Robert Hurt: Fixing a broken budget system
At a time when we in the House have been waiting on the Senate to take action and join our focused agenda of enacting measures that would reduce our staggering $15 trillion debt, the Senate acted – but they acted in a way that was dismissive of their responsibility to the American people and in direct conflict with the necessary goal of passing a budget in order to restore our country to fiscal sustainability.
Though Congress is legally required to pass a budget each fiscal year, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that the Senate would not allow a vote on a fiscal year 2013 budget resolution – marking the third straight year that the Senate has abdicated its legislative duties and not passed a budget. Continue reading “Robert Hurt: Fixing a broken budget system” »
Balanced budget amendment fails in House vote
A measure proposed by Sixth District Congressman Bob Goodlatte that would set into motion a process to amend the United States Constitution to require that Congress pass a balanced budget fell short today of the two-thirds majority needed for passage.
“It is a simple concept – you can’t spend more than you take in,” Goodlatte said in a statement after the vote. “Business owners, individuals and families all across this country understand this concept and live by it in their own lives. They should expect nothing less from the federal government, and yet Congress continues to prove it cannot make the tough decisions on its own. We must rein in the skyrocketing deficit spending that is discouraging investment and threatening to bankrupt our nation.”
The final vote was 261 in favor of the amendment and 165 opposed.
The measure failed in large part due to Democrats voting against it in large numbers.
A similar measure introduced by Goodlatte in 1995 passed the House and fell one vote short of passage in the Senate.
“I remain committed to passing a balanced budget amendment,” Goodllate said. “I appreciate the strong support H.J. Res 2 received from dozens of Democrats, and I look forward to working with them in the future to build even more support for this much-needed institutional reform. It is the only way to ensure that Congress curtails its spending on an annual basis regardless of which party is in control.”
Chris Saxman: Cold Fusion-Eminem Edition
So the big debtbacle is finally over.
You wish. This is just the start. This is the new normal. Everything from here on out will be negotiated until the final hours. That is until we set the debt and fiscal trajectory on a better path and for a period of time up to the final passage of the Balanced Budget Amendment. Then the negotiations will spill over the deadlines and the new outrage will not be whether or not there is a surplus but how large is it.
A generation from now.
It will take a generation of time to change to new normal. This is not quite the “fundamental transformation” the president had predicted. But it is coming.
Greater restraint on government power is coming. It’s long overdue and it will take time so that the societal transition is not nearly as disruptive as it could be. A dramatic transition out of massive entitlements will not happen. Think of a long glide path – like a plane landing after flying at 38,000 feet. It. Takes. Time.
But…but….
Look. There is no more money. The bill is due. The party is over and the hangover is upon us. From here on out the path to recovery and renewal is reform.
If you think for a second that the next generation of political leaders is not willing to make the hard and sometime dangerous decisions that were nearly made this week, then I dare say you should look to retire to Costa Rica.
Washington DC has been changed, but not by the president who ran a brilliant and inspiring campaign in 2008. No, it was changed by the winners of the election 2010.
The health care legislative battle was won by Obama in Old Washington, the debt ceiling battle was won by those who had nothing to lose – in New Washington. Out manned in a political structure 2 to 1, the minority won. Big. Big Big.
The narrative will try to be turned on them as to how irresponsible they were and how they should not play chicken with the economy, the full faith and credit of the United States and their political careers. Maybe it will stick…probably not.
They got sick and tired of being sick and tired and said “not to my kids and grandkids you don’t.”
The songs of the 60s and 70s were reflective of the realities of the youths who wrote them.
Fast forward to today’s music. Much of it is useless noise but some artists capture the times. Few do it as well as Eminem.
Eminem (a.k.a Marshall Mathers) asks during the introduction of his hit “Lose Yourself”
Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity
To Seize Everything you ever wanted, in one moment
Would you capture it, or just let it slip
Raw and powerful lyrics from a new generation. Not the stuff of 1968 to be sure.
The uninformed will say “Yeah, but Eminem is just a kid from Detroit.”
That kid turns 40 in October. Like too much of his generation, Mathers learned life the hard way with a father gone before he was two and his beloved uncle committing suicide via a shotgun to the head before Eminem was 20.
