Press Releases

CBC Members Advocate for the CBC Alternative Budget

March 20, 2013 –

 On March 18, 2013 Members of the Congressional Black Caucus discussed the Federal Budget and why the CBC Alternative Budget is the best alternative to keep our economy on the path to recovery, put Americans back to work and ensure every community in America benefits from economic growth. Watch video of their remarks below:

“The CBC Alternative Budget for Fiscal Year 2014 is a pro-growth, pro-people, pro-America budget. It acknowledges that only by investing in the American people can you build a bridge to a better America,” CBC Chair Marcia L. Fudge (OH-11) said. “America doesn’t need an austerity budget. It doesn’t need a budget that looks at struggling American people and says you’re on your own. Americans need and deserve more.”

“Chairman Paul Ryan rolled out his 2014 budget that he and his Republican colleagues have called the path to prosperity. Well, it’s more like the path to economic ruin,” CBC Vice Chair Rep. G.K. Butterfield (NC-01) said. “The CBC and the majority of Americans believe that sequestration is damaging our fragile economy and that it must be reversed immediately. Our budget does just that.”

“The Congressional Black Caucus’s budget invests in education, saves the jobs of teachers and first responders. It makes investments toward rebuilding our neighborhoods,” Rep. Corrine Brown (FL-05) said. “The only thing people tell me, whether I’m in the dollar store or in the nail store or in church, is that they want jobs and they want us to work together to bring those jobs to the community. I really do believe to whom God has given much, much is expected. And we really do need to expect more out of this House of Representatives.”

“Just how much more austerity can the American people take and still survive?” Rep. Donna Christensen (D-VA) said. “The recession, which we are struggling to recover from, has been bad enough. With past cuts, the sequester, the CR and now the Republican budget they are threatening to make a bad situation even worse.”

“The Congressional Black Caucus Budget shows that we can choose a different way forward,” Rep. Barbara Lee (CA-13) said. “It is a document that shows our nations priorities and values, for after all, a budget is a moral document.I am very proud of the fact that the CBC budget includes supporting language for developing a national strategy to eliminate poverty with the goal of cutting poverty in half in 10 years.”

“The budget put forward by the Congressional Black Caucus saves Pell grants and continues the snap program to prevent Americans from going hungry,” Rep. Karen Bass (CA-37) said. “The American people know we can’t cut our way to prosperity nor can we succeed by pursuing the same failed policies that wrecked our economy in the first place and undermined our economic recovery.”

“Released last week, Congressman Ryan proposal entitled “A Path to Prosperity” includes more of the same proposals that the American public rejected at the ballot last November. Same proposal, different cover,” Rep. Joyce Beatty (OH-03) said. “There is a better way. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have worked diligently to put forth an alternative blueprint. One designed to be pro-growth and put jobs in the economy first; rather than adhere blindly to ideological spending cuts. The Congressional Black Caucus alternative would replace sequesters cuts with intelligent, balanced-deficit-reduction measures.”

“The CBC budget will close these wasteful corporate loopholes,” Rep Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08) said. “The CBC’s balanced approach stands up for important programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid that have nothing to do with the economic mess that we find ourselves in right now.”

“Our [CBC Budget] values are the values that protect those who are not able to always protect themselves versus an austerity budget that looks out more for special interest and corporate interest, than it does the people,” Rep. Steven Horsford (NV-04) said. “This is a balanced approach that the American people are calling for. We urge our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to work with us that crafts a commonsense budget proposal that creates jobs, that moves our country forward and that protects the middle class and the poor.”

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