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Co-Sponsor The Better Off Budget from the Progressive House Caucus
The Better Off BudgetSign as a Citizen Co-Sponsor here
What's in it:
This year, the CPC’s “Better Off Budget,” released Wednesday, focuses on reversing what it sees as the self-inflicted wounds caused by Congress’ obsession with deficit reduction in recent years. Instead, the CPC advocates using hundreds of billions in new federal spending to, by its estimate, create 8.8 million jobs by 2017. Its budget would enact a three-year fiscal stimulus focused on infrastructure improvements; workforce training and investment for the long-term unemployed; aid to states to rehire public safety and health care workers; and seven new direct employment programs for education and public works projects.
The CPC would also cancel the sequestration spending cuts that have cost hundreds of thousands of public-sector jobs, along with cuts to food stamps and federal unemployment insurance enacted in the past year. And federal workers, who have dealt with a pay freeze for the past three years, would get a 4 percent raise.
Such measures would dramatically raise the deficit and national debt in the near term — an option that is anathema to both the Republicans and the Obama administration. But the CPC believes its budget would generate enough revenue over time, through both job growth and new taxes on the wealthy and corporations, to bring the debt lower as a share of GDP by 2024 than it is in President Barack Obama’s budget.
The Better Off Budget envisions profound social changes, including a public health insurance option and waivers for states to implement their own single-payer programs. It imposes a $25-per-ton carbon tax, rebating some of the revenue to low-income families to protect against energy price spikes. It envisages an end to the war in Afghanistan and reduced defense spending going forward, and calls for comprehensive immigration reform. It also requires the president to disclose the total intelligence budget for the first time, changes campaign finance rules and keeps Social Security off the table in budget discussions. In fact, the Progressive Caucus would expand benefits and pay for them by lifting the cap on payroll taxes that fund the program.
The CPC would also cancel the sequestration spending cuts that have cost hundreds of thousands of public-sector jobs, along with cuts to food stamps and federal unemployment insurance enacted in the past year. And federal workers, who have dealt with a pay freeze for the past three years, would get a 4 percent raise.
Such measures would dramatically raise the deficit and national debt in the near term — an option that is anathema to both the Republicans and the Obama administration. But the CPC believes its budget would generate enough revenue over time, through both job growth and new taxes on the wealthy and corporations, to bring the debt lower as a share of GDP by 2024 than it is in President Barack Obama’s budget.
The Better Off Budget envisions profound social changes, including a public health insurance option and waivers for states to implement their own single-payer programs. It imposes a $25-per-ton carbon tax, rebating some of the revenue to low-income families to protect against energy price spikes. It envisages an end to the war in Afghanistan and reduced defense spending going forward, and calls for comprehensive immigration reform. It also requires the president to disclose the total intelligence budget for the first time, changes campaign finance rules and keeps Social Security off the table in budget discussions. In fact, the Progressive Caucus would expand benefits and pay for them by lifting the cap on payroll taxes that fund the program.
Now that's a budget I can support!
