Remember All Those Harmless Signing Statements

Well, they clearly mattered. President Bush thinks he can sign law, then go on to make a little statement and proceed to ignore what he signed. It's one of the reasons why he's almost never vetoed anything (except stem cells and Iraq time tables, of course). Now, we have government agencies ignoring laws.

Federal officials have disobeyed at least six new laws that President Bush challenged in his signing statements, a government study disclosed yesterday. The report provides the first evidence that the government may have acted on claims by Bush that he can set aside laws under his executive powers.

So, what do we do about it?