The Professor writes:
SO THE HOMELAND SECURITY BILL HAS BALLOONED FROM 35 TO 484 PAGES: And the addition appears to be largely pork. That’s no real surprise, I guess, but while it may not be a surprise it is an illustration.
It isn’t my habit to quote the Confederate Constitution, but it contained a provision that “each law must deal with only one subject, announced in its title, and the President had the right to veto separate items in appropriation bills” (Foote, Shelby; The Civil War, A Narrative: Fort Sumter to Perryville, 42. New York; Random House, Inc., 1958, 11th printing).
That would solve the problem, wouldn’t it?
UPDATE: The Confederate Constitution is reproduced (among other places) here. Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 20: “Every law, or resolution having the force of law, shall relate to but one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title.” Article I, Section 7, Paragraph 2: “…The President may approve any appropriation and disapprove any other appropriation in the same bill. In such case he shall, in signing the bill, designate the appropriations disapproved; and shall return a copy of such appropriations, with his objections, to the House in which the bill shall have originated; and the same proceedings shall then be had as in case of other bills disapproved by the President.”