President Bush Makes Veto History

Going almost six years without a presidential veto is unheard of, but this week Bush vetoed the legislation passed by Congress that would expand federal research on embryonic stem cells. Bush’s first veto of his presidency was contrary to the majority of public opinion, including and many high profile people—from Nancy Reagan (President Reagan’s wife) to Michael J. Fox (actor)—and many in his own party, that support stem cell research. Bush said that stem cell research would be crossing a “moral line” during his press conference (pictured, form Getty Images). Surrounded by embryo-adopted children, Bush said, “This bill would support the taking of innocent human life.”

Despite the bill's popular support, Congress was unable to come up with the required 2/3 to override a veto.

Why has Bush only had one veto so far in his presidency? It’s a complicated issue, and there are a number of issues but the main one is that his party, the Republicans, are also in control of Congress. I think also that the state of war that we’ve been in since 9/11 has given Bush unprecedented power over the government.

Here’s an interesting graphic of other presidents and their vetoes from the Christian Science Monitor. This article is from 2005, so the information about GWB is obviously now out of date.

There's also a comprehensive list here.