McCarthy: Citizens offer their own spending cuts on America Speaking Out website

 Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) gives his report from Capitol Hill. In his own words:

 "It was great to see high school students from the District this week in Washington. On Tuesday, my office welcomed Taylor Holliday, a junior from Frontier High School and a new participant in the 2010 House Summer Page Program.  As a page, Taylor will assist Members of Congress by answering telephones, delivering mail and assisting the Capitol staff with other various duties. On Thursday, I met and spoke with several students from the district involved with the Future Farmers of America and the National Young Leaders Conference. To see pictures visit: facebook.com/CongressmanKevinMcCarthy and for more information on the Congressional Page program, visit my website: kevinmccarthy.house.gov.  Also, this week in my Bakersfield office, my staff welcomed another new intern, Matt Morea  Matt is a graduate of Bakersfield High School and currently a junior at the University of California, Santa Barbara studying electrical engineering.

 "Legislatively this week, the House failed to seriously consider spending cuts to save money for the American people. Did you know that for every dollar Congress spends, it has to borrow 43 cents from future generations? This is why my colleagues and I continue to ask Americans which wasteful spending programs they think should be eliminated through a program called YouCut. To date, over 1.3 million votes have been cast online and Republicans have offered this Majority over $120 billion in spending reductions.  Unfortunately, none of the reductions have been approved despite bipartisan support. On YouCut this week the winner would eliminate taxpayer subsidies for first-class travel on Amtrak. Currently, Amtrak is losing money on their first-class passengers’ tickets, and to make up for it the government subsidizes the losses with your tax dollars.  By getting rid of this subsidy, Congress could save taxpayers more than $1.2 billion over the next 10 years.  This kind of savings could be used for something better, like paying back our ever-growing national deficit, which by the way is now, is predicted to be a record $1.47 trillion.

 "Likewise, AmericaSpeakingOut.com continues to generate ideas and solutions from all over the country. On the ASO website this week, the Leader of House Republicans, Congressman John Boehner, posted a video regarding transparency in Washington.  n the clip, Leader Boehner reminds listeners that for too long, Washington has ignored the voices of the American people.  No longer should Congress be allowed to pass bills that neither the American public nor legislators have the opportunity to review.  To reform this broken process, both Leader Boehner and Congressman John Culberson introduced a bill to require Congress to publicly post all legislation that will be voted on at least 72 hours before the vote.  By doing this, Americans, as well as their representatives, would have ample time to review bills and know exactly what they are voting on.

Lastly, next week is the last week Congress will be in session before I come back to Bakersfield to work in the district for the month of August.  Have a good week.