What Does A Progessive Budget Look Like?

A budget has been proposed by the progressive caucus within the Democratic Party.  It has not received much attention because most of the attention has been given to the Ryan budget.  It shows that there are more ways to cut budget deficits than those that have been proposed by Ryan and by the Democrats in the Senate.  Each of them share common characteristics.  They keep military spending high; they keep taxes low; they keep payments to medical providers high.  Cuts to Medicare and Social Security are used to reduce the deficit.  In a sense the Ryan budget and the Senate budget are similar.  Ryan's budget is a far right budget and the Senate budget is a center right budget. Since  the debate is between the far right and the center right, any compromise would be right of center.

The progressive budget cuts military spending; it makes the tax system more progressive; it cuts payments to medical providers, and it reduces the budget deficit without cutting Medicare and Social Security.  Most Americans would favor a budget  that looks more like the progressive budget proposal than either the Ryan budget or the budget proposed by Senate Democrats.  Unfortunately, few will even know that it exists.  The media focuses public attention only on the Ryan budget and the center right Democratic budget.  Any compromise between them will cut entitlements in order to keep military spending high, taxes low, and payments to medical providers more than twice as high as the rest of the world pays to medical providers.