They Don’t Need A Law.
WASHINGTON – Today, the Senate Budget Committee approved S. 3521, the “Stop Over Spending Act of 2006,” which includes a Legislative Line Item Veto. OMB Director Portman praised the Committee’s efforts to restrain spending.
“Economic growth and spending restraint will keep us on track to cutting the deficit in half. Congressional support for the President’s pro-growth policies has helped generate job creation and strong revenue growth.
“The spending restraint tools approved by the Committee today, under Senator Gregg’s leadership, reflects the commitment required to make continued progress in controlling spending. Part of the SOS package, the Legislative Line Item Veto, is expected to be voted on this week in the House of Representatives. The Administration strongly supports this critical tool and looks forward to working with Congress to see this, and other tools, enacted this year.”
Here’s a summary of what the “Stop Over Spending Act of 2006″ contains:
Gregg says his bill:
Creates a line-item veto tool that allows a President to target wasteful spending, ask that it be rescinded and then send it to Congress for expedited consideration.
Gregg says the provision is not as far-reaching as the line-item veto authority given President Bill Clinton in 1996, which had his vetoed items go into effect immediately and was ruled unconstitutional.
Creates a new, so-called “Gregg mechanism” to balance the budget by 2012. It would require Congress to cut entitlement spending in a way equivalent to capping the deficit at 2.75 percent of gross domestic product in 2007, declining to .5 percent of gross domestic product in 2012.
If the limit is not met in any one year, and if Congress fails to act on it, automatic across-the-board reductions of mandatory spending would automatically go into effect.
Gregg says the mechanism is an improvement on the provisions of the Gramm-Rudman deficit reduction act of the 1980s.
Imposes statutory caps on discretionary spending. If Congress fails to adhere to the caps, the White House Office and Management and Budget would be required to implement across-the-board cuts to ensure the caps are reached.
Contains provisions to make it more difficult for Congress to spend when the Medicaid program is projected to become insolvent in seven years or less.
Creates two new bipartisan commissions: one to study the accountability and efficiency of government programs, and another to examine and provide solutions to what Gregg calls an impending crisis facing entitlement programs.
Switches to federal budgets that cover two years, instead of one, in order to free up Congress for more oversight.
Am I supposed to applaud this? Really? For the life of me I can’t get excited about this.
Here’s what this bill really says: Congress can’t control its voracious appetite for vote-buying and dipping its hands into your pockets, so it’s going to pass yet another law that will, among other things, kick its responsibility to the President in the form of a line-item veto.
I am sure that, on some small level, Gregg’s bill will force spending controls on Congress. That, of course, assumes that a Republican Congress that as shown no great willingness on its own to control spending will pass this bill. It also assumes that, should it make it into law, it won’t be laden with more loopholes that crocheted afghan your Grandma gave you for Christmas.
Let’s not assume either one. This is a Congress, remember, with such Republicans as Ray LaHood who recently said in response to an attempt to take away a pittance of his precious earmarks, “I’m not going to take their crap…They think they’ve gotten a little steam building, and we’re going to have to shoot them down”. This is also the Congress of Republican Trent Lott who said, “I’ll just say this about the so-called porkbusters. I’m getting damn tired of hearing from them. They have been nothing but trouble ever since Katrina.”
Do you honestly believe that they will voluntarily pass rules on themelves that inhibit them in any way from grabbing every penny they can possibly bring home?
Here is what I think these days. Our members of Congress, save a very few, truly believe that we are trained seals who will flap our flippers together mindlessly just because they drove into town from Washington towing a big ol’ trailer full of cash. And you know what?
They’re right. That’s exactly what we have been. But, like the man sang, these days, it ain’t necessarily so. These days, we have things like Porkbusters and other ways of letting our elected officials know that the gravy train stops, here and now.
Senator Gregg’s bill may work. I think it’s more likely that it’ll go the way of other bills that were supposed to do the same thing but you never know. A miracle could occur and this bill could transplant a spine and a conscience into our members of Congress.
Regardless, we need to remember that Congress doesn’t need a new law to spend less money. It just needs to say “no”.
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Category: Political Pontifications
