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Related: About this forumRep. Keith Ellison: Back To Work Budget- shifts away from the deficit focus
In the midst of ongoing hysteria about a 'non-existent deficit crisis' in Washington, the Congressional Progressive Caucus on Wednesday unveiled an alternative approach to destructive austerity economics by releasing their 'Back to Work Budget' plan for 2014.
Pushing back specifically on the dominant talking point of inside-the-Beltway elites, the budget challenges the idea that cutting programs, reducing corporate tax rates, and slashing investments is a pathway to economic prosperity. Its proponents argue the US does not have "a deficit crisis"as those pushing for steep cuts suggestbut rather, "a jobs crisis."
Presented by CPC co-chairs Reps. Raúl M. Grijalva and Keith Ellison and backed by members of the caucus' Budget Task forceReps. Jim McDermott, Jan Schakowsky, Barbara Lee and Mark Pocanthe plan describes how smart investments, not deep cuts to key programs, would create almost 7 million jobs over the first year of its implementation.
Americans face a choice, Grijalva and Ellison said. We can either cut Medicare benefits to pay for more tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, or we can close outdated tax loopholes and invest in jobs. We choose investment.
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)Continue to elect those who votes for the really rich to get the breaks. It is time to get our grass roots together and get the puppets out of office.
midnight
(26,624 posts)FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 2013
Back to Work Budget
By Jeff Simpson
Everyone knows that Paul Ryan (R- Wall St.) has released his austerity budget he calls "path to poverty". Luckily for America there is an alternative that the Progressive Caucus has released called the "Back to Work" Budget!
Congressional progressives have taken a Keynesian approach to the debt: Spend money now taking advantage of low interest rates on Treasury bonds and position the United States for long-term debt reduction.
Overall, the Back to Work budget increases spending by more than $2.2 trillion over the next ten years. This includes more than $156 billion for clean energy efforts, over $230 billion for education, training and social services, $312 billion for income security programs like the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), another $156 billion for health care programs, and $1 trillion in new infrastructure spending, meant to repair old structures (roads, pipes, bridges) and build new ones.
To pay for this, House Progressives propose a full overhaul of the federal tax code, with a new set of tax increases on the wealthiest Americans. For income over $250,000, taxes would revert to Bush-era rates (the Progressive Caucus maintains Bush rates for the remaining 98 percent of taxpayers).
http://cognidissidence.blogspot.com/
limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)I like this guy.
midnight
(26,624 posts)thankfully others are speaking about putting people back to work instead of austerity...
midnight
(26,624 posts)Visit timeforaraise.org for information on our efforts to raise the minimum wage and how to get involved, and check out the AFL-CIO's Executive Paywatch site for data and information on the out-of-control CEO pay levels.
forestpath
(3,102 posts)TexasBushwhacker
(20,165 posts)One of the things I REALLY like is that it taxes capital gains as regular income. It makes no sense to me that if you;ve had the good fortune to make enough money that you have some to invest, that the growth on those investments should be taxed at a LOWER rate than the wages we get from busting our butt 40 hours a week.
midnight
(26,624 posts)"Americans face a choice: we can either cut Medicare benefits to pay for more tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, or we can close these tax loopholes to invest in jobs"
marmar
(77,067 posts)...... to do the right thing. They actually get it.