Spending bill
A modified version of the line-item veto President Barack Obama has sent to Congress a bill designed to curtail federal spending that is very similar to one he and Vice President Joe Biden opposed when they were both senators during the Bush administration. Times do change, but congressional skepticism toward the measure has not.
Under the optimistically named Reduce [Unnecessary] Federal Spending Act of 2010, the president can review a spending bill passed by Congress and then submit a package of proposed cuts, known technically as rescissions, to the lawmakers. Congress must then vote up or down on the package as a whole.
The process is called fast track because there are deadlines for the president to decide on the cuts and Congress to vote on them.
The bill was welcomed by fiscal hawks, like Blue Dog Democrats, but the congressional leadership was noncommittal, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., saying she looked forward to reviewing the proposal and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada promising “serious consideration.” House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said the measure was no substitute for “a real budget.”
Elsewhere, there is skepticism and outright opposition. In a show of bipartisanship, appropriators – the lawmakers who decide how the money is spent – are opposed because it is an incursion on their turf. Other members oppose it on institutional grounds as an infringement on Congress’ constitutionally granted absolute power of the purse. Still others feel that by singling out individual lawmakers’ pet programs, it could be used as a political weapon to coerce support for a president’s agenda.
Even if the bill passes, it would at the most reduce federal spending only at the margins.
First, it does not apply to the almost two-thirds of the budget that is mandatory automatic spending – such as Social Security, Medicare and interest of the debt. It does apply to the discretionary spending, the funding of government agencies that Congress approves annually in 12 separate appropriations bills. But discretionary spending is just under 40 percent of the budget and most of that is in generally sacrosanct defense and veterans’ programs.
The White House released a list of cuts that Obama would have made in current spending, like $293 million in transportation earmarks, if this bill were law. Although there’s nothing stopping Obama from submitting those cuts right now, the White House says the president has no plans to.
That has led cynics to say that Obama can point to the bill as doing something about spending without actually making any politically damaging cuts in advance of the fall elections. Maybe Congress will prove the cynics wrong.
Scripps Howard News Service