THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 4, 1997 TAG: 9701040025
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 49 lines
Barring court intervention, President Clinton will begin his second term with a sumptuous gift: the ability to veto specific items in congressional budget bills and some tax measures. Up until now, presidents have had to take all or nothing.
The so-called line-item veto, awarded by the 104th Congress, theoretically will allow presidents to curtail pork-barreling spending and special-interest tax breaks. Congress has long seemed unable to curb its own appetite for local spending projects, so perhaps a president accountable to a broader constituency will have better success.
Similar power is enjoyed by the governors of the 50 states, including Virginia's Gov. George Allen, and taxpayers generally have benefitted as a result.
With federal debt ranking high on the list of pressing American concerns, any tool that can be used to control spending is worth applauding. A couple of caveats are in order, however.
About two-thirds of the federal budget - including costly entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security - will be off-limits to the line-item veto. That means Congress can't rely on the president alone to exercise fiscal restraint.
There is always the danger that a power-hungry chief executive will use the new authority to hold individual congressmen hostage. If Clinton fashions support for his political agenda by threatening to veto the pet projects of his opponents, he would make a mockery of congressional intent.
Fortunately, there are built-in safeguards. When the president vetoes an item, he must send a report to Congress not only telling what he is cutting and why, but which states and congressional districts would be affected. If he is playing politics by going after his opponents' districts, at least the public will have a clear view of his pettiness.
Also, the line-item veto is a statuatory concoction. What Congress giveth it can also take away. If presidents abuse the power, they may find themselves stripped of it.
In granting the line-item veto, Congress is taking the rarest of steps in Washington. Not only is one branch of government voluntarily ceding power to another, but a Republican-controlled Congress is handing new authority to a Democratic president.
We can wish for a similar spirit to permeate other matters, say, campaign-finance reform and entitlement overhaul. A broader willingness to put principle before power would indeed be a gift worth celebrating in 1997.