- MENU
- HOME
- SEARCH
- WORLD
- MAIN
- AFRICA
- ASIA
- BALKANS
- EUROPE
- LATIN AMERICA
- MIDDLE EAST
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Argentina
- Australia
- Austria
- Benelux
- Brazil
- Canada
- China
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- India
- Indonesia
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Korea
- Mexico
- New Zealand
- Pakistan
- Philippines
- Poland
- Russia
- South Africa
- Spain
- Taiwan
- Turkey
- USA
- BUSINESS
- WEALTH
- STOCKS
- TECH
- HEALTH
- LIFESTYLE
- ENTERTAINMENT
- SPORTS
- RSS
- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Norman Ornstein
Line-item veto would give the president too much power and trim too little money
Norman Ornstein is a congressional expert and resident scholar at the
The desire to find ways to build meaningful fiscal discipline into an unruly political process is real and commendable.
Members of
No wonder, then, that some ideas keep popping up like whack-a-moles, no matter how many times they are rejected or sidetracked. These include a line-item veto.
A line-item veto would have a noble purpose: enabling a president willing to take the political heat to excise wasteful spending put into the budget by pork-addled lawmakers who can't resist bridges to nowhere. It sounds great -- but is less fulfilling than it appears, and would bring a major cost to our constitutional balance.
First, a line-item veto would affect only a trace element of our
Second, the veto is a distraction. What we desperately need is a sustained focus on ways to do the big things -- raising adequate revenue for the programs we need, cutting the rate of growth of the big and popular programs, from entitlements to defense -- and the line-item veto can actually distract us from the big picture.
Third, it assumes that wasteful spending is the creature of
Fourth, the line-item veto assumes that earmarks, or projects specifically designated by
Fifth and most important, the Constitution sets the power of the purse fundamentally in the hands of the first branch:
There is a sixth reason to be wary:
Read why the line-item veto would effectively curb wasteful spending, by Ryan Alexander, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Available at Amazon.com:
The Disappearing Center: Engaged Citizens, Polarization, and American Democracy
The Virtues of Mendacity: On Lying in Politics
Bush on the Home Front: Domestic Policy Triumphs and Setbacks
The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy, from the Grassroots to the White House
AMERICAN POLITICS
WORLD | AFRICA | ASIA | EUROPE | LATIN AMERICA | MIDDLE EAST | UNITED STATES | ECONOMICS | EDUCATION | ENVIRONMENT | FOREIGN POLICY | POLITICS
2010 Elections: Line-Item Veto Would Upset the Constitutional Balance | Politics
© Tribune Media Services