“A million here, a million there and pretty soon you’re talking real money.”
Of course, these days Congress doesn’t even bother with programs that only cost millions of dollars. Now we have reached the billions. Wave good bye to another $2.5 billion in the current budget (and no doubt more in the future) when Congress approves of its latest foreign aid boondoggle. Representative Ron Paul discusses it here.
As he points out, nothing in the Constitution authorizes Congress to spend money on “foreign aid,” but unfortunately the limitations on spending in Article I, Section 8 have become a dead letter. Of course, the president could veto such spending on the ground that he thought it violated the Constitution. Grover Cleveland did so often. GWB wouldn’t even veto the flagrantly unconstitutional McCain-Feingold bill.
I’d love to be given the opportunity to ask the presidential candidates one question: “If elected, will you veto bills that require the federal government to spend money for which there is no express constitutional authorization?”
