Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Obama: Signing Statements Are Wrongful Attempts to Expand the Power of the Presidency (Unless Issued by President Obama)

Remember candidate Obama’s denunciation of President Bush for using signing statements to announce that the executive branch would not abide by certain measures passed by Congress on the grounds that they infringed on his constitutional authority?  Well, today President Obama made a slight, uh, change to that position. An AP story informs us that Obama issued a signing statement today after putting his signature on an omnibus spending bill:

Obama's signing statement said he wouldn't be bound by provisions of the bill in five areas. They involved negotiations with foreign governments, limits on using U.S. troops in U.N. missions, protections for government whistleblowers, a congressional claim of authority over the spending of money already approved by Congress and congressional demands that the administration submit budget requests in certain forms.

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