Yesterday, the House voted on three Democratic budget proposals: the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s People’s Budget, the Congressional Black Caucus’s budget, and the Democratic Caucus’s budget.
Of the three budgets, the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s budget is always the “gold standard” of them. Here is a run-down of the budget by the Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel:
On the investment side, the CPC expands investments in areas vital to our future. It would rebuild America, modernizing our outmoded infrastructure. It would invest to lead the green industrial revolution that is already forging markets and creating jobs across the globe.
The CPC understands that we must do the basics in education. It would provide pre-K for every child, the most important single reform we can make in education. It calls for increasing investment in our public schools, helping to mitigate the destructive inequality between rich districts and poor. It would provide students with four years of debt-free college education, and pay for renegotiating existing student loans, relieving the burden now crushing an entire generation.
The CPC recognizes that more seniors are facing a retirement crisis. On budget, it would adopt an inflation measure for Social Security that reflects the rising costs seniors face in areas like health care. Off budget, the CPC calls for expanded Social Security benefits, paid for by lifting the income cap on Social Security payroll contributions. No longer would Donald Trump pay a lower rate in Social Security taxes than the police who guard his palaces.
The CPC would also expand the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit, giving a break to low-wage workers and to parents struggling with the costs of childcare. And needless to say, the CPC would defend Medicare and Medicaid, not privatize it, and strengthen health-care reform, not eliminate it.
The People’s Budget details how to pay for these vital investments while slowly reducing the national debt as a percentage of the economy. The basic theory is to raise revenues by taxing what we want less of and save by cutting spending we can do without.
We now suffer dangerously extreme inequality, so the CPC would increase taxes on those who make $1 million or more. High-frequency trading on Wall Street is dangerously unstable, so the CPC would levy a small tax on speculation to slow it down. CEO pay has soared while workers haven’t shared in the profits they have helped to generate, so the CPC would end the loophole that allows companies to write off obscene bonuses and stock options as a business expense.
Catastrophic climate change is, even according to the Pentagon, a clear and present danger. The CPC budget would levy a carbon tax, allowing the market to allocate carbon reduction. Much of the revenue is devoted to a rebate so that lower-wage families are made whole from the change.
In cutting waste, the CPC turns to where the money is, calling for a relatively modest reduction in military spending over time. It would repeal the ridiculous law that bans Medicare from negotiating bulk discounts on drugs. It would curb insurance company gouging by giving consumers a public option in health care. It would end the pernicious and wasteful subsidies to oil and gas companies.
And it would rescue millions from of the shadow economy with comprehensive immigration reform, saving nearly $200 billion over a decade according to Congressional Budget Office projections.
The Congressional Black Caucus budget is traditionally less progressive than the CPC budget but more so than the general caucus budget.
Democrats split 96-86 on the CPC budget, 120-62 on the CBC budget, and 160-22 on the party budget.
And what about the MA Dems?
Four members of the MA delegation voted for all three budgets.
Jim McGovern (MA-02)
Katherine Clark (MA-05)
Mike Capuano (MA-07)
Stephen Lynch (MA-08)
Three voted for the Congressional Black Caucus budget and the party caucus budget, but not the People’s Budget:
RIchard Neal (MA-01)
Niki Tsongas (MA-03)
Joe Kennedy (MA-04)
And then two voted for the party caucus budget, but against the other two more progressive budgets:
Seth Moulton (MA-06)
Bill Keating (MA-09)
Votes like this are why I’m so glad that Mike Capuano is my Representative.
I supported another candidate in the special election but I like what she’s doing down in DC.
And I was also a backer of one of her primary opponents. I’ll add that for the folks who criticized her for accepting a leadership position and predicted she would “sell out” that it should be clear from these votes and her boycotting Netenyahu’s speech that she has not.
I supported Katherine in the MA-5 primary wholeheartedly, but let’s be honest there were a lot of good people in that race. That said, she has been exceeding even my high expectations of late. Very proud of her and glad she’s down in WDC causing trouble on our behalf 😉
Moulton’s new so I’ll give him a pass, but what about Neal & Keating? Seems like it might be time for some new, progressive blood in our Congressional delegation.
over never voting for a CPC budget despite being a member of the CPC. Disappointing failure to stand up for sane budgetary principles.