Over at my home blog, my co-blogger MEC informs me that with the issuance of Executive Order 13457, "Protecting American Taxpayers From Government Spending on Wasteful Earmarks", Bush has broken the law yet again and given himself a line-item veto:
In effect, the Executive Order declares the Bush has the power to reject against any part of the budget passed by Congress that Bush doesn't like: a de facto line-item veto. Never mind that the Supreme Court ruled in 1998 that the Constitution does not permit the president to decide, item by item, which parts of the budget to accept or reject. If Bush doesn't have the power of line-item veto before he signs the budget bill, he doesn't have it afterward, either.
That's not the worst of it. As MEC notes, this Executive Order doesn't go into effect until Fiscal Year 2009 (beginning October 1, 2008). By the time it has any effect (if enforced), Bush will be out of the White House.
In other words, Bush just gave himself the power to decide how the next Administration spends the taxpayers' money.
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