Political Quotes

“I have a number of serious concerns and questions about the conference report on the line-item veto, S. 4. First, the line-item veto encourages minority rule by allowing a Presidential-item veto to stand with the support of only 34 Senators or 146 Representatives. This is not majority rule. We are back to anti-democratic super-majority requirements, which I thought were dismissed during the balanced budget amendment debate. By imposing a two-thirds supermajority vote to override a Presidential-item veto, the line-item veto undermines the fundamental principle of majority rule. Our Founders rejected such supermajority voting requirements on matters within Congress' purview. Alexander Hamilton described supermajority requirements as a poison that serves to destroy the energy of the government, and to substitute the pleasure, caprice, or artifices of an insignificant, turbulent, or corrupt junto to the regular deliberations and decisions of a respectable majority. Such supermajority requirements reflect a basic distrust not just of Congress, but of the electorate itself. I reject that notion. Moreover, supermajority requirements in any line-item veto bill is overkill. I am afraid that this bill will sacrifice many worthy projects on the altar of supermajority votes. But supermajority power is not needed to strike wasteful line items.”