The President listens to other politician's arguments and points of view; he takes council from his cabinet, but the final say is up to him.
The legislative branch doesn't hold the power of the final say that the President does. Whatever legislation is passed through the congress must also pass by him. He has the power to veto a bill that has already passed through Congress, making the bill void. In the past Congress has used its power to push a bill passed the President. But it is extremely rare to get two-thirds vote in congress on any bill and that ability has been lessened and is rarely able to be used by the Congress.
However, things weren't always like this. In the earlier times of our nation's government the legislative branch held much more of the power. The nineteenth century was not as kind to the executive branch. Except for .
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great presidents like Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln this branch played second fiddle to the Congress. "The presidency for over a hundred years was the subordinate branch of the national government". 1 Andrew Jackson was the only president who asserted his power during peacetime. He vetoed twelve acts of Congress during his two terms of office, more than any president did during that era. Jackson saw himself as the "tribune of the people" being the only government official to be voted into office by the entire country. Using the powers that were granted to him, he vetoed acts of Congress based on his presidential policy. This assertion of power didn't go over well with the Congress which had before been the branch in charge. The conflict between the two branches was something that the writers of the constitution had intended. .
After Jackson, Congress reassumed most of the power in the government. Deep sectional divisions were forming between the North and the South over the issues of slavery and states rights. With no strong president to lead the nation and hold together the two dividing sections the succession of the South from the Union occurred.
