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Emily Miller of The Washington Times reports that Obama plans to violate the $1 trillion omnibus spending bill he signed on Friday. Instead, he issued a signing statement that he and Eric Holder’s Justice Department believe the bill is “subject to well-founded constitutional objections.” (Here’s the text of the statement.) What are they? That Congress has asked to be notified if U.S. troops are placed under foreign command. It does not ban the practice of placing U.S. troops under foreign generals; it simply requires that Congress be notified beforehand. Yet Obama whines the bill he signed “disallows the expenditure of...

President says he won’t abide by spending bill he signedWhen the president of the United States signs a bill into law, it’s expected that he will abide by it. That’s not the case with President Obama, who has a sudden interest in novel legalistic interpretations getting him off the hook from laws he doesn’t like. On Friday, the president signed the $1 trillion omnibus spending bill, which funds the government for the remaining nine months of the fiscal year. Afterward, he released a statement saying he won’t abide by the law because the Justice Department had advised that certain provisions...

Anyone remember this from 2008? [VIDEO AT SITE] Q: When Congress offers you a bill, do you promise not to use presidential signage [sic] to get your way? OBAMA: Yes. [Applause] Let me just explain for those who are unfamiliar with this issue. You know, we’ve got a government designed by the founders so that there’d be checks and balances. You don’t want a President that’s too powerful or a Congress that’s too powerful or courts that are too powerful. Everybody’s got their own role. Congress’ job is to pass legislation. The President can veto it, or he can...

In a statement issued Friday night, President Obama took issue with some provisions in the budget bill – and in one case simply says he will not abide by it. Last week the White House and congressional Democrats and Republicans were involved in intense negotiations over not only the size of the budget for the remainder of the FY2011 budget, and spending cuts within that budget, but also several GOP “riders,” or policy provisions attached to the bill. One rider – Section 2262 -- de-funds certain White House adviser positions – or “czars.” The president in his signing statement declares...

As recently as Four months ago, President Obama took a swipe at President Bush and promised that he would cut down on the practice of signing statements. Essentially a memo issued by a President indicating that there were parts of a bill that he was not going to follow. "There is no doubt that the practice of issuing such statements can be abused. Constitutional signing statements should not be used to suggest that the president will disregard statutory requirements on the basis of policy disagreements," wrote Obama, who also overturned Bush's restrictions yesterday on federal funding of embryonic stem cell...

We do not normally sing the praises of Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), however, in this instance, he is exactly correct in STRONGLY CRITICIZING Pres. Obama's deliberate decision to ignore constraints in legislation he is signing. The House overwhelmingly REBUKED Obama by a vote of 429 - 2 for Obama's statement at a bill's signing that he would not follows its constraints. At issue is an amendment added to the $106 Billion Supplemental War-Funding legislation signed by Obama last month. During the signing, Obama stated he would not follow the amendment's constraints with respect to the World Bank and International Monetary...

Maybe you remember this one, when Obama signed a bill last month, which, if I remember my Schoolhouse Rock correctly, makes it a law, he said he would simply ignore the parts he didn't like. This is something a dictator in a banana republic might say. After all, everybody knows that Legislatures can be a real pain in the arse when it comes to taking over the country. Well, the House has this crazy notion that President Obama is not above the law.

President Obama on Wednesday said his administration would consider exerting executive privilege to possibly withhold information sought by a new commission set up by Congress to investigate the financial crisis. As Obama signed a bill that creates a 10-member commission with subpoeana power to look into the crisis, the White House issued a signing statement specifying that the administration would maintain its constitutional privileges over commission inquiries. “As my administration communicated to the Congress during the legislative process, the executive branch will construe this subsection of the bill not to abrogate any constitutional privilege,” the White House said in the...

President Bush asserted on Tuesday that he had the executive power to bypass several parts of two bills: a military authorization act and a measure giving inspectors general greater independence from White House control. Mr. Bush signed the two measures into law. But he then issued a so-called signing statement in which he instructed the executive branch to view parts of each as unconstitutional constraints on presidential power. In the authorization bill, Mr. Bush challenged four sections. One forbid the money from being used “to exercise United States control of the oil resources of Iraq”; another required negotiations for an...

Few if any principles are more fundamental to our way of life as Americans than the notion that no one is above the law. It is this very principle - the requirement that all of us without exception must obey the law - that makes social order possible and prevents our country from sliding into anarchy and ruin. It was in recognition of this that our founders wrote a Constitution that imposes on our presidents the solemn duty "to take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Yet this same basic principle has been repeatedly and systematically flouted by President...

President's Statement on Signing of H.R. 2863, the "Department of Defense, Emergency Supplemental Appropriations to Address Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, and Pandemic Influenza Act, 2006" Today, I have signed into law H.R. 2863, the "Department of Defense, Emergency Supplemental Appropriations to Address Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, and Pandemic Influenza Act, 2006." The Act provides resources needed to fight the war on terror, help citizens of the Gulf States recover from devastating hurricanes, and protect Americans from a potential influenza pandemic. Sections 8007, 8011, and 8093 of the Act prohibit the use of funds to initiate a...