US President George W. Bush, who has never vetoed legislation, asked the US Congress on Monday to give him a line-item veto that would allow him to propose canceling specific spending plans.
Lawmakers often tag pet projects on to bills to please constituents in their home states, a practice put into the spotlight recently with the major congressional lobbying scandal and the conviction of a former California Republican representative on bribery charges.
But Bush's proposal faces hurdles because an earlier version that Congress passed under former president Bill Clinton was rejected by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional because it allowed the president to amend laws passed by Congress.
Bush said the 1998 court decision "should not be the end of the story," and said the legislation he offered to Congress was crafted in a way to satisfy the court's concerns.
Bush is pressing for a modified, weaker version. Instead of being able to strike items from bills, he would send one or more items back to Congress for an up-or-down vote.
Present law permits Congress to ignore these proposed rescissions, but under the Bush proposal lawmakers would have to vote on them within 10 days. If majorities in both the House and the Senate agreed with the president, the cuts would take effect.
"With this proposal, I think the responsibilities of the two branches would be well balanced in that the president would have the ability to line out an item, but only with the approval of a majority of Congress," White House budget director Joshua Bolten said.
Democrats, who have criticized Bush's tax cuts as fiscally reckless, said a line-item veto was no panacea for deficits.
"The Bush administration has spent us into record deficits and piled mountains of debt onto our children," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said. She added: "Budget experts agree that the line-item veto would do little to control deficits."
Democratic Senator John Kerry supported the line-item veto proposal, which mirrored one he had previously proposed.
"Billions of dollars are being wasted on things like research to enhance the flavor of roasted peanuts and the infamous `bridge to nowhere,'" Kerry said.
Announcing the line-item veto proposal at a swearing-in ceremony for Ed Lazear, his new chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, Bush said it would allow him to take aim at "special-interest spending."
Conservatives have criticized Bush for the surge in federal spending on his watch.
One example of a pet project critics often cite is a bridge proposal in Alaska ridiculed as the "Bridge to Nowhere" because it would have served a very small population. The bridge was part of a US$287 billion transportation bill that many conservatives had urged Bush to veto. Bush signed the transportation bill and hailed it as a job-creating measure.
Spending on the Alaska bridge was later canceled, but the state received the money anyway in its general transportation funds.
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS