Presidential veto

“ Such a one was afforded by the executive department constituted by the Constitution. A person elected to that high office, having his constituents in every section, State, and subdivision of the Union, must consider himself bound by the most solemn sanctions to guard, protect, and defend the rights of all and of every portion, great or small, from the injustice and oppression of the rest. I consider the veto power, therefore, given by the Constitution to the Executive of the United States solely as a conservative power, to be used only first, to protect the Constitution from violation ”

“ III, § 1, of the Constitution can no more be shared with the Executive Branch than the Chief Executive, for example, can share with the Judiciary the veto power, or the Congress share with the Judiciary the power to override a Presidential veto. ”

“ Since we must ride two horses, Congress and the President, across every stream, shouldn't they both be going the same way? Why should we have a President who says no more taxes, and Congress have a liberal leadership that wants to tax and spend? Why should we have a President who's for a line-item veto and a balanced budget amendment, and Congress have a liberal leadership that's against both? If we don't want a tax-and-spend liberal in the White House, shouldn't we give the President we do want a Congress that will work with him? ”

“ There's a smarter way to handle taxpayer dollars, and it begins with granting the President a tool called the line-item veto. A line-item veto would allow the President to remove wasteful spending from a bill while preserving the rest of the legislation. Forty-three of our Nation's 50 governors have line-item veto authority, and they have used that authority to remove needless spending from otherwise good bills. ”

“ I will veto it, and then Congress can go to work on a good bill that gives our troops the funds they need, without strings and without further delay.
We have our differences in Washington, D.C., but our troops should not be caught in the middle. All who serve in elected office have a solemn responsibility to provide for our men and women in uniform. We need to put partisan politics aside, and do our duty to those who defend us. ”

“ They expect accountability and fiscal discipline in Washington, D.C. And I will use my veto to stop tax increases and runaway spending that threaten the strength of our economy and the prosperity of our people. ”

“ Together, there is much we can accomplish. At the same time, let me make it clear that America cannot retreat from its basic commitments, and where I see backsliding, I will not hesitate to use my constitutional veto power to keep America strong and secure and moving forward. My hope is that in the 100th Congress we will strengthen the consensus we have achieved on these issues of progrowth tax cuts, spending reductions, and protecting our national security in Central America. ”

“ There is more political accountability and more political reform on the way. Campaign finance reform, lobby reform, the line-item veto, all three of these things have passed at least one House of Congress. We're going to work hard to make them law. With these and other measures to better the lives of our people, we're putting business-as-usual out of business in Washington. ”

“ But it has been urged by those who object to the exercise of this undoubted constitutional power that it assails the representative principle and the capacity of the people to govern themselves; that there is greater safety in a numerous representative body than in the single Executive created by the Constitution, and that the Executive veto is a "one-man power," despotic in its character. ”

“ Even though vetoed by the President, a bill may still become law by being passed by a two-thirds vote in each house of Congress. In spite of these restrictions, the President exerts a considerable influence upon legislation by the use of the veto, or by the threat that he will employ it. Most authorities regard the veto power as a wholesome check upon harmful and unwise legislation. ”

“ Proponents of legislative overrides also emphasize two other, related goals: Overrides would strengthen the system of checks and balances by allowing Congress the power to override the Court much like it can override presidential vetoes, and they would strengthen public deliberation and discourse on constitutional matters by empowering the people’s representatives to decide constitutional questions and thus returning such questions directly to the political process. ”

“ The executive power should be circumscribed by such limitations and safeguards as would render it no longer dangerous to the public liberties. There should be a constitutional provision limiting the President to a single term. The veto power should be more precisely defined, and be subjected to further limitations; for instance, that a veto might be overruled by a simple majority of all the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The power of dismission from office should be restricted, and its exercise be rendered responsible ”

“ The Constitution in giving the President a qualified negative over legislation-commonly called a veto-entrusts him with an authority and imposes upon him an obligation that are of the highest importance, in the execution of which it is made his duty not only to sign bills that he approves in order that they may become law, but to return bills that he disapproves, with his objections, in order that they may be reconsidered by Congress. ”

“ Every one who has paid any attention to the progress of our institutions, must have witnessed the constant increase of Executive prerogative and power. The veto power has now become an ordinary power in the hands of the President, and no Chief Magistrate has ever been guilty of a greater abuse of it than the present incumbent of the White House. This abuse of the veto power justly merits the rebuke of Congress. But his conduct in relation to this war is still more reprehensible. ”

“ In such a condition, mutual jealousies must arise, which can only be repressed by that mutual forbearance which pervades the Constitution. To legislate wisely for such a people is a task of extreme delicacy, and requires much self-restraining prudence and caution. In this point of view, I firmly believe that the veto power is one of the best safeguards of the Union. By this power, the majority of the people in every State have decreed that the existing laws shall remain unchanged, unless not only a majority in each House of Congress, but the President also, shall sanction the change. ”

“ Two-thirds of Congress may overrule the Executive veto; but the whole of Congress and the President united, cannot overrule the decisions of the Supreme Court. Theirs is a veto on the action of the whole Government. I do not say that this power, formidable as it may be, ought not to exist: on the contrary, I consider it to be one of the wise checks which the framers of the Constitution have provided against hasty and unconstitutional legislation, and is a part of the great system of mutual restraints which the people have imposed on their servants for their own protection. ”

