House GOP Asks America Where To Cut Spending While Democrats Push to Vote on Big Spending Measures before Summer Recess

Republican House members are planning to give the public a say in what programs should be cut in order to bring spending in line. The program, entitled “You Cut”, part of the House GOP’s Economic Recovery Group plan to cut spending, gives citizens a vote each week on five spending options. As spending spirals out of control, the plan to place additional spending items on-line – for a “citizen’s vote” is a breath of fresh air. The premise – the spending item with the highest number of votes will be brought to the floor of the House in an attempt to eliminate said item in a House vote. Although the Dallas Morning News opines that this is a “Gimmick”, the program is the first step towards transparency and democracy taken by either party, and a welcome change from Washington politics as usual.

The Dallas Morning News:

"The You Cut project is not about finding the one silver bullet to our debt problems. It is designed, rather, to challenge Washington's culture of spending and replace it with one of savings," says a fact sheet circulating among House Republicans ahead of today's announcement by Cantor, U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Dallas and others. "With a deficit near $1.5 trillion, we don't think it is too much to ask of Congress to spend some time debating bills to actually reduce spending."

Meanwhile, Democrats are planning on pushing additional spending programs though Congress prior to the summer recess. The Hill is reporting :

Democratic leaders are looking in the next three weeks to send President Barack Obama a slew of measures that cost more than $200 billion, including a multiyear extension of unemployment benefits, an extension of expiring tax provisions and Medicare doctor payments totaling $180 billion and a $33 billion Afghanistan war supplemental bill.

These additional programs will be added to the already unsustainable budget deficit, which is a concern for the average voter. With special elections taking place within weeks in the Hawaii 1st and Pennsylvania 12th both trending Republican, additional spending foisted on the American public seems to be a Jim Jones act on the part of the Democrat Party. In States across the country both House and Senate races are steering right (see polls at Real Clear Politics.com), one has to wonder if the current powers that be are either ideologically driven to the extreme or just plain incompetent. It is to the point where, regardless of party, one has to recognize that, with only half of the nation paying taxes, sooner or later, the house of cards is going to collapse. Kudos to the House GOP, gimmick or no, for at least giving a ray of hope to the “masses” who are left to foot the bill and to those Democrats who will be further bankrupting the nation, November is less than six months away, and the voters will, indeed have an opportunity to weigh in on out-of-control spending.