Deficit Commission Co-Chairs Alan Simpson and Erksine Bowles proposal to reduce the deficit was immediately opposed by leading Democrats, women’s rights groups, and labor. Immediately upon release, both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Commissioner and Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) issued scathing dismissals. Pelosi simply said the proposal was “unacceptable” and Schakowsky called it a “non-starter.” Women’s rights groups, including the National Organization for Women, OWL the Voice of Midlife and Older Women, and the Feminist Majority immediately expressed their outrage. The following is taken from the statement of the President of the Feminist Majority, Eleanor Smeal: “Social Security has not caused the deficit problem. In fact, Social Security has accumulated a massive surplus. The U.S. cannot balance its books on the backs of older women, the disabled, and the middle class while it provides tax cuts and tax breaks to the super rich and to mega, multinational corporations. “This proposal targets women in many areas. For example, it disproportionately cuts programs whose recipients are primarily women, such as Social Security, Medicare, the earned income tax credit, and the child tax credit. It freezes the pay of the civilian Department of Defense employees (the majority of which are women) and of so-called non-combat military forces (i.e women). Even insisting students pay interest on student loans while they are in college hits young women more than men since men are less dependent than women on college loans for their education. “Most of its suggestions are to reduce spending rather than to increase revenue as it places the burden on middle-class Americans, especially women, and protects the skyrocketing profits of the richest Americans. Obvious solutions such as raising the cap on FICA or Social Security withholding tax to include more of the income of the highest paid Americans (i.e. mostly men) was not suggested. The proposal rejects the basic principles of a progressive income tax, which is the staple of a fair or just taxation system and it reduces corporate income taxes yet again.”
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