Women and the U.S. Budget

2007-06-09T18:46:48-06:00

The other day I was going through my photos of a trip I took in 2005. I went on a tour with a wonderful organization called Crow Canyon Archaeological Center located in Cortez. Colorado. They have many educational programs and also lead fantastic tours. This one was called Chaco Canyon and the Keresan Pueblo World. We started in Albuquerque and traveled to Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northwestern New Mexico as well as going to Acoma Pueblo, Laguna Pueblo, and Santo Domingo Pueblo.

Chaco Canyon was a major center of Puebloan culture between AD 850 and 1250. The Chacoan sites are part of the homeland of Pueblo Indian peoples of New Mexico, the Hopi Indians of Arizona, and the Navajo Indians of the Southwest. As the Park Service says: "Remarkable for its monumental public and ceremonial buildings, engineering projects, astronomy, artistic achievements, and distinctive architecture, it served as a hub of ceremony, trade, and administration for the prehistoric Four Corners area for 400 years--unlike anything before or since."

Chaco was made a National Monument in 1949, a national park in 1980, and in 1987 Chaco Culture National Historical Park was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, joining a select list of protected areas "whose outstanding natural and cultural resources form the common inheritance of all mankind."

This was my second trip to Chaco, and both times I camped in the no frills campsite in the park (cold water, no showers, no shade). The beauty, however, is layers deep and the nights spectacular as there are literally no lights for miles and the moon, the stars and the visible planets shine so bright that astromomers come from all over to observe.

So what the heck does this have to do with the national budget? The Bush administration has cut back funding for national parks to make way for increased funding of Homeland Security and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Parks are having to absorb cuts of 20 to 30% which is devastating enough to the quality of the parks, but when added to the fact that there is a backlog of projects in the parks of up to $5 billion, it is truly an affront to our great natural treasures.

According to the National Parks Conservation Association (www.npca.org) Chaco's experienced restoration experts are retiring and the park has insufficient funding to hire qualified, full-time staff to replace them. The park struggles to meet visitor demand for interpretive services, and does not have enough staff to properly care for trails and do all the maintenance needed on the archaeological sites.

When I went on the Crow Canyon tour I was shocked to learn that sites I had seen on my first trip had been filled in - or would be soon - with sand on the lower level because there was not the funding to fully protect them. So the sand would be the best way to preserve the fragile stones. This is a good and loving decision given the circumstances, but a sad one for those of us who want to learn about the amazing ancient Puebloan peoples. And those of us who want to have a sane use of our national resources.

Action: Tax Credit Outreach Campaign

2007-03-09T10:00:00-07:00

One concrete thing you can do to assist working families this tax season, is to make sure they know about tax credits that help them make ends meet. The National Women's Law Center (NWLC) is collaborating with state child care advocates to conduct a Tax Credits Outreach Campaign for the 2007 tax filing season. The goal of the Campaign is to inform millions of families about federal and state tax benefits for which they may be eligible, with a special emphasis on reaching families through child care services networks. They have a kit available in several languages on the web and you can plug into outreach efforts to reach as many people as possible.

President’s FY 2008 Budget: More of the Same

2007-03-08T16:56:15-07:00

President Bush released his fiscal year 2008 national budget on February 5 and it will not surprise you that it continues the same policies that have led us to growing economic disparity in the U.S. It also adds hundreds of billions of dollars to the military budget, at a time when the vast majority of the American people want an end to the war in Iraq.

Each year the President’s budget is a proposal from the executive branch to launch Congressional debates and decisions on what will be included and what will be left out of the huge U.S. budget each year. This is a watershed year because some democrats in leadership of Congress will attempt to turn the huge ship around from its destructive course. Results will be mixed but it is still a time of possibility and hope.

The $2.9 trillion federal budget that the Bush administration introduced on February 5 continues the same course that we have been on since George Bush first became President. The basic dynamics are large increases in military spending, huge tax increases for the wealthy and large businesses, cuts in key social programs, and lots of debt.

