Foxx Casts Vote To Reduce Wasteful Spending!

The following is a press release from NC Congresswoman Virginia Foxx.

Foxx votes for first ‘YouCut’ proposal
Proposal to cut wasteful $2.5b welfare program got 81k online votes

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (NC-05) today voted to cut federal spending by $2.5 billion annually by reducing spending on a new, wasteful welfare program. This proposal was nominated by 81,000 voters from across the country who participated in YouCut, a new online tool created by House Republicans.

“Americans spoke and we heard them,” Foxx said. “They want us to bring back spending restraint and guard their tax dollars from waste and abuse. It comes as no surprise then that a welfare program that was used to buy flat screen TVs and iPods caught the attention of the most YouCut voters.”

Out of 280,000 votes cast in the first YouCut round, 81,000 were in favor of cutting $2.5 billion from a 2009 program that undermines successful bipartisan welfare reform enacted in 1996 under President Clinton and a Republican Congress. The 1996 reform resulted in welfare caseloads dropping a record 60 percent.

But a $5 billion provision in the 2009 stimulus law undercut these reforms and promoted welfare dependency by handing out money to states that managed to increase their welfare caseloads. In fact, CBS News reported that in some cases funds from the new welfare program were used to buy “flat screen TVs, iPods and video gaming systems.”

“Taxpayers clearly don’t like their tax dollars disappearing into a failed welfare experiment,” Foxx said. “This is just the beginning of a difficult process to clean up the federal budget. Thankfully, fed-up citizens are engaging with Congress to help us trim the deficit and are offering up new ideas for keeping spending in check and creating a culture in Washington of saving, not spending.”

This week’s YouCut vote, which would have forced consideration of H.R. 1277, failed 240-177 with seven Democrats voting in favor. H.R. 1277, the Welfare Reform Restoration Act of 2009, is cosponsored by Foxx.

What is YouCut? YouCut is a new online tool, at http://republicanwhip.house.gov/youcut, that gives the public a chance to vote online or via cell phone for various proposals to reduce federal spending. The site offers five proposals a week for a vote to reduce wasteful or unnecessary spending. The following week House Republicans will offer the top vote-getter for a vote in the House of Representatives.

All North Carolinians can go to http://republicanwhip.house.gov/YouCut to vote for one of the five weekly spending cut proposals, which this week include proposals to chop mohair subsidies and suspend $266 million in new federal land purchases.