Bill Clinton: “Well, the power is given by legislation. The real question is, does the Constitution permit or forbid the Congress to…”

“Well, the power is given by legislation. The real question is, does the Constitution permit or forbid the Congress to give the President this kind of power. I believe that since--if you look at the fact that 43 States have this power for the Governor, and it has been upheld in State after State after State, the provisions of most State constitutions are similar to the provisions of the Federal Constitution in the general allocation of executive authority and legislative authority. So I think it is an implicit thing. As long as the legislature has the right to override the executive, then for the legislature to allow the executive to make reasoned judgments about particular items in these omnibus bills, I do not believe is an unconstitutional delegation of the legislature's authority to the President. So keep in mind, they can override this. If they decide that they think I'm wrong and two-thirds of them agree, they can override this.”