About these signing statements by Presidents

[dsc]

Have I been ignoring Presidents do this all these years? I honestly had never heard of these until it came up with Bush and the torture law. Have Presidents always done this? I really hate being so out of the loop but admit it happens from time to time.

[FogerRox]

1. take the "s" off the word Presidents, To the best of knowledge

BUSH is Numero uno.

[C_U_L8R]

2. I think they just made it up...

part of the Bush Reality Makin' doctrine....

which means do whatever the fuck you feel like whether or not it's legal or moral.
If someone catches you... then accuse them. If they persist.. then ghost em.

[ContraBass Black]

3. Clinton was prevented from doing this when Congress denied him

Line Item Veto power.

[carolinalady]

6. Clinton issued 105 signing statements

ed:sp

[ContraBass Black]

9. Thank you for the correction.

I see it better now.

[tritsofme]

10. Line Item Veto was in the Contract on America

It was passed by Congress, signed by President Clinton, and ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

[robbedvoter]

4. Also, he did it about 600 times. Other presidents veto.

In fact, if you want to see what a great POTUS Clinton was, you need to see the list of his vetos (ANWR being one of them)
W signs everything declaring he's above them.

[carolinalady]

5. There have been isolated cases in history where a Pres

would issue a signing statement to explain his understanding of a bill-until Reagan. Sam Alito was the person in justice who decided to give the President "unitary executive" authority by beefing up the signing statements to include contrary intentions to what Congress intended to give the Pres more authority. He issued a memo in 1986-easily accesible with Google. Since then each President has used the authority though Bush has used it about 5 times more frequently than any other.

[dsc]

7. wow

I guess I was asleep at the wheel on that. I usually keep up on things like this.

[FloridaPat]

8. I heard that it goes as far back as Carter. Everyone else has used

the signing statements to talk about how to enforce the law. * is the first to change the law.