April 9, 1996
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT SIGNING OF LINE ITEM VETO BILL
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release April 9, 1996
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT SIGNING OF LINE ITEM VETO BILL
The Oval Office
11:15 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: I want to welcome Senator Nickles and
Congressmen Cardin, Spratt, Goss and Solomon here; Governor Romer; Ed
Lupberger, the Chairman of the United States Chamber of Commerce;
Marne Obernauer, the Vice Chairman of the American Business
Conference; David Keating, the CEO of the National Taxpayer Union; Al
From from the Democratic Leadership Council; and Fred Greenstein, a
distinguished presidential historian from Princeton who has also
supported the bill I am signing today.
It gives me great pleasure today to sign into law the
line item veto. This is a bipartisan achievement that has been long
sought by presidents, long supported by members of Congress and by
governors. It will help us to cut waste and to balance the budget.
For years, presidents of both parties have pounded this
very desk in frustration at having to sign necessary legislation that
contained special interest boondoggles, tax loopholes and pure pork.
The line item veto will give us a chance to change that, to permit
presidents to better represent the public interest by cutting waste,
protecting taxpayers and balancing the budget.
We all know that this is needed because too often, as
vital bills move through Congress, they can become clogged with items
that would never pass on their own. Presidents often have no choice
but to sign these bills because of their main purpose. This new law
will give the president the power to cancel specific spending items
and specific tax loopholes that benefit special interests. These
proposals can then be debated and subject to an open vote on the
floor of Congress. A fresh air of public accountability will blow
through the federal budget.
This law gives the president tools to cut wasteful
spending, and, even more important, it empowers our citizens, for the
exercise of this veto or even the possibility of its exercise will
throw a spotlight of public scrutiny onto the darkest corners of the
federal budget.
I have advocated the line item veto for a long time.
When I was governor, I used it, and it helped us to balance 12
budgets in a row. Forty-three of our 50 governors have the line item
veto. Governor Romer is with us because so many of the nation's
governors have supported this measure for so long. The line item
veto will help us to bring common sense to our Nation's Capital, just
as it has to state capitals all across America.
Let me say, I am particularly pleased that this measure
received support from both parties, working together for the public
good. That's the way we should meet all of our challenges in
America, and it's the only way we can balance the budget in the right
way.
I am very proud that we have cut the deficit in half
since I took office. The line item veto will help the president cut
the budget deficit even further. But we have to pass a seven-year
balanced budget and to do it in a way that reflects our fundamental
values. The Congress and the Executive Branch have now identified
over $700 billion of savings common to both plans. That is more than
enough to balance the budget and have a modest tax cut.
So I hope that we can do what we did with the line item
veto -- work together and pass a good balanced budget plan. That
will bring these interest rates down, it will reassure the financial
markets, and it will keep economic growth going in the United States.
Let me say in closing before I sign the bill that it is
customary for a president to give the pens he uses to sign a bill
into law to those who did the most for its passage. So I am honored
today to send the very first four pens that are used here to the
former presidents who also made the line item veto their cause
--President Reagan and President Ford, President Carter, President
Bush. I thank them and our country thanks them. Their successors
will be able to use this power that they long sought to eliminate
waste from the federal budget, to advance our values and protect our
priorities as we move into the 21st century.
Thank you.
(The bill is signed.)
Q Doesn't this transcend the Founding Fathers'
separation of powers and give the president too much power?
THE PRESIDENT: I don't think so. We've worked hard to
-- we anticipate that it will be challenged. We've worked hard to
provide for a means for it to be resolved quickly. But this leaves
ultimate hands in the authority of the Congress. They can take all
these separate issues back and vote on them separately. And I think
all of us believe that as long as that is done, that we don't violate
the constitutional separation of powers doctrine.
And the Constitutions of our various states are modeled
pretty closely on the federal Constitution. They all have separation
of powers documents, and the governors have had this authority in
almost all the states and have used it well and without any upsetting
of the constitutional framework.
