Obama bans earmarks from economic package

[IDemo]

Source: Associated Press

updated 27 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama says he will bar pork-barrel projects from the massive economic stimulus bill he wants Congress to pass.

Obama said Tuesday that his plan, expected to cost about $775 billion, will not allow lawmakers to insert pet projects, as they sometimes do on spending bills.

He told reporters at his transition office in Washington that his package will set a "new higher standard of accountability, transparency and oversight. We are going to ban all earmarks, the process by which individual members insert projects without review."

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28525113 /

[bunnies]

1. good.

Good. Good. Good. Good. Good.

Time for some frigging fiscal responsibility.

[rocktivity]

2. CUE THE VONAGE THEME!

And here's to a complete shutdown of K street!


rocknation

[NOW tense]

3. McCain must be happy

[jody]

4. Obama cannot limit congressional actions on the budget. n/t

[bunnies]

5. Its not a "budget". nt

[jody]

6. Sorry but it is a budget meaning congress appropriates funds for specific purposes. n/t

[bunnies]

7. Seems to me that a line item veto could be used.

No? OR... he could just keep vetoing until he gets what he wants.

[jody]

8. Presidents do not have authority to line-item veto. n/t

[bunnies]

13. huh. I didnt realize they were stripped of that power.

Seems only Clinton had it. Shows what I know about that.

ooooohh. I know what I was thinking of - signing statements - doh.

A straight up veto it is then.

[jody]

16. Suggest you read "Line Item Veto Act of 1996"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line-item_veto#Line_Item_V...

QUOTE
Presidents have repeatedly asked Congress to give them a line item veto power. According to Louis Fisher in The Politics of Shared Power, Ronald Reagan said to Congress in his 1986 State of the Union address, "Tonight I ask you to give me what forty-three governors have: Give me a line-item veto this year. Give me the authority to veto waste, and I'll take the responsibility, I'll make the cuts, I'll take the heat." Bill Clinton echoed the request in his State of the Union address in 1995.

The President was briefly granted this power by the Line Item Veto Act of 1996, passed by Congress in order to control "pork barrel spending" that favors a particular region rather than the nation as a whole. The line-item veto was used 11 times to strike 82 items from the federal budget by President Bill Clinton. <3><4>

However, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas F. Hogan ruled on February 12, 1998, that unilateral amendment or repeal of only parts of statutes violated the U.S. Constitution. This ruling was subsequently affirmed on June 25, 1998, by a 6-3 decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the case Clinton v. City of New York. The case was brought by the then New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani.

A constitutional amendment to give the President line item veto power has been considered periodically since the Court ruled the 1996 act unconstitutional.
UNQUOTE

[bunnies]

17. I already did.

Back when you informed me they no longer had the power.

[jody]

18. OK. The Republicans have been the most outspoken proponents of the line-item veto. n/t

[cstanleytech]

15. People, lets not argue on what it is called, thats just silly.

As for him doing this, I hope he does, there needs to be a zero tolerance on pork for this thing because I for one dont really want the congress to line their campaign coffers at our expense.

[IDemo]

9. He can "limit" it with the stroke of a pen

He can veto the bill. And, presidents can and do advise congress on what the acceptable limits are regarding spending bills.

[Romulox]

10. But a veto wouldn't be very "post-partisan", would it? Congress critters will get their pork. nt

[IDemo]

11. The fact remains he can advise Congress there are limits

and I don't see Obama pulling a Pelosi and backing down on this.

[BumRushDaShow]

12. If he sticks to his guns and vetoes pork

then they will have to override and the blame will be shown to be where it belongs - on them.

[Romulox]

14. He can't merely veto "pork". He'll be handed the bill on a take it or leave it basis. nt

[BumRushDaShow]

19. Oh I know that. It's all or nothing and if it's there, he would need to put the foot down.

[Psephos]

20. EXCELLENT! n/t