mr. chairman , i would like the record to reflect my views on the horrendous and deliberate deficits our nation faces -- these articles appeared today in roll call and last week in the new york times . 
rescission time in congress president bush regularly calls on congress to restrain spending . 
but he has yet to put his pen where his mouth is by using his veto -- a blunt instrument , to be sure , but one that very few american presidents have failed to wield , especially during times of high deficits . 
mr. bush says he prefers a sharper veto power ; the ability to cut spending programs within larger bills . 
he called for line-item veto power in his first press conference after his re-election and in his 2006 budget . 
but such a statute is not only out of reach -- it would probably require a constitutional amendment -- it is also unnecessary . 
why ? 
because mr. bush can already cut individual programs out of larger legislation with a scalpel that 's almost as sharp as the line-item veto . 
an obscure law passed during the nixon administration gives the president extraordinary power to stop any discretionary spending . 
all he has to do is persuade republicans on capitol hill to go along . 
it 's called rescission . 
under the congressional budget and impoundment control act of 1974 , the president can select any appropriated federal program for reduction or elimination by sending a message to congress , which then has 45 days to approve his decision with a simple majority in each house . 
if congress agrees , the president can reshape federal government to his liking . 
if congress disagrees , or fails to act , the cut disappears . 
this law gives mr. bush more power than he has sought for his battles on trade promotion or new federal judges . 
with it , he can pick his targets , put fast-track pressure on congress to respond , and win by gaining a simple majority approval -- in other words , rescission is filibuster-proof . 
so why have n't presidents been vigorously using the impoundment act to manage the budget in the last 31 years ? 
the reason is that different parties usually controlled the white house and congress , making large cuts impossible . 
for example , president clinton won 111 of the 163 rescissions he requested from a divided congress , but was able to save only several billion dollars . 
although republicans now control both the house and senate , mr. bush has not asked for any rescissions , large or small . 
why has mr. bush kept this knife in a dusty drawer , especially given the staggering deficit , his public stance on the need to curb spending and his close ties with the republican congressional leadership ? 
surely he knows how often mr. clinton resorted to it . 
perhaps his unwillingness stems from the knowledge that , with rescission , americans know who wielded the knife and what programs were cut or kept . 
but to govern is to choose . 
if republicans really want to cut spending and reduce the deficit , they have more weapons than any political party has had in decades . 
jim cooper , democrat of tennessee , is a member of the house budget committee . 
the missing-in-action president today congress will vote on a 5-year budget for the nation . 
usually contentious , this year 's debate is relatively quiet as the richest nation in the world begs foreigners to finance our lifestyle . 
most americans can name the president 's top four policy priorities -- tax cuts , war in iraq , social security reform , and medicare drug legislation . 
what americans do n't know is that these were either omitted from , or low-balled in , the president 's own budget and his $ 82 billion supplemental request . 
it 's as if bush budgeted for someone else 's presidency . 
the president 's budget pays for only six months of the war in iraq and completely overlooks the transition costs of social security reform . 
the administration always lied about the cost of the medicare drug bill . 
extending the tax cuts will produce a sea of red ink just beyond the bush budget 's five-year window . 
the house republican budget is based largely on the president 's , adding a tiny bit of compassion and $ 50 billion for the war . 
its deficits are still so large that , by the last year of the bush administration , we will be paying more money to our nation 's creditors than to our own citizens in non-defense domestic discretionary spending . 
according to the gao , by 2040 our current policies will result in creditors getting all of our defense , social security , medicare , veterans ' benefits , or any other program to help americans . 
republican control of the executive and legislative branches means that they have the power to budget honestly for our nation and reduce our deficits . 
president clinton was able to achieve budget surpluses despite a divided government . 
take the veto . 
bush is the first president since james garfield in 1881 not to veto a single bill . 
garfield only had six months in office ; bush has had over 4 years . 
bush did threaten to veto any effort to repeal the 2003 medicare drug law that added $ 8.1 trillion in unfunded liabilities to our nation . 
this one entitlement program will twice as hard for future generations to afford as the alleged `` crisis '' in social security . 
bush brandished his veto pen to force congress to spend money we do not have . 
take the rescission power . 
few people realize that bush could slash any program in federal government with the approval of a simple majority in the senate and the house . 
he has `` fast-track '' authority and no worries about filibusters . 
in other words , republicans already have the `` nuclear option '' top cut spending . 
they 've never used it . 
they do n't even want you to know they have it . 
president clinton was able to pass 111 of his 163 rescission requests , saving taxpayers billions of dollars . 
president bush has requested no rescissions . 
bush himself repeatedly calls for line-item veto power in order to tame spending . 
but why wait years for a constitutional amendment when he has never used the power he already has ? 
every second counts . 
delay costs us over a billion dollars a day in additional borrowing . 
bush may be a strong leader in the war on terrorism , but on budget deficits he is missing-in-action . 
conservative think tanks like the heritage foundation and cato institute have criticized bush for his big increases in spending , which far exceed those of the clinton era . 
meanwhile tax revenues as a percent of gnp are the lowest since eisenhower days . 
democrats are accustomed to republicans routinely violating their term-limits pledges , and forgetting their contract-with-america idealism ( including the balanced budget amendment ) , but republicans are doing serious damage to the nation with their irresponsibility on budget issues . 
as head of state and party , the president is being particularly irresponsible . 
is government spending the problem , as republicans claim ? 
if so , they have all the tools to stop it -- more tools than any political party in modern times . 
why wo n't bush use his budget , his veto , his rescission , or simple restraint ? 
could it be that republicans have fallen in love with `` big government '' ? 
they are just refusing to pay her expenses . 
jim cooper , a democrat from tennessee , serves on the house budget committee and as co-chair of the blue dog coalition , a group of democratic fiscal and defense hawks . 
