CAGW Dispels Myths about Budget Reform, Spending 

(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today released its second in a series of Reality Checks to run in tandem with the Democratic and Republican Party Conventions.

Myth #1:  Create a budget that will control spending.  From the Democratic Platform:  “We will restore common sense budget rules that this administration has abandoned, like ‘Pay-As-You-Go’ rules that require the government to pay for new initiatives.  We will commit to living within tough budget caps — real and enforceable limits on what the government can spend. … And we will make our government more efficient by cutting waste of taxpayer dollars in the federal budget, from unneeded travel budgets to crony contracting.”

Reality Check:  Congressional budget votes this year show that Democrats rejected every effort to control spending.  Every Democrat except Sen. Zell Miller (Ga.) voted against the fiscal 2005 Senate budget resolution that included a pay-as-you-go provision and a discretionary spending cap of $821 billion.  Democrats also tried to add scores of amendments to increase spending.  The budget resolution conference report, which included the Senate’s pay-as-you-go provisions, was adopted in the House without a single Democratic vote.  Separately, the House considered a budget enforcement reform bill to establish discretionary spending limits and pay-as-you-go for entitlements.  Fiscal conservatives offered several amendments to strengthen this bill but they all failed, with the majority of Democrats voting “no.”  The final bill itself was rejected by every Democrat.

Myth #2: Line Item Veto.  From the Democratic Platform.  “We will enact a Constitutional version of the line-item veto to make it easier to root out pork-barrel spending.”

Reality Check:  Only two Constitutional line-item veto amendment bills have been introduced.  S. J. Res. 25, sponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), has no co-sponsors.  In the House, a similar bill, H. J. Res. 60, was introduced by Rep. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.) and has only seven cosponsors – all Republicans.  Enhanced rescission, or line-item veto Constitutional authority for the President, was contained in the Senate budget resolution, which all Democrats opposed.  During the budget enforcement debate in the House, an enhanced rescission amendment failed 174-237, and was opposed by a majority of Democrats.

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.