Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

John McCain, Evan Bayh team up on spending freeze bill (McCain wants to give 0 a line-item veto)
Politico ^ | 2010-01-26 | Meredith Shiner

Posted on 01/26/2010 12:05:08 PM PST by rabscuttle385

Sens. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) are jumping on the spending freeze bandwagon, calling on Congress to flatline discretionary spending—and they issued a challenge to the president the day after the White House proposed its own three-year budget freeze.

"If the president is serious—and I believe he is—he should also say tomorrow night he will veto the first appropriations bill that comes to his desk that has an earmark on it," McCain said.

The Fiscal Freeze Act of 2010, which Bayh and McCain hope to introduce to the Senate later this week, includes provisions to install a spending freeze and earmark moratorium until the deficit is eliminated, enforce the Congressional budget resolution as binding law and even create a constitutionally viable line-item veto to "give the President power to strike out wasteful earmarks and other extraneous spending items."

Both McCain and Bayh are up for re-election this year.

The senators’ announcement comes after a failed 53-46 roll call vote on creating a statutory deficit commission amendment and in advance of Wednesday's State of the Union address, when Obama plans to announce his spending freeze on non security spending.

When asked about his take on Obama's about-face on spending caps — and the president's accusation when he was a candidate that McCain was out-of-touch for suggesting just such a spending freeze — McCain commended the President's recent actions while gently chiding his rhetoric on the trail.

"I think the president understands now how serious this problem is, that it requires hatchets and scalpels. It requires a hatchet to get the budget under control and it requires a scalpel to eliminate wasteful and unnecessary spending," McCain said. "So I appreciate the fact that the president has changed his position since the campaign."

(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections; US: Arizona; US: Indiana
KEYWORDS: 111th; agenda; bayh; bho44; dnc4mccain; du4mccain; huffpo4mccain; kos4mccain; mcbama; mccain; mccain4obama; mccaintruthfile; mcinsane; mclame; mcstain; obama; obama4mccain; rino; rinomccain; rinos4obama
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 last
To: kabar

Oh well, that would have been the tie breaker on which one is more liberal ;-)


61 posted on 01/26/2010 1:18:00 PM PST by stephenjohnbanker (Support our troops, and vote out the RINO's!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 60 | View Replies]

To: rabscuttle385

Hey, if this pres. gets the line item veto, then the rest of them get it, too. Isn’t that a good thing?


62 posted on 01/26/2010 1:18:37 PM PST by Persevero
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Bahbah

“This is grandstanding.”

Effective grandstanding.


63 posted on 01/26/2010 1:32:44 PM PST by truth_seeker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: rabscuttle385; All
Arizona's RINO-Quisling continues to collaborate with the enemy...
Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
64 posted on 01/26/2010 1:55:19 PM PST by mkjessup (Hostile LaVista Senor' McCain (translation = tomorrow is going to be HOSTILE you SOB!))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

McCain proves once again, he is just as dumb as Obama on issues related to the Constitution.

Hope JD sends this bum packing.


65 posted on 01/26/2010 2:00:28 PM PST by Reagan Man ("In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rabscuttle385; Alamo-Girl
What garbage. McCain is only helping Obama defer the inevitable reckoning by deferring the effectiveness of this bill to 2011. Which gives Obama carte-blanche for reckless spending in 2010.

McCain is either a traitor to the American citizen/taxpayer, or a complete idiot. I don't know which.

Exactly why Sarah Palin is campaigning for him is another question altogether. From what I can tell, she'd be doing better to campaign for his primary opponent, J. D. Hayworth.

JMHO FWIW.

66 posted on 01/26/2010 2:41:20 PM PST by betty boop (Malevolence wears the false face of honesty. — Tacitus)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ari-freedom

What part of the line item veto do you believe only applies to earmarks?
Do you suppose DEFENSE SPENDING IS EXCLUDED?


67 posted on 01/26/2010 2:45:16 PM PST by G Larry (DNC is comprised of REGRESSIVES!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

To: Bahbah

Yes, it has been ruled unconstitutional. Mark Levin and his group looked into this extensively and concluded that that was a correct decision.

This is grandstanding.


Yes! And with his grandstanding, he is validating dear leader’s bogus deficit reduction efforts. Why does he always do this?!! What is McCain’s problem?!!!


68 posted on 01/26/2010 4:17:33 PM PST by Freedom56v2 ("If you think healthcare is expensive now, wait till it is free"--PJ O'rourke)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: bushwon

I just want McCain gone, for all the reasons I am sure you are well aware of.


