A Budget for All

by Peter Deccy

Representative Paul Ryan’s ‘Punish the People’ budget proposal was released last week to a symphony of media coverage. This week, the Congressional Progressive Caucus released The Budget for All, a blueprint for deficit reduction and job creation the media ignored. Fair and balanced? Hardly.

The Budget for All promises $6.8 trillion in deficit reduction while providing $2.9 trillion in public investment and job creation. It funds these important steps with tax reform that would have the super rich actually contribute to the solution of an economic meltdown they largely caused, while ending the wars in Afghanistan and curbing the Pentagon spending spree.

It provides a sharp contrast to the Ryan plan which continues the practice of protecting the 1% from the curse of taxation while increasing military spending. For all those secretaries paying a higher tax rate than their bosses, Ryan would probably say, ‘you ain’t seen nothing yet.’

The values we want reflected throughout our society are the same values that bind us to our families. Caring for each other, a sense of obligation to something beyond our own self-interest, a willingness to take responsibility, these values are the basis for The Budget for All.

The Budget for All strengthens “a covenant made between a government and its citizens.” The super rich would still be super rich, but they would be obliged to join the rest of us on “a pathway forward of shared responsibility and prosperity.”