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Progressives offer budget on House floor |
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By Jonathan E. Kaplan
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Posted: 03/27/07 07:26 PM [ET] |
The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) yesterday introduced a $2.8 trillion “Peace and Security” budget, voicing another left-leaning message to counter the moderate, cautious approach of House leaders.
Lawmakers in the Progressive Caucus made up the bulk of the opposition to the Iraq war supplemental spending bill, which narrowly passed the House last week. Now the group is offering a budget resolution that fully funds No Child Left Behind, moves toward universal health insurance and rolls back tax cuts for the top 1 percent of taxpayers. The measure puts defense spending at a level $68 billion lower than President Bush’s plan. The budget assumes that U.S. troops would be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of the year, which would save $187 billion over two years.
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters yesterday that the Progressive Caucus’s budget, as well as an alternative budget crafted by the Congressional Black Caucus, would get a vote on Thursday or Friday on the House floor. The Blue Dog Coalition, a group of conservative Democrats, endorsed the budget resolution crafted by Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-S.C.).
House leaders are confident that they will pass the budget resolution two weeks earlier than the April 15 deadline. A leading liberal Democrat Monday said the CPC’s budget would allow Democratic lawmakers to vote for a budget without “holding their noses.”
“We need to overturn the notion that pouring money into weapons systems that were designed to fight the Soviet Union makes our nation safer, especially when it means shortchanging the kind of preventive security solutions that are critical to combating global terrorism,” Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said.
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