Progressive Lawmakers Unveil Alternative Budget: Tax The Rich, Cut The Pentagon

As the House Budget Committee discussed marking up Chairman Paul Ryan's austerity budget on Wednesday, leaders from the Congressional Progressive Caucus revealed their fiscal plan for America.

Entitled "Back to Work," the budget lays out policies that proponents say would bridge the deficit by stimulating employment, raising taxes on the wealthy and cutting the Pentagon budget.

However, it has virtually no chance of passing.

Symbolic of the CPC's status, caucus leaders held a press conference heralding their plan in a hallway of the Cannon House Office Building, adjacent to the hearing room where the Ryan budget neared its first hurdle.

"Our fight is with the outside," conceded CPC co-chair Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Arizona. "The Progressive Caucus' fight and momentum is from the outside, and we know that's the pressure point."

Grijalva described the CPC budget - the third such plan the caucus has published in three years - as part of a long game.

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