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Liberals outline stimulus agenda in 'Contract for the American Dream'
Liberal organizations and unions are frustrated that President Obama has not aggressively pushed a new jobs stimulus agenda, and they are offering up a consolidated fall agenda for Democrats to embrace as an alternative to austerity.
Representatives of MoveOn.org, Rebuild the Dream and the Center for Economic Policy and Research joined Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) on Tuesday to launch a progressive “Contract for the American Dream” to urge the administration and Congress to turn away from budget cutting and focus on job creation.
Schakowsky said Obama adviser David Plouffe has asked to see the contract, but the White House has yet to comment on it.
The president “has said he is very interested … in pivoting now to job creation,” she told reporters.
In 10 bullet points, the contract calls for massive new spending and taxes.
At the top of the list are items Obama has been calling for: investing in infrastructure, clean energy, strengthening public education. These “winning the future” items were included in Obama’s 2012 budget, which was rejected unanimously in the Senate after it become focused on budget cutting.
The contract also calls for a crackdown on corporations to enforce equal pay for equal work, reforming Social Security by lifting the cap on payroll taxes, accelerating the pullout of troops from Afghanistan and overhauling the campaign finance system.
On taxes, the groups are calling for an end to Bush-era tax rates, a new higher tax bracket for millionaires and a surcharge on Wall Street trades of 1/20th of 1 percent. Schakowsky has proposed a 45 percent tax rate for millionaires and a 49 percent tax rate for billionaires.
“We have a jobs crisis, not a deficit crisis,” the contract reads.
“The federal government must act now to put Americans back to work, and that will require reversing the premature focus on deficit reduction,” Robert Borosage of the Campaign for America’s Future said. In a separate release he called for expanding AmeriCorps and creating new direct work programs he calls Urban Corps, Green Corps and Service Corps. He calls for direct intervention to prevent layoffs on the local level of teachers and police.
The contract is also being promoted by the Change to Win union coalition and a host of smaller groups.
Some of the outside groups on the Tuesday conference call expressed frustration with Democratic leaders.
“I think this contract will not be taken seriously by the serious people in Washington at first,” said Justin Ruben, executive director of MoveOn.org.
“I think there is a huge leadership vacuum right now,” Ruben said.
He also said that the rapidly worsening economy could provide the impetus needed to get major parts of the agenda enacted this fall, including universal publicly run healthcare.
“Crises have a way of changing what’s possible,” he said.
Van Jones of Rebuild the Dream said the movement behind the contract is three times as big as the Tea Party was when it launched. It will be taking the document to August town-hall meetings.
—Updated at 1:00 p.m.
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