Blue Dogs' Minnick proposes bill to cut spending

Facing an extremely tough re-election campaign Democratic Rep. Walter Minnick of Idaho is targeting the nation's growing deficit problems with legislation intended to slash wasteful spending and bring the budget back into balance. 

Minnick, a member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, introduced a bill that would provide a tweaked version of the line-item veto, allowing the president and Congress to make cuts after a spending bill has reached the White House. 

So far, he has 28 co-sponsors for the bill, the majority are Blue Dogs. A similar bill in the Senate has 21 co-sponsors, a mix of Democrats and Republicans. 

Minnick's proposal arrives on the scene as Congress readies its fiscal 2011 budget blueprint, with budget season expected to kick up a notch after the spring recess.  

Although the line-item veto was ruled unconstitutional in 1996, this bill would take a slightly different approach -- requiring Congress to sign off on the president's proposed cuts -- to avoid legal hangups. 

The bill would give the president three days after signing a spending measure to provide Congress with a list of proposed cuts. 

Congress would then be required to act in timely manner and hold votes in both chambers on the proposed cuts. 

The measure also would allow Congress and the president to zero-out unauthorized programs and reduce an authorized program's budget up to 25 percent.