Freshman lawmakers have served less than two months in Congress, and they’ve already had a sizable impact. Now, as the House considers a $100 billion spending cut, they’re leading the charge to rein in out-of-control government spending.

Last week during an internal GOP debate about the size of the cuts, freshmen rose up to push their party in the right direction. That shouldn’t come as a surprise. As the newest members of Congress, they are the farthest removed from Washington’s ways of doing business.

The result: Republican leaders added $26 billion more in spending cuts and promised to support additional cuts during the floor debate.

Some of the outspoken freshmen included Reps. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) and Allen West (R-Fla.), who made it clear that cutting spending is their top priority.

“The Beltway braintrust seems to think it’s OK to spend beyond your means and just keep doing it and kicking the can down the road,” said Kelly, the oldest member of the GOP’s freshman class. “I was home this weekend in Erie and I was also down in Butler, and as you go up and down the district, everybody there understands you can’t spend more than you make without causing harm to the future.”

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In his State of the Union address this week, President Obama showed up late to the game of ideas. While he offered up a few good notions, they mimicked what Republicans have been championing for two years now. In just three weeks, the new House Republican Majority has taken pro-active steps to refocus our economy in a real way.

As part of that new Congress, I’ve already voted to cut Congressional budgets by 5%, repeal the $2.6 trillion ObamaCare law and cut $100 billion over the next year by reverting back to 2008 spending levels.

President Obama referenced several options for economic prosperity in his address Tuesday night.  But if a spending freeze, earmark elimination and investment in transportation and infrastructure sound familiar, it’s because Republicans have proposed implementing such legislation to save money and create jobs for two years.

Yesterday, the citizen-empowering YouCut program came to life as we voted on a citizen idea to terminate taxpayer financing of presidential election campaigns and Party conventions.

Now that we’ve gained the Majority, Republicans are committed to cut spending and grow the economy in drastic ways. This YouCut vote will put $617 million back in the pockets on of American taxpayers in the next 10 years. It empowers the people and enables our government to do more with less during a scary national debt crisis.

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