Congressman Paul Ryan R-WI paid a visit to the Washington Journal C-Span desk on March 8th to explain his legislative proposal that would give President Bush another toolset, a highlighter and a magnifying glass.
Congressman Ryan wants to give President Bush more power is what it boils down to.
If Congressman Ryan has his way, President Bush would be able to highlight and exclude from signing, spending proposals he did not agree with. In other words, Ryan would leave it up to the President to decide which money was being used wisely and which money was being used in a way he did not like.
That would leave Congress free to do other things like think up more legislation that would chip away at our civil rights or something equally important. They just don't have time for everything... and marking up a spending proposal that eliminates pork is just too dog gone time consuming for these fellows.
I don't think now is the time for such a proposal, even if John Kerry does agree with the idea. We have a President that very few people trust. I only have to think of how he allowed Katrina victims to wait for rescue. Or maybe I think about conference committees that routinely exclude Democrats from the table. Or mabye I look at the port deal and see how this President will stand up stronger for a foreign nation then he will for his fellow countrymen. Or maybe I just read my own "Yard Sale Notice" one more time. I have several reasons to say, not now, not for this President.
I see on the ATR website that Congressman Ryan is a Grover Norquist pledge taker. Does that mean President Bush will hand the highlighter to Grover? This whole pledge business needs more discussion BTW and Americans need to decide if they want their Congressman to predecide their response to the issues of the day without knowing all the facts.
