Congressman Tom Price (R-GA) issued the following statement after House Democrats voted to kill this week’s YouCut proposal, which would reduce government employment to 2008 levels – a savings of $35 billion over the next decade. To date, the YouCut program has offered over $155 billion in potential savings supported by over 1.9 million votes.

“Our growing debt and record annual deficits are a direct result of an out-of-control expansion of the federal bureaucracy,” said Congressman Price. “It is not only that government spends too much; it is that government has too many agencies, boards, bureaus, and commissions dedicated to growth and expansion. It will be impossible to get our nation’s fiscal house in order if we do not first agree to reduce an already bloated system.

“President Obama and his Democrat allies in Congress have recklessly abandoned any sense of fiscal responsibility while endorsing a near 15 percent expansion of the federal workforce in less than two years. Avoiding an opportunity to reduce the size, scope, and cost of the federal bureaucracy has become a natural reflex for this Democrat majority. Nevertheless, Republicans will continue to push for these types of common sense reforms that the American people and fiscal sanity demand we address.”

Description of this week’s YouCut proposal:

The federal government has added approximately 188,000 new employees (excluding temporary census workers) since 2008. Implementing a policy whereby the government only hires one person for every two who leave civilian government service until the workforce is reduced to pre-Obama levels would result in significant savings for taxpayers. Under this proposal the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs are exempt from this requirement, and the President is provided flexibility to distribute newly hired employees by need.