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{"id":5912,"date":"2010-11-24T04:00:10","date_gmt":"2010-11-24T10:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.occasionalplanet.org\/?p=5912"},"modified":"2013-02-01T15:10:02","modified_gmt":"2013-02-01T21:10:02","slug":"stand-up-progressives-schakowsky-counters-bowles-simpson-debt-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2010\/11\/24\/stand-up-progressives-schakowsky-counters-bowles-simpson-debt-proposal\/","title":{"rendered":"Stand-up progressives: Schakowsky offers a different idea on deficit-reduction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, co-chairs of President Obama\u2019s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform,<\/a> offered a preliminary plan to reduce government debt that gives tax cuts to the wealthy and cuts entitlements. Progressive response to the Bowles-Simpson proposal has been highly negative.<\/a> On November 16, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, also a member of the Commission, offered a counter to the Bowles-Simpson plan that doesn\u2019t rest on the backs of the middle and working classes. In a statement on her website Congresswoman Schakowsky<\/a> said:<\/span><\/p>\n

The President\u2019s Fiscal Commission has been given a concrete goal: to achieve primary budget balance in 2015, ensuring that all spending is paid for except for interest on the national debt. Last week, co-chairs Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson laid out their plan, which they presented to the Commission and to the public.\u00a0 Their proposal would have serious consequences for lower and middle class Americans, and that is why I cannot support it.<\/p>\n

I am releasing my own plan today because I believe that there is a better way to achieve our goal \u2013 one that protects the poor and the middle-class.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lower and middle class Americans did not cause the deficit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just ten years ago the federal budget was generating a surplus as far as the eye could see.\u00a0 That surplus was turned into a deficit due to massive tax cuts \u2013 mainly to wealthy Americans; two wars paid for by borrowed money; and a major recession caused by the recklessness of the big Wall Street banks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the last decade the incomes of middle class Americans have actually shrunk, while those of the wealthiest two percent of the population have exploded.<\/span><\/p>\n

The middle class did not benefit from the Republican economic policies that led to the current deficit \u2013 they were the victims \u2013 they should not be called upon to pick up the tab.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fixing the Federal deficit is not an end in itself.\u00a0 The goal of budget policy should be to assure long-term, widely shared economic growth.\u00a0 Economic growth is not just good for businesses and families \u2013 it will reduce the deficit.\u00a0 Sustained, long-term economic growth requires that we end the trend of concentrating more and more wealth in the hands of the rich and less and less in the hands of a middle class that can then afford to buy the products and services that will sustain economic growth.<\/span><\/p>\n

The proposals included in this plan are aimed at bringing the federal deficit under control using policies that will put Americans back to work and strengthen middle class incomes:\u00a0 the foundation of long-term economic growth.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Schakowsky’s proposal <\/a>would reduce the deficit by $427.75 billion in 2015, <\/span>without raising taxes on middle-class Americans or making cuts to federal expenditures that benefit them. Her proposal is made up of five key elements.The following summary is from her website:<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

1) Increased economic stimulus to spur growth in the immediate term<\/strong><\/p>\n