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The People's Budget - Prosperity not Austerity
Drowned Out
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How The People's Budget builds a stronger America.
Executive Summary
While our economy is rebounding from the Great Recession, hardworking Americans are being left behind. Our economic and political system has lost sight of what matters most: We the People. The Congressional Progressive Caucus’ Budget for Fiscal Year 2017 provides major reinvestments in our country through infrastructure, education, and wage growth to increase opportunity for all. The People’s Budget is a down payment on a brighter future for all Americans, ensuring every family struggling to make ends meet has a fair shot at the American Dream.
An investment in roads, bridges, and railways is an investment in the safety and prosperity of the American people. The People’s Budget commits $1 trillion in infrastructure spending overall to transform our country’s crumbling roads, bridges, and facilities into a 21st century network, creating jobs and improving economic opportunities in the process. This includes billions for water lines nationwide and $765 million specifically for Flint, Michigan, to replace toxic pipelines and provide needed health, education, and other services for residents exposed to lead. Families should never have to worry about whether their water is safe to drink, or their roads are safe to drive on.
Access to equitable education opportunities is key to ensuring future generations are prepared for success. From pre-school through college, every student deserves the right to high-quality affordable education. The People’s Budget invests in our students by providing robust early learning opportunities, effective public schools for all students, and debt-free college.
The People’s Budgetcreates 3.6 million good paying jobs to push our economy back to full-employment, which will provide the necessary economic conditions to spur across-the-board wage growth for hardworking Americans. It empowers working families, protects collective bargaining, and seeks to close the pay equity gap. It also increases funding for worker protection agencies to crack down on wage theft, combat overtime abuses, and safeguard workers’ retirement savings. Now is the time for Congress to remove the barriers that have held down wages for working Americans.
The People’s Budget makes major public investments to rebuild America by fixing our crumbling roads and bridges, improving schools, moving towards clean energy, and creating good paying jobs in the process.
Invest In America
- Invests $1 trillion to transition to 21st Century infrastructure, which ensures our roads, bridges, railways, and facilities are strong and that no town experiences the devastating effects of crumbling infrastructure we’ve seen in Flint, Michigan
- Delivers on the promise of effective early childhood education by fully funding Early Head Start
- Makes debt free college a reality for all students
- Expands commitment to create efficient renewable energy and competitive, high-quality green jobs
Pathways Out of Poverty and Empowering the Middle Class
- Supports wage increases for working Americans, negotiating rights and fair pay
- Provides a plan to reduce poverty by half in ten years
- Increases discretionary funding to invest in women, communities of color and their families
- Reverses harmful cuts and enhances the social safety net
- Provides an increase in Trade Adjustment Assistance for workers displaced by bad trade deals
Justice and Fair Elections
- Supports a justice system that is fair and effective for all Americans with full funding for key DOJ programs, including public defenders and recidivism reduction
- Rebuilds trust in the justice system by funding community oriented policing reforms
- Strengthens Department of Justice Voter Protection Programs
- Protects voting rights by increasing funding to voter protection agencies
- Funds public financing of campaigns to curb the influence of special interests in politics
Fair Individual Taxes
- Ensures profits from investments are taxed at the same rate as income from work
- Returns to Clinton-era tax rates for households making over $250,000 and implements new brackets for those making over $1 million
- Expands the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Care Credit
Fair Coporate Taxes
- Eliminates the ability of U.S. corporations to defer taxes on offshore profits
- Ends corporate inversions that allow U.S. companies to avoid paying taxes
- Enacts a Financial Transaction Tax on Wall Street’s high-stakes trading
- Ends unlimited executive pay tax write-offs
Educational Opportunities for Every Student
- Fully funds Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and provides Pre-K for all
- Greater investments in K-12 education
- Increases computer science opportunities for all students
- Provides for the refinancing of student loans
Affordable Health Care
- Repeals excise tax on high-priced healthcare plans for workers andreplaces it with a public option
- Implements drug price negotiation for Medicare
- Allows states to transition to single-payer health care systems
- Expands access to mental health care and treatments for opioid and heroin addiction
Protect our Environment
- Closes tax loopholes and ends subsidies provided to oil, gas, and coal companies
- Implements a price on carbon pollution
- Invests in clean, renewable, and efficient energy and green manufacturing
Sustainable Defense: Promoting Peace And Security
- Modernizes our defense system to create sustainable Pentagon spending
- Ends funding for unsustainable wars
- Increases funding for diplomacy and strategic humanitarian aid
- Adds robust funding for refugee resettlement programs
Grow Small Businesses
- Fully funds the Small Business Administration’s loan programs to help America’s small businesses remain competitive and continue to grow
Comprehensive Immigration Reform
- Implements comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship
Access to Housing
- Fully funds programs to make housing affordable and accessible for all Americans
- Addresses the pervasive and persistent problem of poverty in America through an $11 billion investment to end family homelessness
Strengthening Our Commitment to Veterans
- Increases funding for veterans supportive housing to eliminate veterans homelessness
- Expands access to mental health care for all veteran and service members
- Invests in job training opportunities for transitioning service members and veterans
http://cpcbudget.org/
How The People's Budget builds a stronger America.
