March 23, 2000

Cato scholar testifies, "line item veto is one of taxpayers’ best friends"
Taxpayers have far too few friends in Washington already

"On balance, the line item veto had worked as intended before it was struck down by the Supreme Court," Cato director of fiscal policy studies Stephen Moore testified before the House Judiciary Committee. There is no doubt that the line item veto had helped reduce wasteful spending, Moore explained to the panel. "It has shown itself to be one of the taxpayers’ best friends—and Lord knows, taxpayers have far too few friends in Washington already."

"In 1997 President Clinton used this new budget-cutting tool 82 times to delete unnecessary expenditures in 11 spending bills. The total savings came to nearly $2 billion over five years. Two billion is not an insignificant level of savings—even by Washington standards."

"In 1988 President Clinton used the veto to eliminate funding for such absurdities as a $2 million Chena River dredging project in Fairbanks, Alaska, to benefit a single tour boat operator; a $1 million corporate welfare grant to the Carter County, Montana, Chamber of Commerce; and $900,000 for a Veterans Administration cemetery the VA says it doesn’t need."

"It is precisely to purge the budget of these kinds of white elephant projects that the public demanded and Congress approved the line item veto."

Moore’s recommendation is to enact a constitutional amendment providing for a presidential line item veto with a two-thirds override provision. "Determining whether money appropriated by Congress is or is not actually needed is, in my view, an appropriate executive branch function."

The Line Item Veto