One of proudest boasts of Americans in the past has been that "We are a nation of laws, not men." What Americans meant by that was that our leaders were expected to follow the law, even if they didn't agree with law. While that idea is a little too quaint for our current President. Our current President believes that he can sign Congressional Acts into law, but then issue so-called "signing statements" that purport to tell the Congress what laws he will obey and what laws he won't obey.
The Boston Globe has a reporter, Charlie Savage, who won a Pulitzer prize for is stories on Bush's signing statements. He had another story up on its website dated December 1, 2007, about Bush's signing statement on recent pieces of legislation. Once again our current President believes that he doesn't have to follow laws that he determines are inconsistent with his Constitutional authority.
Now this is where Bush's failure to get into the University of Texas Law School becomes a problem. If he had any inkling of the actual text of the United States Constitution he would realize that Article II of the Constitution contemplates a executive branch that is subordinate to the legislative branch. That's why Article I deals with the powers of Congress and Article II deals with the power of the President. Too bad that Bush does't really understand the Constitution he took an oath to defend and protect.
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