Aptly demonstrating the theme of "sacrifice is for suckers," the Republican package contained a $1.4 billion tax rebate for IBM, a $1 billion tax rebate for Ford, $833 million for General Motors, and $671 billion for GE, along with hundreds of millions in rebates for airline and energy companies. A proposed repeal of the alternative minimum tax (retroactive to the last 15 years!) means that hugely profitable corporations would no longer have to pay at least some taxes. What is also outrageous about this legislation is that it would permit corporations to hide their profits as tax shelters in foreign tax havens. There was very little in the Republican package to help the workers displaced by the terrorist attacks and the worsening economy.

In a letter to Congress, NOW urged that state Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs be expanded to cover temporary and low wage workers, that the five year welfare assistance clock be stopped for women in the welfare-to-work process who have lost their jobs, and that emergency cash, food stamps, child care and health coverage be included in the economic stimulus package.

Other progressive allies joined in the call for Congress to respond to the recession by passing legislation that would aid working families. Polls show that the public overwhelmingly opposes tax cuts at this time while supporting extension of unemployment benefits, health insurance coverage, and infrastructure investment.

Responding to the outcry, the Senate Democrats' economic stimulus package (S. 1732, The Economic Recovery and Assistance for American Workers Act of 2001) contained a number of provisions to aid workers, including an expansion of Unemployment Insurance and health care coverage -- but no stopping the clock for women on welfare. At a far smaller cost of $67 billion in FY '02 and $45 billion over the next 10 years, the Democrats' package would spend $17 billion in extended UI and COBRA health insurance to laid-off, low income workers. The bill also contains: about $14 billion to provide tax rebates to the 35 million low and moderate income workers who did not receive tax rebates under Bush's tax cut plan passed in June; $20 billion in temporary, targeted business activities; $2 billion in aid to New York City; and an increase in federal funds to go to states for Medicaid to help ease the budget crises now faced by nearly half the states.

In contrast, the Senate Republican economic stimulus package is even more outrageous than the House bill, with $166 billion over the next years proposed to help corporations and upper income bracket taxpayers. The plan does contain a limited extension of unemployment benefits and a paltry $3 billion to help states pay for unemployment health insurance coverage.

A supposed compromise bill offered by centrist Sens. John Breaux (D-La.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) proposes to stimulate the economy and provide limited health care and unemployment insurance coverage. But the legislation offers no assistance to financially ailing states, the funds offered for health care needs are too skimpy to even make a dent in the health care needs of hundreds of thousands of jobless workers and, likewise, the COBRA (a temporary extension of employment-connected health care coverage) subsidy is too low and would be difficult to administer. Additionally, the "compromise" bill excludes part-time workers and does nothing to address some state unemployment benefits that are so low they fall below poverty levels. As such, the Breaux-Snowe compromise proposal is of little help to the many women single heads of households who are now jobless.

As the major stimulus plans are far apart and the inclination to reach a compromise soon is not strong in either party, it appears that nothing may happen prior to adjournment -- now set for Dec. 6 or soon thereafter. For many poor women and their families, this Christmas may, indeed, be a bleak one. Only grassroots pressure may prompt action.

Action Needed:

Call your Senators and Congressperson with the message: "Please pass legislation to stimulate our economy by helping working families and providing assistance to poor women no longer eligible under TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families). The Senate Democrats' bill comes closest to the kind of help our country so desperately needs at this time."

Other points to stress:

• The majority of people support an economic stimulus package that extends unemployment benefits to part-time and seasonal workers, increases the coverage period and raises average payments. Less than 49% of workers are now covered by Unemployment Insurance programs and Congress must assure that more workers are afforded this critical safety net.

• Most laid-off workers will need help paying their health insurance premiums and any economic stimulus package adopted by Congress should help the unemployed and their families to retain coverage.

• State and local governments must have adequate funding to ensure that critical programs -- such as education, transportation, and emergency services are not cut as a result of the recession. This would indeed be a calamity in any further terrorist attacks. The federal government must be ready to come to the aid of states in financial trouble.

• A sound economic stimulus package must include provisions to rebuild and strengthen the country. By building schools, mass transit systems, airports and other infrastructure, the federal government can help assure long term job growth and restoration of a sound economy.

December 2001

NOW and other women's groups represented by the National Council of Women's Organizations (NCWO) urged Congress and the administration to come to the aid of persecuted and hungry Afghan women and children -- especially refugees. NCWO issued a public statement in November protesting inhumane treatment of Afghan women by the Taliban as a violation of basic human rights and calling for full participation by Afghan women in the government that will be organized after the fall of the Taliban.

Based on comments by officials in the Bush administration, NOW leaders are concerned that the U.S. and its allies, under the guise of "cultural sensitivity," might not press for full human rights for women in Afghanistan. NOW vice president Terry O' Neill, a law professor who has taught international human rights law, stresses that women's human rights should not be negotiable and that, as Alice Walker has said, "torture is not culture." A very strong fear is that any future government under control of the Northern Alliance, the opposition group fighting the Taliban, could be almost as bad as the regressive Taliban who banished women from schools and jobs for the last five years.

The NCWO statement stipulated that the United States should:

• Make the full restoration of women's human rights in Afghanistan a priority in U.S. foreign policy;

• Ensure that refugees and internally displaced women and girls are directly receiving U.S. food, medical and other relief aid;

• Restore democracy to Afghanistan, with equality between women and men and inalienable human rights for all included in a new constitution;

• Guarantee the participation of Afghan women's organizations in any peace processes and/or negotiations about the future government of Afghanistan;

• Focus long-term reconstruction and development assistance programs in Afghanistan and Central Asia on women; and,

• Increase allocations for U.S. relief and development programs in Afghanistan and Central Asia without cuts to other international aid programs or regions of the world.