NOW Applauds the End of the Government Shutdown, Calls on Congress to Pass a Budget That Makes Sense for Women and Their Families

The National Organization for Women (NOW) is encouraged by Congress' passage last night of a debt limit increase and a continuing resolution to keep the government funded. We commend President Obama and the leadership of the Democratic Party for standing strong against the dangerous tactics of Tea Party ideologues, and call on Republican leaders to pledge that never again will they resort to governance-by-hostage-taking.

In the coming weeks, lawmakers will hammer out a federal budget. NOW calls for a deal that will make sense to the millions of women and their families still struggling to recover from the Great Recession. It is past time for corporations and the wealthiest to pay their fair share of taxes; from 2009 to 2012, the top 1 percent saw their incomes rise over 31 percent, while the incomes of the rest of us only went up 0.4 percent. Just to be clear: the top 1 percent of earners is not where the women are.

It is also past time for the federal government to make serious investments in education, health care, social infrastructure (i.e. child care, job training and services for survivors of sexual assault and intimate partner violence) and our crumbling physical infrastructure. Social Security -- which adds nothing to the federal budget deficit -- cannot be part of any deal.

It may be too much to hope that the radical fringe in control of the Republican Party has learned its lesson. One thing is certain: women voters are watching, and will hold them accountable in next year's elections.