Threatening a Veto

Calderón is saying that he will consider vetoing the revenue portion of the budget if the IVA is lowered, as is being discussed. Just "consider" mind you; he's not promising to veto anything. It's odd how small a role the veto plays in Mexican politics, despite a perennially divided Congress. In the US, in contrast, the veto is a hugely effective and often frequently employed tool once the president's party loses Congress. When the PRI was looking like a sure thing to take the Chamber or Deputies, the prevailing narrative was that Calderón is done, the PRI will force everything onto him. Calderón's hands definitely were tied a little tighter as a result of 2009's elections, but it wasn't like the PRI was going to be able to accomplish everything it wanted just because it had (with its coalition parties) the slimmest of majorities. The veto (to say nothing of the PRI's third-party status in the Senate) was almost totally ignored in this logic, for whatever reason. I don't know if it's a product of 70 years of one-party domination, a deeper cultural respect for the consensus, or whatever. Odd.