Um, It's Unconstitutional Too

This isn't really a post-mortem on the SOTU from last night. This is more a point of order from last night's speech. Which I didn't watch. I know how irresponsible of me. But I can hardly listen to the President for 5 minutes let alone listen to him butcher the English language for nearly 2 hours.

Then there's the spending issue.

The president said, "I am pleased that members of Congress are working on earmark reform," a comment which caused Sen. John McCain to clap and bounce his head like Goofy on crack. "And we can tackle this problem together, if you pass the line-item veto.

No, Mr. President. We can tackle this problem if you would just use the veto power you ALREADY possess. You have yet to veto a single spending bill, including that earmark-loaded Porkapalooza highway bill last summer. You didn't need a line-item veto to erase the Bridge to Nowhere. All you needed was a Bic pen. You could have borrowed mine.More from Human Events

First I will tackle the quote. Mr. President, The United States Supreme Court already declared the line item veto to be unconsitutional. Bill Clinton had use of the line item veto from 1997 - 98 until the Justices got a chance to rule. The majority, 6 - 3, opinion stated: "there is no provision in the Constitution that authorizes the president to enact, to amend or to repeal statutes". In other words, if Congress passes a law or bill you, Mr. President, have to sign all of it or veto it.

Which leads us to the second point in the article snippet above, from a self-proclaimed Conservative publication by the way, President George W. Bush has never vetoed a single spending bill in 5 years. Mr. President I appreciate the fact that you don't, or at last say you don't, want bills loaded up with pork for special interests - like bridges to islands in Alaska that have 50 people living on them - so do your job. Veto the bill. Make Congress rewrite it without the pork.

I know lots of people who wish they could only pay taxes or have their federal income taxes used for certain things - mine would go to arts, education, roads and job training - however that is not the way the laws are written. We pay taxes. Congress decides how to spend them.

So, Mr. President here is The Constitution of The United States of America which you have sworn to uphold. Read it. Love it. Careful though, there might be some stuff in there about wiretapping that you might not like.