So far it looks like Barack Obama is getting off to exactly the type of a start he promised the American public when he was campaigning. His chosen cabinet is a mixture of Democrats and Republicans who collectively form a body that Obama will be able to rely upon for quality advice about almost anything. Like many Americans I have my reservations about some of his choices for cabinet posts, but it is clear that Obama wants a cross section of ideas coming at him from his advisors.
Contrary to previous newly elected presidents he began working on his plans and programs immediately after the election results came in. It is uplifting to see this at a time when the nation is experiencing such a multitude of problems. Even more refreshing is the sense that Obama is a sincere, honest public servant who has what is best for the nation at heart. Although he hasn’t taken office yet he appears to be working harder as his term approaches than it looked like Bush had worked in the entire time he was president. To be honest, we must admit that this is an illusion. Obama is maintaining a much higher profile than Bush ever attempted. This doesn’t mean Bush didn’t work, but it does reflect Obama’s intent of transparency.
It will be a nice change to have a president who discloses how things get done, especially after having had for the last eight years someone who relied so heavily upon secrecy. This is actually a simple difference in how they operate, but it produces a tremendous amount of trust—and the American public desperately needs to be able to trust its leader today. In fact, having a leader we can trust is the only way some of the things we need to do will get done.
One thing that would greatly help our system would be the line item veto. With this one tool a President can prevent countless pork from being shoe-horned into law by taking a piggy back ride on some bill that doesn’t have anything to do with what that pork issue is about. The line item veto could be just the scalpel the President needs to cut extraneous issues from new law proposals. It would also allow the President to sign into law any bill that makes perfect sense for America which he would normally have to veto because of some non-related rider that has been tacked onto the bill.
Without the line item veto any political party can set the president up to fail by attaching pork barrel projects or extraneous financing issues to a bill that the President had fostered and would normally sign into law, but would be forced to veto because of the riders on the bill. It would also increase the President’s power in government. No congressional body in the past has been willing to pass the line item veto into law because they were afraid he would use it. It is the “let’s regulate ourselves by granting someone more power over us” gambit. But if it were passed, the line item veto would be good for the country.
Before the line item veto can come into play we would have to have a trustworthy President. Not merely a President that America can trust, but one that both parties will trust beyond the party line platforms. We have had them before but it has been a long time. And the cold war of palace politics that our system’s design was supposed to prevent has become so ingrained in each party’s makeup that Senators and Congressmen/Congresswomen have been reduced to little more than warriors for their parties. This takes up so much of their time that they can hardly get any constructive work done.
Part of the change that Obama talked about while campaigning was to change the very nature of how things get done. It takes way too long to get a bill passed now because of backroom deal- making and horse trading for votes for this and that. This amounts to logrolling at its best, or worst, as the case may be. Most economists will tell that you can always trust congress to do the wrong thing. This is why Keynesian economics hasn’t worked well in the past. When it was a good idea for the government to spend money to stimulate the economy, it has always taken so long in committee for congress to produce spending measures that by the time the spending hits the economy, the economic cycle had turned and the need for the injection of money into the system had disappeared. Therefore the spending wound up feeding inflation instead of countering the recession.
In the hands of a conscientious President the line item veto could go a long way toward streamlining this process so that the original intent of the economic stimulus package could be realized. It is still a long shot but if anyone can get the line item veto, it is probably Obama. It will be interesting to see what’s happening with the economy as Obama’s presidency proceeds.
Contrary to previous newly elected presidents he began working on his plans and programs immediately after the election results came in. It is uplifting to see this at a time when the nation is experiencing such a multitude of problems. Even more refreshing is the sense that Obama is a sincere, honest public servant who has what is best for the nation at heart. Although he hasn’t taken office yet he appears to be working harder as his term approaches than it looked like Bush had worked in the entire time he was president. To be honest, we must admit that this is an illusion. Obama is maintaining a much higher profile than Bush ever attempted. This doesn’t mean Bush didn’t work, but it does reflect Obama’s intent of transparency.
It will be a nice change to have a president who discloses how things get done, especially after having had for the last eight years someone who relied so heavily upon secrecy. This is actually a simple difference in how they operate, but it produces a tremendous amount of trust—and the American public desperately needs to be able to trust its leader today. In fact, having a leader we can trust is the only way some of the things we need to do will get done.
One thing that would greatly help our system would be the line item veto. With this one tool a President can prevent countless pork from being shoe-horned into law by taking a piggy back ride on some bill that doesn’t have anything to do with what that pork issue is about. The line item veto could be just the scalpel the President needs to cut extraneous issues from new law proposals. It would also allow the President to sign into law any bill that makes perfect sense for America which he would normally have to veto because of some non-related rider that has been tacked onto the bill.
Without the line item veto any political party can set the president up to fail by attaching pork barrel projects or extraneous financing issues to a bill that the President had fostered and would normally sign into law, but would be forced to veto because of the riders on the bill. It would also increase the President’s power in government. No congressional body in the past has been willing to pass the line item veto into law because they were afraid he would use it. It is the “let’s regulate ourselves by granting someone more power over us” gambit. But if it were passed, the line item veto would be good for the country.
Before the line item veto can come into play we would have to have a trustworthy President. Not merely a President that America can trust, but one that both parties will trust beyond the party line platforms. We have had them before but it has been a long time. And the cold war of palace politics that our system’s design was supposed to prevent has become so ingrained in each party’s makeup that Senators and Congressmen/Congresswomen have been reduced to little more than warriors for their parties. This takes up so much of their time that they can hardly get any constructive work done.
Part of the change that Obama talked about while campaigning was to change the very nature of how things get done. It takes way too long to get a bill passed now because of backroom deal- making and horse trading for votes for this and that. This amounts to logrolling at its best, or worst, as the case may be. Most economists will tell that you can always trust congress to do the wrong thing. This is why Keynesian economics hasn’t worked well in the past. When it was a good idea for the government to spend money to stimulate the economy, it has always taken so long in committee for congress to produce spending measures that by the time the spending hits the economy, the economic cycle had turned and the need for the injection of money into the system had disappeared. Therefore the spending wound up feeding inflation instead of countering the recession.
In the hands of a conscientious President the line item veto could go a long way toward streamlining this process so that the original intent of the economic stimulus package could be realized. It is still a long shot but if anyone can get the line item veto, it is probably Obama. It will be interesting to see what’s happening with the economy as Obama’s presidency proceeds.
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