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Tuesday, Oct 30, 2007 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASECONTACT: Kevin Madden (857) 288-6390 "I had the line-item veto. We ought to have that in Washington. It allows you to pick out the pork and pick out the waste and to zero in on it." – Governor Romney (Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes," 4/4/07) VETO #1: More Than 800 Budget Line-Items: For All Four Of The Fiscal-Year Budgets That Crossed His Desk, Governor Romney Used The Line-Item Veto Power More Than 800 Times. Over the course of four budgets, Governor Romney made over 300 line-item reductions, 350 line-item eliminations and struck language 150...

Tucked away on Seattle's Portage Bay, a sleek, 85-foot speedboat sat idle for years — save for an annual jaunt to maintain its engine. The Navy paid $4.5 million to build the boat. But months before the hull ever touched water, the Navy gave the boat to the University of Washington. The school never found a use for it, either. Why would the Navy waste taxpayer dollars on a boat that nobody wanted? Blame it on Sen. Patty Murray and Congressmen Norm Dicks and Brian Baird. All three exercised their political muscle to slip language into a 2002 spending bill...

Few if any principles are more fundamental to our way of life as Americans than the notion that no one is above the law. It is this very principle - the requirement that all of us without exception must obey the law - that makes social order possible and prevents our country from sliding into anarchy and ruin. It was in recognition of this that our founders wrote a Constitution that imposes on our presidents the solemn duty "to take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Yet this same basic principle has been repeatedly and systematically flouted by President...

In the next couple of weeks, the Senate Budget Committee will consider President Bush's proposal for presidential line-item veto authority. Despite concerns about investing the executive with too much power, this proposal deserves the full support of anyone committed to limited government.The irony of the debate among conservatives about the line-item veto is that in 1996 a Republican Congress gave this power to Democrat Bill Clinton. Although there was some conservative disquiet at the time over executive authority, most Republicans believed the line-item veto to be a necessary tool to address the explosion in wasteful federal spending.Unfortunately, in 1998 the...

In the last five years, the federal budget has done a good impression of major league sluggers, bulking up to such frightful proportions as to be almost unrecognizable. Baseball responded to the excess girth by cracking down on steroids. President Bush, however, wants to try stomach stapling. This week, he urged Congress to give him a line-item veto so he can "reduce wasteful spending."In reality, he's about as likely to cut spending as he is to give the next State of the Union address in Aramaic. Since he took office in 2001, federal outlays have increased by $845 billion a...

Fiscal conservatives are endorsing proposed legislation that would give President Bush the line-item veto, but one Democrat said the president should be more concerned about submitting a balanced budget. The line-item veto, enjoyed by 33 governors, would allow the president to identify wasteful earmarks in appropriations and tax bills. "With a line-item veto, the president could help get special-interest and pork-barrel spending under control," said Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste. "Coming on the heels of last year's record pork-barrel spending, this proposal could not be more timely." President Bush promoted the proposal on Monday: "Too many bills...

WASHINGTON — 's request for broad, and constitutionally questionable, authority to control spending by vetoing specific items in larger bills is drawing limited interest in Congress.Even though he has yet to issue a single veto in his five years in office, Bush asked Congress in his State of the Union address to give him power. He said it and a movement to curb lawmakers' appetite for special projects, or earmarks, would provide a one-two punch in reducing government spending."We can tackle this problem together, if you pass the line-item veto," he said.White House budget director Joshua Bolten said the two approaches "go...

This is my first post to FreeRepublic. I have been lurking for a while. I am the author of www.bravetomorrow.com - a Bush supporting blog. Anyway, now that the introductions are over, I have a question for you all. I have heard President Bush talk about implementing a line-item veto that will pass judicial scrutiny. Does anyone know if it is possible to create such legislation? What was the primary objection of the courts to the first line-item veto? Thanks! PS. Please let me know if I did something wrong in my post. This forum system is terribly difficult to...