November, 11 2010, 08:44am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Mai Shiozaki, 202-628-8669, ext. 116
NOW Calls On President Obama to Reject Fiscal Commission's Assault on Social Security
Statement of NOW President Terry O'Neill
WASHINGTON
"Millions of women will be pushed into poverty and out of the middle class if preliminary recommendations for cutting Social Security benefits made by the National Commission for Fiscal Responsibility and Reform are adopted," NOW President Terry O'Neill says.
"Co-chairs Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles have come up with a proposal that would move Social Security toward being a welfare program, rather than the guaranteed income security program it is designed to be," O'Neill says. "That's the opposite of what's needed. In fact, benefits need to be improved -- not cut -- for women. At a time when so many working families are struggling, the co-chairs' proposal is terrible policy. I hope we can count on the president to reject it out of hand."
The Fiscal Commission Co-Chairs' Proposal suggests increasing the payroll tax to capture 90 percent of wages by 2050. O'Neill says: "We should just scrap the cap on taxable income entirely right now, and increase benefits for all. That would ensure Social Security solvency far into the 21st century and provide for an economically secure retirement for all workers."
"Increasing the retirement age -- even though it is gradual -- is one of their worst ideas, O'Neill continued. "Millions of women and men who work at physically demanding jobs cannot work into their late 60's. For them, extending the retirement age will amount to a deep and cruel benefit cut."
"Strengthening everyone's income security should be a primary goal of this administration and of the new Congress. This past election was a clear demonstration that people are hurting because of the recession's effect on employment, housing values, and savings. Undermining Social Security is absolutely the wrong way to go," O'Neill said.
NOW calls upon President Obama to reject the Co-Chairs' Proposal and commit his administration to strengthening Social Security by scrapping the cap and increasing benefits for the hard-working people of this country.
The National Organization for Women (NOW) is the largest organization of feminist activists in the United States. NOW has 500,000 contributing members and 550 chapters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
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With world leaders convening in Washington, D.C. this week for the annual Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, global anti-poverty campaigners said Monday that delegates from the world's largest economies must prioritize taxing the superrich and taking other steps to alleviate rampant inequality in the Global South.
Oxfam International revealed that based on the World Bank's analysis of worldwide inequality and poverty, 64 out of 106 low- and middle-income countries that receive grants and loans from the bank and the IMF have high or increasing rates of income inequality.
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Kate Donald, head of Oxfam International's Washington, D.C. office, noted that the news comes less than a year after more than 200 worldwide economists successfully pressured the World Bank to set a new goal of reducing the number of countries with high inequality rates.
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According to Oxfam's analysis, half of IDA-eligible countries are overindebted and need roughly 45% of their debt to the banks canceled in order to address surging inequality in their own communities.
The global financial institutions must prove at the Spring Meetings that "tackling inequality is a priority," said Donald.
"Ordinary people struggle more and more every day to make up for cuts to the public funding of healthcare, education, and transportation," she said. "This high stakes hypocrisy has to end."
At Inter Press Service, Jaime Atienza, equitable financing director at the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, pointed to the example of Zambia, one of 37 countries identified by Oxfam as facing rising levels of inequality.
While still struggling, Atienza wrote, through the G20 Common Framework on Debt, Zambia "secured serious debt relief and restructuring with both government and private creditors, which will help enable vital and urgent investments in health, education, and social protection."
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A May 2004 report by Maj. Gen. Anthony Taguba concluded that the majority of Abu Ghraib prisoners—the Red Cross said 70-90%— were innocent. In addition to thousands of men and boys, some women and girls were also jailed there as bargaining chips meant to induce wanted insurgents to surrender. Some of them said they were raped or sexually abused by their American captors; lesser-known Abu Ghraib photos show women being forced to expose their private parts. Some female detainees were reportedly murdered by their own relatives in so-called "honor killings" after their release.
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