Progressives present ‘People’s Budget 2012’

Editing by Carolyn Bennett

Republicans are embarked on a slash and burn, privatize and destroy, mission, and the Caucus of Congressional Progressives has pushed back with a budget of the people.  

The Congressional Progressive Caucus's ‘PEOPLE’S BUDGET 2012’ rises from four core principles of “Fighting for economic justice and security for all, Protecting and preserving our civil rights and civil liberties, Promoting global peace and security, and Advancing environmental protection and energy  independence. With particular concern with the current federal budget priorities and debate, the Caucus says, “We must fight for the American people.

“We need a tax system that is fair and stops the giveaways for millionaires and corporations that ship American jobs overseas. We need to close corporate tax loopholes being exploited at a great cost to taxpayers.We must cut subsidies to oil and gas companies currently reaping windfall profits at the expense of consumers.

“We must protect Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — the safety nets that have made this country strong and prosperous.We must invest in our children and make sure they have the same opportunities we have. 

“We need to responsibly end the wars abroad and limit future military excursions that obligate tax dollars and the lives of young men and women with little direct benefit to the United States. We should use this money to take care of our troops and veterans by making sure they have jobs and health care when they return.

“The best way to get us on track is to put the millions of Americans who would love to be taxpayers again back to work building new infrastructure and a twenty-first century economy.”

  

Progressive alternative

‘PEOPLE’S BUDGET 2012’

CPC Policies detail — Individual income tax policies

1. Extend marriage relief, credits, and incentives for children, families, and education, but let the upper-income tax cuts expire and let tax brackets revert to [President] Clinton-era rates

2. Index the AMT for inflation for a decade (AMT patch paid for)

3. Rescind the upper-income tax cuts in the tax deal

4. Schakowsky millionaire tax rates proposal (adding 45 percent, 46 percent, and 47 percent top rates)

5. Progressive estate tax (Sanders estate tax, repeal of Kyl-Lincoln)

6. Tax capital gains and qualified dividends as ordinary income

CPC Policies detail — Corporate-tax reform

1. Tax U.S. corporate foreign income as it is earned

2. Eliminate corporate welfare for oil, gas, and coal companies

3. Enact a financial crisis responsibility fee

4. Financial speculation tax (derivatives, foreign exchange)

CPC Policies detail — Health care

1. Enact a public option

2. Negotiate Rx payments with pharmaceutical companies

3. CMS program integrity and other Medicare and Medicaid savings in the [current] president’s budget.

4. Prevent a cut in Medicare physician payments for a decade (maintain doc fix)

CPC Policies detail — Social Security

1. Raise the taxable maximum on the employee side to 90 percent of earnings and eliminate the taxable maximum on the employer side

2. Increase benefits based on higher contributions on the employee side

CPC Policies detail — Defense savings

1. End overseas contingency operations emergency supplementals starting in 2013, providing $170 billion in FY2012 funding for withdrawal

2. Reduce baseline Defense spending by reducing strategic capabilities, conventional forces, procurement, and R&D programs

CPC Policies detail — Job Creation

1. Invest $1.45 trillion in job creation, early childhood, K-12 and special education, quality child care, energy and broadband infrastructure, housing, and R&D

2. Infrastructure bank

3. Surface transportation reauthorization bill

4. Finance surface transportation reauthorization

FY2012 Progressive Budget in sum 

• Eliminates the deficits and creates a surplus by 2021
• Puts America back to work with a ‘Make it in America’ jobs program
• Protects the social safety net
• Ends the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
• Is FAIR (Fixing America’s Inequality Responsibly)

Accomplishes—

• Primary budget balance by 2014
• Budget surplus by 2021
• Reduction in public debt as a share of GDP to 64.4 percent by 2021, down 16.9 percentage points from a baseline fully adjusted for both the doc fix and the AMT patch
• Reduction in deficits by $5.7 trillion over 2012-2021
• Both outlays and revenue equal 22.3 percent of GDP by 2021 

The Progressive Caucus counters a Republican campaign “to make the richest tier of the economy even more comfortable at everyone else’s expense,” and, says the Caucus, “The People’s Budget …is catching fire.”

The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) consists of one United States Senator and seventy-five members of the United States House of Representatives. CPC is the largest caucus within the House Democratic Caucus.  Established in 1991, the CPC reflects the diversity and strength of the American people and seeks to give voice to the needs and aspirations of all Americans and to build a more just and humane society.

CONGRESSIONAL PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS MEMBERS

Keith Ellison, Raúl Grijalva - CO-CHAIRS

Tammy Baldwin, Judy Chu, William “Lacy” Clay, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Chellie Pingree - VICE CHAIRS

Hank Johnson - WHIP

Bernie Sanders - SENATE MEMBER 

Karen Bass, Xavier Becerra, Earl Blumenauer, Robert Brady, Corrine Brown, Michael Capuano, Andre Carson, Donna Christensen, Yvette Clarke, Emanuel Cleaver, David Cicilline, Steve Cohen, John Conyers, Elijah Cummings, Danny Davis, Peter DeFazio, Rosa DeLauro, Donna Edwards, Sam Farr,

Chaka Fattah, Bob Filner, Barney Frank, Marcia Fudge, Luis Gutierrez, Maurice Hinchey, Mazie Hirono, Michael Honda, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Eddie Bernice Johnson, Marcy Kaptur, Dennis Kucinich,

