Bill Clinton: “Well, the short answer is that I expect there will be some exercise of that. But let me tell you what we're doing. First…”

“Well, the short answer is that I expect there will be some exercise of that. But let me tell you what we're doing. First of all, I have asked my staff and relevant Cabinet members to review both the budget bill and the tax bill. I know that all of you know this, but just for the people that you're writing or speaking for, there are three areas in which the President can exercise the line item veto, three sets of legislation. In the tax bill, there are certain limited, and they're quite limited, special tax provisions that are subject to the line item veto. In the budget bill, there are certain special spending programs under the so-called entitlement umbrella that are subject to the line item veto. I must act on either one of them within 5 days from yesterday, excluding Sunday. That's what the law says. In addition to that, as the annual appropriations are passed they, too--the spending items within the annual appropriations--are subject to the line item veto. So what I've asked my staff and Cabinet to do is to meet with me, first of all, make sure I am aware of the items that are subject to the veto in the tax bill and in the budget bill that I signed. And then the second thing we have to do is to make absolutely sure that none of these things that we don't think are very good were part of the agreement. That is, this was an agreement entered into in good faith, and I cannot use the line item veto on anything that our negotiators agreed to let go through. I think that's very important. And I want to bend over backwards to make sure there's no misunderstanding on that. Then after that, we'll have a category of items, and I will just go down and evaluate them and decide whether I think that they are sufficiently objectionable that they should be vetoed. Larry [Larry McQuillan, Reuters]. Balanced Budget Act of 1997”