Free Republic

This Fourth of July, watching people fight over what the Constitution means, I ask people, if you could change the Constitution, what would you change?"The forefathers knew what they were doing," said one woman.But the Constitution originally accepted slavery. It's good that we can amend it.So what should we change?"Add a balanced budget amendment," suggests Glenn Beck.David Boaz of the Cato Institute recommends 18-year terms for the Supreme Court. "Maybe confirmation fights would be less bitter and partisan."Others suggest term limits for Congress. Stossel TV's Mike Ricci takes the idea further. "If your father, mother, siblings, uncle, cousins were elected...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has picked another fight with progressive corporate America, this time the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team. When he signed the state budget last week, Mr. DeSantis zeroed out $35 million to help build a new site for the Rays’ spring training. “I don’t support giving taxpayer dollars to professional sports stadiums, period,” he said Friday. This is a good policy that too few states emulate, and Florida taxpayers can be grateful that their Governor has a line-item veto and is willing to use it

Little Rock, AR, February 14, 2019 – Convention of States Action, the largest Article V grassroots organization in the country, is pleased to announce that today Arkansas became the 13th state to call for an Article V convention to propose constitutional amendments that impose fiscal restraints on Washington, limit its power and jurisdiction, and set term limits for federal officials. “We are very excited that Arkansas has become the 13th state to pass the Convention of States resolution,” said Mark Meckler, President of Convention of States Action. “This success is the result of incredible grassroots effort in conjunction with great...

<p>Acadiana lost $26.6 million in proposed construction projects with the stroke of Gov. John Bel Edwards veto pen Wednesday.</p> <p>Twenty-nine projects were part of the 40 items struck from the state’s annual construction budget by Edwards using his line-item veto authority.</p>

Plenty of Republicans remain bitter that their party passed that bloated $1.3 trillion omnibus—almost as bitter as President Trump, who felt pressured to sign it. But this fight doesn’t have to be over. Across Washington, principled conservatives are noodling with an idea that—if done right—could be a political winner. It’s a chance for Republicans to honor their promises of spending restraint and redeem themselves with a base turned off by the omnibus blowout. It’s an opening for the GOP to highlight the degree to which Democrats used the bill to hold the military hostage to their own domestic boondoggles. And...

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has urged lawmakers to give President Trump a line-item veto, saying on “Fox News Sunday” that it might prevent Democrats from stacking more nondefense discretionary spending into the next must-past budget bill. But Mnuchin’s short exchange with Fox News anchor Chris Wallace also underlined the problem with the idea — a 20-year-old Supreme Court ruling that struck down the line-item veto, finding “no provision in the Constitution that authorizes the president to enact, to amend or to repeal statutes,” after President Bill Clinton used it 82 times. “I think they should give the president a line-item...

o $12m for Scholarships for Lebanon o $20m for Middle East Partnership Initiative Scholarship Program o $12m in military funding for Vietnam o $3.5m in nutrition assistance to Laos o $15m in Developmental assistance to China o $10m for Women LEOs in Afghanistan o $1m for the World Meteorological Organization o $218m for Promoting Democracy Development in Europe (yep..the birthplace of democracy needs promoting) o $25m for International Religious Freedom o $10m for disadvantaged Egyptian Students o $1.371bn for Contributions to International Organizations o $51m to promote International Family Planning and Reproductive Health o $7m promoting International Conservation o $10m...

After today's fiasco, changes are needed. United States cannot afford this nonsense.There's too much waste and greed for things to continue as is.Congress has shown time and time again that it's out of control.This country needs to clean up it's act and either give the sitting President the power of a line item veto. Or send the government addicts home after 2 terms.What do you think? Also, end federal government pensions now!

There is nothing that expressly forbids a line-item veto. It is a common business practice. It is time for Trump to just DO IT. Refuse to spend on useless things. Obamacare, for example, is a multi-trillion -dollar failure.

The Republican-controlled House sought Wednesday to give President Barack Obama and his successors the line-item veto, a constitutionally questionable power over the purse that has been sought by Republican and Democrats alike. The legislation, expected to pass, would allow a president to pick out specific items in spending bills for elimination. Currently, the chief executive must sign or veto spending bills in their entirety. The president's choices for removal would then have to be approved by Congress. Congress has made several attempts in the past to enact line-item veto bills, saying that surgical cuts to spending bills are useful both...

Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., and three colleagues called Tuesday for the debt-reduction “supercommittee” to endorse a president’s authority to veto parts of the federal budget – a move that would appear to defy a Supreme Court ruling. “While a line-item veto alone will not solve our problems, it is a good start to help rein in excessive government spending,” Coats said in a statement. He was joined by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Thomas Carper, D-Del., and Mark Udall, D-Colo., in sending a letter recommending the line-item budget veto to the co-chairs of the 12-member House-Senate debt panel.

I just heard this on the news segment between Glen Beck's broadcasts, so it is otherwise unsubstantiated and probably has minor transcription errors. However, a politician that I did not catch the name of, was talking about some proposal that Obama made. I do not remember what the proposal was. I only remember the violent weapons imagery and the subsequent lack of 'civility'. The pol was quoted stating "The President's proposal, it's not like a bazooka.... it's more precise and focused, more like a rifle." When I heard this, I immediately realized that the Demoncrats are almost taunting us. Sarah...

Monday July 26, 2010 Gov. Christie Vetoes Millions to Planned Parenthood By Peter J. SmithTRENTON, New Jersey, July 26, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As New Jersey’s Republican Governor Chris Christie continues to fulfill a campaign pledge to restore state government to fiscal sanity, he has vetoed a bill that would have dedicated $7.5 million in state to “family planning” clinics, most of which are run by Planned Parenthood.New Jersey’s Star Ledger reported that Christie in his veto message said that “the state simply cannot fund every worthy program” and would not restore $7.5 million for family planning clinics that he...

When President George W. Bush called for a kind of line-item veto four years ago, the top Senate Democrat said it was like getting a "bad sore throat," and the No. 2 House Democrat called it "a sham." On Monday, President Obama asked them to reconsider and pass something very like it, for his sake.

Sen. Obama fought the idea three years ago. But President Obama's White House urged Congress on Monday to give it new leverage to cut specific budget items. Budget Director Peter Orszag requested that Congress pass a bill giving President Obama "expedited rescission authority." Essentially, he would be able to force lawmakers to reconsider earmarks and other spending projects they had just approved.

President Barack Obama plans to ask Congress for a tool similar to a line-item veto that would let him single out new spending for cuts. The president will send to the Hill before the Memorial Day recess a proposal for "enhanced rescission authority," under which he could propose cuts to a spending measure within 45 days after signing it into law, an administration official said. Congress would then have to vote on the president's cuts as a package that couldn't be amended, the official said. The line-item veto sought by past presidents would have let them strip specific items from...

Former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis joined Republican predecessors Pete Wilson and George Deukmejian in filing a friend-of-the-court brief Wednesday supporting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's line-item vetoes of $489 million in state spending this summer. The California Chamber of Commerce, the California Taxpayers Association and the California Business Roundtable also signed the amicus brief. Schwarzenegger used his line-item veto authority to cut the funds out of the July budget revision, which he said was necessary because the Legislature failed to pass the entire deal he negotiated with legislative leaders behind closed doors. Lawmakers left the budget slightly in the red, and Schwarzenegger...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to line-item veto more than $600 million in state programs to rebuild California's reserve fund when he signs a budget revision today. The cuts will not include a fourth state worker furlough day, Schwarzenegger's office said Monday. The governor's signature on an $85 billion general fund budget should conclude California's months-long dispute over how to bridge its latest shortfall and, leaders hope, ultimately end the state's reliance on IOUs. Schwarzenegger will exercise his line-item veto authority after the Assembly last week rejected nearly $1.1 billion in solutions that legislative leaders and the governor had negotiated...

Barack Obama’s smirk is wearing a bit thin. It’s tiresome to watch this man smile like the Cheshire Cat while lying to our face and treating us like children. Monday he signed a spending bill so crammed with earmarks even ABC News labeled it a $410 billion pork-laden spending bill.” As he signed this monstrosity Obama said “behind closed doors and away from the glare of the cameras.” The secrecy attached to Obama’s massive spending bills is something we have to live with. But if Congressional Republicans standup and fight for America’s future we might begin to slow this steamroller...

A bipartisan group is giving the line-item veto another go at it, albeit with some key tweaks, more than a decade after the Supreme Court struck down the procedure as unconstitutional. Sens. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and John McCain, R-Ariz., and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., on Wednesday will announce the introduction of a Line-Item Veto Act, which would enable the president to strike individual items like earmarks from a spending bill before signing it. The White House has signaled that it is open to the idea. Asked about being given that authority, spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters last week: "Well, I...