Q: Couldn't Obama Negate Stupak/Nelson Thru A Signing Statement?

[stopbush]

I mean, junior did that all the time when he passed legislation, saying that his administration would ignore this or than proviso of legislation he was signing.

So why can't Obama do that with the abortion clauses or any other compromise in the final Act that he doesn't agree with?

Anyone know?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. No.

Signing statements don't actually do anything.

[stopbush]

2. Really? Then why were we all up in arms when bush issued them on a regular basis?

Liberal carping?

[Nickster]

3. All the way back to the Ray-gun admin, the Cheney-ites have tried to push the signing statement

as something of a line-item veto, so they didn't actually ignore the law, but they kept pushing the envelope by saying that they didn't agree with the law and that they would avoid complying with the legal definitions as presented. No one wanted to take them to task on this so they kept pushing. The Constitution provides a way for the President to disagree with a bill as passed by Congress, a Veto. The signing statement is just a way to voice their opinion to set a historical perspective of the law, not to say that the President wouldn't uphold that law.