Bipartisan House Votes to Give Bush Line-item Veto
Thirty-five House Democrats sided with Republicans on Thursday to give the president a line-item veto after weakening it. The House passed the bill by a 247-172 vote, but the measure must still pass the Senate, by no means a certainty. The bill would allow the president to single out items contained in appropriations bills he signs into law, and it would require Congress to vote on those items again. It would take a simple majority (51 percent) in both the House and the Senate to approve the items over the president's objections.President Bush is pushing Congress to give him more authority to slice and dice the budget, an idea that's popular with conservatives who think the White House needs more muscle to restrict federal spending. Critics believe the president already has the authority to curb spending but disagree with the programs his party chooses to cut that spending from, and what they choose to spend money on.
Opponents point to this adminsitration's record on fiscal responsibility. President Bush has presided over the largest explosion of debt in the country's history, but policy supporters would argue that the many tax cuts pushed by the White House have benefited Americans far more than the negative impact of the growing national debt. When President Bush took office, the total national debt stood at $5.6 trillion. The federal debt has since increased 54 percent, from approximately $5.6 trillion at the end of 2000 to an estimated $8.6 trillion at the end of 2006. By 2011, according to the US Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Public Debt, the President’s budget would increase the public debt to $11.8 trillion.
It's a matter of who does the cutting...
President Bush has lobbied Congress to give him more authority to slice and dice the budget, an idea that's popular with conservatives who think the White House needs more muscle to restrict federal spending." Under the current system, many lawmakers are able to insert funding for pet projects into large spending bills," Bush said in his Saturday radio address.
The president says this leaves lawmakers with two bad options: They can vote against an entire bill even though it contains worthwhile spending, or they can vote for a bill even though it includes money for special-interest projects.
"The president is left with the same dilemma - either he has to veto the entire bill, or sign the bill and approve the unnecessary spending," Bush said, adding that governors in 43 states already have line-item veto authority.
- June 24, 2006
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