Political Quotes

“we gave the President the line-item veto to help him help us trim the budget and cut down the cost of Government and eliminate wasteful and unnecessary programs. That was a good idea. We did not expect that he would come back on one of the first bills in the appropriations cycle and use sloppy and inadequate staff work and cut meaningful, worthwhile projects. But that is exactly what he did. I want to commend my friend, the gentleman from California [Mr. Packard], and the gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. Hefner] for their foresight and vision in making sure that we enforce this system. The President has a significant new power. He should use it wisely. He used it unwisely in this instance. Witness the Utah project, which was a good system to provide for the people that were training for the Olympics, or all the other projects that have been mentioned here today. These were worthwhile projects to improve the quality of life for military personnel. They should not have been struck. They should not have been used as an example by the President to flex his power, which was given to him for worthy purposes and a good cause. It is up to us to remedy that mistake. He made the mistake. He tried to cover up on it by saying, oh, he would cure the mistake with a future budget request. That is not good enough. The way he pays for the mistake is for us to disapprove these cancellations. We should do it today.”