Bill Bennett: “I supported the line-item veto. When I saw how President Clinton used it, I was sure I had made a mistake. Here on the…”

“I supported the line-item veto. When I saw how President Clinton used it, I was sure I had made a mistake. Here on the floor and in the debate with Senator Moynihan and Senator Byrd, I made the commitment that I would never support the line-item veto again because it was used in a way I had not anticipated. It was used in a way very different from the way State legislatures have dealt with the line-item vetoes that Governors had. That was my rationale for supporting it. I said: The Governors have it and it works; why shouldn't the President have it? That is because I didn't understand the way the Congress really works. So I said I will never support a line-item veto again. When the White House called me and said, We need your vote on this, I said, You won't get it. And then when I saw the details of what the Senator from New Hampshire has crafted, I realized, as he has pointed out, that it is crafted with the Supreme Court rescission in mind, with the history of the experience with President Clinton in mind, and I am now willing to support the enhanced rescission legislation the Senator from New Hampshire has proposed because, as he has said, this is not the line-item veto.”