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"Two years later, the Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional because it violated the principle that Congress, and not the executive branch, holds the power of the purse."

You want to know what the difference is now? My congressman(WI Paul Ryan, R), is actually one of the people involved with writing this new legislation. Our congressman actually told us about this new proposal yesterday at our county caucus.

This is what he told us.

The new law will allow the President to veto a particular line item, hand that line item back to the Congress for another vote, and then pass the rest of the original bill.

Remember the "Bridge to Nowhere"? The President could actually just veto that one line item and hand it back to the Congress and make them pass that particular line all by itself. Basically, the "Bridge to Nowhere" type items would be exposed to America, and then the Congress still makes the decision on whether on not the pass the individual line item. Congress would still be making the final decision on spending, as the Constitution requires, but all of the pork barrell projects would be exposed to America, and then that "Bridge to Nowhere" type items would have to pass a congressional vote on it's own, not piggybacked on the back of important legislation.

This time- the line item veto may actually work. Congress would still control spending, but the President can then expose these huge pork spending projects. Technically, the President is not really vetoing anything- he is just forcing congress to justify the pork projects to America and cast a new vote on a particular line item!