Legislative Line Item Veto Act of 2006

LEGISLATIVE LINE ITEM VETO ACT OF 2006

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, this bill has nothing to do with fiscal responsibility. If we were interested in fiscal responsibility, we would not have passed the tax bill just a few minutes ago that adds, over the course of just a few years, trillions of dollars in new deficits without any way to pay for it.

Mr. Speaker, 5 years ago we had a $5.5 trillion 10-year surplus. Now those 10 years look like they are going to come in at about a $3.5 trillion deficit, a $9 trillion reversal. If this bill had been in effect during those years and the President had used his new powers the way we might hope, we might have saved a few hundred thousand dollars, a few million, maybe even a few billion, but that is negligible compared to the $9 trillion reversal. And that is if the President used the new power in a fiscally responsible manner. Nothing in the bill prevents the President from using his new powers to coerce even more irresponsibility, such as using it as a hammer to coerce Members to support new tax cuts without paying for them.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, on the tax provisions, the bill only allows the President to veto teeny weeny, little targeted tax cuts, but does not allow him to veto huge, gargantuan, irresponsible, unpaid-for tax cuts.

Mr. Speaker, this path to fiscal responsibility is paved with hard choices. This ineffective gimmick is not one of them. We should reject the bill.

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