The line-item veto is just one element in earmark reform, and earmark reform is just one element in spending restraint. However, the line-item veto would add an important check to a budget process that is tainted by waste, abuse, and favoritism. Congressional leaders should move quickly on this proposal.

Agencies should be able to accept bids from any company that can provide the desired product or service. Government earns the best value for taxpayer dollars through a competitive, transparent, and accountable bidding process.

Clearly, if a terrorist is already over the border, he's not going to target a dinner cruise,

In 2004, Congress wasted tax dollars like never before. Very few members of Congress are working to ease the tax and regulatory burden of a cumbersome, bloated federal government,

In the past, some members of Congress have short-changed troops, disaster victims, and taxpayers by including self-serving pork projects in emergency spending bills,

Their tax dollars are getting flushed down the drain here in Washington.

They just realized that they just did not have the room within the budget. They needed close to $1 billion for various programs, and they just didn't have it without taking the projects out. But whether this is a trend or a one-year aberration remains to be seen.

The bipartisan campaign to sabotage BRAC was about putting special interests before the national interest. Sen. Chambliss helped rescue a process that will save taxpayers billions of dollars and will allow the military to restructure to meet modern threats.

Despite a record $427 billion deficit predicted for fiscal 2005, members of Congress are engaging in the worst form of blatant self-interest; larding the budget with pork for home districts and states.

It's easy to spend taxpayers' money without a lot of accountability,