Occupy Washington D.C. Releases Deficit Proposal
WASHINGTON — The congressional “Super Committee” may be stalling, but Occupy Washington D.C. — the protest formerly known as “Stop the Machine” that has been camped out in Freedom Plaza since Oct. 6 — has set out its plan for fixing the budget.
“The 99%’s Deficit Proposal: How to create jobs, reduce the wealth divide and control spending” was released Thursday morning.
The report has some usual progressive ideas: Ending the Bush tax cuts, enacting a “Speculation Tax” of “a half of a percent or less on Wall Street speculation” and taxing U.S. corporations on profits held overseas.
It calls for some changes that some libertarian-leaning types would like: Ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, ending corporate tax subsidies and cutting military spending to only what the U.S. needs to defend itself.
The report also proposes writing down all underwater mortgages to market value (the Federal Reserve could “unilaterally correct loans to reflect real value”). It suggests the government create more public-sector jobs. It proposes a new infrastructure-fixing program modeled on the Depression-era Works Progress Administration. It recommends erasing all student debt, leaving Social Security alone and “building a new economic model of more widespread ownership of assets and participation and wealth.”