Progress?
A few days ago I asked Kos readers to begin formulating concrete ideas for what the Democratic economic agenda should be in the next election, and cited to a Congressional Progressive Caucus Budget Proposal for discussion purposes. (A summary of this budget proposal appears after the fold.) Aside from the obvious benefit of such a discussion, I am struck by the better planning and continuity on the Republican side when it comes to their economic agenda- - planning in a practical, political sense, not in the sense of prudent policy. I don't see an equal coherence or energy on the Democratic side.
Since then, the liberal Economic Policy Institute released an 11-point “Agenda to Raise America’s Pay” that further adds to this discussion. (A discussion of the plan by Paul Waldman.) This plan is summarized below:
1. Raise the minimum wage to $12 by 2020, which would benefit about a third of the workforce directly and indirectly.
2. Have the Department of Labor raise the salary ceiling for time-and-a-half overtime pay from current $23,6660 to roughly $51,000, which would extend overtime protections to 6.1 million additional workers.
3. Strengthen collective bargaining rights, increase penalties for corporate violations of labor laws, and stop the spread of so-called "right-to-work" laws.
4. "Regularize" undocumented workers, either through a path to citizenship or some form of legal recognition.
5. Provide earned sick leave and paid family leave.
6. Pass and enforce laws prohibiting gender and race discrimination in salary.
7. Tighten enforcement of labor standards to stop "wage theft," including failure to: pay minimum wage or overtime, eliminate workplace hazards, pay payroll taxes or worker’s compensation premiums, and provide family and medical leave, and make sure workers have access to courts and are not routed to arbitration.
8. Encourage/require Federal Reserve Board policymakers to prioritize very low rates of unemployment when making Fed policy. (Not sure how exactly this would be done.)
9. Invest in infrastructure and public and nonprofit employment programs that create jobs.
10. Reduce trade deficit by stopping destructive currency manipulation by certain foreign governments.
11. Restrain income inequality by eliminating tax preferences for executive pay or tying executive compensation to productivity growth, peg corporate tax rates to the ratio of executive pay to median worker pay, change corporate governance procedures favoring exorbitant executive pay, impose a financial transactions tax and/or impose higher top marginal tax rates for financial-sector professionals and corporate managers.
So . . . please agree, disagree, critique or (as important) prioritize the above, and (more important) add ideas. The same goes for the originally discussed proposals below the fold. This is a bit unwieldy at first, but gradually we should be able to organize a shared set of proposals. I'll coordinate comments and the list and, hopefully, we can refine it into something useful. I mean, what else should we be doing?
As promised, a Mathew Yglesias cribbed summary of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Budget Proposal is below:
1. It restores Clinton-era marginal income tax rates starting at the $250,000 threshold.
2. It establishes new income tax brackets—45 percent at $1 million, 46 percent at $10 million, 47 percent at $20 million, 48 percent at $100 million, and 49 percent at $1 billion.
3. Capital gains and dividends will be taxed as ordinary income.
4. The deductibility of all itemized deductions will be capped at the 28 percent rate.
5. The estate tax will have a $2.5 million exemption and then a series of progressive marginal rates from 55 to 65 percent.
6. The mortgage-interest tax deduction for second homes is eliminated.
7. There's a financial transactions tax. A couple of corporate income tax deductions are eliminated. There's a kind of too-big-too-fail tax on banks more than $50 billion in assets.
8. There's a $25 per-ton carbon tax.
9. There are also a lot of spending-side measures here. Medicare will reduce its payment rates to pharmaceutical companies down to the Medicaid level. A strong public option will bring down spending on Affordable Care Act exchange subsidies. The use of bundled payment procedures is going to be accelerated as will the Affordable Care Act state waiver process.
10. Base Pentagon spending is reduced to 2006 levels, and farm subsidies for commodity crops are reduced.
11. This is all counterbalanced by some new fiscal stimulus spending in the short-term, and by a medium-term vision that entails a level of nonmilitary discretionary spending that's close to the historical level rather than far below it as envisioned by current policies.
Same idea . . . agree, disagree or add.