Time for Line Item Veto

For a short period of time will Bill Clinton was the U.S. President the United States had the line item veto. Not for long though. The Supreme Court found the power to be unconstitutional (Clinton v. City of New York) even though the Constitution does not even discuss the topic. In fact they said that silence was the prohibition.

Anyway, is this something that should be considered for Constinutional ammendment? In my opinion, yes. The reason that I believe this is because the founding fathers never dreamed that the legislature would use legislation the way that they do. Most bills contain some sort of "rider". Many times they have absolutely nothing to do with the original bill but the president has to decide whether to kill the entire bill in order to remove little appropriation.

The Democrats used this issue to help send George H.W. Bush back to Texas in 1991. The passed and education bill that contained tax increases as riders. He then had a choice, veto the education bill and be viewed as anti-education or sign the bill and go against his "No New Taxes" pledge. Very slick on the Democrats part.

Now, I am not saying that the line item veto should be created simply for political reasons. I think that it needs to be added so that a President can control more of the pork barrel spending that continually increases on Capitol Hill. By using the line item veto the President could remove the riders and still be able let the original bill be made law.

I think that time has come to consider this topic. Here's more information:

Save the Line Item Veto
Clinton v. City of New York