CONG POL

This is a class blog for the students of POLSCI 426: Congressional Politics at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

Feingold, Ryan, McCain unite to curb earmarks

Since the line item veto was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1998, McCain and Feingold introduced new legislation gives Congress the ability to accept or reject each item the president tries to veto. That way, Congress retains control over the process while forcing lawmakers to justify spending items to their colleagues.
Posted by jasonkomo at 3/05/2009 08:20:00 PM

1 comment:

bsavage said...

The line-item veto is one of the most terrifying powers to give to a president. Vesting that much authority to the executive to override individual items in a bill not only takes the legislative process one step further into confusion, but also grants the presidents pen to dip that much further into Congress.

The presidential veto, as it stands, was a brilliant ability set by the Founding Fathers to check the legislature. However, granting the "line-item" veto, even if only for spending bills concerning "pork," is rather extreme. The next step may as well be allowing the president to control debate on the floors of Congress and make sure that it is precisely tailored to the executive's preferences.

This is a matter best left to Congress. If they are ineffective in settling the dispute over lines of spending, then further debate is necessary in both chambers of Congress.

3/05/2009 10:59 PM

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