Line Item Veto Won't Balance Budget

LINE ITEM VETO WON'T BALANCE BUDGET

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, over the next couple of days we are going to hear a lot from House Republicans about how they are finally being fiscally responsible by giving the President a line item veto. The House Republicans are kidding themselves if they believe this will reverse the fiscal collapse they have presided over the last 5 years.

If House Republicans were really interested in restoring fiscal discipline here in Washington, they would have adopted a 2007 budget that actually balanced the budget in the coming years. Instead, the House Republican budget actually makes the deficit worse, offers no plan to bring the budget back in balance, and adds to the growing burden of the national debt. Thanks to these Republican budgets, the five largest deficits in history will have occurred in these last 5 consecutive years.

Giving President Bush a line item veto will not change the course. Instead, we need to go in a new direction. House Democrats offered an alternative that balanced the Federal budget by 2012. Our proposal also restored pay-as-you-go rules that were so successful in turning deficits into surpluses in the 1990s. Democrats offered a fiscally sound plan, but Republicans rejected it.

So much for Republican fiscal discipline.

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