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Hamilton: The President's Veto Power

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The American presidency has changed drastically throughout the years. Modern presidents’ authority has expanded dramatically comparing to the past when the Founding Fathers set out the guidelines and expectations. The presidents no longer play a passive role, but actively act on their growing power. Even though modern presidential authority does not evolve in the same manner that Hamilton anticipates in Federalist Paper no. 73, his discussion of the president’s veto power is relevant and partially correct today. Hamilton expresses his concern regarding the distribution of power between the branches, thus he defends the executive veto power and its importance in the checks and balances system. The veto system in contemporary politics functions …show more content…

73. He shortly discusses the legislative power regarding the president’s salary as an example to express his support in limiting the power of the legislature. This example leads to his argument for strong executive power. Hamilton states that Congress should not be able to alter the president’s salary during his term since the Constitution guarantees his rights and his salary. The president preserves his liberty and power in making judgments if he is financially independent. Congress determines the president’s salary on his appointment but after he takes the office, Congress has no power to increase or decrease his salary. Hamilton thinks that by having power over the presidential salary, the legislature hence can control the president. Consequently, corruption occurs. Therefore, in order to prevent that from happening, the legislature should not have too much power over the president, and the president should have some means to constitutionally defend himself. The Founders were cautious in designing and allocating authority between branches to prevent any branch from becoming too powerful. By discussing the presidential salary and the power of Congress has on the matter, Hamilton provides an example of his view on how the power over the government should be distributed. He wants an appropriate balance of power between the legislative and executive …show more content…

He believes it is important that the legislative and executive branches keep each other in check. In order to do so, the president should have enough power to prevent the other branch from exercising excessive power. He states two specific purposes of the executive veto in Federalist no. 73, “The primary inducement to conferring the power in question upon the executive is to enable him to defend himself; the secondary one is to increase the chances in favor of the community against the passing of bad laws, through haste, inadvertence, or design” (Publius, p.442). Hamilton argues, the “qualified negative of the President” provides “a shield to the executive,” and prevents “the enaction of improper law intended” (Publius, p. 441). In other words, the veto serves as a useful tool that protect the executive department, because without it the president “absolute unable to defend himself against the predations of” the other branch; moreover, it sets a boundary and passes laws in accordance with the public interest (Publius, p. 441). In his view, it is an application of checks and balances. He sees the need of presidential veto power due to the “supposition that the legislative will not be infallible” (Publius, p. 442). Additionally, the legislative branch receives some consideration as well. The president can reject the bill, but the legislature may be

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