A Fair Economy

For decades, the wealthy and well-connected have rigged our economic and political systems to benefit themselves -- leaving working families with an ever-shrinking share of our economic prosperity. As the gulf between the wealthy and everyone else has grown, families have been left with impossible choices -- to buy groceries or put gas in the car; to put their child through college or save for a secure retirement; to get lifesaving medical treatment or to pay the mortgage. In the richest nation on Earth, no one should have to make these kinds of choices. At the Progressive Caucus, we know that all it takes to fix this is a shift in our priorities -- to end corporate giveaways and tax loopholes, to take on the bloated, wasteful Pentagon budget, and to rewrite the rules of our rigged economy.

In order to give everyday families the future they deserve, we must close the tax loopholes and demand that elected officials prioritize everyday families -- not corporate lobbyists and wealthy donors. The path to economic prosperity for all requires:

• preserving guaranteed Social Security benefits for all Americans, protecting private pensions, and demanding corporate accountability.
• Investing in America and creating new jobs in the U.S. by building more affordable housing, rebuilding America’s schools and physical infrastructure, cleaning up our environment, and improving homeland security.
• ending poverty wages by raising and indexing the minimum wage.
• rewriting our broken tax code so that billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share.

More on the 21st Century New Deal for Jobs here.