Word: vetoes
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...five-year economic boom, the resurgence of patriotism. Then the President also planned an ode to the Nicaraguan "freedom fighters." And of course there was a section of budget-deficit blues, a put- the-blame-on-Congress thumper ending with that ancient standard: the call for a line-item veto...
...hoary number for the better part of a decade, the tune did not originate with him. Ever since Ulysses S. Grant in 1876, Presidents have asked Congress for the power to reject individual appropriations without wiping out an agency's entire budget. Reagan has argued that a line-item veto would allow him to rein in the big spenders on Capitol Hill and bring down the deficit. Says a White House aide: "What we're talking about is changing a pattern of behavior that has existed for a long time...
...Capitol Hill, Reagan's case for the line-item veto suddenly seems a little more convincing. "I used to think the line-item veto was the stupidest idea in the world," says Stephen Bell, former staff director of the Senate Budget Committee. "I was wrong." Republican Senator Bob Packwood of Oregon thinks Congress will eventually be forced to pass the reform. "We're going to be ridiculed into doing it," he says. "I've come to the conclusion that we are not going to be capable of governing ourselves." In discussing the veto, Senator Ted Kennedy recently said something...
...while a line-item veto might help diminish budget pork, it would have only a negligible impact on the deficit. Huge chunks of the budget -- Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement programs, which total more than $325 billion -- are granted automatically and do not require annual % reauthorization. Other spending measures, such as agricultural support programs ($26 billion), are politically sacrosanct. And while some Democrats might be ready to chop away at the $298 billion in defense spending, substantial Pentagon cuts would be unlikely under any Republican Administration. Thus, spending that is truly discretionary (read politically negotiable) amounts to less than...
...Arabs who are citizens of Israel joined their brethren in the occupied territories in a general strike. The United Nations Security Council registered its indignation by voting 14 to 0 to "strongly deplore" the Israeli tactics. The U.S., Israel's most loyal defender, abstained rather than veto the resolution, marking one of the few times the U.S. has failed to back Israel in the Security Council. What particularly upset the Reagan Administration was Israel's use of live ammunition in confronting protesters. "Order must be maintained without the use of lethal force," declared State Department Spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley. "Techniques...