Line Item Veto

At the end of One Nation Under Debt I discuss some radical ways to make our government less prone to take on gobs of new debt in good times and bad. In his A More Perfect Constitution, Larry Sabato makes some less radical but no less valid recommendations, including bringing back the line item veto (Pres. Clinton saved us almost half a billion dollars by lining out pet pork projects before the Supreme Court ruled the practice unconstitutional) and decreasing the president's warmaking powers. The latter is a good idea for non-fiscal reasons as well. Of course the easiest way to end the debt death spiral would be for voters to make it clear to politicians that they need to stop running massive budget deficits. That Ron Paul garnered so much support shows that millions of Americans are fed up with the current system. Not enough millions to get him nominated but enough to strike fear in the heart of the status quo.