According to Nancy Duff Campbell, the Co-President of The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), "The White House budget once again demonstrates that when it comes to the concerns of ordinary Americans, President Bush just doesn’t get it. True to form, the President’s budget calls on those who have the least to make the biggest sacrifices... It would make life tougher for women and families struggling to make ends meet. But when it comes to millionaires, the budget spares no expense," Campbell added. "These are not America’s priorities." (http://www.nwlc.org/details.cfm?id=2973§ion=newsroom)

Some of the most disturbing cuts that the Bush administration proposes are in children’s health care (the State Children’s Health Insurance Program), Medicaid, Head Start, child care, and education. The budget also cuts food aid to seniors, low-income energy assistance, housing programs, community block grants and community health programs.

The Bush budget proposes an additional $145 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, the war costs are only part of the Pentagon's budget request, which is $481 billion above funding for the wars.

The tax cuts for the wealthy that have been a hallmark of the Bush approach to economics are slated to become permanent in his plan. According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, "this would further widen the yawning gaps between the extremely wealthy and other Americans. It would essentially further enrich the most well-off at other Americans’ expense." (http://www.cbpp.org/2-5-07bud.htm) Center data shows that: People with incomes of more than $1 million would get tax cuts averaging $162,000 a year (in 2012 dollars) in perpetuity.

Minimum Wage Hike Up in the Senate

2007-03-02T20:12:06-07:00

The raise in the minimum wage is a perfect example of economic policy that is crucial for moving to more equity in the U.S. According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), raising the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour will affect 14.8 million low-wage workers. EPI reports that CEO pay was 821 times the minimum wage in 2005.

Minimum wage is a women’s issue. Nearly two thirds of minimum wage workers are women, and women are concentrated in many minimum wage fields such as maids and housekeepers, food servers, cashiers, and child care workers. Over 1.4 million single parents will benefit from this wage increase, and these parents are overhwhelmingly female.

The House passed the increase 315 to 116. Many in the Senate are trying to water down the effort by attaching tax breaks for small businesses to the legislation. Click here to read EPI’s Jared Bernstein testimony at the Senate Finance Committee hearings on January 10.

The Senate may vote this week. Please contact your senators and ask them to support the minimum wage increase. NOW makes it easy with links to email and phone your senators.

Hurricanes and Budget Priorities

2007-02-22T18:54:06-07:00

Mother Nature definitely got a bad rap for the tragedy that unfolded from the recent powerful hurricanes. I was struck by the way “killer” and “deadly” were repeatedly used to describe Katrina and Rita. Yes, these are powerful storms that are indifferent to what is in their paths. However, the forces responsible for the unnecessary loss of so much life and property are to be found in the human realm. Global warming, racism, classism, lack of emergency preparedness, lack of infrastructure investment, rampant coastal development without thought of the future, and disorganized and downsized government all played a part. Budget priorities reveal a deadly calculation: divert money slated to reinforce the New Orleans levees to the war in Iraq, and we see people losing their lives in both places.

I have had the privilege of working with a wonderful organization that is based in New Orleans, the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. For twenty five years they have trained groups and organizations throughout the United States on undoing racism and organizing communities based on truly human values. They all had to flee New Orleans and their office was destroyed. They are continuing their training and organizing, even in the midst of so much change. To find out more about them, send a donation to the rebuilding fund, or ask them to come to your community to do training, go to www.pisab.org. For more connections to the grassroots communities in the south, go to www.southernempowerment.org and www.katrinaaction.org.

The aftermath of both Katrina and Rita have shown a brighter light on the crisis in our government’s stewardship of our national resources. Although they have pushed through some large emergency legislation to provide money for the hurricane recovery efforts (including some no-bid contracts for corporations), Congress has failed to pass a budget for the fiscal year that started October 1. Here are some of the things going on:

They are in gridlock over finishing the appropriations bills and reconciliation legislation (making sure taxes and entitlement programs fit within budget targets) for the fiscal year, so they have passed what is known as a “CR” or Continuing Resolution to avoid government shutdown. It is passed by both houses of congress and signed by the president. The CR funds programs at a low level and endangers community services funding and other key funding.

Later this fall or early winter they will probably be able to pass the budget, but it may be in the form of an omnibus appropriations bill, which is less transparent and harder to scrutinize than individual bills.

