WASHINGTON — Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., unveiled a Democratic fiscal 2015 budget resolution that would end sequestration and support President Obama's $302 billion four-year transportation reauthorization proposal as well as $10 billion to establish an infrastructure bank.
Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, proposed the legislation almost one week after Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the committee chairman, unveiled the Republican budget plan. The GOP legislation would curb federal transportation funding and set the top income tax rate at 25%, threatening tax expenditures such as tax exemption for municipal bonds.
Neither plan is detailed and would instead set broad policy and spending goals for fiscal 2015.
The House Budget Committee approved the Ryan bill last week and it is expected to be voted on by the full House this week.
Van Hollen described his alternative, taking shots at the GOP bill.
"The House Democratic budget is focused on the priorities of the American people — putting people back to work, making critical investments in our future and keeping our promises to seniors," he said. "It stands in stark contrast to the Republican budget, which casts a dark shadow over the American Dream and is a recipe for our nation's economic decline."
Van Hollen warned the Republican plan would slash transportation investments by more than 20% over 10 years. The GOP has proposed limiting expenditures from the Highway Trust Fund to the dwindling revenues generated by the federal gasoline tax. It has also called for a pilot program for states to opt out of the federal gas tax and forego federal allocations of transportation funds.
Obama's proposed reauthorization legislative proposal would provide funds to short up the Highway Trust Fund.
The Democratic legislation also noted that the Tax Policy Center has said it would be impossible to reduce the top marginal tax rate to 25%, as the GOP proposes, without large reductions in tax deductions and credits for the middle class.
A Republican spokesman countered with, “House Democrats want to impose a $1.8 trillion tax hike on hardworking Americans. They want to double-down on Obamacare’s Medicare cuts. And they’ve given up any pretense of fiscal responsibility. Their plan would never balance the budget. Instead, it would bury American families in debt. It’s simply not credible.”
