Congressional Progressive Caucus Issues 'Budget for All'

The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) has issued their full alternative budget today, The Budget for All.

In contrast to the GOP budget the CPC budget has no cuts to Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security benefits.

The proposal states that it can achieve a deficit reduction "by focusing on the true drivers of our deficit - unsustainable tax policies, the wars overseas, and policies that helped cause the recent recession - rather than putting the middle class's social safety net on the chopping block."

"Our budgets mean schools, firehouses and hospitals stay open and people get the education and job training they need to find good jobs when they're ready," Rep. Grijalva said. "Cutting billions from public education, low income health care, school nutrition and public services and giving the money to big corporations isn't making a tough choice. It's a choice that's going to make it tougher for a lot of working Americans, but that's not the same thing. Republicans say we're headed off a cliff because of spending. Well, our budget increases funding for job training, for education, for infrastructure, for low-income and veterans housing, and we chart a much more fiscally responsible path than the Republican scheme. It's about more than numbers on a page to us - it's about people."

"Paul Ryan was right about only one thing when he introduced the GOP's budget," Rep. Ellison 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," Rep. Ellison concluded.

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From the Congressional Progressive Caucus:

Our Budget Puts Americans Back to Work
Our budget attacks America's persistently high unemployment levels with more than $2.4 trillion in job-creating investments. This plan utilizes every tool at the government's disposal to get our economy moving again, including:
* Direct hire programs that create a School Improvement Corps, a Park Improvement Corps, and a Student Jobs Corps, among others.
* Targeted tax incentives that spur clean energy, manufacturing, and cutting-edge technological investments in the private sector.
* Widespread domestic investments including an infrastructure bank, a $556 billion surface transportation bill, and approximately $1.7 trillion in widespread domestic investment.

Our Budget Exhibits Fiscal Discipline
* Unlike the Republican budget, the Budget for All substantially reduces the deficit, and does so in a way that does not devastate what Americans want preserved.
* We achieve these notable benchmarks by focusing on the true drivers of our deficit - unsustainable tax policies, the wars overseas, and policies that helped cause the recent recession - rather than putting the middle class's social safety net on the chopping block.

Our Budget Creates a Fairer America
* Ends tax cuts for the top 2% of Americans on schedule at year's end
* Extends tax relief for middle class households and the vast majority of Americans
* Creates new tax brackets for millionaires and billionaires, in line with the Buffett Rule principle
* Eliminates the tax code's preferential treatment of capital gains and dividends
* Abolishes corporate welfare for oil, gas, and coal companies
* Eliminates loopholes that allow businesses to dodge their true tax liability
* Creates a publicly funded federal election system that gets corporate money out of politics for good

Our Budget Brings Our Troops Home
* Responsibly and expeditiously ends our military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, leaving America more secure at home and abroad
* Adapts our military to address 21^st century threats; through modernization, the Department of Defense will spend less and stop contributing to our deficit problems

Protects American Families
* Provides a Making Work Pay tax credit for families struggling with high gas and food cost 2013-2015
* Extends Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child and Dependent Care Credit
* Invests in programs to stave off further foreclosures to keep families in their homes
* Invests in our children's education by increasing Education, Training, and Social Services