Kevin, a thousand times yes!

I’ll add one more thing. Chait complains:

Okay. First we have this business about “impoundment power,” which entails magically re-writing the relationship between the White House and Congress. (All efforts to date to give the president line-item veto power have run aground in the courts.) Even if this process could magically occur overnight — and Daniels is talking about a short-term plan — it does not specify which spending programs he would impound.

I think Chait’s point about Daniels not laying out the programs he’d like to impound can be countered by something you suggest early in your post: this is an op-ed, not a budget message. It’s not incumbent on Daniels to write a budget message. Daniels has a clean balance sheet and a rainy-day fund in Indiana. Does your guy, Chait?

Besides, President Obama has asked for the very “magical” rewriting of the Executive-Legislative relationship that Daniels’ bullet point calls for, and he has promised to use it. 

I don’t know the fellow personally, but I wish I were a third as smart as Jon Chait thinks he is.