Captain EO

This time EO is not a Disney park 3D film featuring a decidedly darker Michael Jackson fighting an intergallactic war, but an Executive Order which the president could issue to quash billions of dollars in pork spending from the new omnibus funding bill:

President Bush has proved his courage on Iraq, on SCHIP, and on refusing to accept a tax hike to fix the AMT. His is the sort of will that could squash pork-barrel earmarks — in the name of the Constitution. ...

The Congressional Research Service issued a report last week confirming that earmarks not included in the actual bill but written into accompanying reports — which is most of them — do not have force of law and can therefore be disregarded by the president. ...

If the president decided to get tough and issue an executive order instructing all agencies not to be guided by earmarks not actually included in the appropriations legislation, he would have on his side the Presentment Clause in Article 1 of the Constitution, which describes how a bill becomes law.

Captain Ed explains the benefit of issuing an EO:

An EO could have long-lasting consequences. "Airdropped" earmarks appear in conference reports so that individual members do not have to take the political risk of voting for them, nor do they have to take responsibility for those they propose. Congress promised to quit airdropping earmarks into bills at the beginning of the 110th Session, but broke that promise. Properly worded, an EO would do what Congress promised by never allowing any conference-report earmark to get spent -- until a countervailing EO gets issued. That could conceivably never happen, as Presidents will not be eager to be seen as enablers for pork.

Ed thinks if the president is going to do it, he'll announce it in his State of the Union speech. Talk about dropping a stink bomb in the room....

Personally, I'd like to see him announce it right before the Iowa caucus and then let the candidates explain why it's a good or bad idea. That would be good TV.