Political Quotes

David Skaggs: I noted with some sense of irony the protests that were being made about the President's recent exercise of the…

On the recordOctober 23, 1997
I noted with some sense of irony the protests that were being made about the President's recent exercise of the line-item veto, a power given to him by most of those who were protesting its exercise. The fears that we had that this would be an invitation to an abuse of power are being borne out. It is unconstitutional. It is bad public policy. Who do we have to blame? Ourselves. How do we undo it? Let us start here with a better approach: Expedited rescissions, giving the President the power to flag wasteful items, but then we have to vote and vote promptly. We have a measure for every taste. If my colleagues would like to repeal the line-item veto and replace it with expedited rescissions, H.R. 2649. If we are purists and want to completely repeal the line-item veto, a completely defensible point of view as well, H.R. 2650.
Said by
David Skaggs
Colorado

Editor's note · Context

Discussing the implications of the line-item veto during a Committee on National Security hearing.

Share

More from David Skaggs

Jul 21, 1998

Mr. Chairman, there are a couple of points in the bill that we expect to get to in conference that I hoped I might be able to discuss with the chairman of the subcommittee. In particular the bill already includes, Mr. Chairman, as you…

govinfo.gov
May 21, 1998

I understand there is some frustration on the other side about all of this. This resolution has been cleverly drafted to appear, at first reading, perhaps, even to be innocuous. But let me just suggest to my colleagues that we ought not to…

govinfo.gov
Aug 4, 1998

I have to say to them that we have tried and tried and tried, and this simply does not work. It is not, as the gentleman from New Jersey suggested a moment ago, a question of political will. Political will cannot repeal the law of physics…

govinfo.gov
Apr 22, 2004

I want to thank all of the schools, all of my colleagues and the membership of the Association who have pitched in to make this possible, as well as the Association Board of Directors, and, in particular, our friends at the Stennis Center…

govinfo.gov

Other voices in this conversation