Reframing the Line Item Veto

I find it hilarious that the illegal drug that Rush was caught carrying was Viagra. Boy is he screwed!

Bush is pressing Congress for a limited line item veto. They voted one in for Clinton then declared it unconstitutional - Congress controls the purse strings, not the executive. So why is Bush pressing for a further expansion of executive power?

They're framing it as fiscal responsibility, the power to cut earmarks out of appropriations bills without killing the entire bill. For those of you that have forgotten, the President does have the power to kill appropriations bills. It's called the veto, a power Bush has yet to use during his presidency. Bush claims he needs to be a bit more selective (even though his party has controlled both houses of Congress throughout his presidency) and that selectivity requires that he have the power to send individual items back to Congress for a revote.

Now ask yourself why might Bush want that rather than relying on party discipline to keep the pork out of the bills? The Shrubpublicans know that, barring a miracle, their absolute hold on the Legislative branch ends in January. Democrats will take the house and may take the Senate, leaving Bush to face the last two years of his presidency on the Congressional witness stand. If Repugnicans were to give him this last poison pill, he'd have a lever. He could take every Democratic line item out of spending bills, tying Congress up with revotes on mandatory appropriations bills and robbing them of the time for his well-deserved grillings under oath. Or he could be more selective, removing only those items that favor us, a pattern his appropriations has taken throughout his presidency.

The idea will never clear the Senate, thank God. Like the Gut the First Amendment Act they voted on today (flag desecration), this is political grandstanding. But do not dismiss it at that. Play it for what it is, another attempt by Bush to grab power at the Congress and the People's expense.