This spring, the House passed a budget that would cut spending by trillions of dollars and encourage private-sector job creation - without raising taxes. Among its key components are tax reforms that close unfair tax loopholes, while lowering the tax rates for everyone.
Unfortunately, the Democrats who still control the Senate and the White House rejected both our budget and a House-passed "Cut, Cap, and Balance" plan that would save trillions.
The Budget Control Act, which has now been signed into law, represents a step toward fiscal sanity in Washington, but only a step. It includes roughly a trillion dollars in up front deficit reduction including real caps to restrain future spending, and no new tax increases.
Bottom line, Washington can't keep spending money it does not have. By participating in the YouCut program over the past year and a half, you were among the first Americans to take action in this cause. Together, we have made a lot of progress, but much more remains to be done.
In the weeks and months ahead, be sure to stay tuned, as there will be several unique opportunities for you to participate in the legislative process. Working together, we will change Washington's culture of spending into a culture of savings.
Regards,
Rep. Eric Cantor
Majority Leader
Vote on You Cut
http://www.majorityleader.gov/YouCut/
Eliminate Grants to Worsted Wool Manufacturers
Potential savings: at least $20 million over 10 years
Manufacturers who weave worsted wool products in the United States that were doing business during the years 1999-2001 obtained eligibility to receive a portion of $5 million in annual grant funding under the Miscellaneous Trade and Technical Corrections Act of 2004. The program was initially intended to be a temporary measure to assist manufacturers in adjusting to changes in U.S. trade laws which subjected them to increased foreign competition, with funds terminating in 2007. However, like many “temporary” government programs, it has been repeatedly extended. It currently is slated to expire in 2014. The initial intent of helping companies “adjust” to changes in trade law that are now more than a decade old has been fulfilled, and even the Obama administration has recommended terminating this program. Eligible manufacturers have already received $25 million in subsidies over the past 5 years to invest in whatever productivity improvements were necessary to counter increased foreign competition.
Eliminate the Science To Achieve Results Program
Potential Savings: up to $650 million over 10 years
The Environmental Protection Agency’s Science to Achieve Results program [STAR] funds scientific and engineering research grants to researchers and academic nonprofit institutions. The $60 million annual program also provides graduate fellowships in environmental sciences in the form of $37,000 yearly for living expenses, research and tuition assistance to masters and doctoral students. Subject matters of the research focus on policy priorities of the EPA, including technologies whose commercial application would be of limited appeal without imposing federal regulations like “cap and trade” systems restricting carbon emissions from stationary sources such as electrical power plants. Development of potentially uneconomic technologies helps the agency implement a heavy-handed regulatory agenda. Moreover, prior assessments of the program by the Office of Management and Budget [OMB] have concluded that some of the funded research is duplicative of research carried out by other federal agencies.
End Federal Funding for Municipal Bike-sharing Programs
The Federal government distributed more than $53 billion in funding for highways and transit projects in FY 2011 from the federal highway and transit trust funds. Federal excise taxes on gasoline sales are supposed to support these programs, however spending has significantly exceeded gas tax revenues in recent years. One reason for the excess has been federal spending on projects that don’t involve highways or transit systems at all, including federally funded bike sharing programs. Bike sharing programs were part of the more than $1 billion the federal government spent on programs to promote biking and walking in 2010. Federal bike and walking programs received hundreds of millions of stimulus dollars in addition to an annually recurring funding base that now exceeds $600 million. Bike sharing programs involve installation of bike storage facilities throughout a metropolitan area, together with the purchase of publicly-owned bicycles that riders can use for free or a nominal fee as a method of transportation. Federally-funded bike sharing programs are currently operating in cities such as Washington DC, New York City, and Minneapolis.
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