Monday, February 4, 2008

Bush Gives Himself a Line-Item Veto




On January 29, Bush issued Executive Order 13457, “Protecting American Taxpayers From Government Spending on Wasteful Earmarks”.

The executive order follows through on the threat the President made during his State of the Union address this week to sharply curtail the ability of Members of Congress, through the use of earmarks in committee report language, to designate funds in appropriations legislation for specific projects or organizations, most often in their district or state.

[…]

Specifically, the Executive Order:


Directs every Federal Agency to ensure that laws passed by Congress in the future do not spend money on an earmarked project based on language in a Committee report or any other communication from Members of Congress or other persons acting on their behalf.



In effect, the Executive Order declares the Bush has the power to reject against any part of the budget passed by Congress that Bush doesn’t like: a de facto line-item veto. Never mind that the Supreme Court ruled in 1998 that the Constitution does not permit the president to decide, item by item, which parts of the budget to accept or reject. If Bush doesn’t have the power of line-item veto before he signs the budget bill, he doesn’t have it afterward, either.

The flagrant violation of the Constitution isn’t the only offensive thing about this Executive Order.

Bush didn’t act against earmarks until the Democrats gained control of Congress and the number and cost of earmarks decreased:

The use of earmarks grew exponentially during President Bush’s years in the White House when the Republican Party controlled Congress. According to the watchdog group Citizen’s Against Government Waste, in 2001 there were 6,333 earmarks totaling $18.5 billion in the federal budget. By 2005, that number had ballooned to $27.3 billion for 13,997 projects. In 2007, the first year the Democrats controlled Congress, the numbers dropped dramatically to $13.2 billion for 2,658 earmarks


The Executive Order doesn’t go into effect until Fiscal Year 2009 (beginning October 1, 2008). By the time it has any effect (if enforced), Bush will be out of the White House. Bush just gave himself the power to decide how the next Administration spends the taxpayers’ money.

The first thing the next President needs to do after taking the oath of office is issue an Executive Order declaring all of George W. Bush’s Executive Orders rescinded, effective immediately.

4 comments:

capt said...

Yeah, right Bunnypants is setting up the next president with all these unitary powers, all the extra-constitutional authority just to hand it over to another party in a free and fair election?

NOT BLOODY LIKELY!

Gerald said...

If Bush Is a Christian

Gerald said...

The Bush Tragedy

Gerald said...

To Save Our Earth... Creatively

Biologist and environmentalist John Todd has created “eco-machines” which use nature, not toxic chemicals, to convert waste water into pure water. There’s one in South Burlington, Vermont, which is open to visitors.

Eighteen interconnected steel tanks hold ceiling-grazing reeds, banana plants, ginger, calla lilies and water hyacinths; Japanese Koi and native bait fish; and bottom-dwelling freshwater clams and mussels. Each day this “eco-machine” transforms 80,000 gallons of waste water – sewage – into clean water.

Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute says, “Todd and his colleagues have transformed our view of wastewater from a noxious nuisance – to be (treated) with poisons to a resource.”

How can you change an environmental problem into potential? Begin with those breakfast coffee grounds, eggshells and banana skins. Composted they will become next year’s garden soil.

Make concern for our world a way of life.

It is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. (1 Corinthians 4:2)

God, inspire and encourage our efforts to be responsible stewards of Creation.