The People's Budget: Prosperity Not Austerity; Invest in America FY 2017

While our economy is rebounding from the Great Recession, hardworking Americans are being left behind. Our economic and political system has lost sight of what matters most: We the People. The Congressional Progressive Caucus’ Budget for Fiscal Year 2017 provides major reinvestments in our country through infrastructure, education, and wage growth to increase opportunity for all. The People’s Budget is a down payment on a brighter future for all Americans, ensuring every family struggling to make ends meet has a fair shot at the American Dream.

An investment in roads, bridges, and railways is an investment in the safety and prosperity of the American people. The People’s Budget commits $1 trillion in infrastructure spending overall to transform our country’s crumbling roads, bridges, and facilities into a 21^st century network, creating jobs and improving economic opportunities in the process. This includes billions for water lines nationwide and $765 million specifically for Flint, Michigan, to replace toxic pipelines and provide needed health, education, and other services for residents exposed to lead. Families should never have to worry about whether their water is safe to drink, or their roads are safe to drive on.  

Access to equitable education opportunities is key to ensuring future generations are prepared for success. From pre-school through college, every student deserves the right to high-quality affordable education. The People’s Budget invests in our students by providing robust early learning opportunities, effective public schools for all students, and debt-free college. 

The People’s Budgetcreates 3.6 million good paying jobs to push our economy back to full-employment, which will provide the necessary economic conditions to spur across-the-board wage growth for hardworking Americans. It empowers working families, protects collective bargaining, and seeks to close the pay equity gap. It also increases funding for worker protection agencies to crack down on wage theft, combat overtime abuses, and safeguard workers’ retirement savings. Now is the time for Congress to remove the barriers that have held down wages for working Americans.

The People’s Budget makes major public investments to rebuild America by fixing our crumbling roads and bridges, improving schools, moving towards clean energy, and creating good paying jobs in the process.

Invest In America 

• Invests $1 trillion to transition to 21^st Century infrastructure, which ensures our roads, bridges, railways, and facilities are strong and that no town experiences the devastating effects of crumbling infrastructure we’ve seen in Flint, Michigan
• Delivers on the promise of effective early childhood education by fully funding Early Head Start
• Makes debt free college a reality for all students
• Expands commitment to create efficient renewable energy and competitive, high-quality green jobs

Pathways Out of Poverty and Empowering the Middle Class

• Supports wage increases for working Americans, negotiating rights and fair pay
• Provides a plan to reduce poverty by half in ten years
• Increases discretionary funding to invest in women, communities of color and their families
• Reverses harmful cuts and enhances the social safety net
• Provides an increase in Trade Adjustment Assistance for workers displaced by bad trade deals

Justice and Fair Elections

• Supports a justice system that is fair and effective for all Americans with full funding for key DOJ programs, including public defenders and recidivism reduction
• Rebuilds trust in the justice system by funding community oriented policing reforms
• Strengthens Department of Justice Voter Protection Programs
• Protects voting rights by increasing funding to voter protection agencies
• Funds public financing of campaigns to curb the influence of special interests in politics

Fair Individual Taxes

• Ensures profits from investments are taxed at the same rate as income from work
• Returns to Clinton-era tax rates for households making over $250,000 and implements new brackets for those making over $1 million
• Expands the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Care Credit                           

Fair Coporate Taxes

• Eliminates the ability of U.S. corporations to defer taxes on offshore profits
• Ends corporate inversions that allow U.S. companies to avoid paying taxes
• Enacts a Financial Transaction Tax on Wall Street’s high-stakes trading
• Ends unlimited executive pay tax write-offs

Educational Opportunities for Every Student 

• Fully funds Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and provides Pre-K for all
• Greater investments in K-12 education
• Increases computer science opportunities for all students
• Provides for the refinancing of student loans

Affordable Health Care

• Repeals excise tax on high-priced healthcare plans for workers andreplaces it with a public option
• Implements drug price negotiation for Medicare
• Allows states to transition to single-payer health care systems
• Expands access to mental health care and treatments for opioid and heroin addiction

Protect our Environment

• Closes tax loopholes and ends subsidies provided to oil, gas, and coal companies
• Implements a price on carbon pollution
• Invests in clean, renewable, and efficient energy and green manufacturing

Sustainable Defense: Promoting peace And Security

• Modernizes our defense system to create sustainable Pentagon spending
• Ends funding for unsustainable wars
• Increases funding for diplomacy and strategic humanitarian aid
• Adds robust funding for refugee resettlement programs

Grow Small Businesses

• Fully funds the Small Business Administration’s loan programs to help America’s small businesses remain competitive and continue to grow

Comprehensive Immigration Reform

•  Implements comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship

Access to Housing

• Fully funds programs to make housing affordable and accessible for all Americans
• Addresses the pervasive and persistent problem of poverty in America through an $11 billion investment to end family homelessness

Strengthening our Commitment to Veterans

• Increases funding for veterans supportive housing to eliminate veterans homelessness
• Expands access to mental health care for all veteran and service members
• Invests in job training opportunities for transitioning service members and veterans

Full Budget documents are below.