Executive Summary
While our economy is rebounding from the Great Recession, hardworking Americans are being left behind. Our economic and political system has lost sight of what matters most: We the People. The Congressional Progressive Caucus’ Budget for Fiscal Year 2017 provides major reinvestments in our country through infrastructure, education, and wage growth to increase opportunity for all. The People’s Budget is a down payment on a brighter future for all Americans, ensuring every family struggling to make ends meet has a fair shot at the American Dream.
An investment in roads, bridges, and railways is an investment in the safety and prosperity of the American people. The People’s Budget commits $1 trillion in infrastructure spending overall to transform our country’s crumbling roads, bridges, and facilities into a 21st century network, creating jobs and improving economic opportunities in the process. This includes billions for water lines nationwide and $765 million specifically for Flint, Michigan, to replace toxic pipelines and provide needed health, education, and other services for residents exposed to lead. Families should never have to worry about whether their water is safe to drink, or their roads are safe to drive on.
Access to equitable education opportunities is key to ensuring future generations are prepared for success. From pre-school through college, every student deserves the right to high-quality affordable education. The People’s Budget invests in our students by providing robust early learning opportunities, effective public schools for all students, and debt-free college.
The People’s Budgetcreates 3.6 million good paying jobs to push our economy back to full-employment, which will provide the necessary economic conditions to spur across-the-board wage growth for hardworking Americans. It empowers working families, protects collective bargaining, and seeks to close the pay equity gap. It also increases funding for worker protection agencies to crack down on wage theft, combat overtime abuses, and safeguard workers’ retirement savings. Now is the time for Congress to remove the barriers that have held down wages for working Americans.
The People’s Budget makes major public investments to rebuild America by fixing our crumbling roads and bridges, improving schools, moving towards clean energy, and creating good paying jobs in the process.
Invest In America
- Invests $1 trillion to transition to 21st Century infrastructure, which ensures our roads, bridges, railways, and facilities are strong and that no town experiences the devastating effects of crumbling infrastructure we’ve seen in Flint, Michigan
- Delivers on the promise of effective early childhood education by fully funding Early Head Start
- Makes debt free college a reality for all students
- Expands commitment to create efficient renewable energy and competitive, high-quality green jobs
Pathways Out of Poverty and Empowering the Middle Class
- Supports wage increases for working Americans, negotiating rights and fair pay
- Provides a plan to reduce poverty by half in ten years
- Increases discretionary funding to invest in women, communities of color and their families
- Reverses harmful cuts and enhances the social safety net
- Provides an increase in Trade Adjustment Assistance for workers displaced by bad trade deals
Justice and Fair Elections
- Supports a justice system that is fair and effective for all Americans with full funding for key DOJ programs, including public defenders and recidivism reduction
- Rebuilds trust in the justice system by funding community oriented policing reforms
- Strengthens Department of Justice Voter Protection Programs
- Protects voting rights by increasing funding to voter protection agencies
- Funds public financing of campaigns to curb the influence of special interests in politics
Fair Individual Taxes
- Ensures profits from investments are taxed at the same rate as income from work
- Returns to Clinton-era tax rates for households making over $250,000 and implements new brackets for those making over $1 million
- Expands the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Care Credit
Fair Coporate Taxes
- Eliminates the ability of U.S. corporations to defer taxes on offshore profits
- Ends corporate inversions that allow U.S. companies to avoid paying taxes
- Enacts a Financial Transaction Tax on Wall Street’s high-stakes trading
- Ends unlimited executive pay tax write-offs
Educational Opportunities for Every Student
- Fully funds Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and provides Pre-K for all
- Greater investments in K-12 education
- Increases computer science opportunities for all students
- Provides for the refinancing of student loans
Affordable Health Care
- Repeals excise tax on high-priced healthcare plans for workers andreplaces it with a public option
- Implements drug price negotiation for Medicare
- Allows states to transition to single-payer health care systems
- Expands access to mental health care and treatments for opioid and heroin addiction
Protect our Environment
- Closes tax loopholes and ends subsidies provided to oil, gas, and coal companies
