Bush is using his signing statements to effectively nullify them as they relate to the executive branch.

and/or

As Phillip Cooper observes, the President's signing statements are, in some instances, effectively rewriting the laws by reinterpreting how the law will be implemented. Notably, Cooper finds some of Bush's signing statements - and he has the benefit of judging them against his extensive knowledge of other President's signing statements -- "excessive, unhelpful, and needlessly confrontational."

Since significant portions of the water resources bill involves the Army Corps of Engineers it would be an effective, though diabolical, extension of his imperial practices.

He certainly has not hidden his raw desire for power

"You don't get everything you want. A dictatorship would be a lot easier." Describing what it's like to be governor of Texas.(Governing Magazine 7/98)
-- From Paul Begala's "Is Our Children Learning?"

"I told all four that there are going to be some times where we don't agree with each other, but that's OK. If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator," Bush joked.
-- CNN.com, December 18, 2000

"A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it, " [Bush] said.
-- Business Week, July 30, 2001

Signing statements for bills he signs and those he vetoes.

It's a nice dictatorship if you can get it.

Tags: signing statements, George W. Bush, Water Resources Bill (all tags) :: Previous Tag Versions

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