(Newser)
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As the budget debate continues, the House Progressive Caucus has released a plan of its own—and it's all about taxes. Their proposal would end the Bush tax cuts, add new tax brackets for millionaires, and raise corporate taxes. It would also add a public option to health care and boost Medicare’s drug-price negotiating power—and it would allow for $1.4 trillion in new investments. The plan, House progressives say, would cut the deficit more than either President Obama’s or Paul Ryan’s over the next decade.
But would it work? Some reactions:
- Ezra Klein, writing in the Washington Post, polled a few economists on the matter. The upshot: It’s not perfect, but it’s a welcome addition to the budget conversation. It’s “an enormous improvement over the bizarre Ryan budget,” says one expert. But, notes another, “I wish they’d thought more about simplification and reforming the tax expenditures that they retain.”
- Meanwhile, Paul Krugman applauds the plan in the New York Times, calling it “the only major budget proposal out there offering a plausible path to balancing the budget.”
- In the Guardian, Michael Tomasky calls the plan “somewhat out of balance,” but “maybe mainstream cred isn't their goal. If we have a mainstream that thinks Paul Ryan is serious, who needs it?”
