Bush again says his whim is law

Another bill, another signing statement. In his usual underhanded way, George Bush quietly issued a signing statement last month in which he reserved the right to ignore eleven provisions in a military appropriations bill.

Congress clearly set forth certain legal requirements on the executive branch as the price for receiving this money, but Bush said he will fulfill those requirements only if he wants to. His statements are blatantly unconstitutional and they carry no force of law, since Congress passed the law and he signed it, as written. But Bush has taken no apparent action on the basis of this claimed arrogation of power, and therefore he has (in this case, at least) apparently broken no laws.

As usual, the excellent Charlie Savage of the Boston Globe is all over the story:

Bush challenged several requirements to provide information to Congress.

For example, one law Bush targeted requires him to give oversight committees notice before transferring US military equipment to United Nations peacekeepers.

Bush also challenged a new law that limits his ability to transfer funds lawmakers approved for one purpose to start a different program, as well as a law requiring him to keep in place an existing command structure for the Navy's Pacific fleet.

"The Act contains certain provisions identical to those found in prior bills passed by the Congress that might be construed to be inconsistent with my Constitutional responsibilities," Bush's statement says.

"To avoid such potential infirmities, I will interpret and construe such provisions in the same manner as I have previously stated in regard to those provisions."

Bush has struck a less combative tone in this signing statement, the first since Democrat took control of Congress. Rather than restating his earlier claims that he is free to decide which laws he will obey, he instead referred obliquely and imprecisely to previous statements attached to "prior bills." He also, as Savage points out, failed to challenge two provisions of the bill that directly limit presidential power:

One law prohibits the military from using foreign intelligence information that was collected illegally, and the other forbids expending funds to establish permanent US military bases in Iraq.

It's hard to say what this apparent acceptance of congressional limitations may mean. White House spokesbot Tony Fratto claims that nothing has changed, that in fact shorter signing statements are "just easier."

In an online chat last September, Savage explained that some previous signing statements led the Bush administration to disobey portions of the laws:

The Government Accountability Office this year did a study of what had happened to a small sampling of bill-sections that Bush challenged in his signing statements attached to appropriations bills that Congress passed in 2005. It found that of 16 section, the executive branch went on to disobey six of them while enforcing the other 10 as written. The GAO did not look at what happened to any of the most interesting signing statements, such as those involving torture and the Patriot Act, as they involved classified matters.

In the imperial palace, disobeying inconvenient laws is "just easier"—easier than challenging them in congressional debate or in the courts.

Congress should simply outlaw presidential signing statements. If Bush disagrees with a bill, he would then have to veto it and defend his tyrannical ideas in the open. That might be difficult for a naked emperor.

---

Charlie Savage won the Pulitzer Prize last year. Read his thorough, well-written book Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy for background on the Unitary Executive Theory and more details on signing statements.

Comments

[Obbop]

The elite's government FEARS you!!!!!!

Their fear is manifested in the laws they pass. Here is a law banning what MANY of the Founders wrote is a RIGHT of citizens when a government no longer represents them:

Section 2385. Advocating overthrow of Government

Whoever knowingly or willfully advocates, abets, advises, or
teaches the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of
overthrowing or destroying the government of the United States or
the government of any State, Territory, District or Possession
thereof, or the government of any political subdivision therein, by
force or violence, or by the assassination of any officer of any
such government; or
Whoever, with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of any
such government, prints, publishes, edits, issues, circulates,
sells, distributes, or publicly displays any written or printed
matter advocating, advising, or teaching the duty, necessity,
desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying any
government in the United States by force or violence, or attempts
to do so; or
Whoever organizes or helps or attempts to organize any society,
group, or assembly of persons who teach, advocate, or encourage the
overthrow or destruction of any such government by force or
violence; or becomes or is a member of, or affiliates with, any
such society, group, or assembly of persons, knowing the purposes
thereof -
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than
twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by
the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five
years next following his conviction.
If two or more persons conspire to commit any offense named in
this section, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned
not more than twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for
employment by the United States or any department or agency
thereof, for the five years next following his conviction.
As used in this section, the terms ''organizes'' and
''organize'', with respect to any society, group, or assembly of
persons, include the recruiting of new members, the forming of new
units, and the regrouping or expansion of existing clubs, classes,
and other units of such society, group, or assembly of persons.

The federal government is allowing MILLIONS of illegals to invade our country who are causing immense economic harm to America's working poor. Corporate America is becoming increasingly more powerful and influential. Yet, according to the government of for and by the elites YOU, a citizen, have to accept whatever the government does with NO recourse other than voting...... and there is sufficient proof that shows to me voting is worthless since the entrenched power structure ensures that the emplaced elite class can not be removed.

Several Founders specifically wrote of the people's right to abolish a government when it no longer represents them.

We are forced to live under an elite's TYRANNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!