What’s the worst budget idea ever? Ah, there’s so many to choose from – but the line item veto has got to be a finalist for the honor, at the very least. And now Senators John McCain, Tom Carper, Dan Coats, and Mark Udall are pushing the Joint Select Committee to revive it, as The Hill’s Vicki Needham reports. I guess that means it’s time for a reminder: the line item veto has nothing to do with cutting spending or making spending smarter; it’s just a transfer of power from Congress to the president.

Forget, for a moment, that most federal spending doesn’t actually have “lines,” and so would be immune to the line item veto. And forget too that the courts have ruled it unconstitutional (the current version is rigged up to avoid that problem). It’s the entire concept that doesn’t make any sense. Giving the president a line item veto would be just as likely to increase government spending, including wasteful or politically motivated spending, as to decrease it. That’s because the White House could – and almost certainly would – use the veto as a bargaining chip to insist that appropriators, and Congress in general, approve the president’s various spending preferences. Which might well be generous support for projects in, say, the critical electoral college states of Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, for starters. Nor would the president only use line item veto threats to secure appropriations; a smart president would find it easier to bully Members of Congress on any issue by threatening to use the veto selectively against their pet projects.

In other words, giving the administration a line item veto mostly just encourages the President to act as Logroller-in-Chief. Yes, if the president happens to be stingier with the federal purse than Congress, then giving him or her stronger powers would tend to cut spending – but if it’s Congress that happens to be tight-fisted, then the president will use those same powers to loosen their grip. Historically, presidents are at least as likely to want to spend as Congresses.

It’s just an awful idea. On the budget, there’s really no reason to believe that the Framers (and subsequent norms and laws) got the balance between the legislature and the executive wrong, so there’s no reason to shift power away from Capitol Hill. And make no mistake: that’s what the effects of the line item veto would be. Not changing spending. Just empowering the president at the expense of Congress.

[Cross-posted at A plain blog about politics]

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Jonathan Bernstein is a political scientist who writes about American politics, especially the presidency, Congress, parties, and elections.