I propose that the following amendment be approved by Congress and sent to the States for ratification:
Section 1.
The President may approve any appropriation and disapprove any other appropriation in the same bill. In such case he shall, in signing the bill, designate the appropriations disapproved; and shall return a copy of such appropriations, with his objections, to the House in which the bill shall have originated; and the same proceedings shall then be had as in case of other bills disapproved by the President.
Section 2.
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
History:
President Bill Clinton was given this power by Act of Congress in 1996 which he used 82 times. This Act was struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional in 1998. Subsequent measures of Congress have failed to reinstate the line item veto.
The line item veto is a power that the governors in 43 States are able to wield to reduce unnecessary government spending.
Bill Clinton on Oct 6, 1997 saved taxpayers $287 million using the line-item veto power just one time in one bill. He used this power 82 times while he was President. It was under his presidency that he was able to generate a government surplus.
It is time, (past time really) that the highest executive office in the is able to check unrestrained government spending by Congress, but allowing appropriation bills to pass but removing the unnecessary or bloated appropriations from those bills. Keep in mind, that any appropriation the president vetoes gets sent back to Congress and they have the power to overrule the president’s veto just like they can currently over rule a presidential veto if he vetoes an entire bill. Why do 43 States think that their governor should have this power but the President should not?
In light of the government waste such as the money taxpayers paid to Ghana to conduct a study on whether seat belts and helmets save lives, or the money spend on transgender monkeys are both items that could have been vetoed by the President allowing the bill they were attached to to be signed into law. Our federal budget is FILLED with these types of wasteful appropriations. If we want an economically efficient and fiscally responsible government, then line-item veto power is a major tool that could help towards that but has to be done by constitutional amendment because previous attempts have been struck down as unconstitutional since there is no grant of power for it in the current Constitution.