Line-Item Veto, Balanced Budget

As determined in Clinton v. City of New York, 1998, Congress is outside of its Constitutional authority to grant to the President the power of line-item veto. That is, the President cannot be permitted by Congress to strike out appropriations within bills authorizing the expenditure of government funds. Congress attempted to give the President this power because they knew that deficit spending is bad for our present and future economy. They wanted to allow the President the authority to remove unnecessary spending from the budget while, at the same time, retaining the ability to point out to their constituencies (primarily to the interest groups that donate large sums to their campaigns) where they voted to fund their special interest projects. In the line-item veto, the President can avoid this kind of spending, and Congress can still appear to support the lobbies that fund their campaigns.

Given from the start that the line-item veto is an unconstitutional solution to this problem, it still escapes me how Congress has not simply enacted budget appropriations in such language that gives the President the discretion over whether to spend the alloted money. Simply stated, Congress should, when enacting budget legislation, provide for a minimum amount that must be spent on each item, and also a maximum amount which cannot be exceeded. In the case of pork barrel spending, the Congress can merely set the minimum at zero dollars. They can then put the authority in the President to choose some amount between the limits set by Congress to spend. Thereby, the President can ensure balanced budget spending, Congress can avoid the problem of losing their funding from their lobbies, and best yet, the money which Congress appropriates and the President chooses not to spend may be returned to the people or the Treasury.

It may seem, to some, unwise to entrust this power of discretion solely to the President, but the power should rest with one person. If it were left to each of the department heads to spend what they would on their own projects, each of them would choose the maximum amount, and deficit spending would continue. The President is responsible for each of the executive departments equally and should be able to make a decision as to which departments will receive what funding within the limits set by Congress without bias. Some measure must be taken to prevent or alleviate deficit spending. No entity can survive forever spending more money than it takes in.