I came across an interesting site called YouCut. YouCut is billed as a project to change the spending culture in Washington. Here is how YouCut describes itself:
It allows you to vote, both online and on your cell phone, on spending cuts that you want to see the House enact. America is at a crossroads and the choices we make at this critical time will determine what kind of country we want to be. To get back on the right path, Congress must start to make some choices that simply can’t be delayed any longer. While we won’t be able to solve our deficit problems overnight or with one silver bullet, we can and we must begin to replace the culture of spending that now dominates Washington with a culture of savings. Just imagine if your government was as focused on saving money as it is on spending money.
The site has just begun and only has five spending cuts at the moment to vote on. Citizens can submit their ideas for spending cuts. You don’t have to register, just give your email.
Here are the the spending cuts listed as of this morning:
- Presidential Election Fund — $260 million in savings
- Taxpayer Subsidized Union Activities — $600 million in savings
- HUD Program for Doctoral Dissertations — $1 million in savings
- New Non-Reformed Welfare Program — $2.5 billion in savings
- Eliminate Wealthier Communities from CDBG — $2.6 billion in savings
The following are ideas I submitted to save money:
- Leave Iraq
- Leave Afghanistan
- End alternative energy tax credits
- End the child tax credit (but retain the exemption)
- End the mortgage tax deduction
I don’t know what the savings to the country would be with my suggestions. We will see if they come up for a vote online. Apparently, each week they will take the winner of the vote and try to force a vote in congress. Representative Ander Crenshaw said:
“We are going to bring it up next week, vote on it, and force a vote as long as we can week after week after week.… So there are going to be a series of small cuts. We are going to address it one spending cut at a time. If you cannot address the little things how are you every going to cut the big things?”
Well, we shall see. If no spending cuts take place YouCut will have been a big waste of time. Perhaps it would have been useful to raise awareness and a source of a blog post. However, in the current climate I am hopeful it will help to keep voters focused on November and to vote out the big spenders.
What are your ideas to cut spending?
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