Originally posted by donwhite
If by “line item” you mean the “line item veto” then you can forget that. For better or ill, that would give the president nearly ALL power! As it is now, Congress can put in items it thinks necessary and provided it contains enough to make the president want it, then he’ll sign it or let it become law without his signature. Line item veto is completely inconsistent with PRO state’s rights or small (say weak) government thinking.
Actually, I was thinking of nothing even remotely resembling a p-Residential veto (and the p-Resident would be completely irrelevant in my ideal situation at that early phase).
[hypothetical Example: Question #1,296: Should the Schwarznegger Act dated March 23, 2015 be repealed? Yea or Nay] Then tally the Yeas and Nays and write up the passed Bills or Act#2016 (which should number something less than or equal to the total number of line-item votes taken, I would think).
It would be at this phase that the Executive branch would [likely line-item veto subvert in the current dysfunctional system] kill the process, sending that line only back to Congress (for a 2/3 majority OVERRIDE) or else off to its legislative grave.
Think of it as Constitutional "speed voting" (something like speed dating) in the interests of efficiency and very short legislative sessions.
Gone would be the "attached" "pork riders" that hold up Bills for months or years on end. The votes would be a (possibly very long) list of Yes/No questions (with very little room for discussion). We wouldn't need quite so many lawyers and career politicians that way either.
I actually think that local "town councils" or much more States' rights are a better idea too. One might as well work on the "most broken" parts of Washington first, right?
That whole "unread factor" especially applies to the outgoing administration and current Congress. If they had much less to read, I would think they could do a somewhat better job. I'd just like to see the "legislative process" "leaned up" by orders of magnitude.
I'd be for kicking that archaic Electoral College "to the curb" pronto, too. (How many countries have one of those vestigial, inefficient dinosaurs?)
