When President Donald J. Trump last month signed the massive omnibus appropriations bill, he did so reluctantly, writes Thomas Brackett Reed Professor of Government Andrew Rudalevige in The Washington Post political science blog The Monkey Cage. “Now he is reportedly exploring ways to cancel some of the spending,” he says, “and has demanded a line-item veto to give him more control over the federal budget.”

As the debate unfolds, Rudalevige explains why some in Congress may want to grant the President a line-item veto. “To understand all this, it’s helpful to know about the early 1970s ‘battle of the budget,'” he writes, in which ”President Richard M. Nixon flatly refused to spend billions of dollars that Congress had appropriated for programs he thought unnecessary.” Read more.