Veto violation

Line-item veto should remain stricken

On Feb. 12, U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan ruled that the line-item veto violated the Constitution's requirement that the president sign or veto bills in their entirety. Stating that "although the Line-Item Veto Act may have presented an innovative and effective manner in which to control runaway spending by Congress, the (Constitution's) framers held loftier values."

The Line-Item Veto Act, passed in 1996, transferred too much of Congress' legislative power to the president. By allowing the president to delete certain spending clauses within individual bills, it was believed that wasteful spending could be cut from the federal budget. Since the bill was enacted, President Clinton has cast 82 line-item vetoes. Thirty-eight of those vetoes were for military construction projects, which angered many lawmakers.

This conflict caused the president to slow his pace, drawing further criticism that he was leaving billions of dollars of special interest projects untouched. The bill also never defined what wasteful spending is.

While many people view "hometown pork" spending - money appropriated to projects in legislators' home districts to garner favor for him or her - problematic and wasteful, the line-item veto is not an appropriate solution. Restraint on such wasteful spending must come from the lawmakers themselves, not from laws that ignore the Constitution's intent.

If the electorate wishes to effect change in federal spending, it should use the power of its vote to elect officials whose spending ideas are more reasonable.

When the president vetoes a specific appropriation, he is in essence negating the input of one or several lawmakers. The executive is negating the vote of thousands of constituents who those legislators represent. A line-item veto also second-guesses the citizens' will - something that goes well beyond the president's pervue.

This is why the Constitution states that laws must be passed in their entirety - so that no one person can have complete control over legislative outcomes. While the president is elected by the people, so too are U.S. senators and representatives. When Congress passes laws, it does so on behalf of the people. When the president takes power into his own hands that was not originally granted by the Constitution, he is negating the will of the people and the basic values held by the United States.

Consequently, not only does the line-item veto take away from the power of the people, but it is unconstitutional and its annulment by the federal district court should be upheld. The line-item veto has lofty ideals but its good intentions do not make it acceptable. The means of this act do not justify its ends.

It is now up to the Supreme Court to decide the law's ultimate fate - they too should see the unconstitutionality of this act. No one but the citizens of the United States and their elected legislators should be allowed to decided where and how their tax money is spent.

02-18-98