Presidents have exerted powers that our Constitution never intended them to have.

An executive order is a command issued by the president that exercises his power "alone", bypassing Congress.

Executive orders can have a place, such as, to direct their subordinates. But they can also be a temptation for "ambitious" presidents, since they can use them as a substitute for formal legislation they know they cannot get to pass. Thereby circumventing the normal, "constitutional legislative process.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/orders/

http://www.heritage.org/Research/LegalIssues/LM2.cfm

Another abuse, unknown to most Americans, is something called presidential signing statements.

When the president signs a bill into law, he sometimes accompanies the signing with a statement, not necessarily read aloud at the signing ceremony but inserted into the record all the same. This practice was not un­heard of in previous administrations, though it was nearly always employed for ceremonial purposes: to thank supporters, to point out the significance of the legislation, and in pursuit of rhetorical ends of a similar kind.

The Bush administration, has very often used the signing statement as a vehicle either for expressing the manner in which the president intends to interpret certain provi­sions of a law (his interpretation being frequently at odds with the one Congress obviously intended), or even for making clear his intention of not enforcing the provision in question at all.

It is not always easy to determine whether the president has followed through on these threats, since they are so often made in areas that the White House shrouds in secrecy: foreign policy and privacy violations. In 2005, though, the Government Accountability Of­fice gave us a rough estimate of how many of these threatened refusals to enforce legislative provisions were followed up on: in about one-third of the nineteen cases it examined, the provision was not being enforced. Jonathan Turley was blunt: "By using signing statements to this extent, the president becomes a government unto himself."

Bush has challenged more legislative pro­visions in this way than any other presidential in American history. If Clinton had done this, we would still be hearing about it.

Today, few Republicans have been courageous or principled enough to speak out against a clear abuse of power. (Among them are Bruce Fein, associate deputy attorney general under Ronald Reagan, and former Congressman Bob Barr.)

Our American president must pledge never to use the signing statement as an alternative, unconstitutional form of legislative power, and Congress and the American people should hold him to it!

http://www.coherentbabble.com/signingstatements/TOCindex.htm

For further information on this subject and others, I suggest the book, "The Revolution" by Ron Paul 2008

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