Of course this political power grabing ganbit is old hat; 'baffle them with B.S. remains the current standard...

But what if the mass media made a tremendous commitment to keep the public well informed; every bill introduced could be interpreted into language any layman could understand; regular TV programming is so often so lousy it would be a cheap thrill, if nothing else, to peruse our fine government's determined efforts...

Here one should consider how the bill extending the Assault Rifle Ban was never even voted upon; if there had been a vote, and the bill hadn't been extended, wouldn't the voters have given the boot to the clowns who voted against the ban...

Once upon a time a statesman likened gov. corruption to a destructive insect. If one should peel back the bark and find such a pest, than surely, if left to thrive in the dark, that scourge will multiply out of control...

And here one should consider how our big, bad Pres. Bush gets away with:
1./suspending regulations minimizing raw sewage discharges and requiring public notice of overflows, 2./suspending a rule prohibiting the fed. gov. from awarding contracts to companies that violate fed. laws, including environmental regulations, 3./suspending Forest Service regulations giving watershed health, wildfire, and recreation higher priorities than timber sales, 4./ suspending National Park rules phasing out smowmobile in Yellowstone and Grand Titon National Parks, 5./revoking a provision allowing the secretary of the Interior to stop new mines from being created on fed. land if they would result in "substantial irreparable harm" to people or the environment, 6./revoked the requirements that mining companies protect the waterways and clean up mine-related pollution, 7./ suspended a portion of the Endangered Species Act requiring the Fish and Wildlife Service to respond to private lawsuits seeking to add new species to the list, 8./ revoked Army Corps of Engineers regulations mandating the replacement of destroyed wetlands and banning the destruction of seasonal streams, 9./ held up for further study rules banning personal watercraft at 8 national parks, and 10./ revised Army Corps regulations stating that rivers and streams may not be used for dumping industrial waste, this in order to allow mining waste to be dumped...

And these instances are only the tip of Bush's huge, hellacious ice burg...

I think that nowadays "the people" are so intimidated by the "large scale of the issues" that they're only to ready to turn a blind eye--and besides (according to "modern thought") what can the man in the street do about anything anyway!!!

A Republican's take,

This was a post I issued on my blog and a few conservative message boards. I figured some of you might find it interesting:

I dunno if this is such a good idea…

President Bush wants Congress to act in order to grant him line-item veto power. The argument behind granting this power to the President is that he will then be able to use this tool in order to eliminate nonessential spending from Congressional bills, without having to outright veto important legislation.

The Republican controlled Congress granted President Clinton this power briefly in 1996, but shortly thereafter the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional. The White House now claims that the appropriate measures have been taken in order to ensure the constitutionality of this new proposal.

Now, earmark reform is certainly a HUGE issue right now, and we here at TDTW are all big time fiscal conservatives, but I personally don’t know if this course of action is the right idea. Not saying I’m against it necessarily, I’m just saying it makes me a little nervous. It just seems like a WHOLE LOT of power (possibly too much) to be just handing over to the executive.

Have no illusions, with the sweeping power to veto any part or parts of any bill passed by Congress, not this President, nor any thereafter him, will ONLY valiantly use this tool to strike down unnecessary pet spending projects. It will extend to more controversial spending proposals.

Also, you’re smoking crack if you honestly believe that the striking down of earmarks in legislation will take place across the board in a bipartisan fashion. Maybe initially, with all the media attention the first few exercises of this new power are likely to receive, but as time passes this new tool will quickly evolve into a weapon of leverage for the President to use in order to bully Congressional members into going along with his own agenda. As he will in essence have the power to threaten a veto to spending projects in the districts of Congressional members who oppose him on this and/or that, or who are critical to the conduct of his administration...while simultaneously turning a blind eye to ramped pork barrel spending proposals tacked onto bills by other members who are willing to walk lockstep with his initiatives.

Now seriously, ignore the fact that it is our guy who currently resides in the oval office at this moment, and take a look down the road a bit. Do we really want Hillary Clinton to one day have that much power? Or Russ Feingold, or John Edwards, or whoever the Dems choose to nominate in 08?

Also, do we honestly really want to give George Bush this much power? I don’t know about some of the other conservatives out there, but I am currently fed up with him on a number of issues, the biggest of which (for me anyways) being the continued tone-deafness of his administration in regards to the issue of border security. So far as I can see, the only ray of hope we have for tighter enforcement along the Rio Grande one day, is the possibility of enough momentum being built in Congress (and there are signs that this could possibly be happening) for them to overtake him on this issue and take the appropriate action whether he likes it or not. However, with the LIV tool strapped firmly onto his Presidential utility belt, Bush could possibly, through backroom strong-arming, indefinitely prevent this from happening.

As I said, I don’t know about this one. I too want serious reforms undertaken to reduce excessive port barrel spending, but I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this much of a power shift taking place between the two branches of government most responsible for keeping a check on one another.

I think if this proposal does go through…

-which, it just might, the public is demanding action be taken in order to cut down on earmarks, and Congressional Democrats who voted in favor of granting this power to President Clinton in the mid 90s are going to have a hard time explaining why they can’t now support the same right for a Republican President-

…line item voting rights should also be given to Congressional members in order to balance back the scales a bit. That way, every elected official at the national level could have the power to vote yay or nay on whichever piece, or pieces of legislation they choose. Plus, as a bonus, whenever called to account to explain their voting records, members of Congress will be then robbed of the copout of saying stuff like “Well, um, you know, there are often many parts of a bill that I do not necessarily agree with, but…”

However, I do acknowledge that if my idea were to be implemented, it would make following the day-to-day business of Congress even more hopelessly complex than it already is.

The neo conservite movement is try to take over our country.
The line item veto is another source for the power grab.

I am disgusted with the American public.

I think most people would not care if we lived under a dictator ship.It is disgusting that most Americans have no back bone.

republicans are republicans first and Americans second