Line-Item Veto Authority
A line-item veto would be a vital tool that President Bush could
use to target spending that lawmakers tack on to the large spending bills. When the President sees an
earmark or spending provision that is wasteful or unnecessary, he can send
it back to the Congress. And Congress is then required to hold a prompt up
or down vote on whether to retain the targeted spending. President Bush has submitted a bill that will be an effective tool for restraining government
spending because it will address a central dilemma created by unwarranted
earmarks. When Members of Congress are faced with
an important bill that includes wasteful spending in the bill, they have
two bad options: On the one hand, they can vote against the whole bill,
including the worthwhile spending, or they can vote for the whole bill,
including the wasteful spending. The line-item veto is a better way and it will be a vital tool to achieving federal spending restraint.
Fiscal Discipline & Managing for Results
In 2007, the President proposes to continue the successful pro-growth
policies that have encouraged robust economic growth and job creation. A
strong economy, together with spending restraint, is critical to reducing the
deficit. The FY 2007 Budget builds on last year’s successful spending
restraint by again holding the growth of overall discretionary spending below
inflation, proposing to reduce non-security discretionary spending below the
previous year’s level, and calling for the elimination or reduction of programs
not getting results or not fulfilling essential priorities. Like last year, the
budget proposes savings and reforms to mandatory spending programs, whose
unsustainable growth poses the real long-term danger to our fiscal health.
Restraining Spending and Cutting the Deficit
Through continued pro-growth economic policies and spending restraint, the
Budget keeps us on track to meet the President’s goal of cutting the
deficit in half by 2009. The Budget:
- Again holds the growth of
overall discretionary spending below inflation non-security discretionary spending
below the previous year’s level. and again
proposes to reduce
- Terminates or reduces
141 programs that are not getting results or not fulfilling essential
priorities, for a proposed savings of $14.7 billion, building on
last year’s success in which savings of $6.5 billion were achieved in 89
of the President’s proposals.
- Requests that Congress give
the President a Constitutional line-item veto. All savings from the
line-item veto would be used for deficit reduction.
- Projects the deficit will
decline from its projected 2004 peak of 4.5 percent of GDP ($521 billion)
down to 1.4 percent ($208 billion) in 2009, more than in half and well
below the 40-year historical average deficit of 2.3 percent.
The Long-Term Fiscal Danger
The greatest threat to our fiscal health over the long-term comes from
unsustainable growth in entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare,
and Medicaid.
- The Budget saves $65 billion
over 5 years by slowing the future growth of entitlement spending.
- In addition, it paves the way
for further reforms that will be needed over the longer term to bring
Medicare’s finances in line with available resources.
- The President will also
continue to promote comprehensive reform of Social Security to place the
program’s finances on sustainable footing for future generations.
Managing for Results
The Administration is ensuring programs achieve results and spend taxpayer
dollars wisely.
Federal agencies improved
their management practices last year, resulting in quantifiable savings and
better service to taxpayers. Federal employees have achieved success in improving
the way their agencies work:
- Eliminating $7.8 billion in
improper payments.
- Conducting competitive
sourcing studies of their commercial activities that upon implementation
will produce savings of $900 million per year.
- Completing an exhaustive
inventory of real property assets and anticipate disposing of $9 billion
in unneeded assets by 2009.