I am just as amazed as many of you that I am about to say this, but Sen. Russ Feingold has done something right.
Sen. Feingold has teamed up with U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., in an attempt to restore some sort of fiscal sanity to the federal budget by providing the president a line-item veto. Congressman Ryan's previous attempts to enact a line-item veto for the removal of earmarks have met with mixed success — he was able to pass the bill in the House last session, but it never reached the floor in the Senate.
This time seems to be different.
With the addition of such a liberal icon as Sen. Feingold, the new legislation may actually get a vote in the Senate this time around. The problems that caused a previous line-item veto bill to be struck down by the Supreme Court have ostensibly been fixed, and the newly elected Democrat-controlled Congress ran on the platform of fiscal responsibility.
Under the proposed bill, the president would be able to pull out earmarks from legislation and send them back to Congress for an up or down vote. Such a provision would require that earmarks would finally be exposed to the light of day, and members of both parties would have to justify their wasteful spending. The legislation is so brilliantly simple that one would think that this will be a perfect storm, and we stand now on the edge of an historic end to pork barrel spending.
Unfortunately, this legislation — no matter how needed and deserving — will never reach President Bush's desk.
It isn't that Rep. Ryan and Sen. Feingold aren't willing to fight for it. Mr. Ryan has made this part of his issue platform since his first election in 1998, and Mr. Feingold has stood alone in the Senate on principle before, and I suspect he is willing to do so again. The problem is that the Democrat leadership in the House and Senate doesn't want to do anything about pork spending because it is a source of their power.
As evidence, one need look no further than the supplemental appropriations bill for the war in Iraq that is set to reach the president's desk next week. On a bill that should do no more than fund the soldiers serving in Iraq, the Democrats used billions of dollars of earmarks — including $100 million of next year's Republican and Democrat national conventions — to win approval for "redeployment" deadlines that in effect micromanage the war. Such a bill would never have passed were it not for the ability of Democratic leaders using pet projects to in effect buy votes for a dangerous agenda.
The leadership will not willingly give up a potent tool that can be used to push through controversial legislation. The Republican leadership refused to in the Senate last session, so why would the Democrats do so now?
The hunger for pork barrel spending is not a Democrat problem. It is a problem that affects both parties and was responsible for 13,496 earmarks that accounted for billions of dollars in unnecessary spending in 2005, according to the federal Office of Management and Budget. Some of the earmarks include the now-infamous "bridges to nowhere" in Alaska and a $50 million rain forest at the University of Iowa.
I am pleased to see two members of Congress, normally on opposite sides of every issue, come together for needed reform. I am proud that both men are from Wisconsin and are carrying on our state's progressive tradition of limited and accountable government.
Still, they will have to fight a tough uphill battle if they are to ultimately pass their bill. I won't hold my breath that it gets through the current Congressional leadership, but I hope that Rep. Ryan and Sen. Feingold will continue to fight for fiscal responsibility and someday put an end to irresponsible and wasteful spending.
Mike Hahn ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in history and political science.
