Obama Issues Another "Unconstitutional" Signing Statement

In 2008, Barack Obama claimed that Presidential signing statements were an unconstitutional exercise of power. In fact, he said "I will obey the Constitution of the United States - we're not going to use signing statements as a way to do an end run around Congress."

On Friday, Obama issued a signing statement saying that the Executive Branch would not comply with Section 2262 of H.R. 1473 (the FY2011 spending bill). Obviously, this is contrary to what he promised in his campaign.

The impression I get from reading conservative blogs and listening to talk radio is that this is Obama's first signing statement that the Executive Branch will not follow or enforce part of a law. But how long did it really take for Obama to break his campaign promise?

March 11, 2009 - three weeks after the inauguration on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

In fact, he's issued a total of 17 signing statements in his Presidency thus far.