olitical problems facing women today would be to pursue economic justice, said Terry O’Neill, President of the National Organization for Women, during an AU College Democrats event Sept. 14 in Ward.
O’Neill spoke about how the ongoing debate concerning the federal budget deficit has had a systematically disproportionate impact on women.
As president of the NOW Foundation and chair of the NOW Political Action Committee, O’Neill pointed out the flaws in Chairman of the House Budget Committee Representative Paul Ryan’s controversial budget plan.
“The Ryan budget would save money by slashing a whole range of social programs that the federal government currently pays for including certain child care programs,” O’Neill said. “You are making the lives of women who receive the services harder because now they have to leave work and pick up their children, making it harder [for women] to hold on to their jobs in an economy where joblessness is a huge issue.”
O’Neill also said cuts in welfare would deprive women of valuable jobs.
“Women residents make up 70 percent of these homes as well as the vast majority of social and health-care workers that would be laid off,” O’Neill said. “This option is simply unacceptable.”
O’Neill instead showed support for Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky’s Fairness in Taxation Act. The bill would raise taxes for Americans who earn more than $1 million.
“Those tax rates are lower then the tax rates Ronald Reagan put on his tax increases as president,” O’Neill said. “That bill alone will eliminate the federal deficit in ten years or less.”
Before she began fighting for economic security for women and single mother benefits, O’Neill took part in a grassroots campaign against Louisiana’s 1991 gubernatorial election of David Duke. She exposed what she saw as instances of Duke’s racist and Neo-Nazi remarks.
“After his win I thought Louisiana NOW was an organization I could actually work with,” O’Neill said.
NOW has over 100 chapters all over the country and the organization has six core issues, ranging from reproductive rights to economic justice for women.
O’Neill also offered her opinion on a few of the candidates in the 2012 presidential election during the question and answer portion of the event.
“From my point of view, if someone like Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann were to run for president, neither of them would become president,” O’Neill said. “It’s because their policy preferences are very pro-corporate, anti-union and anti-women’s rights.”
While the presidential debate is important, improving the economy is a more important issue for most women, she said.
“Lots of economic issues affect women and the Super Committee needs to consider women when drawing up budget cuts,” O’Neill said.
