NEW POWER FOR THE PEN

By Michael Kramer

IF ONLY WE HAD THE LINE-ITEM VETO. FOR YEARS--decades, actually--that wish has been a mantra. Editorial writers, good-government groups and all modern Presidents have wanted to give the Chief Executive the power to comb bloated budget bills and X out the most nonsensical portions, notably the pork-barrel provisions that members of Congress trade among themselves. In fact, straight-shooting members of Congress have been trying to give Presidents this authority since 1876. Forty-three state Governors have had it for years. Now, finally, the call is being answered. Last week the House and Senate approved a modified line-item veto bill. President Clinton will sign on soon.

Beginning next year, Clinton (or Bob Dole) will no longer be able to say, "Gee, I didn't want to fund this or that ridiculous giveaway, but it was part of an important larger bill I just couldn't reject." A tough President will be able to nix $1.4 million for a National Swine Research Center, or $1 million to study the brown tree snake, which is found only on Pacific islands, or other millions of dollars for, well, the list is endless. This is how it will work:

--Congress will pass a spending or tax bill and send it to the President.

--The President will have five days to list those items he views as objectionable and refuse to fund them.

--Congress will have 30 days to accept the President's decision or pass the offensive provisions again by majority vote.

--If it does, and the nettlesome portion is repeated, the President can veto Congress's action. Congress could then override the veto, but a two-thirds vote would be required--a near impossibility in the real world.

Opponents of the line-item veto, which they contend is unconstitutional, abhor the unprecedented shift of power from Congress to the President. "The control of the purse [by Congress] is the foundation of our constitutional system of checks and balances," says Senator Robert Byrd, who is legendary for directing wasteful spending to West Virginia. Byrd predicts that Presidents will use the measure to blackmail members of Congress into rubber-stamping White House plans out of fear for their own pet projects. That worry isn't entirely off the wall--Presidents play politics too--but it's more likely that Congress will adopt another pattern. To solidify support at home, members can be expected to fund all kinds of junk, secure in the knowledge that the President will torpedo their profligacy.

Although long overdue, the line-item veto is hardly a cure-all. The legislation is riddled with loopholes and will expire in eight years unless Congress extends it. Worse, the obvious pork in the budget amounts to no more than about $10 billion of all federal spending--less than 1% of the total. And getting a handle on the nation's true, long-term spending problems--the product of an aging population entitled to benefits for which there are increasingly insufficient funds--will have to wait for another day. The giant, budget-busting benefit programs, mainly Social Security and Medicare, which claim two-thirds of all spending, are exempt from the new legislation. Still, $10 billion isn't peanuts (another commodity that is subsidized undeservedly). Even in its flawed state, the line-item veto is a move toward fiscal sanity. Or, as Confucius might put it, beating back a $5 trillion debt begins with the first $10 billion.