Political Quotes

“for years I have supported a straightforward way to help solve Congress' lack of spending restraint: the line-item veto. Today, the House begins consideration of H.R. 2, a bill introduced as part of the Republican Contract With America, which would provide the President with a permanent legislative line-item veto. Line-Item veto authority would permit a President to strike specific, wasteful spending projects from appropriations bills as soon as they reach his desk. The funding for any rescinded items would be canceled unless both the House and Senate could muster a vote of two-thirds to override the line-item veto. In the past, the rescission procedure has proven to be too cumbersome. The burden has always been on the President to obtain congressional approval during a fixed period of time; Congress need do nothing to defeat a President's proposal. H.R. 2 would reverse this burden: Presidential proposals would become law unless Congress takes action to stop them. With the line-item veto, Presidents can weed out wasteful pork-barrel spending or tax benefits that are tucked away in otherwise good bills. While some argue that line-item veto authority will have little effect on bringing the Federal budget under control, I submit that if we can't cut wasteful spending we will have little chance to make the tough decisions needed to balance the budget.”