YouCut
Ask not what your country can cut for you. Ask what you can cut for your country.
That’s the idea behind Republican House whip Eric Cantor’s new website, YouCut. Launched Wednesday, YouCut is what happens when participatory democracy meets American Idol, allowing you you vote on spending cuts you’d like to see the House enact. Cantor promises that the most loathed-item will be voted on in the House in the next week. For week one, you get the tantalizing choice to cut one of these five items:
- Presidential Election Fund
- Taxpayer Subsidized Union Activities
- HUD Program for Doctoral Dissertations
- New Non-Reformed Welfare Program
- Eliminate Wealthier Communities from CDBG
Cantor told Fox’s Greta Van Susteren that more than 6,500 votes were cast in the first day, but was tight-lipped on which item was in the lead. (You’ll have to wait for the, um, elimination round next week.) Of course, even if, say, the people want the Presidential Election Fund cut, there’s no guarantee Cantor will be able to muster up the votes in the House (the ones that still actually matter) to make it happen. But Cantor says the purpose is to get Americans to think about starting to cut back. “I know that many, many members are out talking to their constituents now, telling them that there’s an opportunity here for everyone in the country to get behind a campaign to reduce spending in Washington,” he told Van Sustrand.
Watch the YouTube introduction here.