fullspinzoo wrote:
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/03/donald_j_bush_puts_pen_to_rotten_paper.html Donald J. Trump is entitled to one "screw-up" per year, and he just got his.
This is not a
screwup, it is a betrayal of the promises he made which induced most of us to vote for him. Defunding Planned Parenthood, funding and building the border wall, and balancing the budget. While the last item was never going to happen, to acquiesce without a fight simply doesn't cut the mustard. Trump's tweet about possibly vetoing the bill was pandering to his base, there was never a possibility he would veto. The Republicans, in congress, gave the Democrats everything they wanted and in the process, shot themselves in the foot. If they are not going to exercise fiscal responsibility I might as well vote for a Democrat an get in on the gimme programs.
DACA and immigration law changes, should not be par of a funding appropriation law, except to provide funding, if needed to effect whatever decisions Congress has made concerning those issues. The entire funding process smacks of secret conspiracy and backroom deals. Since the process is not defined in the Constitution and is an internal rule matter, changes can be mage by simple agreement, of Congress, to change their process.
There is absolutely no reason a permanent committee can not work on funding appropriations 100 percent of the time. Their proposed funding can be put on an internal network and each Congress person plus the President and Vice President, could review and rate each proposal as it is listed. They would check off one of three options:
Approved as is
Disapproved as is
Rejected needs revision. When the date of the funding vote arrives only those elements which are approved by the majority should be included.
The House could then exercise its prerogative to add items or remove them, with the proviso that changes must be completed one calendar month before funding approval deadline and posted on the internal network for review by the Senate. The Senates revisions would have to be completed no later than one week before deadline. At deadline only approved items should be included and any disputes are relegated to future funding bills. There is no imperative that funding be done all at one time.
This would have the effect of forcing Congress to exercise an internal line item veto. Political pressure, favors and party affiliations will continue to be a problem, but not being Solomon, I have no ideas on how to stop that.