The children of Vietnam and Watergate are going to have their turn at the plate and they don’t plan on drawing a walk or bunting to get on base, they are going to swing for the fences or die trying.
Yeah, but home runs are so hard to hit….yes, a 95 mph four seam rising fastball is impossible to hit 400 feet.
Taking a political piece of maple to the federal budget for the sake of their children’s future is like hitting watermelon off of a tee.
Those recently awakened to the cold reality of the kids who grew up watching Dirty Harry say “Go Ahead, Make My Day”, are going to be astonished at the clarity and purpose of the next generation.
They really don’t care – about themselves. They care deeply about their kids and they are going to make damn sure that they have a future in this world. Just watch when the issue of K-12 education spending comes up. If it comes down to the Pentagon or K-12 funding, bet on the schools – every time.
Very few rappers write lyrics worth a plug nickel. Eminem, however, does with stunning clarity and jarring anger. The now born again Christian is “down with the Bible” and writing songs with Old Testament verses. That would be the “eye for an eye” portion of the most popular book in human history.
The new normal is under way. Everything is on the table.
Reform of our governing policies will be the new grail. Every politician worth their salt will be looking at new and improved ways of delivering essential government services to those who truly need help.
This is not easy sledding by any stretch of the imagination but thankfully the states have been leading in this effort for decades. They’ve had to because they have had deadlines for balanced budgets. They have no escape hatches. They have to deal with the cold, hard reality of the battle between revenues and costs.
The next generation knows all too well cold and hard realities. Making those decisions will not take very long for them. It won’t require polling or focus groups.
They are fine with the idea to “Lose Yourself.”
How serious were the winners of the Great Compromise of the Summer 2011?
Many of them didn’t even vote for it!
The next battle is over the federal budget that is due to be passed by the beginning of the fiscal year – October 1st. Buckle up and start the office pools again.
Did I mention that Eminem is a Born Again Christian?
“For The Times They Are A Changin….”
Irony noted.
Column by Chris Saxman
Robert Hurt: Fighting to change the spending culture in Washington
Over the past several weeks Washington has been seized with the issue regarding the President’s request to raise the nation’s debt ceiling.
The dynamics of the potential economic ramifications, my commitment to cutting government spending, and the political realities of a divided government in Washington underlined this debate.
After listening to and communicating with many of my constituents, I decided that it was in the best interest of the people I represent to support the final agreement, the Budget Control Act, which passed the House and Senate with bipartisan support and was signed into law by the President this past week.
Last November, 5th District Virginians sent a clear message that we must put an end to the reckless government spending in Washington that has led to a crippling $14 trillion debt and $1.5 trillion deficit. HYPERLINK “http://email.address-verify.com/q/BlVBBR1rbb9wAlsl918HqNtihz9tdJiE41HzdxsA-IUMrGiGLoZ_-6QIZ” hurt.house.gov or call my Washington office: (202) 225-4711, Charlottesville office: (434) 973-9631, Danville office: (434) 791-2596, or Farmville office: (434) 395-0120.
Since the start of the new 112th Congress, the House has delivered on this message by consistently fighting to change the spending culture in Washington.
As I have said from the beginning, I would only consider the President’s request for an increase in the debt ceiling if a plan was put in place that adhered to the principles of Cut, Cap, and Balance. And while this agreement does not go far enough, I believe it lives up to those principles and moves the ball forward.
This plan is not the final answer to our debt crisis, but it implements historic spending reforms that actually shrink the size and scope of the federal government and does so in spite of a Senate and White House that have remained committed to continuing the current spending status quo.
Instead of providing the President with a blank check to raise the debt limit and instead of allowing massive tax increases on our job creators, the House changed the terms of the debate.
Now, Washington is cutting spending by a larger amount than the increase in the debt limit. Now, enforceable spending caps will be put in place and for the first time in fifteen years, the House and Senate are guaranteed to vote on a balanced budget amendment. And now, we will address Washington’s spending problem without imposing job-destroying tax hikes on our families and small businesses.
