People’s Budget offers sound alternative to Ryan’s plan

The Congressional Progressive Caucus today released a budget proposal titled the People’s Budget, which puts forth a credible, deficit-reducing alternative to the Republican plan proposed by Representative Paul Ryan. This proposal by the Progressive Caucus is a welcome addition to the budget debate.

The Economic Policy Institute has analyzed and scored the specific policy proposals in the People’s Budget and modeled their cumulative impact on the federal budget over the next decade. Our analysis finds that the People’s Budget would balance the federal budget within a decade and place debt held by the public on a sustainable trajectory. Specifically, the budget would move to a surplus of $30.7 billion (0.1% of gross domestic product) in 2021, and debt as a share of the economy would trend downward to 64.1% of GDP in that year. The budget would reduce deficits by $5.6 trillion over the next decade relative to the CBO baseline (adjusted for current policies regarding the “doc fix” and a patch to the Alternative Minimum Tax).