“Veto brinkmanship between congressional Republicans and President Obama was virtually absent in his first six years in office, but it’s about to unleash itself on Washington,” the AP reports.
“Until now, controversial Republican-backed legislation rarely reached the president’s desk because Senate Democrats blocked it. Starting in January, however, Republicans will control both the House and Senate, and Obama may have to decide more often whether to sign or veto GOP-crafted bills.”
The Atlantic: “For all of the Republican handwringing over President Obama’s use—or overuse—of executive authority, there is one exclusive presidential power he has barely wielded at all: the veto.”
“Obama has rejected just two bills passed by Congress in his nearly six years in office. That’s the fewest of any president since James Garfield, who didn’t veto a single bill, but lasted only six months in the White House before his assassination in 1881. And when you look at presidents who have served as long as Obama has, you’d have to go back to James Monroe, the nation’s fifth president, to find a chief executive who has formally clashed with Congress so rarely. Monroe vetoed just one bill in his two terms, according to records kept by the Senate.”
“That’s about to change for Obama in January, when Republicans control both the House and the Senate.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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