|
Washington, D.C. - To say that the American public is deeply troubled with Washington’s reckless spending ways is an understatement. According to a recent Gallup poll, federal government debt is now tied with terrorism as the most serious threat to our nation’s future. Americans are crying out to their elected officials that we must cut our wasteful spending, and they are right to be so concerned.
In 2008, debt held by the public reached $5.8 trillion. Now, fueled by an 84% increase in non-defense discretionary spending, the government takeover of health-care, and federal funding of various other expansions of government, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) projects that we will run up deficits totaling $8.474 trillion over the next ten years. The $5.8 trillion debt of 2008 will more than double by 2014, and by 2020, it will have tripled. This pace of federal spending is clearly unsustainable. This level of deficit spending will cripple our economy as well as pass on a mountain of debt to our children and grandchildren.
Realizing that the longest journey begins with a first step, the House Republican Conference recently established the “YouCut” program. Under this initiative, the public can provide ideas to reduce the deficit and vote on proposed spending cuts that they would like to see enacted. Over the last eight weeks, the American public has voted to slash more than $117.4 billion in federal spending. Unfortunately, the current majority in Congress has refused to even entertain these suggestions.
If we are going to get serious about controlling federal spending in this country, the relatively modest types of cuts that have been proposed during the short life of the YouCut initiative need to become regular practice in Congress. We could have saved $25 billion over ten years by ending a program that incentivizes states to increase their welfare caseloads.
There was also an opportunity to save up to $15 billion in taxpayer funds by selling unneeded federal real property. In 2008, taxpayers spent $120 million paying employees for time spent on union activities. We could have eliminated that practice as well and saved some $1.2 billion over ten years. And, about those signs that alert drivers that certain transportation projects are being financed through the so-called stimulus bill? We could have saved tens of millions of dollars by simply eliminating the funding for those too.
Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, all of these proposals, as well as others, were rejected by the Democrat majority. I say it is long past time for us to take action to change the fiscal future of this country, and we need to start making the difficult, but responsible, choices that are necessary to ensure our future prosperity. If nothing else, YouCut is a welcomed step in the right direction.
If you are interested in voting on cuts or suggesting your own ideas please visit http://republicanwhip.house.gov/YouCut/.
###
Return to News Center
|
