How is it that Bush alone has the power to veto any bill/decision, yet the senate needs 67 votes to override i

Question

when the senate held a recent all-night session with regards to the Iraq war, it was reported that the president planned to veto their decision to begin pulling troops out of Iraq by April 2008. I was initially led to believe that the president's decision was made only upon hearing about the session, but I later recalled that he had in fact stated previously that he would veto anything that involved a specific date for withdrawal. But not only did the decision to begin removing troops fall short of the 67 votes needed to pass in the senate,but the president would veto it anyway even if it did pass. Now I may be wrong, but I always thought congress/senate had the power to override any decision made by the president provided they had the necessary support (in this case the 67 votes needed by the senate) to prevent an autocracy on the part of the president. So how could Bush have vetoed the decision anyway even if it had passed in the senate? He alone would not have the power to. Would he

Answer 1

It is balance of powers, the same way 5 justices on the Supreme Court can overturn any decision that the Senate and President agree upon. It's good for democracy to have some checks on majority rule and we have a tripartite structure that seems to work pretty well in maintaining individual rights.

Answer 2

Bad reporting. The senate can over ride any Presidents Veto with a 2/3 vote


By the Senates own rules it needed 2/3 to end the debate and have a real vote on it. So they could have got the 2/3 needed to have the vote but not the 2/3 needed to over ride the Veto.

Answer 3

Because that's what the Constitution specifies.

See Article I Section 7: "Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that house shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that house, it shall become a Law. "

So, yes, Bush could veto it -- but a 2/3 vote of both chambers (House and Senate) makes it law. The veto just remains on record.

Answer 4

I don't know. Maybe it's in the Constitution.