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GOP's YouCut Site Lets You Vote to Nix Welfare, Health-Care or Frivolous Spending

by Terrence O'Brien on May 16, 2010 at 05:00 PM

YouCut Lets Voters Decide on Spending
Last week, we reported that the GOP planned to hand off the responsibility of developing a party platform to its rank-and-file (and Web-connected) members. Now Republican Whip Eric Cantor is climbing aboard the participatory government train with YouCut.

The premise is simple: visitors are presented with a list of government programs that are viewed by the Republican party as wasteful. Anyone can come and vote (on the site or via text messages) on which of these programs is most in need of elimination or severe budget cuts, and the Republican Party has vowed to bring the winner to the House floor for an up-or-down vote. And this isn't a one-time deal. On Monday, May 17th, Cantor will bring the first winner to the floor, but the process will be repeated every week. While the project is the brainchild of Eric Cantor, all Republican members of the House are promoting the project by linking to it from their sites.

Most of the programs Cantor wants to axe in order to reign in spending should come as little surprise to anyone; welfare programs, union subsidies and HUD doctoral dissertation funds are all being eyed. The two surprising entrants are the Community Development Block Grant, which Cantor wants to scale back to focus solely on low-income neighborhoods, and the Presidential Election Fund, which the Republican Whip wants to eliminate entirely as more funding is coming from PACs and individuals.

Republican or Democrat, we can all agree that government spending needs to be scaled back -- especially during a financial crunch. YouCut, despite its terrible name, is actually a great initiative for giving the electorate more of a say in how taxpayer funds are spent. [Ed. note: Sure, but let's see if anyone listens.] We only wish that Cantor would provide more details about the programs, so voters could make better informed decisions. [From: YouCut, via: Hillicon Alley]

Tags: EricCantor, government, politics, republicans, socialnetworking, SpendingCuts, top, voting, web, youcut

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