Progressive Caucus Budget Proposes $2.9 Trillion Spending Hike

We’ve got President Obama’s budget, which was one-upped in spending cuts by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget. That will come to the House floor tomorrow, but the length of time in which the budget would be balanced under the “Path to Prosperity” — 28 years — was one-upped yesterday by the Republican Study Committee budget, wherein House conservatives plan to balance it in five.

Now comes the Congressional Progressive Caucus budget plan: the “Budget for All.”

“This budget puts power back in the hands of the American people by creating jobs, making sure everyone pays a fair tax rate, taking away the need for corporate money in politics and putting justice at the forefront of our national conversation,” Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) said. “Working people are losing faith in the government’s ability to respond to their everyday problems and losing patience with Republican obstruction. This budget rebuilds the country they believe in, and I’m proud to support it.”

The budget increasing funding for numerous programs that the caucus says will create jobs by $2.9 trillion (including an infrastructure bank), and restores tax rates to Clinton-era levels (a “sensible share” for higher income earners). It makes no cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security benefits.

It creates new tax brackets for millionaires and up, and calls for adoption of the “Buffett Rule.” Elections would be publicly funded to take corporate donations out of the system, and a new Making Work Pay tax credit would be available from 2013-2015.

“Anyone who thinks trillions of dollars in cuts and more corporate giveaways are what the country needs has been sleeping through the last two years,” Jackson said. “This budget responds to what the people want, what the economy requires and what the Progressive Caucus believes in. I look forward to a national discussion about what’s in this plan, and I’m excited to stand behind it.”

The caucus’ FY 2012 proposal was called “The People’s Budget.” The “Budget for All” builds off that.

“Paul Ryan was right about only one thing when he introduced the GOP’s budget,” CPC co-chairman Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) said. “America has a choice between two futures. In the Republican vision for America, the Medicare guarantee is stripped from our parents and grandparents, Wall Street greed is rewarded while the middle class continues to shrink and more of our tax dollars are handed over to millionaires, billionaires and the corporate special interests who can afford an army of lobbyists.

“In the CPC’s vision for America, we all do better when we all do better. We reward work, not just wealth. We invest in our people and rebuild America, and we begin to show Washington what a government of, by, and for the people looks like. I think I know which future the American people will choose.”