- Implements a price on carbon pollution
- Invests in clean, renewable, and efficient energy and green manufacturing
Sustainable Defense: Promoting Peace And Security
- Modernizes our defense system to create sustainable Pentagon spending
- Ends funding for unsustainable wars
- Increases funding for diplomacy and strategic humanitarian aid
- Adds robust funding for refugee resettlement programs
Grow Small Businesses
- Fully funds the Small Business Administration’s loan programs to help America’s small businesses remain competitive and continue to grow
Comprehensive Immigration Reform
- Implements comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship
Access to Housing
- Fully funds programs to make housing affordable and accessible for all Americans
- Addresses the pervasive and persistent problem of poverty in America through an $11 billion investment to end family homelessness
Strengthening Our Commitment to Veterans
- Increases funding for veterans supportive housing to eliminate veterans homelessness
- Expands access to mental health care for all veteran and service members
- Invests in job training opportunities for transitioning service members and veterans
http://cpcbudget.org/
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The budget proposed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus de-funds the Pentagon and invests new money in transitioning away from America's military-dependent economy.
byMiriam Pemberton
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/03/17/heres-what-budget-prioritizes-peace-looks
The Obama administration’s budget proposal for 2017 would jack up military spending higher than it’s been since World War II. The Republican leadership in Congress wants to jack it up higher than that.
Fortunately, these aren’t our only choices.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus has mapped out a saner alternative in what it’s calling the People’s Budget. The CPC’s budget proposal would, for one thing, end the Pentagon tactic of having a war budget — separate and on top of “regular” Pentagon spending — that’s become an all-purpose slush fund for the military’s wish list projects, many of which have nothing to do with the wars we are fighting.
The challenge in reining in the impulses of public officials to throw ever more money at the military is that the economies of communities all across the country have become dependent on it. Hundreds of thousands of jobs are now tied to the fortunes of Pentagon spending. But luckily the People’s Budget has embedded in it the means to overcome this Pentagon dependency.
The first and most important way of dislodging an entrenched military economy is to replace the money that fuels it with other spending — on things we actually need. Here the People’s Budget is especially strong. Its first and biggest idea is a $1 trillion investment in our country’s infrastructure, paid for by military cuts and a fairer tax code. These investments would begin to take care of the decades of neglect to our bridges and water systems.
They would also begin to fund the new infrastructure of a future based on clean energy and transport. The budget allots $150 billion to upgrade the electrical grid to make it suitable for renewable energy sources. It funds high-speed rail projects, solar installations, and bus and rail car manufacturing — all the kinds of big projects well-suited to absorb the skilled workforce of defense manufacturing.
And the kicker is, studies have shown repeatedly that there are more well-paying jobs to be had in these lines of work than in manufacturing for the military.
But there’s still the question of how to get from here to there. Moving the center of budgetary gravity toward civilian investments gets you a long way, but not all the way, to a peace economy. Defense-dependent communities need help thinking through ways to ease the transition from one economic base to another.
The People’s Budget has answers there too. It increases funding for a Pentagon agency called the Office of Economic Adjustment, whose reason for being is to give planning grants and technical assistance to communities that are trying to plan an orderly transition to a more diversified jobs base. Also potentially useful in connecting these communities to the emerging green economy is funding in the People’s Budget for job training and economic development to ease the transition from fossil fuels.
In the midst of the worst political dysfunction in memory comes this reminder of what a budget that gives priority to real national needs in general — and a peace economy in particular — could look like. I’m grateful.
This article first appeared at Daily Kos.
Seems my preconceptions are what should have been burned...
I AM MINE
Any budget that does not recognize and incorporate within it the limits of resources is eventually going to fail. Earth Overshoot Day will land on August 13 this year. Every year that day comes a little earlier. If we don't incorporate true sustainability into it (not the false notion we hear about all too often), no budget will make sense for future generations. We would be wise to look beyond our own lifetime.