This plan is not perfect, but is a step in the right direction to move an inflexible Washington towards accepting true spending reforms and forcing the government to live within its means so that we can get our fiscal house in order to help grow the economy and create jobs for all 5th District Virginians.
If you need any additional information on these or any other issues, please visit my website at
Robert Hurt is a United States congressman.
Riane Eisler and Kimberly Otis: The debt, women and our future
What do women really want from our President? This is a question President Obama should be asking if he wants to keep his job for another term — which hinges on the women’s vote. His campaign emphasizes the appointments of very talented women: Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, Elizabeth Warren to launch the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; and other outstanding women to top Cabinet posts; such as Secretaries Hillary Clinton, Janet Napolitano, Kathleen Sebelius, and Hilda Solis.
But such accomplishments do not begin to go far enough. For one thing, by authorizing major cuts to traditionally women’s jobs in education, health care, and family planning, the President allowed an assault on women’s economic status and health-care access. Moreover, he allowed opponents to divert the conversation about economic recovery from the millions of unemployed and the massive increase in Americans in poverty to an obsessive focus on reducing the deficit through government program cuts. And because women comprise the vast majority of public-sector teachers, nurses, social workers, caregivers, and others being laid off, women are now bearing the brunt of job losses.
These shortsighted and cruel cuts are not only harming millions of people and their families; they will soon harm us all. With health, education, and poverty alleviation programs being scrapped, our nation is undermining the most important asset for our economic future: the “high-quality human capital” economists tell us is essential for success in our post-industrial knowledge/service economy. Yet instead of educating the public about this, the Administration has itself started to talk about job creation exclusively in the private sector – with no mention of the havoc being created by gutting employment in the public sector, or of its dire future consequences.
Instead, the Administration joined “the sky is falling” talk about the deficit, failing to point out that our federal debt (roughly equal to our annual GDP or about $14 trillion, a ratio of 1-to-1 according to the most alarmist calculations) is actually far lower than our debt to GDP ratio during World War II. It is also far lower than that of many other countries. Japan had a 2.25-to-1 debt to GDP even before the massive earthquake and tsunami disaster. Certainly we have to watch our national debt, especially because so much of it is owed to foreign nations. But it must not be used as the rationale for cutting essential services or for a wholesale firing of public employees, much less as an excuse for demonizing unions, without which we would not have had a middle class.
As television and radio host Larry King stated recently, “The average guy isn’t sitting today in a diner going ‘Oh, the deficit.’” Instead we’re supposed to genuflect to the “wisdom” of the old boys clubs on Wall Street and the Chamber of Commerce about the importance of addressing the deficit through spending cuts alone to jobs which provide needed human capital. Continued focus on cutting teachers, health care workers, and other traditionally female jobs will not address the stalling of the economy, but instead will mean a lot more pain and no gains for a lot more people both in the short and long term.
We’ve got to also debunk clichés about a typical American family sitting around the dinner table being better at understanding how to balance a budget than officials in Washington. In reality, most Americans’ mortgages average about $172,000 – more than four times the $40,000 average annual salary. College students also amass heavy debts with student loans, but few would encourage young people to forgo the enormous future value of a higher education. Moreover, businesses routinely take on substantial debt in order to invest in future research and development that produces a high return. As Sally Kohn reported in her USA Today op-ed, “IBM borrows twice as much money as it earns annually. Boeing borrows four times more than it earns. JP Morgan Chase… borrows 50 times more than it earns … If the U.S. were borrowing anywhere near as much as Chase bank, we’d have legitimate reason to worry. But in general, borrowing money is necessary to invest in the future — whether the future of a business or the future of a nation.”
With the recent announcement of an opening for a new Chair of the President’s Council on Economic Advisors, there is an opportunity for the Administration to re-direct the conversation to what has been ignored at our peril: the urgent need for investing in our nation’s human infrastructure. And choosing a woman who understands these vital matters could go a long way to applying the fundamentals of economics in a more balanced way. We need the voices of women to talk about what really counts: increasing the real wealth of our nation by investing in its human beings.
Riane Eisler is best-selling author of The Chalice and the Blade and most recently of The Real Wealth of Nations and founder of the Center for Partnership Studies (www.partnershipway.org). Kimberly Otis is a women’s rights advocate and Director of the Center’s Caring Economics Campaign.
