t’s a classic case of bait and switch.
The Republican campaign of 2010, nationally and in Pennsylvania, focused on the economy and jobs.
But since taking office Republicans have instead been appeasing right wing extremists who want to roll back the advances women made in the last forty years.
It began, in both Washington and Harrisburg, with legislation that would make it harder for women to use their own money to purchase health insurance that covers abortion. Having claimed, dishonestly, that the Affordable Care Act provides government funding for abortion, Republican legislation supposedly fixes the problem the invented.
However their radical legislation goes much farther than the existing ban on government funding of abortion. Evidently, the Republican regard for the free market ends when it comes to women choosing how to send their own money.
These new attempts to limit abortion rights are, however, just the beginning of the Republican attack on health care for women.
In Harrisburg, Republicans from Governor Corbett on down have shown no inclination to save AdultBasic, which provides affordable health insurance for those who earn too much to qualify for medical assistance. A majority of the 42,000 beneficiaries of AdultBasic are women.
And, not to be out done, this week Republicans in Washington will propose a budget for this fiscal year that would:
Entirely eliminate all federal funding for family planning and reproductive health. In other words, Republicans who oppose abortion are doing everything they can to encourage more unwanted pregnancies while attacking Planned Parenthood, the most respected provider of women’s health care in the country.
- Chop $1.1 billion cut from Head Start.
- Cut $758 million from the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), a program created by the Nixon administration that provides supplemental food to infants as well as health care referrals and nutrition education for low-income pregnant and postpartum women.
- Reduce the Maternal and Child Health Block Grants by $210 million. This program, a descendant of one created during the Harding Administration, supports children with special needs, provides newborn screening and genetic services, and funds lead poisoning and injury prevention.
- Slash $1.3 billion from Community Health Centers that provide affordable health care to low income women, men and their children. Last year, Republicans claimed we didn’t need health care reform because Community Health Centers provide care to people with low incomes. This year, they are ready to slash funding for them.
And Republican legislators in both Washington and Harrisburg have also been busy trying to block implementation of the health care legislation passed last year even though support for it is rising as citizens come to understand how the law protects them from insurance company abuses.
Radical cuts in government programs that have long had bi-partisan support are bad enough. But it is the larger intention standing behind this list that is truly worrisome. At a time when American families are suffering the effects of the worst economic downturn in seventy years, Republicans are listening to the most extreme elements in their party and are targeting programs that support not just the health care of women but their independence.
Why create barriers not just to abortion but to family planning? Why reduce childcare and health services for children? Why make it harder for families to find medical care for children?
It’s not just that Republicans are hard hearted and don’t care about the well-being of working people, although that is certainly true. It is that they want to undermine any government program that, by providing support for women and children, promotes equality for women.
And while the Republicans are responding to the right wing elements in their base to try to push us back to the world of the 1950s, what are they doing to restore the family sustaining jobs that at least men had in that era?
Well, we are still waiting for their first proposal to address that problem—unless you believe the fantasy that reducing taxes for millionaires create jobs.
And given that the budget cuts proposed in Washington and coming in Harrisburg—as well as and the attacks on public sector workers that are coming as well—will lead to a reduction in both jobs and wages, we may be waiting a long time for Republicans to address the economy and jobs.
For the Republicans priority is not jobs or the economy at all. Rather it is putting women back in their place.