YouCut bumpkiss

The myriad scandals besetting the administration have put sequestration and budget battles on the back burner for a little while. But as federal employees actually begin to see their pay cut, and as the news cycle clears up a bit, the budget butter battles will begin again.

When they do, the Administration and their apologists for Big Government will once again bleat about grandmothers thrown from Head Start and children denied their arthritis medicine and undocumented workers losing their free cell phones and Native American Transgendered Women's Studies majors being denied their subsidized student loans.

Every government expenditure is vital to this country's prosperity.

And if you believe that, you are a Democrat.

Or maybe a Republican.

Truth is, the one place where bipartisan agreement can be found in Washington is in the avoidance of real spending cuts - or even tangential, largely symbolic cuts to programs that everyone knows are superfluous, wasteful and counter-productive.

The House Repubs have been running a gimmick called YouCut. You get to pick the wastful government expenditure that will be introduced to oblivion. It seems to play on the human characteristic of baseless hope.

Many months ago, the then-new House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor introduced YouCut with great fanfare.

You may have missed the launch, if you get your news from ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, NPR, Time, Newsweek, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Washington Post or Orlando Sentinel, etc.

In a nutshell, the YouCut web page invites people to vote on which of three federal expenditures ought to be cut. The winner is then introduced as a bill in Congress.

This week, the three candidates for the 32nd week of the 112th Congress are:

Reduce U.S. Contributions To The United Nations By 10 Percent. Potential Savings over 10 Years: $4Billion

Terminate Environmental Protection Agency Grants For Community Organizing.  Potential Savings Over 10 Years: $10Million

Eliminate Federal Agency Purchases Of High-End Office Chairs. Potential Savings over 10 Years: $1Million

I think all three are more than worthy of implementation.

As of today, there are 58 expenditures listed. As best as I can tell, none of them have passed Congress and become law. If they had, we, the beleaguered taxpayers would be saving

$259,673,000,000 over the next ten years. Nearly $26 Million per year, every year, for the next 10 years. And remember, that's only one of three choices presented each week. Given that every expenditure nominated is as worthy of cutting as the three presented this week, the real questions are:

1. Why aren't we looking at $779,019,000,000 in proposed savings and

2. Why have NONE of these blindingly obvious examples of unconscionable waste been cut?

Here is the list:

112th Congress, 2nd Session		Potential 10 year savings ($millions)
Week 29	Eliminate the Department of Energy's Vehicle Technology Program	2,800
Week 28	Terminate Federal Payments for the District of Columbia Public Defender's Service	372
Week 27	Terminate the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation	5	Introduced
Week 26	Eliminate the Energy Star program	627	Introduced
Week 25	Terminate a program that funds community organizing among tenants of public housing	100	Introduced
Week 24	Reduce the number of TSA agents by increasing the efficiency of airport security screening	1,000	Introduced
Week 23	Reduce Census Bureau data collection that is beyond the Constitutional mandate	2,400	Introduced
Week 22	Terminate loan guarantees for speculative alternative technology ventures like Solyndra	380	Introduced
Week 21	Reduce funding for poor performing grantees in the Community Services Block Grant program	3,200	Introduced
Week 20	Terminate a Department of Labor office that focuses on labor problems in foreign countries	665	Introduced
Week 19	Reduce the number of non-essential vehicles purchased or leased by federal agencies	500	Introduced
Week 18	Terminate a program that pays farmers for making conservation improvements on their land	10,600	Introduced
Week 17	Stop mine cleanup payments to states that have already completed the cleanups	4,200	Introduced
Week 16	Stop rewarding States for recruiting additional Food Stamp recipients	180	Committee
Week 15	Terminate Federal Programs That Pay People to Volunteer	11,500	Introduced
Week 14	Terminate HUD's HOPE VI Program	1,000	Introduced
Week 13	Suspend Federal Land Purchases	2,300	Committee
Week 12	Terminate the Weatherization Assistance Program	2,100	Introduced
Week 11	Terminate the National Science Foundation Grants for Arctic Research	250	Introduced
Week 10	Eliminate the Ready to Learn Television Program	273	Introduced
Week 9	Enforce Restrictions Excluding Illegal Aliens from Refundable Tax Credits	40,000	Passed by Committee
Week 8	Eliminate the Science to Achieve Results Program	650	Introduced
Week 7	Repeal the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Program	2,500	Introduced
Week 6	Eliminate Cell Phone Subsidies in the Universal Service Fund	5,000	Introduced
Week 5	Refocus National Park Service Spending on National Parks	157	Introduced
Week 4	Terminate Funding for So-Called Comparative Effectiveness Research at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality	1,000	Introduced
Week 3	Reduce the Number of Federal Employees by 10 Percent Through Attrition	139	Passed by Committee
Week 2	Terminate the Federal Railroad Administration's Funding of High-Speed Rail Projects	3,800	Introduced
Week 1	Terminate U.S. Contributions to the United Nations Population Fund	400	Passed by Committee
	Total Savings Over 10 Years ($ Millions)	98,098
112th Congress, 1st Session	For some reason there is no dollar amount or status for these items.
Week 6	Repeal The $17 Billion "Prevention And Public Health Fund Created In The 2010 Health Care Law	17,000
Week 5	Reduce Printing And Reproduction Budget By 10%
Week 4	Terminate The Neighborhood Stabilization Program
Week 3	Obtain Refund Of Funds Owed To The U.S. By The U.N. Tax Equalization Fund
Week 2	End The Presidential Election Fund
Week 1	End Duplicative Government Printing
111th Congress
Week 13	End Taxpayer Funding Of National Public Radio (Tens of Millions of Dollars)	45	Voted on House Floor
Week 12	End The TARP Program Prohibiting Any Additional Bailouts (Several Billion	7,000	Voted on House Floor
Week 11	Reduce Government Employment To 2008 Levels	35,000	Voted on House Floor
Week 10	Require Collection Of Unpaid Taxes From Federal Employees	1,000	Voted on House Floor
Week 9	Bipartisan Proposal To Terminate Advanced Earned Income Tax Credit AEITC	1,100	Voted on House Floor
Week 8	Prohibit Sleeper Car Subsidies On Amtrak	1,200	Voted on House Floor
Week 7	Prohibit Stimulus Funding For Promotional Signage ($10s of Millions)	30	Voted on House Floor
Week 6	Taxpayer Subsidized Union Activities	1,200	Voted on House Floor
Week 5	Prohibit Hiring New IRS Agents To Enforce Health Care Law	15,000	Voted on House Floor
Week 4	Sell Excess Federal Property	15,000	Voted on House Floor
Week 3	Reform Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac	30,000	Voted on House Floor
Week 2	Eliminate Federal Employee Pay Raise	30,000	Voted on House Floor
Week	Cut The New Non-Reformed Welfare Program	25,000	Voted on House Floor
Total Savings over 10 Years ($ Millions)		161,575
Total Total Savings over 10 Years ($ Millions)		259,673

		259,673