The both-sides-do-it, corporate-owned newsmedia openly declare it isnt their job to get the facts across. Some of us arent even going to bother voting because weve been led to believe that theres no difference between the effective results we get, so why should we bother voting. Some of us have been bamboozled into believing lies and propaganda. The stakes are too damned high, because if Republicans take back the Senate majority in 2014, maintaining their illegitimate - gerrymandered - majority in the House, they will be well-positioned to take back the Presidency in 2016, and if they win it, we will not recognize this country. (Look back at what they did to us under Bush.) Looking forward, heres what were missing: ...Wednesday the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) released their 2015 budget proposal, called the Better Off Budget. Here are just some of the things this budget would accomplish if enacted: ---Increases employment by 4.6 million jobs ---Boosts gross domestic product (GDP) by 3.8 percent ---Repeals the sequester ---Restores Food Stamp cuts – Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) ---Restores unemployment insurance ---Starts fixing our country’s infrastructure – creates jobs in building and construction industries to repair and modernize our ailing roads, bridges and water infrastructure. ---Helps the long-term unemployed by providing access to training and employment services ---Fully funds the Prevention and Public Health Fund ---Ends the federal worker pay freeze. ---State Aid – provides assistance to states to allow them to hire and rehire public employees such as police, firefighters and health care workers. ---Public Works and Education – a direct hire program that includes seven jobs corps to hire physicians, students, construction and community workers and an education program boost to hire more teachers and improve schools. ---Equity for Women and People of Color – enhances federal programs targeted at creating equity and improving outcomes for women, people of color, and their families. ---Protecting Veterans and Workers through Retirement –adopts a cost-of-living adjustment that takes into account realistic retiree expenses and fully funds veterans programs in advance. ---Implements a new Hard Work Tax Credit for households earning less than $150,000. ---Returns to Clinton tax rates for households making over $250,000 and implements new brackets for those making over $1 million. ---Eliminates the ability of U.S. corporations to defer taxes on offshore profits. ---Enacts a Financial Transaction tax on various financial market transactions. ---Implements Chairman Dave Camp’s financial institution excise tax. ---Protects and strengthens Medicare and Medicaid without cutting benefits for seniors. ---Builds on Affordable Care Act savings and successes, including implementing a public option and expanding payment reforms. ---Allows states to transition to single-payer health care systems. ---Closes tax loopholes and ends subsidies provided to oil, gas and coal companies. ---Addresses the climate change crisis by enacting a price on carbon pollution while holding low-income families harmless. ---Invests in clean and renewable energy, which creates middle class jobs, boosts the economy, and cuts pollution. ---Implements comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship. ---Funds public financing of campaigns to curb special interest influence in politics. ---Endorses Scrapping-the-Cap and expanding Social Security benefits separately from the federal budget process. Compare this to the widely reported Republican Ryan budget, from House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, that cuts taxes for the rich and corporations, and pays for that by cutting the things government does to make our lives better.... All of the detailed policy proposals above are polled from here: [ourfuture.org/TheNewPopulism.pdf] ...with analysis from the Economic Policy Institute [ epi.org/publication/budget-analysis-congressional-progressive/ ]
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 16:42:51 +0000
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