Ear-marking

If I were president, I'd veto any bill that came across my desk with earmarking. The government would come to a stand still and nothing would get done until one of two things occurred:

1. Congress starts writing straight-forward bills that don't have tons of pork nailed on to them. OR
2. Congress finally gives me (the President) the line item veto.

Every president since Reagan in 1986 has asked for the line item veto, the ability to strike out certain provisions of a bill while signing the rest of it into law. In 1996 Congress gave Bill Clinton this power in an effort to control pork barrel spending, and it worked. The Federal government was able to run at a profit during Clinton's presidency, actually spending less than it earned and reducing the national deficit. The power of the line item veto was ruled unconstitutional and taken away by the Supreme Court in 1998 in a case brought by Rudy Giuliani, then the mayor of New York City.

Some argue that the line item veto puts too much power in the hands of the president, but I say that the president has too little power now to stop Congress's wild spending. The president has no choice but to sign bills that are earmarked with billions of dollars of wasteful spending; these bills are the way our government does business and the president would be hugely unpopular if he brought the workings of our nation to a halt.

I'm willing to be hugely unpopular. (Some would argue that I've already reached that goal.) The uproar caused by this stalemate between Congress and the President would make for some very good TV, and focus attention on the shameful waste that attends the running of our government. Congress would be happy to draft a constitutional amendment giving the power of the line item veto to the President, if only to shift the blame from Congress to the Presidency. Passage of a constitutional amendment requires approval by 2/3s of the states, but passage should be easy because 43 of the 50 State Governors already have the line item veto, including the Governer of New York. (I'm talking to you, Giuliani.)

Let me, as your President, take the heat for cutting out all of those billions of dollars meant to reward lobbyists, political supporters and to pander to a Congressman's home state. Each Congressman can show how it's not his fault, the bill was passed with his amendments but that damned President struck-out those lines from the bill before signing it.