“ In pursuance of the duty to enforce the laws, the President may issue ordinances prescribing uniform means for the enforcement of the statutes. He may issue ordinances for specific purposes, as, for example, Congress in 1912 authorized the President to issue legislative ordinances for the government of the Canal Zone.
Very important is the President's veto power. The President may veto any bill or joint resolution passed by Congress, with the exception of joint resolutions proposing Constitutional amendments. But the President must veto the bill as a whole, and not particular items. ”

“ The power of the Executive veto was exercised by the first and most illustrious of my predecessors and by four of his successors who preceded me in the administration of the Government, and it is believed in no instance prejudicially to the public interests. It has never been and there is but little danger that it ever can be abused. No President will ever desire unnecessarily to place his opinion in opposition to that of Congress. He must always exercise the power reluctantly, and only in cases where his convictions make it a matter of stern duty, which he can not escape. ”

“ He is not invested with power to defeat legislation by an absolute veto, but only to restrain it, and is charged with the duty, in case he disapproves a measure, of invoking a second and a more deliberate and solemn consideration of it on the part of Congress. ”

“ If the people, at the next elections, should return a majority to Congress hostile to the veto, and the same measure should be passed a second time, he must indeed be a bold man, and intent upon his own destruction, who would, a second time, arrest it by his veto. After the popular voice has determined the question, the President would always submit, unless, by so doing, he clearly believed he would involve himself in the guilt of perjury, by violating his oath to support the Constitution. ”

“ Is it not most extraordinary that a bill should be returned with the veto from the President on the ground that it provides for four million people, when, restricted in its operations as it is, and having been in operation since March last, it has never had under its control a hundred thousand? ”

“ In the United States there is danger of frequent collision between the president and the two legislative branches, should a very critical exercise of the veto, as in President Johnson's time, occur at a time when the public mind was deeply agitated. The chief magistrate loses in dignity and influence whenever the legislature overrides the veto, and congress becomes a despotic master for the time being. ”

“ It is, in fact, but an appeal taken by the President from the decision of Congress, in a particular case, to the tribunal of the sovereign people of the several States, who are equally the masters of both. If they decide against the President, their decision must finally prevail, by the admission of the Senator himself. The same President must either carry it into execution himself, or the next President whom they elect, will do so. The veto never can do more than postpone legislative action on the measure of which it is the subject, until the will of the people can be fairly expressed. ”

“ In a large majority of cases no great public inconvenience can arise from the want of time to examine their provisions, because the Constitution has declared that if a bill be presented to the President within the last ten days of the session he is not required to return it, either with an approval or with a veto, "in which case it shall not be a law." ”

“ Public opinion is irresistible in this country. It will accomplish its purpose by the removal of Senators, Representatives, or President, who may stand in its way. The President might as well attempt to stay the tides of the ocean by erecting mounds of sand, as to think of controlling the will of the people by the veto power. The mounting waves of popular opinion would soon prostrate such a feeble barrier. The veto power is everything when sustained by public opinion ”

“ The same vote of two thirds required for the presentation of the Amendment will pass the Act over the veto of the President. Once adopted, it will go into instant operation, without waiting for the uncertain concurrence of State Legislatures, and without provoking local strife so wearisome to [Pg 52] the country. The States will not be turned into political caldrons, and the Democratic party will have no pudding-stick with which to stir the bubbling mass. ”

“ I do not suggest that all legislative vetoes are necessarily consistent with separation of powers principles. A legislative check on an inherently executive function, for example, that of initiating prosecutions, poses an entirely different question. But the legislative veto device here — and in many other settings — is far from an instance of legislative tyranny over the Executive. It is a necessary check on the unavoidably expanding power of the agencies, both Executive and independent, as they engage in exercising authority delegated by Congress. ”

“ The revenues will be managed by a treasury bank. The use of the veto will be considered as sanctioned by the public voice. The Senate, if not "cut down," will be bound down, and, the President commanding the army and the navy, and holding all places of trust to be party property, what will then be left, Sir, for constitutional reliance?
Sir, we have been accustomed to venerate the judiciary, and to repose hopes of safety on that branch of the government. But let us not deceive ourselves. The judicial power cannot stand for a long time against the executive power. ”

“ Similarly, I would not hesitate to strike an action of Congress in the form of a concurrent resolution which constituted an exercise of original lawmaking authority. I agree with the Court that the President's [p980] qualified veto power is a critical element in the distribution of powers under the Constitution, widely endorsed among the Framers, and intended to serve the President as a defense against legislative encroachment and to check the "passing of bad laws, through haste, inadvertence, or design." The Federalist No. ”

“ On the whole, I trust not only that this veto power may not be destroyed, but that the vote on the Senator’s amendment may be of such a character as to settle the question, at least during the present generation. Sir, of all the executive powers, it is the one least to be dreaded. It cannot create; it can originate no measure; it can change no existing law; it can destroy no existing institution. It is a mere power to arrest hasty and inconsiderate changes, until the voice of the people, who are alike the masters of Senators, Representatives 504and President, shall be heard. ”