Line Item Veto Analysis

I stumbled across this interesting review of the line item veto proposal sent up to Congress by the Administration last March. The current debate in the Senate over a substantially similar proposal appears stalled, as the Senate just failed to invoke cloture on an amendment to the Minimum Wage bill which would have added the line item veto provisions as an amendment.

My general feeling is that, regardless of who holds the White House, it is a bad idea for Congress to give up its power to appropriate to the President. This line item veto provision would allow the President to force votes to rescind appropriations in the House and the Senate, by lumping these items into packages of his choosing, thereby enabling him to exert pressure over lawmakers based on how the rescission requests are packaged. Furthermore, regardless of whether on not such a power would be good for the country structurally, there are serious Constitutional questions regarding the specifics of how a line item veto can be structured legally. Clinton v. City of New York is the authoritative Supreme Court statement on the matter.