Line-item veto

The latest scheme that the House of Representatives came up with to delegate their power-of-the-purse responsibilities is the line-item veto. This essentially allows the President to “rescind all or part of any dollar amount of funding for discretionary spending items in enacted appropriations bills.” The House passed its line-item veto bill (H.R. 3521) on February 8 by 254-173. The Senate is expected to take action on its line-item veto bill soon, most likely by trying to attach the bill to a “must-pass” piece of legislation.

Wait a minute! Doesn’t the Constitution (Article 1, Section 7) grant the power of enacting laws that raise revenue to the House of Representatives? The power the President has is merely to sign it or veto it. He doesn’t get the option to cross anything out to fit his fancy.

A similar line-item veto law was passed when Clinton was president. That one was found to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. So this time around, the current line-item veto bill includes a provision that Congress has the power to disapprove any presidential line-item vetoes.

Still, even with Congress retaining the power to disapprove line-item vetoes, why would the House want to give up some of its constitutionally vested powers and further upset the checks and balances of power among the three branches of government? Surely this must be a ploy by Democratic congressmen to grab more power for President Obama. However, it was sponsored by Republican Representative Paul Ryan and Democratic Representative Chis Van Hollen, and only opposed by 41 Republicans.
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Fucking politicians are all the same - say one thing to get elected and then do all they can to hold onto their cushy jobs. They're nothing but Obama's coffee bitches, fucking punks.