The DC Examiner beat me to the punch this morning, but the point is important enough to be spread far and wide: President Bush can wipe out billions of dollars in wasteful spending with the stroke of a pen (emphasis added):
President Bush and Republican members of Congress have a critical choice to make and very little time left in which to do it. For Bush, the choice is whether to issue an executive order directing federal departments and agencies to ignore earmarks that aren’t explicitly included in the legislative text of the recently approved $515 billion omnibus spending bill. As we noted a week ago in this space, the Congressional Research Service has advised Congress that such an executive order would with the stroke of a pen kill the thousands of earmarks that are routinely “air-dropped” into the federal budget via committee reports on spending bills. This is because the Constitution requires that all federal expenditures originate in the House and be approved by both chambers of Congress. Committee reports aren’t and so are not binding on the executive branch.
Now the merits of this are beyond question, but there is a significant political upside for the President on this. He would accomplish several things at once (besides the obvious in saving taxpayer money and stopping the government from doing things it should not do). Some of them, the Examiner mentioned, so I think it’s only fair to cite them:
Talk of a lame duck in the White House would cease because Bush would gain leverage to force Congress to stop talking about federal spending priorities and actually establish them. He would also bequeath to his White House successors a powerful precedent. If Congress resists, the issue will be starkly drawn for voters in an election year. The thought of Bush on the campaign trail speaking against those who opposed his effort to kill earmarks ought to be sobering. The executive order would be Bush’s finest hour and a worthy legacy on domestic issues.
As for Republicans in Congress, a Bush executive order against earmarks is probably their last slim chance to prove their claim to have gotten the message of 2006.
There are two things the Examiner editors left out: (1) it would be a nice way for the President to rebuild credibility with the Republican base – said lack of credibility being the real reason his approval rating remains doggedly below 40%- and (2) it would provide a perfect reminder of just what the Constitution allows the government to do and what it doesn’t – thus providing a terrific bridge between the majority of Republican voters and the Ron Paul supporters, both within and outside the party.
The only drawback is that Senate Republicans - who, as the Examiner noted, are still “talking and voting for earmarks as if the 2006 elections never happened” – would be nonplussed. Well, given that nearly half of there seats are up for grabs in the upcoming elections, I’m guessing they’ll keep their complaints to themselves.
Mr. President, this is the one issue that would at last give you the political upper-hand against Congressional Democrats, because it’s the right thing to do. Please, issue that executive order; cancel the earmarks; and bring us at least part of the way back to limited, constitutional government.
Cross-posted to the Republican Liberty Caucus of Virginia
January 2, 2008 at 2:45 pm |
[...] more likely to go along with the “old Bulls” (McConnell et al) who as the DC Examiner put it, are “talking and voting for earmarks as if the 2006 elections never [...]