dang important. Because what it is is a backdoor line item veto. The bill will get passed, but the president would say, ” But money won’t be spent on this item here.”
And indeed, I sometimes think the President should have line item veto power, you know, like Governors have! Yes, it is dangerous. But there would be HUGE public visibility. And would have to trust that visibility to keep Presidential actions in check. Which is why we have not opened that Pandora’s box.
The issue is that the line-item veto gives a huge amount of power to the executive branch. And it takes away the best weapon the legislative branch has.
BUT, it is certainly good in terms of reducing spending and budget. But it does give the president rather super-legislative power. So yeah, it would be great as long as Republicans and deficit Hawks were in charge. But a president like Joe Biden would be terrible. Still, it could not be any worse than what we have now…
So the ratchet can only turn one way. The President can reduce spending or refuse to spend on certain things, but there is no way he can increase the spending. And since what a Democrat President would do and what a Democrat legislature would give him is the same, there is no danger of things going further because he has line-item-veto power.