Warner introduces spending accountability, transparency proposal
U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) today introduced legislation that increases federal fiscal transparency and accountability by establishing a single web-based platform to allow taxpayers and policymakers to more easily track all federal spending. The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA) is a Senate version of legislation introduced earlier this week by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
The proposal combines and incorporates the best of the Office of Management & Budget’s USASpending.gov website as well as the stimulus-tracking website Recovery.gov, and consolidates data from all federal spending including grants, contracts, loans and expenses of federal agencies. The legislation also establishes consistent standards for reporting this spending data by agencies and recipients in a standard format.
“Standardizing the way this information is reported, and then centralizing the way it’s publicly disclosed, will make it a lot easier to identify needless duplication and inefficiency and help us spot and prevent waste and fraud,” Warner said. “This legislation is an example of how Washington is supposed to work. It builds on the work of the Office of Management and Budget and the Recovery Board as well as the work of Chairman Issa in the House. By working together in a bipartisan way, we will create a powerful new tool that further empowers taxpayers and policymakers and changes the way the federal government does business.”
The DATA Act:
Establishes a universal standard of recipient reporting for money received from the federal government directly to an independent database. This has widely been credited as the key to the success of the Recovery Board in catching and preventing fraud, waste, and abuse in stimulus spending.
Collects agency expenditure data and combines it with the recipient reported data. This will allow agencies, Congress, and citizens to discover waste and inefficiency in government and highlight issues that result in improper payments.
Creates a permanent successor to the Recovery Board, to be designated as the Federal Accountability and Spending Transparency Board (FAST Board).
Directs the new FAST Board to establish common identifiers and consistent reporting standards for all federally collected data.
Warner, Webb join in effort to ensure retroactive pay for furloughed federal workers
U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) and Jim Webb (D-Va.) filed legislation today that would ensure that federal workers receive retroactive pay for the duration of a potential government shutdown.
Currently, federal pay is suspended in the event of a funding lapse or government shutdown, and retroactive payment for “non-essential” and “essential” employees must be specifically approved by Congress.
“Federal employees, including up to 90 percent of the civilian workforce at the Pentagon and thousands of other federal employees across Virginia, could be sent home without pay during any government shutdown,” Sen. Warner said. “These employees provide critical support for our ongoing military operations, including humanitarian relief in Japan, and they should not be penalized for Congress’ inability to resolve our political and policy differences with a short-term spending bill.”
“Federal employees who were furloughed through no fault of their own should be paid,” said Sen. Mikulski. “Dedicated civil servants should not be scapegoats for the decisions of politicians. They should be paid retroactively and I believe they should be paid in a timely way. I oppose this Tea Party shutdown. I am for cuts. I have reformed spending. I have initiated cuts. I believe we need a more frugal, efficient federal government. But it can’t be done through serial CRs on the back of federal employees.”
“Marylanders who work for the federal government do not deserve to be locked out of their jobs and lose pay because lawmakers cannot agree on a budget,” said Sen. Cardin. “These are real people with families who are hurting and a shutdown is not of their making. I want to make sure they are not penalized by the inability of Congress to pass a budget.”
“Individuals who dedicate their lives to public service should not have their livelihoods threatened due to Congress’ failure to execute its core function of funding the government,” said Sen. Webb. “For that reason, as a matter of fairness, this legislation will ensure that federal workers are compensated for any wages lost if the government is forced to shut down.”
Jill Hanken: Ryan budget proposal is an outrage
The health and well being of low and middle income Americans is being threatened by the Budget Resolution proposed by Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.). It would slash income and opportunity for millions of regular American families while shifting trillions of dollars to the wealthiest individuals and corporations.
Will your elderly relatives need Medicaid for their nursing home or other long term care? The proposal would turn Medicaid into a fixed block grant, forcing states to either pick up more health care costs or cut their programs. Virginia’s Medicaid program serves nearly one million elderly, disabled, children, and pregnant women each year. A full 70% of Virginia’s Medicaid spending is for elderly and disabled people. But our program is already one of the leanest in the country, now ranked 48th in the nation in per capita Medicaid spending. A block grant would make Virginia’s program even more restrictive.
