James Whittier Parker: “the minority whip recently issued a statement in which he brands H.R. 2 as a Republican proposal under which ``Congress…”

“the minority whip recently issued a statement in which he brands H.R. 2 as a Republican proposal under which ``Congress would cede to the executive branch one of its most important responsibilities--the power of the purse.'' Well first of all, here is one Democrat who supports this ``Republican'' proposal. I am an original sponsor of the legislation before us. In fact, I have supported the concept of a line-item veto from my first day in Congress. Here is one Democrat who is not prepared to just toss aside his party's claim on a good idea. Second, have not we done a fine job in carrying out our most important responsibility? Congress has not responsibly exercised the power of the purse for years. We have been downright irresponsible with this power. Opponents of a line-item veto claim this is a balance of power issue. I agree. There currently exists vast imbalance in the power to exercise fiscal responsibility. This is an effort to remedy that problem. A 1992 GAO report indicated that the line-item veto will work. I refer you to page 5 of the Rules Committee Report on H.R. 2: If Presidential line item vote/line item reduction authority had been applied to all items to which objections were raised in the Statements of Administration Policy during fiscal years 1984 through 1989, spending could have been reduced by amounts ranging from $7 billion in 1985 to $17 billion in 1987, for a 6-year total of about $70 billion.…”