One Budget Bill, but with Congressional Line Item Veto (disapproval) so that only line items with 50+% approval are adopted. A workable alternative to all-or-nothing Omnibus Legislation.
The Presidential Line Item Veto was ruled unconstitutional in 1998 as an abdication by Congress of its responsibility to create the budget. Congress responded with Omnibus Bills that require taking bad proposals (pork) with the good/necessary budget items. Legislators are left with no accountability for passing the bad and wasteful components.
It is completely impractical to require legislators to vote on each line item separately, but we can restore accountability, and reduce overall spending, by allowing legislators to disapprove any line item in the omnibus proposals, so that only those line items receiving 50+% are passed on to the other house and the presidency for adoption.
This could be adopted as a rule in the House alone, or in both the House and the Senate, or as full blown legislation.
In 1998, this would have been perceived as an unworkable proposal, but with today’s technology, it would be a relatively simple process to keep a running electronic tally of which legislators approve/disapprove each line item.
Put a L.I.D. on wasteful spending with Line Item Disapproval!
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Agreed Tom. I’ve been saying it for ages. I say take it a step further. As You wrote, technology is here, and this can be done easily. I would propose that this concept be extended to the people as well. We the people approve or disapprove line item as well. Obviously, the legislature would have no obligation to vote this way, but it would provide a sort of barometer come election time. everyone who had input would know to what extent their legislator agreed with them… or not. Indicating it may be time to place a vote elsewhere.
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