A proposal offered by Congressman Fred Upton (R-St. Joseph) to save taxpayers billions of dollars over the next decade is the leading spending cut measure featured this week on the groundbreaking YouCut program.  Upton is seeking to prohibit the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from hiring thousands of additional agents and employees to implement the new government health care law—the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—which would save taxpayers upwards of $10 billion over the next ten years.  The American public will vote over the next week to decide which spending cut will be voted on by the U.S. House next week. 

“It defies reality that in a time of skyrocketing debt, Congress sets aside billions of dollars for the IRS to hire thousands of new agents rather than offer small businesses incentives to hire new employees - We must get our priorities straight,” said Upton.  “Blocking the IRS from implementing the health overhaul and its hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes will protect American taxpayers as we work to repeal this harmful legislation and replace it with meaningful, bipartisan reform.  Over the course of four weeks, nearly one million people from across the country have voted via YouCut and we have heard them loud and clear.  Folks in Michigan must continue to make their voices heard, and I encourage them to join my effort to block the IRS from implementing the health bill.  Working together, we will rescue future generations from an avalanche of debt.”

Each week, YouCut offers the public a list of five proposals aimed at reducing government spending.  In turn, participants may vote for the one proposal that they would most like to see addressed by Congress.  The following week, House Republicans will seek a vote on the House Floor on whether or not to take up and debate the top vote getter selected by the public. 

Votes may be cast online on the Republican Whip’s website at http://republicanwhip.house.gov/YouCut, or by text messaging one’s vote to 68398.  Folks may also access YouCut via Upton’s website at http://www.house.gov/upton.

Upton supports a number of commonsense reforms to restore fiscal discipline in Congress, such as the earmark ban and line-item veto.  He is also a cosponsor of the Spending Limit Amendment to the Constitution (H.J.Res.79) to limit spending to one-fifth of the economy – the historical average since World War II. Such measures are necessary to limit spending as CBO estimates the President’s budget increases government spending to an alarming average of 24.1 percent of GDP over the next decade.