Time to push for the line item veto again.

[editec]

I like it.

Congress wouldn't go for it.

Of course they won't.

Then they can't force the opposition to vote against bills with high ideal sounding names.

We know the game. Create a bill that everyone can sign onto..call it the Mom and Apple Pie Defence Act.

Then load that bill up with earmarks and pork that has absolutely nothing to do with defending Mom and Apple pie.

If the opposition objects, you win because you can claim that the opposition is opposed to Mom and Apple Pie.

If they don't object, then you get your pork-bill passed

Both teams do this all the time

It's a system they're happy with. It saves them from having to explain to their constitutents why they passed laws paying for bridges to nowhere.

OTOH, if every spending bill had to stand alone as a unique piece of legislation, they couldn't hide pork in bills having nothing to do with that spending, could they?

They couldn't trade off teat-for-tat pork spending to keep their constituents happy, either. This is the system for the Rs and Ds do their dirty compromises such that it isn't obvious.

They'd have to vote on each specific spending bill openly, and then the public would know how much money is being wasted on pork, and by whom.

 

[glockmail]

Of course they won't.

Then they can't force the opposition to vote against bills with high ideal sounding names.

We know the game. Create a bill that everyone can sign onto..call it the Mom and Apple Pie Defence Act.....

So what? The Prez can stand on the bully pulpit and call re-name it himself, call it the Trojan Horse Act, and create a few clever sound bites of the massive pork that the Bill actually contains.