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Comment by tomtoise | Hacker News Reader

Your obtrusive and underhanded domestic spying law gets shot down by a democratic procedure? No problem! Just tack it onto a bill already being considered by the House of Lords and sidestep the whole pesky review process.

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Happens in the US all the time, too. It's the very thing that makes the line-item veto so controversial. I want someone to be able to knock down pork (or worse, like this) added to non-related bills, at the last minute, in the middle of the night, with no debate. But do I want that power to always exist?

Edit: happened like 5 times just last month and could have shut down the government. Now Dodd-Frank is all but dead, campaign donation limits are up from $92k to $777k, the EPA is further defunded, and more - all last minute riders with almost zero debate.

http://www.newsweek.com/what-did-congress-sneak-last-minute-...

Actually an even worse thing in our "democracy" is how a single person in congress can put a hold on a bill and bury it - while remaining completely anonymous.

How the hell is that even possible

Line item veto would be incredibly dangerous. We'd end up with 100% corporate welfare while the entire foodstamp program would be canceled.

You're right - line-item veto could be very dangerous, especially if it's exercised by the person you voted against.

I think a modified version of a line-item veto, where the president would be able to cross out the offending lines, and then send it back to congress for them to vote on the modified version of the bill could be useful. I think it would be significantly less dangerous than having a normal line-item veto.

Wouldn't getting rid of last minute riders or unrelated riders be a more effective way?

I would say veto the entire bill until people stop doing this. Make it a matter of policy.

You're proposing holding good governance hostage. You assume those people care about good governance.

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