Second Chapter 8 Post

     Chapter 8 focuses mainly on the President of the United States and pretty much everything the position is involved with. For this blog post, I wanted to talk about one of major powers of the president, which is their power of the veto. The veto power is one of the most crucial actions the president can utilize to keep the judicial and legislative branches in check.

     The textbook defines the President's Veto Power as the "formal, constitutional authority of the president to reject bills passed by both houses of Congress, thus preventing them from becoming a law without further congressional action." Basically, once a bill is passed through both the House of Representatives and the Senate by majority votes, it lands on the President's desk. When a bill arrives to the President, there are three things he can do. First, he can sign the bill which would then make the bill a law. Another thing the President can do is veto the bill, which means that the bill won't be signed and it is stopped in its track. Lastly, the President can utilize the "pocket veto," which means that he does nothing at all. If Congress is in session, it will become a law after ten days. However, if Congress is not in session, it doesn't become a law.

     If the President decides to veto the bill, the bill is then sent back to the House of Representatives. If at least two-thirds of the members of the House support the bill, the President's veto is negated and the bill ends up becoming a law. This process is outlined in the Constitution and has actually not been used that much in the course of U.S. history. Over the course of the history of the United States, only about 100 or so bills were successfully overridden of about the 2,500 bills that have been vetoed or pocket vetoed.

     Article II, which describes the veto powers, is something I completely agree with. The Framers, who developed the Constitution, did not want too much power to be given to any single person or group of people, which goes back to the whole idea of checks and balances. With the veto power, both the President and the legislative branch can make sure that neither party does something completely biased and against what's good for the overall country. If it weren't for the veto power, there would be so many unfair laws and bills passed that would negatively harm the United States.