Word: veto
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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During the era of divided government, conservatives developed an enormous and historically uncharacteristic enthusiasm for presidential power. Conservative legal scholars produced elaborate theories establishing to their own satisfaction that the independent counsel is unconstitutional; that the President not only needs but already has a line-item veto over congressional appropriations; and so on. This trend culminated in President Bush's breathtaking assertion -- never put to the test -- that he could send half a million American troops into battle halfway around the globe without so much as a nod to Congress's constitutional power to "declare...
...break strikes. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich now proposes to change all that. Meeting with the AFL-CIO executive council in Bal Harbour, Florida, Reich repledged Bill Clinton's support for a law to prohibit employers from hiring permanent replacements for striking workers (the certainty of a George Bush veto long kept the Democratic majorities in Congress from even trying to pass such a law). Further, said Reich, Clinton will appoint a special commission to recommend other ways to equalize the power of unions and companies, both by administrative action and by rewriting basic labor law. The labor federation promptly...
...Powers Act, passed despite President Nixon's veto in 1973, required the president to seek Congressional funding and approval for executive military action within 90 days of the action itself. This period was later shortened to 60 days. Though 90 days seems a short period of time in the context of a war that lasted more than ten years, the United States' current capacity for fast, easy war-making makes 90 days an eternity...
...large part of that stubbornness arises from Rabin's confidence that ultimately the U.S. will -- as it always has -- veto any U.N. punishment of Israel. The Palestinians also expect that. Says Sa'eb Erakat, a Palestinian delegate to the Middle East peace talks: "Anybody who thinks that Clinton will start his presidency off by imposing sanctions on Israel is crazy...
Even though Israel would use up political capital in forcing Clinton's back to the wall, the strong chance of a U.S. veto sobers the exiled Palestinians scraping by on the southern slopes of Lebanon. Their spokesman, Rantisi, posed another question the other day during his hillside sermon. In urging the world "to prove who is the highest authority," he wanted to know, "is it Rabin and his Supreme Court or the U.N. Security Council?" It is neither, of course, but rather the world's single surviving superpower, which, however loath it may be to use it, still...