National NOW Times >> Fall 2011  >> Article

Deficit Cuts Threaten Women's Economic Security

NOW has worked for decades to improve women's economic security. At the same time, the right wing has consistently targeted programs that keep millions of women from falling into poverty -- programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, family planning, job training and more. Since the 2010 midterm elections, NOW has had to work overtime just to keep these and other vital social programs intact.

Sadly, the country is about to take a wrong turn -- pushed down a path of destructive economic policy charted by Tea Party extremists, who seem largely in control of the House of Representatives. With the increase in the federal debt ceiling on the line, House conservatives bullied their way to a lopsided agreement with the White House and its allies in Congress. The debt deal reduces federal expenditures by nearly $1 trillion over the next 10 years, with no tax increases on the highest income earners.

The debt-ceiling deal places nearly all the burden of deficit reduction on the backs of middle- and low-income families, even though they are least able to afford it and least at fault for the debt and deficit to begin with. According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, the primary drivers of the debt and deficit are the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest, two unpaid-for wars, and reduced federal tax revenues caused by high unemployment, which itself resulted from now-notorious unregulated shenanigans in the financial industry.

The debt deal also created a "super committee" of 12 members of Congress, equally divided by party, to produce a plan by late November that would further reduce the federal deficit.

Unfortunately, the super committee is unlikely to come up with what women and their families need: a long-term plan for shared prosperity that includes requiring corporations and the wealthiest to pay their fair share of taxes, shifting federal spending from military to socially productive efforts, pushing health care costs down by moving toward a single-payer system, and a jobs program with livable wages and equal pay.

NOW has advocated all along that we need jobs, not cuts. Joblessness has been a particular problem for women in the current anemic economic recovery. In fact, since the recovery began in 2009, women have actually lost more than 280,000 jobs, according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research and the National Women's Law Center. On average, women regained less than one in 10 of the jobs they lost in the Great Recession, while men recovered nearly three in 10 jobs lost.

African-American women have fared even worse, losing more jobs than black men since the beginning of the recession and continuing to lose jobs throughout the recovery. Because women are over-represented in public sector jobs, state and local government cutbacks have disproportionately affected them. But women are also losing out in private sector jobs, where men appear to be taking many of the recovering jobs formerly held by women.

As the super committee's November deadline approaches, and the 2012 campaign season intensifies, feminists must stand stronger than ever. Opportunities to achieve our goals -- including equal pay, affordable child care, better funding for the Violence Against Women Act, universal access to abortion, birth care, prenatal care, and all other aspects of reproductive health care, economically-secure retirement, improved support for persons with disabilities, educational equity for women and girls -- all of these are on the line.

NOW has been at the forefront in responding to what is rightly called a war against women. Our leaders and activists have raised the alarm online and in the streets by: sharing information through webinars, blogs and other social media; demonstrating and rallying; meeting with elected officials; sending petitions by the thousands; holding press conferences; and campaigning for candidates who champion our issues. We won't stop, and we won't go back. We will do whatever it takes to put into place policies that allow all women to thrive in healthy, vibrant communities. You can be a part of this important effort: Sign up for NOW's action alerts.