This Women’s History Month, out of touch lawmakers are rolling out economic plans that would set women back generations.
A lot has changed since 2011, the year I graduated high school. Tiktok was invented, there are now 12 Kardashian grandchildren, and I’m about to turn 30. But some things never change.
Back
then, at the height of the Tea Party era, conservative Republicans threatened to default on the U.S. debt — not
reduce it, mind you, but default on it —
unless they could choke federal spending that makes the economy work better for
everyone.
If
you’re experiencing deja vu, it’s because they’re now doing it again,
threatening to tank the economy unless they get deep, harmful
social spending cuts.
And
as we enter Women’s History Month, it’s impossible to ignore the impacts this
will have on women in particular. These right-wing lawmakers are essentially
using their old playbook to renegotiate women’s place in the economy.
Let
me explain. The pandemic exposed a child care system on the brink of collapse,
a widespread lack of paid leave options for workers, and a gutted social safety
net that left millions without food, health care, or enough cash to pay the
rent.
During that emergency, we had to rapidly rebuild a foundation to help ordinary people survive the economic downturn and public health emergency that affected all of us. Thanks to pressure from grassroots organizing, President Biden’s American Rescue Plan took some important steps in that direction.
For
women in particular, this law was a vital lifeline.
States
got funds they could use to make child care more affordable and pay the
mostly-women child care workers a living wage, stabilize rents for the mostly-women
workers who were laid off as businesses shuttered, and expand the Child Tax
Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit to women who hadn’t gotten them before.
Likewise,
last year’s Inflation Reduction Act expands access to health care and lowers
prescription drug costs for millions. The older women who make up the majority of our senior
population will especially benefit.
This
terrifies corporations and their friends in Congress. They’re threatened by the
idea of an American economy that reverses our decades-old formula — one that
only benefits the few at the expense of the many.
So
they’re weaponizing the threat of default, which really just means they’re
refusing to pay for or extend these policies Congress passed with enthusiastic support from most Americans.
They’ll
argue that we don’t have the money for the expanded Child Tax Credit that largely benefited
working class constituents — remember, not one Republican voted for it. But
more than 70 Republicans just introduced a bill to make the Trump tax cuts for
the wealthy permanent. So it’s not about money — it’s about who benefits from
it.
Funding
for non-defense programs is already effectively 9 percent below 2010 levels. But these lawmakers want
further cuts to the federal funding that supports our child care subsidies, our
paid leave, and our job training programs.
All
this after the right-wing Supreme Court already eliminated women’s rights to
reproductive health care, which is not only a violation of our human rights but
can also have devastating effects on our earning potential.
President
Biden has said he’ll refuse to negotiate with House
Republicans about the debt ceiling. And hopefully his next budget proposal will
reflect his continued commitment to leveling the playing field for women.
The
pandemic took us back all on its own — we don’t need the
Tea Party on steroids to push us even further. If these extremists had their
way, my bank account would look as empty as it did in high school and I’d have
12 kids much less fortunate than the Kardashians running around.
It’s
2023. As I step into my 30s, there’s no way I’m letting a few old men and an
imaginary story about the debt ceiling put another glass ceiling over my
future.
Domenica Ghanem is the Director of
Public Relations at Community Change. This op-ed was distributed by
OtherWords.org.