The "Other" Issues

Written by: Alan Willis on Jul 31, 2008 8:01 PM EDT

    Reading newspapers and watching news could easily lead the public to believe the most critical issues come down to the economy and the war.

    Of course, these are signifcant issues, but here I'd like to bring up an issue which I think needs to be brought more broadly to the attention of the voting public. The Bush Administration has acquired for itself dictatorial powers to negate laws duely passed by Congress. Bush has done this through the use of signing statements in which he has repeatedly announced how he will or will not enforce a law passed by Congress, leeway the Constituion simply does not give to a president.

    Despite the peculiar fact that Bush used hundreds of signing statements to negate Congressional legislation passed by the Republican controlled Congress of the first six years of his presidency. Where was the maverick John McCain in protesting this violation of the Constitution--and of basic conservative postion of limited government for which the Republican party supposedly stands. Apparently, he stood right in line with the dramatic and dictatorial power grab by the Bush administration; hence, there is no reason to expect better from John McCain.

    What is clear is that the vast majority of American have no sense that such a thing as a signing statement even exists, much less how Bush has used it to undermine democracy and to thwart Congress--even the Republican controlled Congress of his first six years in office.

    We need to make this an issue; we need to make sure people know what is happening to their Constitution.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/04/30/bush_challenges_hundreds_of_laws/

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