It's like the Olympics, or Haley's Comet

Apparently, every ten years we give the President the ability to legislate.

I didn't have a blog in 1996. I'm not actually sure that anyone did. But I didn't agree with the line-item veto then, and I certainly don't agree with it now. Granted, this newest version isn't as powerful as Clinton's brief foray into legislating, but it still undermines the process.

Nobody likes pork-barrel projects except congresspersons. Often times the people they benefit don't even care; they're just there to enhance image and waste some of the trillions the government has to spend.

But that doesn't mean we need to upend the democratic process to get rid of them. Pork is there because legislation is all about compromise and consensus. Sure, one party holds sway most of the time, but consensus is still necessary. Senators barter. Representatives bargain. If you give the President carte blanche to eliminate the fruits of those bargains, it dampens the entire process.

Example: Barbara Boxer wants funding for tree-huggers in Marin, and Trent Lott isn't terribly interested in helping her out. But she says she'll stop opposing some conservative social issue if he'll fund her pet project. They agree. Now, Lott didn't necessarily need Boxer's actual vote for the budget, because he's got the majority. But now he can count on less of a media fuss about his issue, so in their eyes, everyone wins.

Now enter the President, who thinks tree-hugging is for pinkos and vetoes that item out. Congress--Republicans out of principle and some Democrats out of anti-pork feelings--agrees and easily votes to agree. The end result is that Boxer has lost her half of the bargain, because we let the President muck around.

It's a simplistic example, I know, but I threw it together in 10 minutes. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter who heads up the Executive Branch (even if it's me); that's not one of the powers of the President, and it tips the scales too far in his already-lopsided favor (executive orders, anyone?).