Mitch McConnell Quotes

Even the country's first president chafed at the limits placed on him by the writers of the U.S. Constitution. From the nature of the Constitution, ... I must approve all the parts of a bill, or reject it in toto.

What do we do with a president who can basically change what Congress passed by attaching a letter saying I don't agree with this part or that part?

When a President asserts constitutional powers he needs to be pretty certain he has those powers.

The veto is a President’s Constitutional right, given to him by the drafters of the Constitution because they wanted it as a check against irresponsible Congressional action. The veto forces Congress to take another look at legislation that has been passed.

I do not agree with the use of 'signing statements' to effectively act as a line-item veto, except when the President believes a law or a provision within a law is unconstitutional.In general, if a President signs a law, they are committing themselves to enforcing it. If they don't believe it should become a law, they should veto it.

The veto is a President's Constitutional right, given to him by the drafters of the Constitution because they wanted it as a checkagainst irresponsible Congressional action. The veto forces Congress to take another look at legislation that has been passed. I think this is a responsible tool for a president of the United States, and I have sought to use it responsibly.

Under our Constitution, presidents have something called 'veto power.

The constitution has never greatly bothered any wartime President.

The President [Theodore Roosevelt] has as much use for the Constitution as a tom cat has for a marriage license.

The powers that are surrendered [by Congress] to one President remain to be used by others.

We have not found a way to give Congress control without depriving the President of essential power.

The Founders of this Nation entrusted the lawmaking power to the Congress alone in both good and bad times … the President's power to see that the laws are faithfully executed refutes the idea that he is to be a law-maker.

The President … does not originate laws or resolutions; he takes no part in the deliberations on them during their progress; he does not act in relation to them indirectly by advice or interference of any sort, until they have passed both houses: it is only when their operations are concluded that his power begins.

I don’t know if President (George W.) Bush understood how extreme some of the arguments were about executive power that some people in his administration were making.

It should be remembered that the president cannot, by executive order, do things that affects the public at large unless there is some Congressional basis for it.

Presidential powers are not exercised by a body or group. The Constitution vests 'all executive power' in one and only one person - the president.

The Constitution gives the president of the United States an extraordinarily wide grant of authority to use the power of the pardon.

When the president acts in absence of a congressional grant of authority, he can rely only upon his own independent powers. When the president takes measures incompatible with the express or implied will of Congress, his power is at its lowest ebb.

As a general matter, if the president wants to withdraw from a treaty, he simply gets to do that. And that's part of the powers of the office.

Our Founding Fathers created the Executive Branch to implement and enforce the laws written by Congress, and vested this power in the president.

I do not believe any president can bind a successor president to give up his fundamental role as protector of the country.

Today, the most important political instrument in the hands of the opposition is the presidential veto.

If I'm elected president, let me tell you about my first day in office. The first thing I intend to do is to rescind every illegal and unconstitutional executive action taken by Barack Obama.

I think that presidents don't give up power that has accrued to them by the precedent of previous presidents. Even when they say they would like to, I think once they get there they don't give it up.

The modern presidency, as expressed in the policies of the administration of George W. Bush, provides the strongest piece of evidence that we are governed by a fundamentally different Constitution from that of the framers.