Do you expect to get Medicare when you turn 65? The proposal radically changes Medicare, turning it into a government voucher program for private insurance for seniors who enroll after 2022. This will eliminate current coverage protections and certainly raise out of pocket costs.
Do you know any unemployed workers who needed food stamps to keep their kids fed? The proposal would also convert SNAP/food stamps into a fixed block grant to states, eliminating the program’s ability to respond to economic crises, such as a recession.
Do you want to send your children to college? The proposal would drastically cut Pell Grants for over nine million low and middle-income students. Many simply won’t be able to get a college degree. Other educational programs from pre-school through high school and technical training are also on the chopping block.
This proposal is completely lopsided. Two-thirds of the cuts come from programs that provide essential services to low and middle income populations. At the same time the resolution gives more tax cuts to millionaires, billionaires and big corporations.
Ryan’s budget is not a balanced approach to long term deficit reduction. It is an outrage which should be rejected
Jill Hanken is a staff attorney with the Virginia Poverty Law Center.
Warner, Webb join group urging Boehner to avoid government shutdown
A group of 16 moderate Democratic senators, led by Mark Udall of Colorado, today sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, urging him to prevent a shutdown of the federal government that would hurt our country’s still-fragile economy and distract from the need to work together to address greater, long-term fiscal challenges.
The senators agree that addressing the nation’s debt requires urgent action, and they added their voices to those who are extremely concerned that a minority in the Republican Party are pushing for a government shutdown solely to assert a political point.
In addition to Mark Udall, the letter was signed by Tom Carper (D-Del.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Jim Webb (D-Va.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Bob Casey (D=Pa.), and Chris Coons (D-Del.).
Not only would a shutdown distract Congress from focusing on a comprehensive, bipartisan approach to debt reduction, economists have warned that it would stunt productivity, erode confidence in the U.S. economy and hamper job growth, the senators wrote. At a time when the economy is still recovering, they said, the federal government and Congress “should be single-mindedly focused on supporting economic development and job growth.”
Senate Democrats have shown significant flexibility, agreeing to Republicans’ original proposal to keep the government running through the year while protecting jobs.
“Knowing that a bipartisan deal is within reach to cut tens of billions of dollars from current funding levels, it would be irresponsible to shut down the government and punish our constituents solely to assert a political point,” the senators continued. “We stand ready to resolve this short-term funding debate in a common-sense way and work with you on tackling the even more daunting fiscal challenges our country must confront. The American people expect no less.”
Susan Shaer: Money and values from Congress and the President – hard choices
Are you clued in to the current slashing and burning going on in Washington? The new Congress is trying to settle on a federal budget that should have been voted on last fall. President Obama unveiled his idea for the next budget on Monday. How do you think they are setting priorities? After all, our federal budget shows what we value, doesn’t it? What we care about as a country? So what does our president’s budget care about?
President Obama’s federal budget for our next fiscal year revealed that almost all of Secretary of Defense Gates’ recommended Pentagon “cuts” (really restructuring and a reduction in the rate of increase) will be consumed by increased war spending. The total Pentagon budget planned for 2012-2016 shows virtually no change between this year and last year’s projections.
This year, President Obama does face an incredibly steep challenge –growing deficits and debt. The fall election made it clear that fiscal conservatives, Tea Party candidates, and backers demand deep spending cuts to address this. Despite promises from President Obama that everything would be considered for cuts – this is not true for the Pentagon.
Worse, the new Republican-run Congress proposes that this year’s spending be cut back by $100 billion. To do this, they are proposing draconian cuts to everything except military spending.
Yes, we need a strong defense but also a reasonable one. Horrified hoards responded when they learned we sent troops to Iraq without proper body and vehicle protection. Ironically enough, we are currently spending about one hundred billion a year in Afghanistan – the same amount that Congress is proposing we find by cutting needed domestic programs. Critics still remind Congress that we are not protecting our ports or transportation systems here at home. These are not examples of a reasonable approach to defense.
