Prioritizing People, Not The Pentagon
Every year without fail our elected representatives give over half of the discretionary budget to the Pentagon, leaving less than half to be divided up to fund everything else that is important to the American people’s livelihood. To make this even worse, the Pentagon’s “slush fund” is not subject to any spending caps and the Pentagon never has to face an audit of its spending, leaving American’s deprived of needed resources and in the dark. The People’s Budget will ensure that the Pentagon be held accountable for its spending, and it will reinvest in America and the American people.
$1 Trillion Infrastructure Plan
America has a serious problem of outdated and literally crumbling infrastructure. Many of our bridges are rated structurally deficient, and tragedies such as the 2007 I-35W Mississippi River bridge collapse and the water crisis in Flint, Michigan are proof that the United States needs to invest in infrastructure. Flint is not the only city in the United States that has toxic water running through the faucets of their citizen’s homes, and thousands of bridges are at risk of collapse across America. Hundreds of millions of dollars are needed in order to improve the water system and fix crumbling roads and bridges in addition to hundreds of other needed infrastructural improvements. The People’s Budget allocates $1 trillion toward infrastructure spending to fix these problems.
Early Education for All and Debt Free College
A high quality education is something which should be guaranteed to all Americans regardless of income, race, or disability. Unfortunately, House Republicans call for cuts to education spending and support policies which will further the enormous amounts of debt experienced by thousands of college students each year. The People’s Budget provides tuition-free Community College education, full funding to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, funding for universally available Pre-K education, greater investments overall in high quality K-12 education, and options for refinancing student loans.
Protect the Environment
The People’s Budget will close the loopholes and end the subsidies provided to oil, gas, and coal companies. By implementing a price on carbon pollution and investing in clean, renewable, and efficient energy and green manufacturing, the People’s Budget will put the US on course to a green future.
Fair Taxes for Corporations and Individuals
On an individual level, the People Budget ensures profits from investments are taxed at the same rate as income from work, and returns to Clinton-era tax rates for households making over $250,000 while also implementing new brackets for those making over $1 million. It also calls for expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Care Credit, providing much needed support to those making the least money. On the corporate level, the People’s Budget 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, and ends unlimited executive pay tax write-offs.
Justice and Fair Elections
A lack of accountability for actions taken by the justice department has caused understandable outrage among millions of Americans who desire change in the system. The People’s Budget 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, and hopes to help rebuild trust in the justice system by funding community oriented policing reforms. The People’s Budget also strengthens Department of Justice Voter Protection Programs, and pushes to protect voting rights by increasing funding to voter protection agencies. It also will provide funding for public financing of campaigns to curb the influence of special interests in politics. All Americans should feel safe and protected from harm in the United States, and all should feel that their voices can be heard in the political system
Affordable and Quality Healthcare
The United States is facing a cost crisis with healthcare. While great steps have been made with the Affordable Care Act, more steps must be made to create truly affordable and accessible care for all. The People’s Budget includes multiple proposals to ensure affordable health care including a repeal of excise taxes on high-priced healthcare plans for workers and replacing it instead with a public option, implementation of drug price negotiation for Medicare, allowing states to transition to single-payer health care systems, and expansion of access to mental health care and treatment for drug addiction.
We say “No” to austerity and “YES” to the Peoples Budget! Support the Campaign!
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