I’ve posted about YouCut before — it’s an initiative from U.S. representative Eric Cantor, to bring before the U.S. House spending cut proposals from among choices posted online. The most popular ideas go to a House vote. Cantor notes that “[o]ur nation’s debt grows by $4.9 billion every day.” A figure that high is hard to imagine, yet it’s a daily total, one that’s accumulating rapidly to weigh America down.
Last week, most of those expressing an online preference voted to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, reform that would have saved over thirty billion dollars. Unfortunately, that proposal was defeated in the House of Representatives, on a 230-180 vote. (I voted online to show my preference for reforming Fannie and Freddie from among the YouCut choices.)
Here are the five cuts from which one can select a preference this week:
- Sell Excess Federal Property (Potential savings of up to $15 billion)
- Terminate Duplicative Federal Bicycle and Walking Program (Saves $183 million a year or $1.8 billion over ten years)
- Terminate New Federal Truck Parking Facilities Program (Saves $6.25 million a year, and $62.5 million over ten years)
- Terminate Security Funding for Private Bus Companies (Saves $12 million a year, $120 million over ten years)
- Terminate the Ready to Learn Television Program (Saves $27 million a year, $270 million over ten years)
Descriptions of each of these proposed cuts are available at the YouCut website.
This week, I voted for selling excess federal property. The federal government owns too much, and others could make better, more productive, use of federal property.