After being asked by an audience member [during a 2008 campaign rally] whether [Obama] would "promise" not to use signing statements to override Congressional statutes, he stated simply "yes," and then elaborated. [...]Citing his credentials as a Constitutional Law professor, Obama explained that "Congress' job is to pass legislation," and when that happens, a President has only two options: "the President can veto it or sign it." In contrast to Bush -- who, Obama said, "has been saying 'I can change what Congress passed by attaching a statement saying I don't agree with this part, I'm going to choose to interpret it this way or that way'" -- Obama said he, by contrast, believes "that's not part of [the President's] power." He punctuated his answer as follows: "we're not going to use signing statements as a way of doing an end run around Congress."[...]
But on Friday [... when] signing the budget bill into law, he attached a signing statement objecting to some provisions as an encroachment on executive power but still vowing to obey them (such as restrictions on transferring Guantanamo detainees), but then explicitly stated that he would ignore the provision of this new law that de-funds his so-called "czars" (which are really little more than glorified presidential advisers). [...] In other words, [...] he's going to use funds for exactly the purpose that Congress, in a bill he signed into law, flatly prohibited.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
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