Wednesday, April 20, 2011

The People's Budget

The People's Budget


From Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo on 13 April.  This is the kind of real world budget that makes actual sense, not the political posturing that passes for a serious go at a budget. 

Kinda reminds me of the fake fights that various animals stage, just for show.  Because if they really fight, somebody will get hurt. 

Read the whole thing, but here are a couple key points that jumped out at me: 

Representatives from the 77-member House Progressive Caucus gathered at the Capitol on Wednesday to roll out their plan to cut the deficit and put the budget back into balance. Their simple solution: pull the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, install a public option for health care, raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations and voila, America is fixed.

The caucus plan, known as The People's Budget, was explained in some detail by Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs last week. Today, progressive members extolled the virtues of the plan as members sat waiting for President Obama to introduce a deficit reduction plan many Democrats worried would sacrifice necessary spending on the altar of a mistaken understanding of fiscal responsibility.

"We want to cut," [Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), co-chair of the caucus] added. What's on the progressive caucus chopping block? "Eliminating unnecessary weapons systems from the Defense Department, eliminating huge tax credits for oil and gas industries, eliminating subsidies for new nuclear power plans," Grijalva said.

The plan would "eliminate the deficit," supporters say, and put the nation budget in surplus by 2021.

I previously blogged about the budget here.  The theme is the same.

 

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