A bow to fiscal conservatism.

• Author: Whalen, Bill

As the curtain rises on his second term, President Bush doesn't lack for opportunities to secure an enduring legacy. In addition to prosecuting the war on terrorism, the president has indicated that he wants to reform Social Security, simplify the nation's tax code, and institute health savings accounts--all noble yet formidable challenges.

Here's one additional item for that legacy portfolio: a bow to fiscal conservatism by restoring presidential line-item veto authority.

In June 1998, only two years after a Republican Congress and a Democratic president agreed that line-item vetoing was a necessary means to curb Washington's spending appetite, the Supreme Court struck down the president's ability to remove individual projects from congressionally approved legislation. Instead, the president can sign or veto spending and tax bills only in their entirety.

Not surprisingly, Congress has taken full advantage of the situation. According to the budgetary watchdog Citizens Against Government Waste, Congress this past year approved more than 10,600 "pork" items totaling nearly $23 billion--a 13 percent increase over the previous year--at a time when the federal deficit surpassed $422 billion and the national debt topped $7.5 trillion.

With Washington drowning in a sea of red ink, the timing is right to restore line-item authority. The only question is how to proceed.

Here are three options:

1. Constitutional Amendment. Separate bills currently before the House and Senate would restore line-item authority by amending the Constitution. Although the approval process is steeper (a two-thirds vote in both chambers of Congress, plus 38 states' approval), it improves the chances of a new law surviving an all-but-certain constitutional challenge by line-item opponents.

2. Impoundment. Up to 1974, presidents enjoyed a power known as impoundment: if a president didn't think an appropriation was...