You know something that happens in politics or that is passed by Congress just has to be good if it can be applied to our regular lives and have a positive effect. This event is sort of rare, but in a roundabout way, the line-item veto that was passed by the House of Representatives on Monday fits into this category.
By an overwhelming margin, House Republicans and Democrats voted 294-134 to give the President the power of the line-item veto. This power allows the President to veto specific "spending measures or tax breaks for narrowly defined interests," while the rest of a bill is signed into law.
The line-item veto is important because it gives the President a direct weapon to be used in cutting the federal budget deficit, and it shifts a great deal of budgetary and spending power to the White House.
In the past, presidents have been forced to sign into law appropriations bills that have been filled with pork barrel spending and special interest perks. An example, as cited in USA Today, by Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-Mich.) was the emergency appropriations bill passed to provide aid to the victims of the California earthquake last year. Quietly tacked onto the bill were funds for sugar cane growers in Hawaii and $10 million for a train station in New York. Needless pork that President Clinton would have been able to remove had he had the line item veto.
The fact that the line-item veto has been passed by the Republican-led Congress highlights the benefits of having "new blood" in Washington. For, although all modern presidents, Republicans and Democrats alike, have called for the line-item veto, the past Democratic-led House refused to pass it. Republicans exhibited good faith to the American people in their passing of the measure on Monday, especially considering that the line-item veto that they passed will markedly increase the power of the sitting, Democratic President. It was a show of good faith; the measure, exercised by any president, is a needed tool to control federal spending.
Now, this line-item veto, other than for its deficit cutting qualities, is clearly a good policy, because if we were to apply it to our regular lives, it would come in very handy. Think about having the power to line-item veto parts of your college bill (expensive parking tickets), or sections of your tests (the one question you didn't know), or even parts of your conversations (that one sentence you wish your girlfriend or boyfriend didn't hear). It would be wonderfully convenient, as the line-item veto should be to our President, and our country, in years to come.