As long as the practical impact of this is to force
these matters to be considered separately I don't think there's any
question that it's not a violation of the separation of powers. Now,
of course, others in authority and the Judicial Branch will have
their opportunity to say differently, but I believe it will be
upheld.
Q Mr. President, what's the latest word you have on
the situation in Liberia? And will you be forced to order Americans
evacuated from Liberia?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, let me say, first of all, since
the -- for the last several days we've been keeping very close watch
on it. We have a number of Americans there in Monrovia, and we have
put in place the pieces necessary to do everything possible to assure
their safety. And we're watching it very closely. We have not made
a decision -- I'm not sure we should make a decision from here on
their evacuation. We're working with the embassy and we're being
guided in significant measure by what they know to be the facts on
the ground there. But we have tried to put in place backup measures
which would permit us to protect the Americans as quickly as
possible, should that become necessary.
Q Have you received any assurances on their safety?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we've done the best we could. You
know, it's hard for anybody to assure their safety in the sense that
conflict is going on in the Capitol. But we believe that we've made
the right decisions so far with regard to their situation, and we're
watching it very closely.
Q Mr. President your critics of the line item veto
have said that it will allow a president to wheel and deal with a
senator or a congressman or a group of senators or congressmen, and
to threaten them with this power. What could you say -- not to
question your integrity or whatever -- what would you say to the
American people that you would not, and your successors would not,
abuse this power?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, every power given to
the Congress or to the President or to the courts is, I suppose,
susceptible to some abuse, and we have a system of checks and
balances there. My argument is, number one, there's obviously some
negotiations that go on over legislation all the time now -- and
almost always, by the way, fully reported by you and the press,
whether we like it or not. (Laughter.)
Number two, keep in mind, the protection the members has
is that if the President goes overboard and says, if you don't vote
for me on some other bill, or this bill, I'm not going to allow your
project in here -- if the President started doing that and it was
unrelated to the real merits of the underlying spending provision,
then I believe the Congress would respond by passing these bills
separately.
Keep in mind, the ultimate protection the Congress has
-- if the President abuses his authority, the ultimate protection the
Congress has is the clear ability to have these bills voted on
separately and publicly. And then the President's veto gets singled
out. The President could veto it, that spending bill again, too.
Then the President would be ultimately held accountable by the
people, through the reporting of the process in the press.
And let me also say that I found -- you know, I was a
governor for quite a long time before I came here, and what I found
was -- and I'm sure Governor Romer could corroborate this -- is that
once this mechanism is in place and people understand that the
Executive is prepared to use it, it becomes necessary to use it less.
That it's main benefit after a few years is that it exists in
reserve, because it changes the whole shape of the budget
negotiations and makes these bills less subject to this sort of
catch-all spending.
Now, it will take some years, perhaps, for that to
happen here, but we are doing this for the long run. None of us who
have supported this -- and I'm sure the representatives from the
business groups, the taxpayers unions and others would say the same
thing -- none of us have ever pretended that this was some sort of
miraculous cure-all. But we believe it will put discipline into this
budget and it will really help over the long run to give the American
people a kind of budgeting process they need, as well as reducing
waste and helping to move the budget into balance.
Thank you.
Q Are you sure you will be using it next year?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, that's up to the bosses out there.
But I'll tell you this, I was more than happy -- the majority in the
Congress wanted to wait until January to put it in, for their own
reasons, and when I was asked about it, without a moment's
hesitation, I said yes. That was a reasonable compromise for me.
I think this is so important that we shouldn't -- if
they want to take it out of the context of this year's election and
the fall's budget negotiations, I think it is so important to get
into the law for the long run it was fine with me. I was very happy
to do that. I don't have any problem with it. We did it. It's the
right thing to do, and it's been done, and we did it together, and
that's the way we ought to do more things.
Thank you. (Applause.)
END 11:28 A.M. EDT
