Today’s House approval of the Ryan budget shows just how out of touch some in Congress are with Americans’ fundamental needs and values. The Ryan budget is driven by misplaced priorities, short-sighted goals, and callous disregard for women and everyone who relies on government programs. It targets close to two-thirds of its cuts to programs that support those with low or moderate incomes, most of whom are women. The Senate must recognize what is at stake for our nation and reject the House budget, which would cause grave harm to millions of women and their families.
By repealing the Affordable Care Act, it would eliminate women’s access to essential preventive services like breast cancer screening, take away young women’s ability to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans until age 26, and eliminate critical protections against gender-based discrimination in insurance coverage and pricing. It would reverse our progress in improving care coordination, which reduces costs for family caregivers and millions of women who suffer from multiple chronic conditions.
The Ryan plan would also undermine Medicare’s promise of affordable, quality health care by turning Medicare into a premium support ‘voucher’ program that shifts costs onto beneficiaries, the majority of whom are women who live on less than $22,000 per year.
It would block-grant Medicaid and cut Medicaid funding, endangering health care for millions of women and children. It would jeopardize care for older women living in nursing homes, putting greater burdens on family caregivers, most of whom are women. And it would make it more difficult for millions of women to access birth control since Medicaid is the largest source of family planning funds.
Sadly, it does not stop there. The Ryan budget would also devastate nutrition assistance programs, denying millions of families living in or near poverty — many headed by women — the ability to put food on the table. It would put school lunch, child nutrition, job training and child care tax credit programs on the chopping block. It would devastate the safety net.
Representative Ryan named his budget plan the ‘Path to Prosperity,’ but it is a path to poverty for millions of women and families. Every senator should vote to defeat this callous bill.”