The price tag on Katrina and Rita clean-up efforts, reconstruction, and emergency grants and programs will be $100 - $200 billion and that money will need to come from somewhere.
Many (democrats as well as moderate republicans) are now calling for Bush’s huge tax cuts to the wealthy to be abandoned, instead of making permanent as had been the plan. They are also calling for an end to program cuts in programs for low- income Americans.

On the other side of things, many in Congress are calling for programs for low-income Americans to be cut to make way for Katrina funding, including even deeper cuts in Medicaid.

In light of the Katrina situation, the Republican leaders have been forced to put off a vote on repeal of the estate tax.

A Gallup poll in September revealed that a majority of Americans believe the mission in Iraq should be cut back to cover costs of the recovery (Washington Post, 9/21/05). This is a time when everything should be and must be on the table: tax increases, military budget cuts, increases in funding for health care, public sector jobs, food and housing assistance, unemployment compensation, and child care subsidies. And yes, increasing the deficit if necessary for now. Getting people back on their feet, in safe and affordable housing, and working with decent wages to support their families is the most important thing right now.

Women and children have been particularly hard hit by Katrina and Rita. Federal aid in the form of worker recovery accounts are important to help families get back on their feet, but women’s long-term economic security must also be addressed. According to Women Work!, prior to the hurricane there were 900,000 single mothers living in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. On average, 2 in 5 of these single mothers lived in poverty. We need national wage, housing, child care, and health care policies that enable women to achieve economic self-sufficiency so that single mother families can thrive. (For more information, visit Women Work! at www.womenwork.org.)

Budget Alert: Key Programs for Women in Danger

2007-02-22T18:52:45-07:00

The Congress is moving swiftly to finally finish the national budget for Fiscal Year 2006. (The Fiscal Year begins October 1 so they are late.) Because they did not pass the budget by October 1, they have put everything into an omnibus piece of legislation that makes it very difficult to make any changes once they come to floor votes in the House and Senate.

Conservative Republicans have used this truncated process, the excuse of a deficit they created, and the emergency funding needed to assist victims of the hurricanes, to ram through cuts to Medicaid, food stamps, student loans, and child support enforcement. This is insane public policy at the exact moment when more women and children, and elderly need Medicaid and when more people lack food security. The Senate has already voted for billions of cuts, but the House wants to cut even deeper.

Once they have passed this package of cuts, they will attempt to make the huge tax cuts for the wealthy permanent, thus bleeding money from our budget at the worst possible time. This is one of the most tragic budget seasons in years, so please make your voice heard. Tens of thousands of people have already contacted Congress and it has had the effect of lessening the cuts and letting them know we are watching.

Please go to www.ombwatch.org where they have made it easy for you to contact your representative and where you can get more information.

Five Things Every Woman Needs to Know about the U.S. Budget

2007-02-22T18:50:59-07:00

1. The Republican majority in congress is cutting back vital programs for women, children and working families.

These include Medicaid, food stamps, home heating assistance, child support enforcement, student loans, foster care, and supplemental security income for disabled people. This is insane public policy when we are dealing with the hurricane crises and rebuilding and when so many families in this country still need assistance to have basic needs met.

They are using the excuse of the deficit but this is what David Stockman, Reagan’s first budget director called a strategic deficit – it is created for the purpose of forcing cuts that they wanted to make anyway and this is a deficit they themselves created through their huge tax cuts and increases in military spending.

2. Over 50 cents of your income tax dollar goes to the military and homeland security but most of that money does not benefit anyone except military and security corporations.

In addition, trillions are unaccounted for. In fact, the U.S. military which is still using 4,000 different accounting systems, has held up the U.S. government from having an audit. In other words the books are cooked. The war in Iraq is one of the tragic outcomes of having such a bloated military infrastructure.

3. Tax cuts for the wealthy have greatly increased under the Bush administration and some large corporations are getting refunds from the government.

Investing in American children and families grows the economy and is a good use of our common resources; putting more money in the pockets of the rich and corporations is not.

4. Despite the progress women have made in the labor market, there is still gender discrimination in the U.S economy, and therefore the social safety net in the budget is crucial for most women.