Barbara Lee, John Lewis, David Loebsack, Ben Ray Lujan, Carolyn Maloney, Ed Markey, Jim McDermott, James McGovern, George Miller, Gwen Moore, Jim Moran, Jerrold Nadler, Eleanor Holmes Norton, John Olver, Frank Pallone, Ed Pastor, Donald Payne, Jared Polis, Charles Rangel, Laura Richardson, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Bobby Rush, Linda Sanchez, Jan Schakowsky, Jose Serrano, Louise Slaughter, Pete Stark, Bennie Thompson, John Tierney, Nydia Velazquez, Maxine Waters, Mel Watt, Henry Waxman, Peter Welch, Frederica Wilson, Lynn Woolsey - HOUSE MEMBERS

Sources and notes

“We Need The People's Budget in 2012” (Source: Daily Kos), April 8, 2011, FY2012 Progressive Budget, Progressive Caucus People's Budget FY12 Memorandum - Eliminates National Deficit by 2021, Progressive Caucus co-chairs Raúl M. Grijalva and Keith Ellison sent a memo to House Budget Committee Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen April 6 outlining the Caucus’s top budget priorities. http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=70&sectiontree=5,70

http://grijalva.house.gov/uploads/CPC.Budget.112th.Memo.pdf

http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=71&sectiontree=2,71

CONGRESSIONAL PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS PROMISE

Caucus members promote a strong, progressive agenda, called ‘The Progressive Promise — Fairness for All.’

The Progressive Promise is rooted in four core principles that embody national priorities and are consistent with the values, needs and aspirations of all the American people, not just the powerful and the privileged.  They reflect a fundamental belief in government of the people, by the people, and for the people. 

FOUR CORE PRINCIPLES of the Progressive Promise:

1. Fighting for economic justice and security for all

2. Protecting and preserving our civil rights and civil liberties

3. Promoting global peace and security

4. Advancing environmental protection and energy independence

The Progressive Promise

Fairness for All

DETAIL

The Congressional Progressive Caucus believes in government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Our fairness plan is rooted in our core principles. It also embodies national priorities that are consistent with the values, needs, and hopes of all our people, not just the powerful and the privileged.

“We pledge our unwavering commitment to these legislative priorities and we will not rest until they become law.”

ECONOMIC JUSTICE

1. Fighting for Economic Justice and Security in the U.S. and Global Economies 

» To uphold the right to universal access to affordable, high quality healthcare for all

» To preserve guaranteed Social Security benefits for all Americans, protect private pensions, and require corporate accountability

» To invest in America and create new jobs in the U.S. by building more affordable housing, re-building America’s schools and physical infrastructure, cleaning up our environment, and improving homeland security

» To export more American products and not more American jobs and demand fair trade

» To reaffirm freedom of association and enforce the right to organize

» To ensure working families can live above the poverty line and with dignity by raising and indexing the minimum wage

RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES

2. Protecting and Preserving Civil Rights and Civil Liberties 

» To sunset expiring provisions of the Patriot Act and bring remaining provisions into line with the U. S. Constitution

» To protect the personal privacy of all Americans from unbridled police powers and unchecked government intrusion

» To extend the Voting Rights Act and reform our electoral processes

» To fight corporate consolidation of the media and ensure opportunity for all voices to be heard

» To ensure enforcement of all legal rights in the workplace

» To eliminate all forms of discrimination based upon color, race, religion, gender, creed, disability, or sexual orientation

PEACE AND SECURITY

3. Promoting Global Peace and Security 

» To honor and help our overburdened international public servants – both military and civilian

» To bring U. S. troops home from Iraq as soon as possible

» To re-build U.S. alliances around the world, restore international respect for American power and influence, and reaffirm our nation’s constructive engagement in the United Nations and other multilateral organizations

» To enhance international cooperation to reduce the threats posed by nuclear proliferation and weapons of mass destruction

» To increase efforts to combat hunger and the scourge of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other infectious diseases

» To encourage debt relief for poor countries and support efforts to reach the UN’s Millennium Goals for Developing Countries

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

4. Advancing Environmental Protection & Energy Independence

» To free ourselves and our economy from dependence upon imported oil and shift to growing reliance upon renewable energy supplies and technologies, thus creating at least three million new jobs, cleansing our environment, and enhancing our nation’s security

» To promote environmental justice in affirmation that all people have an inherent right to a healthy environment, clean air, and clean water wherever we live, work, and relax

» To change incentives in federal tax, procurement, and appropriation policies to —

(A) Speed commercialization of solar, biomass, and wind power generation, while encouraging state and local policy innovation to link clean energy and job creation 

(B) Convert domestic assembly lines to manufacture highly efficient vehicles, enhance global competitiveness of U.S. auto industry, and expand consumer choice 

(C) Increase investment in construction of “green buildings” and more energy-efficient homes and workplaces 

(D) Link higher energy efficiency standards in appliances to consumer and manufacturing incentives that increase demand for new durable goods and increase investment in U.S. factories

» To eliminate environmental threat posed by global warming and ensuring that America does our part to advance an effective global problem-solving approach

» To expand energy-efficient transportation choices by increasing investment in synthesized networks, including bicycle, local bus and rail transit, regional high-speed rail and magnetic levitation rail projects

» To preserve prudent public interest regulations that encourage sustainable growth and investment, ensure energy diversity and system reliability, protect workers and the environment, reward consumer conservation, and support an expanding marketplace that rewards the commercialization of energy-efficient technologies”

The CPC is committed to helping progressives, both inside and outside of Congress, to work together more effectively, in order to bring all of us closer to making good on The Progressive Promise.

http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=74&sectiontree=2,74

http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=63&sectiontree=2,63

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