The Art of Cognitive Dissonance

So three Congressmen send a letter to the President reminding him that they'd like him to stop acting as though he has no possible idea how much it's going to cost to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, one of which has been ongoing for 3 years and that he claims to have no intention of leaving any time soon, certainly not within the next budget year, and the other has been in the same situation for 5 years now.

All this after the entire Congress attached an amendment to the last "emergency" appropriations bill it passed at the President's request requiring him to include the cost of those two wars along with the rest of his Defense budget. Why would they feel the need to reiterate pointedly what Congress would desire of him?

Well....

"Bush indicated in a signing statement that he does not necessarily view that requirement as binding because it is the president's role to submit the budget."

So, what he's saying is "I don't have to follow your instructions on how I have to submit the budget because it's my job to submit the budget"?

What exactly is that supposed to mean? I mean, it is indeed Bush's job to submit the budget, but it's not his job to set the rules on how (see bottom). Just like it's my job (currently) to program systems for publishers, but it's their job as my employers to tell me how and what I am supposed to do (and not do, like run peer-to-peer file sharing software on their networks).

The only time it's not that way is when I'm working for myself, and last I checked Mr. Bush is employed by the American people, as is Congress, and both have their "jobs" according to the Constitution. His job is to do what the American people through their designated representatives in Congress tell him to do. That's why it's the "Executive Branch" and not the "Deliberative Branch" or the "Decider-ish Branch."

So since Caren Bohan's depiction of Bush's position didn't make much sense to me, I went looking to see what he really said. What a pain in the ass that was!

After going through the official Library of Congress site, Thomas, then wikipedia/wikisource, google, and finally two different sites dedicated to signing statements, I eventually found the following at Coherent Babble (warning: I found this to be nearly unreadable at first, and you might as well).

Confession
I don't clearly remember when I last read the text of a Congressional bill. Maybe it was in college 13-20 years ago, or maybe it hasn't been since middle or high school, which would put it over 25, but whenever it was it didn't prepare me for much of what passes for "English" in the rest of the bill. By comparison, the above is downright Shakespearean in its readability!

Back to the matter at hand.

First we see the text of what Bush objects to:

"The President's budget submitted to Congress pursuant to section 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code, for each fiscal year after fiscal year 2007 shall include--
(1) a request for the appropriation of funds for such fiscal year for ongoing military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq;
(2) an estimate of all funds expected to be required in that fiscal year for such operations; and
(3) a detailed justification of the funds requested." budget bill section link

Then his response (edited to remove the full list of sections Mr. Bush intends to ignore):

"Several provisions of the Act call for executive branch officials to submit to the Congress recommendations for legislation, or purport to regulate the manner in which the President formulates recommendations to the Congress for legislation. [full list snipped] The executive branch shall construe these provisions in a manner consistent with the President's constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch and to recommend for the consideration of the Congress such measures as the President deems necessary and expedient." signing statement link

So I guess Section 1008 is considered "regulat[ing]" him, but again, I'm pretty sure that's their job, just as it tells him when he needs to submit the rest of his budget:

"31 U.S. Code 1105 requires the president to submit his budget by the first Monday in February."
House Archives link