Women are still concentrated in lower paying jobs and these jobs tend to have few benefits. Women still earn only 75 cents on the dollar men earn, resulting in a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars throughout a woman’s lifetime. This pay discrimination is one of the reasons women tend to have fewer assets than men and fewer pension resources, and disproportionately affects women of color. Women also provide most of the unpaid caregiving of children and elderly parents in our society, also affecting participation in the labor force and lifetime earnings.

5. We are not at the table making the decisions about dividing national resources to the extent that we deserve to be in a democracy.

We rank 59th in the world in representation of women in our national legislature. Women are 51 percent of the population but only 13 percent of congress. The racial make-up of congress is also striking: the population is 31 percent people of color while the congress is 14 percent people of color. Picture to yourself who is at the table: mostly white men and especially in the case of the senate, mostly very wealthy white men – the senate has been dubbed the millionaires club - at least 40 out of the 100 senators are millionaires or multi millionaires.

Each person’s vision and actions really do make a difference. The House and Senate have finished their work on the spending cuts and tax breaks, and are now in conference committee to decide the final budget. Please keep the pressure on your members of Congress, and let them know you want them to vote against these budget priorities that fall so hard on women and families. Go to OMB Watch http://tinyurl.com/9h e8t, where you can get all the details and send an email directly to your congress people.

2006 Budget Comes with a Price

2007-02-22T18:49:39-07:00

The budget for fiscal year 2006 (the fiscal year we are in that started on October 1) still has not been passed. The final votes will be at the beginning of February. The fact that it has taken this long is a testament to the controversial nature of the budget bills that the congressional republican leadership has been trying to force on the country. Huge tax cuts for the rich combined with large cuts in programs that serve low-income people creates a toxic brew that the vast majority of Americans do not want to drink.

The House of Representatives leaders – who came up with the most cruel cuts – used a parliamentary gambit called “martial law” which manipulated and blindsided us all. They rushed the House to a vote on the spending cut reconciliation bill before members of the House, the press or the public had a chance to examine the legislation and understand what it would do. The vote was taken at 5:43 a.m., only four hours after the 774 page bill was filed in the House. This made it impossible for members to understand the latest changes from the conference with the Senate, much less leaving time for us to exercise democracy by communicating with our elected representatives.

These cuts in the budget reconciliation bill are disproportionately affecting women, especially the cuts in child support and Medicaid. Child support enforcement is so key because when women are supporting a family on their own they are in danger of falling into poverty. Medicaid is the essential health care program for women supporting children on their own, for low-income children, and for elderly women who need long-term care. A few things to keep in mind:

Medicaid pays for 40% of births in the United States
Women account for 70% of recipients of Medicaid over age 15
In 2003, one in ten (9%) of women were covered by Medicaid, and among low-income women, one in five (21%) were covered

The Medicaid cuts include benefit reductions and co-payments that mean many people will have to go without health care. In addition, if these cuts become law, for the first time since Medicaid began, states could deny contraception to poor women.

The final vote in the House of Representatives has not yet taken place, and many of the previous votes were close. Please take the time to let your representatives know that you oppose these draconian cuts. For more information, click on the links below.

OMB Watch Take Action on Budget Cuts Page

How Budget Cuts will Affect Your State – Coalition on Human Needs

Article Sources:

NARAL, Pro Choice New York: “Medicaid: A Women’s Health Program,” 2004 from the Protect Women, Protect Medicaid Campaign.
www.prochoiceny.org/assets/files/m edicaidandwomen.pdf

Henry J Kaiser Foundation: “Medicaid’s Role for Women,” November, 2004.
www.kff.org/womenshealth

