House Dems to offer ‘stark contrast’ to GOP budget

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, is preparing an alternative budget to the blueprint Republicans released this week.

During a conference call Friday with Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), hosted by the Center for American Progress, Van Hollen previewed some items that will be included in his alternative plan. 

“As I’ve done every year since I’ve been ranking member, I’m going to propose a Democratic budget, and offer that on behalf of the Democratic Caucus. It’ll stand in stark contrast to the Republican budget. It’ll reflect what we believe is the priorities and values of the country,” said Van Hollen, who is now running for Senate next year.

{mosads}Van Hollen said the plan would adopt many proposals that have already been laid out in President Obama’s fiscal 2016 budget.

The Democratic budget will include an expansion of the child independent care tax credit, the dependent tax credit and Obama’s proposal on dual-earner deductions, Van Hollen said.

It will also include ideas that aren’t in Obama’s blueprint, such as the CEO Employee Pay Fairness Act, which would prevent corporations from being allowed to deduct bonuses and performance pay that they make to their executives.

The budget will be rolled out on behalf of the House Democratic Caucus, and Van Hollen said he also consulted the Congressional Progressive Caucus to incorporate some of their ideas. Van Hollen said they include investments in job creation and ending tax expenditures and tax breaks that benefit wealthy people.   

The ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), has already said he doesn’t plan to offer an alternative budget, mainly because it’s too time-consuming.

House and Senate Republicans released separate budget blueprints this week, passed them out of committee and will hold floor votes on them next week. If they pass each chamber, Republicans are hoping to strike a joint conference agreement by April 15.  

Tags Bernie Sanders Jeff Merkley

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed..

 

Main Area Top ↴

Testing Homepage Widget

 

Main Area Middle ↴
Main Area Bottom ↴

Most Popular

Load more

Video

See all Video