The country is at a unique moment in which public outrage over spending makes real budget reform possible. The new line-item rescission proposal from the president is a good first step, but we need more.

It’s clear to anyone paying attention that the federal budget process is badly broken, with spending this year expected to jump at 9.6%, and pork-barrel earmarks at record levels. We have an opportunity to overcome the entrenched big-spending interests in Washington and enact real reform. If the president’s rescission proposal is all we get, it will be an opportunity less than fully seized.

The Free Enterprise Fund recently commissioned a poll conducted by McLaughlin & Associates that found that 72% of Americans want Congress to reduce spending. Even more, 75%, want Congress to reduce budget earmarks. Remarkably, we found that there is zero partisan split on this issue – Democrats, as well as Republicans, support reducing earmarks by a 3-to-1 margin.

This level of bipartisan public unity on the issue creates an environment in which presidential budget reform proposals are almost unstoppable in Congress.

The president’s first proposal came this week, and is already embodied in legislation sponsored by Senator Frist, a Republican of Tennessee, and Rep. Paul Ryan, a Republican of Wisconsin. The proposal, variously referred to as a legislative line-item veto or rescission, would give the president the power to identify spending items and return them to Congress for an expedited rescission vote.

It’s not much of a veto – there is no supermajority requirement, and, as far as I can tell, if Congress failed to vote, the original spending items would ultimately take effect. What the new reform would do is formalize a process for the president requesting that Congress revisit support for specific spending items, and that could create political pressure that would make it difficult for Congress to justify some wasteful spending programs.

The president’s rescission proposal would undoubtedly be an improvement to the budget process, but it’s just a start. The budget resolution, passed each year but then largely ignored as appropriations bills bust its limits and supplemental spending is heaped on top, should carry the force of law. The practice of baseline budgeting, which automatically angles federal spending sharply upward, and misleadingly represents slower spending increases as cuts, should be ended. Spending programs should sunset automatically after five or 10 years unless Congress acts to renew them. Waiving the budget rules should require a supermajority. Bottom line: A brand new budget process is needed.

Many of these principles of budget reform are included in proposals from fiscal conservative congressmen of both parties – the Republican Study Committee’s ambitious new budget alternative, the Contract with America Renewed, includes budget process reform, and Blue Dog Democrats have long supported a similar package. The president should look to these groups for ideas as he crafts a comprehensive, bipartisan budget reform package.

One proposal the president should take a hard look at comes, perhaps not surprisingly, from the least entrenched congressman of all. Rep. John Campbell, a Republican of California, elected just months ago in a special election, will introduce legislation soon that would cap total federal spending growth at a level of inflation plus population growth. There would be emergency and rainy day funds to deal with unforeseen events. The ceiling could only be broken by a supermajority vote, and future year spending would be forced to return to authorized levels.

By limiting the overall level of federal spending growth, Mr. Campbell’s bill would force legislators to make choices, cutting wasteful and unnecessary spending to free up resources for their top priorities. It would also force them to start thinking seriously about entitlement reform, so that unchecked entitlement spending doesn’t crowd out their favorite discretionary programs.

Congress should enact the president’s proposed line-item rescission, but should be under no illusion that doing so means the federal budget problem is solved. President Bush should seize on this historic opportunity, and do what the American public wants – fix the budget process to rein in federal spending.

Mr. Kerpen is policy director for the Free Enterprise Fund.