Gerald Ford
Former President Gerald Ford gets credit for just a few things. He should get more credit for vetoing spending bills. Three days after he was sworn in, he told a joint session of Congress ...
It does no good to blame the public for spending too much when the government is spending too much.Then, the vetoes began. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorializes here:
He vetoed 39 spending bills in his first 14 months in office.Has any recent Chief Executive had that kind of intestinal fortitude on spending? Nope.In one of those veto messages, Ford captured perfectly the politics of federal spending, saying he was caught in the "dilemma of offending the voting groups who benefit by these government programs," he said, adding he was indeed sympathetic with the purposes of the money. "My objection to this legislation is based purely and simply on the issue of fiscal integrity."
That is a notion worthy of emulation.