Recent polls show that most Americans would juggle the budget deficit/debt problem differently than what President Obama proposes. Congress, however, does not ordinarily hear this message. They ignore their constituents. On the subject of the military industrial complex, members of Congress heartily agree with the military contractors instead of those individuals who vote for them. Recent analyses acknowledge that military contractors recognized immediately that when the Cold War was over their gravy train had ended. They needed a new strategy for survival and growth. So they developed one by making parts of weapons systems in every congressional district in the country.
There are prices to be paid at every level for this kind of thinking. Job training, science research, higher education, National Institutes of Health, heating aid for the poor, nutrition programs for children – the list goes on and on. These programs will help us to economic recovery. These programs are where we need to invest in order to have a hope of competing in the coming decades. The President’s plan would freeze many of these programs at last year’s spending levels, while the Pentagon is gobbling up way over half of the overall discretionary budget.
We need to stop mindless unchecked spending on bloated Pentagon programs that feed defense contractors while starving real economic and security needs. Let’s be winners with our American values. Do we choose weapons and war, or do we insist on real security, a growing economy and a healthy environment?
Susan Shaer is executive director of Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND), a national activist organization working to redirect excessive military spending to unmet human and environmental needs.
David Cox: Quiet progress
Lately, the federal deficit has been decreasing its increasing.
With all the hype over burning Korans, building mosques, protesting Tea Partiers, not to mention the triumph of good over evil of the Redskins beating the Cowboys a week ago Sunday, you might have missed that point of some, if small, consolation.
So I’ll repeat: The monthly deficit is growing but at a slower rate. The Treasury Department reported a decrease in August of 12% with what it had been in August, 2009. July’s improvement was just over 8 percent, and in June the decrease was 27.3 percent from the year before. Individual and notably corporate income taxes are heartening. So while the deficit grows, at least it’s not growing at the rate it was.
There’s more news that might have gotten smothered.
Numbers of illegal immigrants in the United States decreased by a million or more by 2009, according to many reports, from 12 million to 11.1—and well below the 13 million that Congressman Goodlatte quoted on this page last week. In Virginia, the Washington Post reported, the numbers went down by 65,000 to 240,000 between 2008 and 2009.
After a terrible summer, the stock market has lately resumed its slow upward climb.
Many of those bailed-out companies have been repaying what the government provided, with interest. In retrospect, the move that started under President Bush was an investment that not only propped up (if not saved) the economy but also gave a good return to taxpayers. Turning a profit might not be the government’s job, but in this case, it sure beats the alternative.
Just before Labor Day, President Obama assembled leaders of the Middle East, notably of Israel and Palestine, for talks on bringing peace there. The talks were civil, productive, and may actually lead somewhere; and they have continued. This is huge, for reducing tensions and increasing stability would give less for radicals to protest and more for moderates to advance.
Let’s not forget that combat troops withdrew from Iraq (you probably heard that) and Iraq hasn’t yet collapsed. Though far from resolved, let’s recognize another step forward.
Many of the fears of a year or two ago have vanished. Remember how the new President was going to take away guns? Or that he would ban bullets, such that there was a run to stores to stockpile them? Didn’t happen.
Of course far too many Americans lack good jobs. Illegal immigrants number about a third more than a decade ago. Craziness still upsets relations between Israel and Palestine. War continues in Afghanistan. A monthly deficit adds to too-high levels. Our world is not nearly as perfect as we wish it were.
But the sky is not falling, either. Those who claim it is, notably for partisan gain, may be rushing around conveying their fears that they don’t look up to see if, just maybe, the sky is doing OK. Or maybe they don’t want to. Especially if they’ve based their lives or their political careers on breeding fear.
For all our troubles, the sky isn’t falling. The monthly deficit is. Those are both worth noting.
Column by David Cox. This column originally appeared in the Sept. 22 issue of The Rockbridge Weekly.
Robert Hurt: The legislative line-item veto
Posted by afp on February 15, 2012 · Leave a Comment
One of these measures was H.R. 3521, sponsored by Representative Paul Ryan, which would grant the president the authority to veto wasteful spending provisions in appropriations bills and send such provisions back to Congress for an up or down vote to reduce the deficit. Continue reading “Robert Hurt: The legislative line-item veto” »
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