Sherry Chandler

Above the Law?

From the Boston Globe (emphasis mine):

WASHINGTON - President Bush this week declared that he has the power to bypass four laws, including a prohibition against using federal funds to establish permanent US military bases in Iraq, that Congress passed as part of a new defense bill.

Bush made the assertion in a signing statement that he issued late Monday after signing the National Defense Authorization Act for 2008. In the signing statement, Bush asserted that four sections of the bill unconstitutionally infringe on his powers, and so the executive branch is not bound to obey them.

“Provisions of the act . . . purport to impose requirements that could inhibit the president’s ability to carry out his constitutional obligations to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, to protect national security, to supervise the executive branch, and to execute his authority as commander in chief,” Bush said. “The executive branch shall construe such provisions in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President.”

One section Bush targeted created a statute that forbids spending taxpayer money “to establish any military installation or base for the purpose of providing for the permanent stationing of United States Armed Forces in Iraq” or “to exercise United States control of the oil resources of Iraq.”

The Bush administration is negotiating a long-term agreement with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The agreement is to include the basing of US troops in Iraq after 2008, as well as security guarantees and other economic and political ties between the United States and Iraq.

Link via Juan Cole.

According to Think Progress, Bush has signed 151 of these statements challenging 1149 provisions of laws. Other provisions in the Defense Bill that Bush will ignore include:

…a commission to probe contracting fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan. Another expands protections for whistleblowers who work for government contractors. A third requires that U.S. intelligence agencies promptly respond to congressional requests for documents…

Bush seems to be trying to tie us up in Iraq so that, with a change of administration there can be no change of policy. He also continues to try to set the Executive Branch above the law. You should click through to the Boston Globe story to see the photo of Bush with Cheney smirking in the background. It’s sort of creepy.

My benchmark for these matters of executive power and privilege is usually to point out that what this President sets as precedent, future presidents will take as privilege. And do you want Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or John McCain or Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee to be able to set themselves above the law?

It’s not enough to hunker down and wait for Bush to be replaced by somebody more sane (and on the subject of war I’m not sure I’d put John McCain in that category). I think we need to be fighting some of this stuff pretty hard right now. The man still has a year in office.

See also The Sideshow on the bottom line implication of what Bush has done:

Bush has now declared that he has the power to decide whether Congress can control the purse strings. He also says they can’t stop him from building permanent bases in Iraq, a tacit admission that he’s been lying all along about not building them. He also says Congress can’t stop him from stealing Iraq’s oil.

1. The Presidential Empowerment Act
2. Here comes the new AG,
3. We are a United States, Not a United Kingdom
4. Guns and money
5. Ground Control to Major Tom

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