YOU CUT...Your Chance To Make a Difference

Great site, great way to use the same technology that Obama praised while running for President as a great tool to run his campaign but then criticized as bad technology for people because it keeps them from getting educated. I casted my vote already.

Double post, that's how much I care.

That one was easy.  While all the programs should be cut, having only one vote, the easy one was the pay raise since they already make more than the private sector (and to my knowledge have never had a pay cut or not gotten a raise).

Heh, that's the one I picked Doc. I thought is was wrong last year to offer a government pay raises while the country was hurting. Even Social Security recipients received no cost of living increase, even though prices rose. Don't get me wrong, lots of hard working gov. employees, but they still need to understand who really is paying the wages.

The Commonwealth of Virginia employees have not received a raise since 2006, and with the furlough this year (fortunately only one day - next Friday), they are actually getting a cut this year!  Most states know how to balance budgets and the employees generally understand and go along with the hard decisions.  I doubt federal employees will be so understanding.  But it is only the feds and deadbeats that seem to think they are above the law of balancing budgets.

We all see what is happening in Greece with the riots. The same could happen here, and with an ever expanding federal government, that could be a lot of rioters.

A good idea but it would've been nice to see them set up a separate website not obviously linked to any one political party. It'd also help make the results of it carry much more weight (although either way they'd probably be ignored). Still a good idea how they've done it though. My main criticism (which isn't that big of one) is that the voting options ought to be similar in value - having a 1m cut alongside a 1bn cut isn't that helpful in terms of choice - I might feel that proportionately to the money the 1m one is the least harmful cut, but that the 1bn one because of it's size would have a more favourable overall impact. If instead I could choose between 5 ~1bn cuts or 5 ~1m cuts it'd allow for a clearer picture to emerge.

It'd be good if more things like this could be done, instead of politicians deciding amongst themselves what to do and the electorate getting only a minimal amount of input indirectly via periodic elections.

I agree (see main article). I do understand this a republican initiative and their "baby". That doesn't mean that others can't use it to advance their beliefs. I would like to see a non-partisan site with many more topics explored, pipe it to all congress members. They would know if people support their initiatives before they vote on a bill. Some sort of account to prevent fraud (multiple voting) and hacking would have to be devised. I would not want to see it dominate government politics though, because activists would be the ones making policy. I see it more of a tool letting politicians read their constituents temperature on issues, preferably from their own districts.

I see your point, but I disagree to an extent. More balanced figures would make some folks think hard about what is important. But, life is rarely that simple. I hope people will look at all the issue and not just focus on the dollar amount.

This could be a start. I could see something like this on even local representative's websites.

Sounds good, but I don't think they care what we think.

I hear that, however I believe it would still be a plus. If the majority of people were against a bill and the politician still voted for it, then he/she is not serving their constituents. A pattern of this behavior would be easy to follow. Politicians rely on the publics "short memory" all too often. That needs to stop.

Sad and true.

That was what influenced me the greatest.  not the stupidity of each program, but the magnitude.  Yes, the 1m boondoggles need to be cut, but when you have trillion dollar deficits, you need to start whacking big slices, not nibbles at a time.  Perhaps whacking all programs under 1 billion should be grouped together.  Then let them try to add them back with referendums.

The only problem I see is, how many roughly equal dollar amount spending bills come up at any given time? I hear what you guys are saying, chop big. I will examine each bill though based on the "stupidly unnecessary" factor as sometimes it is easier to cut a small chunk of fat than a larger one (given the way US politics works). I wish I could vote for all of them sometimes (at least more than one).

Our job as American citizens is to make them care. If we give up before we even give it a try or we do it but still think it won't work then we may as well just vote ourselves into Communism. What makes this country so desirable is the fact that we get to choose and in a way force decisions. With this we have more of a hands on with the hopes that a better alternative will give us even more hands on.

Exactly, it is our responsibility. I don't believe this method is prefect, but it's a step in the right direction.

I still think it'd be feasible to have plenty of them within a similar range (they wouldn't need to be exactly equal, but could be in bands of reasonably similar sizes), and some things wouldn't have to be cut completely either, but only proportionately. Also, not every option would need to be clear cut waste - for example you could have a $1m cut to some niche project, and alongside that you could have a $1m cut to say defence equipment for the army. Otherwise you have the problem of combining peoples preferences for a cut of any kind with what should be prioritised in any cutting.

yes.  Do not group a $1million with a Multi Billion.  Million dollar programs are in a class by themselves, whether it is 1, 5, or 10 million.  Billions are in a different class.

It could be a bit of "leading" the vote involved. I believe they have a suggestion "box", might be a good thing to mention.

On a related note seems the number of voters went up from the previous week, so it sounds like the word is getting out.

Interested to see how your representative voted on pay raises for themselves and other non-uniformed government workers? Here's the LINK.

The new vote for this week is also up.

I went for the largest again this week, but to be honest, I would have picked any cut with Freddie and Fannie on it. They are getting a free pass on both bailouts and accountability. It's sickening.

BTW I did voice a complaint about the disproportional dollar amounts. If they want this to be a legitimate source of public input they need to think about that.

This week there was no real contest.  The other programs are not as outrageous (even if they are small), so there was only one real choice.

Agreed.

I voted today. Prohibit Hiring New IRS Agents to Enforce the Health Care Law. As far as I am concerned all irs employees should be fired and have their asses kicked for helping to rob their fellow countrymen. If you work for the irs you may as well be working for the mob.

This week was tough!  Yea, I hated the IRS one, but the Fed Employee tax evasion got my craw more!  I think all over paid pampered federal workers should work under the same rules as the IRS employees.  Fire their asses!