Our guest on Newsmakers this week was Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He gives the House Progressives’ perspective on what’s next for deficit reduction, federal spending and legislative priorities overall, after the deficit "Super Committee" failed to come to an agreement. The Progressive Caucus said this week it will present its own plan for deficit reduction and jobs.
During his Newsmakers interview, Rep. Grijalva said that the Progressive Caucus plan would save $5.7 trillion over the next 10 years, and that the bill must take an active role in generating jobs. Some of the elements of this plan would include a millionaire's tax, emergency jobs to restore America, an infrastructure bank, a Buy America First provision, currency bills, a speculation tax, and a veterans' bill. He also discussed protecting Medicare and Medicaid by letting Medicare negotiate drug prices, and protecting Social Security by lifting the payroll cap of $106,000 per year. Rep. Grijalva noted that these savings were independent of any expiration of the Bush tax cuts that currently are set to lapse at the end of next year, which could generate an additional savings of $3.7 trillion.
When asked by reporters to give President Obama a grade for his first three years, Rep. Grijalva said that he gave the president a "passing grade," explaining further that he considers that to be around a B- or C. On immigration, however, he gave President Obama a "low grade" of a D, citing a lack of push on comprehensive immigration reform that has led to various state laws being passed, but that he applauds the recent pragmatic direction the president has taken.
Newsmakers airs Sunday at 10:00 am ET and again at 6:00 pm ET on C‑SPAN.