Word: item
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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While the majority of Congressmen are opposed to the line item veto, there are a few, including Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D.-Mass.) and Sen. Joe Biden (D.-Del.), who feel that the authority is a legitimate way to reduce the deficit...
...several candidates, including Vice President George Bush, Sen. Robert Dole (R.-Kas.), and Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis have joined with President Reagan in favoring use of the line item veto to reduce the deficit. Bush has even included the item veto in one of his campaign commercials, saying that "Congress is against the line item veto. That means it's probably a pretty good idea...
Although the power has never been granted to the president, the item veto is commonly used in the United States. Forty-three states give governors item veto authority, and Congress has, in the past, granted the authority to the governors of many American overseas territories...
...logic behind a line item veto is simple. By putting the entire federal budget into a single omnibus spending package, which the president must ratify in its entirety or veto (thereby shutting down the complete federal bureaucracy), legislators can insert a number of pork-barrel expenditures to please their constituents and improve their re-election chances. That is simply the nature of the legislative beast...
...president exercised item veto power, it is unlikely that legislators would override the veto and openly support such ridiculous expenditures on their...