Feingold and Ryan Make Bi Proposal

Janesville, Wisconsin natives Democrat Senator Russ Feingold and Republican 1st District Congressman Paul Ryan have joined forces to cut pork.

Yesterday, they unveiled their legislation to establish a line-item veto to enable the President to target wasteful earmarks that have been tacked on to bills.

Oak Creek -- It might not seem like Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Russ Feingold have a lot in common, representing different political ideologies in separate houses of the U.S. Congress.

But there are a few similarities the House Republican and the Senate Democrat can claim: Both are Janesville natives and Craig High School graduates, and their fathers practiced law in the same building.

Add to that list an emphasis on fiscal conservatism.

The two came together today in Oak Creek to announce a line-item veto bill aimed at reigning in wasteful spending, they said.

"When it comes down to it, we're two guys from Janesville who are very familiar with and comfortable with Wisconsin's tradition of fiscal responsibility," Feingold told The Janesville Gazette before the press conference this morning.

The bill targets "pork-barrel spending"-money earmarked for projects unrelated to the thrust of a bill to please individual lawmakers.

..."We are hearing more and more complaints about this extra spending stuck in bills at the last moment," Feingold said. "The American people want some limits on these games that are played in Washington."

The bill, which Ryan and Feingold have jokingly dubbed "the Janesville line-item veto," wouldn't give the president power to remove portions of a bill-the typical definition of a line-item veto.

Instead, it would allow him to highlight earmarks and send them back to Congress to vote on separately.

"Under this system, Congress makes the final version and executes the action," Ryan said. "That's what keeps the power of the purse in legislative hands."

...Both legislators said they hope people take notice of the bipartisan nature of the bill.

"For bills of this size to get passed in Congress, they need to be bipartisan," Ryan said. "We both hate wasteful spending in Congress, so it seemed just a natural that Russ and I team up on this."

It's nice that the Janesville boys have teamed up.

This legislation makes sense.

It's not like that disastrous bipartisan attack on free speech, McCain-Feingold.

This bill is good for the country.

The proposal includes a definition of earmarks to be applied to any bill sent to the president, not just giant budget measures.

Under the proposal, the president would have 30 days to propose a "rescission request" to Congress. Congress would have to vote within 12 legislative days on the request, which could include multiple earmarks.

To avoid gridlock from too many rescission requests, the president would be able to propose one package of earmarks per ordinary bill and two for larger measures, known as omnibus legislation. Lawmakers would have to vote on the entire package.

Looking at this politically, Feingold does benefit by joining forces with Ryan. He appears to be less of a fringe Leftist loon.

However, Feingold's far Left supporters shouldn't be too concerned. He still took shots at the President yesterday.

Feingold, a prominent critic of the war, said the president should have had a chance to remove some of the unrelated spending from that bill. But he argued President Bush and other critics were being disingenuous with their complaints.

He said the Iraq funding should have been included in the regular budget process - "It wasn't an emergency. They knew about this for a long time." He also noted that in the past, there was similar unrelated spending attached to Iraq measures.

Said Feingold: "The last supplemental, they got what they wanted, and there was plenty of pork and earmarks on it, and they didn't say a word."

See?

Feingold hasn't tempered his anti-Bush attacks or liberal extremism.

I think Ryan also gets some benefit politically by teaming with Feingold.

He gains name recognition nationally. That's good exposure for a rising star in the Republican Party.

This Feingold-Ryan thing makes me think of Election 2010, when Feingold will be up for reelection.

I think that Ryan would make a great challenger. In fact, I think he would have a real chance of unseating Feingold.

Their alliance on this legislation would make for an odd twist if they ran against each other in the future.

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Read Ryan's Press Release.

Read Feingold's Press Release.

(They're the same. If you read one, you've read them both.)