Now that Rep. Eric Cantor and House Republicans have outsourced their decision-making duties to party activists, "the public has spoken" over the first program they want a vote to cut:
Voters in Rep. Eric Cantor's (R-Va.) first YouCut contest -- around 280,000 of them -- went after the second-priciest item on the chopping back: a welfare emergency fund paid for by the stimulus bill. Here's how it was described to voters:
The program was recently created to incentivize states to increase their welfare caseloads without requiring able-bodied adults to work, get job training, or otherwise prepare to move off of taxpayer assistance. Reforming the welfare program was one of the great achievements of the mid 1990s, saving taxpayers billions of dollars and ending the cycle of dependency on welfare. This new program, created in 2009 is a backdoor way to undo those reforms. The program currently costs approximately $2.5 billion a year.
The votes:
17.45 percent for 1 – Presidential Election Fund
27.06 percent for 2 – Taxpayer-subsidized union activities
11.89 percent for 3 – HUD program for doctoral dissertations
29.07 percent for 4 – New non-reformed welfare program
16.53 percent for 5 – Eliminate wealthier communities from community development block grants
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