Signing Statements have been around for awhile.  ( According to the Justice Department, the legislative history signing statement originated in the Reagan Administration. )

The president's power to issue signing statements is based in Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, which states that the president "shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed..." Signing statements are considered to be one way in which the president faithfully executes the laws passed by Congress. However, it has also been pointed out that the president has been given veto powers for this purpose, and that once he agrees to sign a law,  he has thus made it the law and he is now obligated to enforce it.

George Bush the Present, has made signing statements and art form and brought them to public attention like no other in history.

A signing statement in Bush's hands, is nothing other than a written declaration by the President that he holds himself apart from the law he is signing. He is saying that he retains as a personal option, not to obey the law and not to enforce some or all of said law.

Why not veto? If a law is popular he would certainly want public credit for signing the bill while privatly assuring that he has no intention of enforcing that same law. He is doing nothing more than lying to the American Public by his underhanded use of these statements.

By virtue of Bush's signing statements he is, in effect saying, "...F#@k the law and F#@k Congress and the Constitution. I will do whatever pleases me..."

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