-I wish. The Progressive Caucus budget, considerately off the median, -called for about $51 billion in new domestic spending (gross), as well -as a bunch of cuts in domestic spending.
Actually, the Progressive Caucus is not that far off the median; they include about a third of the caucus and often aim to get half the caucus on votes that they propose.
And the Caucus just proposed a $200 billion stimulus plan including over $60 billion in expanded unemployment benefits, over $60 billion in health and social spending and $35 billion in public works.
This is on top of their ongoing support for a Prescription Drugs benefit for Medicare and universal health care for everyone, reasonably pricy items. You add up the whole Progressive Caucus agenda and is amounts to pretty hefty increases in social spending.
And beyond the caucus, I will note that over 100 Democrats, roughly half the caucus (ie. the median Democrat) endorsed single payer health care and Dems have overwhelmingly supported every labor law reform proposed in the last forty years. If the median Dem was deciding things, labor law in this country would be radically different for workers.
-- Nathan Newman