Obama...Yeah, I'll Just Ignore Provisions Of A Law If It Gets Me The Votes I Need

The left used to love beating up on President Bush for his use of 'signing statements'. Well yesterday President Present basically said he'd do the same thing only smarter and less often or something.

Today however the Obama Administration tries something the Bush regime never thought of...promising to ignore provisions of a bill that hasn't passed yet in order to get votes for it.

At issues is the 400+ billion dollar Omnibus Spending Bill. The House has passed their version and Thanks Nancy says take or it leave it. If the Senate changes so much as a comma, the House won't pass the bill again but instead will pass a Continuing Resolution to fund the government sans all the goodies everyone wants. The problem is Harry Reid can't get 60 votes because he's lost 2 Democrats (Menendez of NJ and Nelso of FL) over provisions in the bill that would loosen sanctions on Cuba.

So what does Obama promise to do to get the votes? He has his super smart Treasury Secretary promise to ignore the changes the new law would make in Cuba policy.

"It's like a presidential signing statement except it's not the president and it's not a signing statement," said Robert Gibbs, when asked about the letter from Tim Geithner by Jake Tapper. He argued that every law must be interpreted, and deferred questions about Tim Geitner's letter to the Treasury Department.

The Senators concerned with the Cuba provisions in the spending bill have been told in writing by Treasury Secretary Geithner to essentially ignore one of the Cuba provisions in the spending bill and not to worry about the Obama administration's interpretations of another one.

...Both Nelson and Menendez said they would support the omnibus with Geithner's assurances.

Got it? Bush laying out his interpretation of a law bad, Obama explicitly promising to ignore a new law...good. I'm glad I could help clear that up for you.

posted by DrewM. at 03:32 PM

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