Rep. Keith Ellison announced Congressional Progressive Caucus's
5th annual alternative budget Wednesday morning.
Every year for the past five years, the Congressional Progressive Caucus has presented an alternative to the president's proposed budget and the budgets of House and Senate Republicans. The People's Budget, it's called. And, as usual, that alternative hardly registers a blip in the media. The CPC released its latest version Wednesday. As always, even though every budget has its flaws, the CPC alternative—this year called
The People's Budget: A Raise for America—is the best of the lot. But when it comes up for a vote, if the past is any guide, it will unfortunately not even get an "aye" from all the members of the caucus that drew it up. That's a damn shame.
In an op-ed in the Washington Post, Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, takes note of the House's extremist budget proposal, which:
...calls for repealing Obamacare, partial privatization of Medicare, turning Medicaid and food stamps into block grants for the states, and tax reforms that lower rates and eliminate any taxation on profits reported abroad, turning the rest of the world into a tax haven for multinationals. [...]
The fifth annual CPC alternative—“The People’s Budget: A Raise for America”—is about as close to common sense as Congress gets. And it is honest: Its numbers are carefully laid out and add up. It actually says what it would invest in and how it would pay for it.
On the investment side, the CPC expands investments in areas vital to our future. It would rebuild America, modernizing our outmoded infrastructure. It would invest to lead the green industrial revolution that is already forging markets and creating jobs across the globe.
That
investment is one of the smartest things about the CPC budget. An investment that, if handled wisely, would have both an immediate and long-term payoff.
Among the other proposals:
Worker Protection Agencies—increases funding for worker protection agencies by more than 40% over FY2015 levels to $2.4 billion. This funding increase will support agencies that enforce workplace safety, protect workers’ retirement savings and stop wage-theft violators. According to the Economic Policy
Institute, survey evidence suggests that wage theft alone costs workers billions of dollars a year. This budget priority builds on Progressive Caucus wage—theft initiatives last year that culminated in President Obama signing an executive order to protect the employees of federal contractors from wage theft.
Thomas L. Hungerford at The Economic Policy Institute has completed a
thorough analysis of the CPC budget that is worth readers' attention.
Over the next week, we'll be taking a look at various pieces of the CPC's budget in detail.
Sign the petition: Be a citizen co-sponsor of the People’s Budget.