Rob WarmowskiChicago-based freelance writer, animation producer and
educator
Posted: June 27, 2009 11:34 AM BIO Become a Fan Get Email Alerts
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 Share Print Comments"[I]t is a clear abuse of power to use such
[Presidential signing] statements as a license to evade laws that the
president does not like or as an end-run around provisions designed to
foster accountability.
I will not use signing statements to nullify or undermine
congressional instructions as enacted into law."


- Senator Barack Obama, December 20, 2007 (Boston Globe)



"However, provisions of [HR 2436] ... would interfere with my
constitutional authority to conduct foreign relations by directing the
Executive to take certain positions in negotiations or discussions
with international organizations and foreign governments, or by
requiring consultation with the Congress prior to such negotiations or
discussions. I will not treat these provisions as limiting my ability
to engage in foreign diplomacy or negotiations."

- President Barack Obama, June 24, 2009 (Signing Statement
accompanying signature of HR 2436)


The message sent, tellingly on a news-cycle-shy Saturday, is that
those who sought legal idealism from the Obama administration won't be
getting it, and those who saw a bloated, creeping Executive branch
under Bush/Cheney have not, after all, voted in a choirboy. The creep
has been slowed, not stopped.

While the Obama administration's pace of signing statements is
currently about 1/12th of what the Bush administration's was (5
statements in 5 months against 1,100 by Bush across 8 years), that
number is rightfully of little comfort to fans of the balance of
powers. It is long past time to walk away from to the rhetorical
binaries of the campaign trail, because on the subject of Executive
power, the President absolutely has.
(...)

According to a well-annotated FAQ on signing statements, the Bush
total of 1,100 pertains to the number of provisions of law affected by
his use of the mechanism (which he used 161 times.) President Obama
has affected about 18 provisions of law in 6 or 7 signing statements
in five months in office.

This changes the comparison math, and not in Obama's favor: Obama's
use on average of statements to affect provisions of law is 3.6/mo on
average (18/5) where Bush's average is 11.4/mo average (1100/96).

This puts Obama's use of the statements at around 32% of Bush's -
about 4 times worse than I said it was in the first place.