Five Years without a Veto

As pointed out in this Christian Science Monitor article, Bush has not yet vetoed a single bill passed by Congress, after 5 years in office. This record is unprecedented in modern US history. Typically, there is quite a bit of fighting between the President and Congress, even when the President's party is the majority party in Congress. That was the case during Clinton's first two years in office (1993, 1994). In contrast, Bush and the Republican congress get along distressingly well.

"We're pretty close to a parliamentary government," says G. Calvin Mackenzie, professor of government at Colby College in Watervillle, Maine, referring to Congress's close alignment with the executive branch. "We don't have much recent history with that."

This harmony might be disrupted by an upcoming bill on stem-cell research, which Bush has threatened to veto.