saturation point of despair
Jun. 4th, 2006 03:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theholyinnocentThere's a good article in the recent New York Review of Books on Bush's blatant abuse of the legislative and constitutional powers that, normally, provide essential checks & balances to keep the presidency from turning into a monarchy. It involves Dumbass's use of a wonderdrous thing called a signing statement:
The press took little notice until Bush, on January 5 of this year, after signing a bill containing the McCain amendment, which placed prohibitions on torture, quietly filed a separate pronouncement, a "signing statement," that he would interpret the bill as he wished. In fact Bush had been issuing such signing statements since the outset of his administration. The Constitution distinguishes between the power of the Congress and that of the president by stating that Congress shall "make all laws" and the president shall "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Bush claims the power to execute the laws as he interprets them, ignoring congressional intent....For five years, Bush has been issuing a series of signing statements which amount to a systematic attempt to take power from the legislative branch. Though Ronald Reagan started issuing signing statements to set forth his own position on a piece of legislation, he did it essentially to guide possible court rulings, and he only occasionally objected to a particular provision of a bill. Though subsequent presidents also issued such statements, they came nowhere near to making the extraordinary claims that Bush has; nor did they make such statements nearly so often.
And how many laws has Bush ignored in all these years? 750, the article says.
The most frightening bit is near the end; it suggests that this presidency has set a dangerous precedent for future leaders to continue in the same vein. And I know many of us think that after Bush it can't possibly get any worse, but y'know, after Reagan I thought it couldn't get any worse, and look where we are now.
The press took little notice until Bush, on January 5 of this year, after signing a bill containing the McCain amendment, which placed prohibitions on torture, quietly filed a separate pronouncement, a "signing statement," that he would interpret the bill as he wished. In fact Bush had been issuing such signing statements since the outset of his administration. The Constitution distinguishes between the power of the Congress and that of the president by stating that Congress shall "make all laws" and the president shall "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Bush claims the power to execute the laws as he interprets them, ignoring congressional intent....For five years, Bush has been issuing a series of signing statements which amount to a systematic attempt to take power from the legislative branch. Though Ronald Reagan started issuing signing statements to set forth his own position on a piece of legislation, he did it essentially to guide possible court rulings, and he only occasionally objected to a particular provision of a bill. Though subsequent presidents also issued such statements, they came nowhere near to making the extraordinary claims that Bush has; nor did they make such statements nearly so often.
And how many laws has Bush ignored in all these years? 750, the article says.
The most frightening bit is near the end; it suggests that this presidency has set a dangerous precedent for future leaders to continue in the same vein. And I know many of us think that after Bush it can't possibly get any worse, but y'know, after Reagan I thought it couldn't get any worse, and look where we are now.