69 posted on 01/26/2010 4:30:40 PM PST by Bahbah (Only dead fish go with the flow)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 68 | View Replies]

To: rabscuttle385
Line item veto was determined to be unconstitutional. What's different now?
70 posted on 01/26/2010 4:40:54 PM PST by altair (I hope he fails)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: allmendream
Are so many FReepers so short sighted and blindly partisan that they are FOR a line item veto when there is a Republican President, but AGAINST a line item veto when there is a Democrat President?

Not this FReeper. The Supremes said it was unconstitutional. I generally despise the men in office, but I love the constitution of the United States.

71 posted on 01/26/2010 4:46:00 PM PST by altair (I hope he fails)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: muleskinner
Unfortunately, Reagan lost one of the two houses of Congress in ‘82 and never had both houses under Republican majority for the restall of his Presidency.

Fixed that for you. The Democrats held the House throughout President Reagan's administration.

72 posted on 01/26/2010 4:52:10 PM PST by altair (I hope he fails)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Bahbah

He seems to have multiple personality disorder—sometimes he is tough on dear leader and acts like a conservative, then other times he is possessed by a RINO!


73 posted on 01/26/2010 4:58:13 PM PST by Freedom56v2 ("If you think healthcare is expensive now, wait till it is free"--PJ O'rourke)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 69 | View Replies]

To: Mr. K
The line item veto is GOOD - we WANT that

Um no, it's bad and it's unconstitutional. Only the House of Representatives has the ability to propose spending.

The real problems are votes before anyone has read the bill and omnibus bills in general. Sadly, both of those went by the wayside post the 1994 revolution.

To use as grim an example as I can think of ... line item veto is like spanking your child after he has run out into the street after a ball and been killed by a car. Budgeting is the House of Reps responsibility.

74 posted on 01/26/2010 5:00:43 PM PST by altair (I hope he fails)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: bushwon

I believe that the problem with McCain is that he is unprincipled and not really very smart. And he believes that government can and should be bigger because it makes him more powerful.


75 posted on 01/26/2010 5:05:49 PM PST by Bahbah (Only dead fish go with the flow)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

To: Congressman Billybob
McCain is only ten years behind the curve on this. Fool that he is.

Ahem

The 1986 bill was the Coats-McCain bill.

He was one of the primary sponsors and had been since Reagan had asked for it in his 1986 State of the Union Address.

And tonight I ask you to give me what 43 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. This authority would not give me any monopoly power, but simply prevent spending measures from sneaking through that could not pass on their own merit.

After the 1996 law was nullified by the Supreme Court, McCain attempted to resurrect it with versions that met their objections but was stopped by inner city Southern Senators with a vested interest in keeping the earmarks.

76 posted on 01/26/2010 5:31:44 PM PST by MARTIAL MONK (I'm waiting for the POP!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: altair
Yes, and they also said public taking for private use was constitutional.

We do not usually defer to their learned judgment on these matters.

The topic being the proposed NEW legislation, no doubt it would attempt to skirt the issues that the SCOTUS determined were unconstitutional.

Based upon the assumption that this new legislation would be found to be constitutional, are we supposed to be against it because it would be in the hands of 0bama, but would support it if it would have been used by Bush?

My point is that short term occupancy of the constitutional position should not determine the ideological outlook of the proper role and function of that position.

When Bush was presiding over a rather expansive view of the power of the executive branch I long cautioned “don't trust Bush with any power you wouldn't trust Hillary Clinton with”. It turned out to be 0bama, but the point stands none the less potent for that.

77 posted on 01/26/2010 6:12:30 PM PST by allmendream (Income is EARNED not distributed. So how could it be re-distributed?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: betty boop

Jeepers. Thanks for the ping, dearest sister in Christ!


78 posted on 01/26/2010 8:06:50 PM PST by Alamo-Girl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: rabscuttle385
juan reaching across to screamin pinko evanbye ???

say it aint so...oh wait...

79 posted on 01/26/2010 8:59:43 PM PST by Gilbo_3 (Gov is not reason; not eloquent; its force.Like fire,a dangerous servant & master. George Washington)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: allmendream
When Bush was presiding over a rather expansive view of the power of the executive branch I long cautioned “don't trust Bush with any power you wouldn't trust Hillary Clinton with”. It turned out to be 0bama, but the point stands none the less potent for that.

I did the same thing. Nine years ago the scariest prospect was that of a President Hillary!. Odd how things change.

80 posted on 01/27/2010 10:47:18 PM PST by altair (I hope he fails)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 77 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson