Word: vetoes
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...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...
While a line item veto may work on the state level, it is highly unlikely that a president would ever get to use it on the federal level. Constitutional amendments are extremely rare, and there is far from a consensus in support of the item veto...
Opponents of the authority fear that it would be an unnecessary expansion of presidential power. A president with the power to veto individual appropriations could slash his opponents' favorite programs and leave intact his supporters' plans. Fearing for their re-election chances, legislators could become completely subservient to the executive...
...there is no guarantee that the veto would actually reduce spending. If a president wanted a program badly enough, he could blackmail congressional leaders into supporting him by threatening to veto their pet bills. The budget would then include the president's agenda as well as the Congress...