Last week's post, Will Media Continue Its Blackout Of Progressive Budget? made a simple point: the media just will not let the public know that there is a progressive budget alternative and what it includes. I asked, "Next week, progressives in Congress will release their annual budget proposal. They do this every year, and every year the national news media largely ignores it. Will the elite media report on it this year?"
Wednesday The Progressive Caucus held a press conference releasing their budget proposal, The People’s Budget: A Raise for America. This budget would, among other things create 8.4 million good paying jobs by 2018 and invest $820 billion infrastructure and transportation improvements. One way this can be done: "Eliminates the ability of U.S. corporations to defer taxes on offshore profits."
[fve]https://youtu.be/a1qvDGUsReE[/fve]
How Much Coverage?
So let's see how much coverage the American "news" media gave to this event and budget.
There was a segment about this budget on The Ed Show:
[fve]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i1p1Xm6j7o[/fve]
A Google News for "People's Budget" (in quotes) yields:
Huffington Post: A Progressive Answer to the GOP's Regressive Budget. This is a blog post by Rep. John Conyers, not a news report.
An opinion piece by Katrina vanden Heuvel at the Washington Post, The one sensible budget in Washington.
HAIL 'THE PEOPLE'S BUDGET' at World News Daily, which is about vanden Heuvel's post, not the budget itself.
Widening the search parameters yields a Roll Call blog post, GOP's Post-Ryan Budget: Price Outlines Spending Plan (Video), that includes this line, "Other factions have a tradition of putting forward “budget alternatives” as well, including the House Democrats, the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Republican Study Committee."
A New York Observer story, Congressional Contenders Tussle Over House Republican Budget, has the line, "The NRCC challenged Mr. Gentile to decide which budget proposal he supports: Mr. Obama’s, the House Democrats’, the House progressives’, or the Congressional Black Caucus budget."
So far (as of Thursday 12:15 ET) the answer to the question of whether the U.S. "news" media will let the public know there is a budget alternative is not so much.
Sign up today to be a citizen co-sponsor of "The People's Budget: A Raise for America." Our goal is to persuade all House Democrats to support their progressive colleagues and the priorities in this budget.
