Mike Aivaz and Muriel Kane, Raw Story
Dan Abrams examined the Bush administration’s unprecedented use of signing statements in the second installment of his week-long MSNBC series on “Bush League Justice.”
“President Bush doesn’t like to veto laws,” Abrams began. “He doesn’t have to. Since he took office, he’s been attaching conditions to laws already passed by Congress, allowing him to essentially disobey the will of Congress and dramatically expand his own power.”
Bush has issued 1100 signing statements — almost twice as many as all previous presidents put together — often completely reversing the intended effect of legislation. For example, when Congress voted overwhelmingly to ban torture, Bush announced that this would “make it clear to the world that this government does not torture.” Two weeks later, he added a signing statement to the bill that allowed him to ignore it.
(Original Article)