Budget Blues

2007-02-22T18:47:54-07:00

Congress finally passed the budget for Fiscal Year 2006, five months late. Their pay should certainly be docked, since this is their main responsibility. The lateness of the budget is symbolic of the congressional leadership’s disregard for the public good. The budget cuts programs that are vital to working families, women and children, and to elderly women. At the same time, tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, and increases in money for the war in Iraq are going forward, even though there are large deficits. For the details of how these cuts will impact women and working families go to:

http://www.now.org/nnt/spri ng-2006/2006budget.html

The Fiscal Year 2007 budget that the President released in early February (this is only the President’s wish list) continues more of the same. The president wants to make permanent the first-term tax cuts, paying for those cuts by reducing entitlement programs (such as Medicaid and Medicare) and drastically reducing non-military discretionary spending. It includes the costs of an initial Social Security privatization scheme. The fiscal health of the nation is clearly not a priority as Bush’s proposals would add $3.6 trillion to the national debt. The Congressional Budget Office warned in the Budget and Economic Outlook that the current structure of taxation and spending is unsustainable.

Take Action!

1. Go to this link at the National Organization for Women (NOW) web site and either send a thank you if your representatives voted against the budget cuts, or reprimand those who didn’t.

http://www.capwiz.com/now/issues /alert/?alertid=8462376

2. The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) has information on the federal Dependent Care Tax Credit, the Earned Income Credit, and the Child Tax Credit that can affect the taxes of many people who may not be aware of the programs. See below for their website and please forward to others:

Did you know that you might be eligible for tax benefits to help pay for your child care and other expenses and reduce the income taxes you pay or increase your tax refund?

The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) has prepared a variety of federal and state-specific materials to inform you about some of the federal and state tax benefits for which you may be eligible, and to assist advocates in educating others about the value of these benefits.

http://www.nwlc.org/details.cf m?id=2493§ion=tax

Women and Children Last

2007-02-22T18:46:08-07:00

As Congress begins the budget process for the next government fiscal year (FY 2007 to begin October 1, 2006), it is obvious that we continue to be plagued by congressional power brokers who cannot act responsibly as stewards of our resources. The first part of the budget process is for the House and Senate budget committees – and then the full House and Senate – to pass a Budget Resolution that gives overall numbers on spending and taxation that will guide the work of the individual committees as they decide on program budgets. The Senate has passed its resolution (there will be a conference committee with the House when they do theirs).

The Senate Budget Resolution (which gives numbers for five years, although these can change year to year) includes these broad outlines:

Increases in military and security spending (by some counts we have spent $2 trillion on Iraq)
Cuts in discretionary programs like social services, health, food assistance, education, housing
New rules for Medicare financing that could force cuts in other entitlements
Hundreds of billions in tax cuts
Huge deficits as far as the eye can see

This follows many of the characteristics of the President’s budget (what he wants but not necessarily what congress will pass) proposed earlier this year. According to the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), “The Administration budget moves in a direction that increases insecurity and reduced opportunity, especially for already vulnerable single mothers and elderly women... More elderly and low- income families will face hunger. Fewer children in low- income families will receive child care assistance. Despite the spiraling cost of housing in many parts of the country, fewer women will have access to federal housing support.” (Women and Children Last – Again: An Analysis of the President’s FY 2007 Budget www.nwlc.org/pdf/FY07_BudgetAnalysis.pdf ). If the congressional budget process continues to move in this direction, the same can be said of its results.

The Senate Budget Resolution is also dangerous because it includes a provision opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil exploration, an issue that should not be included in a budget bill. This is an effort to muffle debate on this important environmental and energy policy, and it also contributes to confusion in the budget process.

It is vital that you tell your Senators to vote against this budget resolution. OMB Watch makes it easy at:

www.democracyinaction.org/dia /organizationsORG/ombwatch/campaign.jsp? campaign_KEY=3011

For a fun way to let your elected representatives know what you want in the budget, go to Ben and Jerry’s True Majority website and move the Oreos (yes, Oreo cookies) around.

www.truemajorityaction.org/cookiebud get/ustack.html

Want to see what a budget resolution looks like? See a Senate Budget Resolution at

http://budget.senate.gov/republican/pressarchive/PrintLanguage.pdf

NPR’s On Point radio show this week covered “U.S. Spending and Iraq” at

http://www.onpointradio.org/sho ws/2006/03/20060313_a_main.asp

Hear Jane on KPFA’s (Pacifica station in San Francisco) Morning Show at http://www.kpfa.org/arch ives/index.php?arch=12890&page=1&type