Erie Times-News abets election year propaganda

At a press conference in Erie today, U.S. Representative Phil English said he will introduce legislation which would give the president the power of line item veto over the federal budget, according to a report in today's Erie Times-News.

Reporter John Guerriero wrote that “The bill, which English said he will formally introduce this week, would give the president the authority to strip unnecessary and costly ‘pork projects’ from congressional spending bills. The president now only has the authority to veto or accept an entire appropriations bill.”

What the article does not say is that English’s proposal is little more than election year propaganda. In 1998 the U. S. Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional the line item veto act passed by Congress two years earlier after then-President Bill Clinton, the first and only chief executive ever to exercise the power, eliminated 81 spending items from the 1996 federal budget.

His actions were challenged by the city of New York and then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani. On Feb. 12, 1998, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas F. Hogan ruled that unilateral amendment or repeal of only parts of statutes passed by Congress violates the U.S. Constitution. The decision was affirmed on June 25, 1998 by the Supremes.

The only way the president may be granted line item veto authority is by amendment to the U.S. Constitution. English is safe in proposing such an amendment because he knows a majority, much less a two-thirds majority of Congress would never give any president that much control over the federal pursestrings. All but seven state governors in the nation have some form of line item veto power, expressly authorized by their state constitutions.