THE FEMINIZATION OF AUSTERITY

[...] tax cuts and unusually high unemployment rates caused federal revenues to fall to 14.4 percent of the GDP- the lowest level since 1950.2 From 2001 to 2007, the share of the revenue gap stemming from tax cuts (48 percent) far exceeded the share due to entitlement (10 percent) and discretionary spending (7 percent).3 Although critics like to blame future deficits on Obama and Congress's current policies, budget analysts report that over the next decade the deficit will largely be due to the economic downturn, the Bush tax cuts, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In August 2011, House leaders demanded still more spending cuts, but no new taxes in exchange for agreeing to lift the debt ceiling.5 In October 2011, Congress defeated the American Jobs Act - Obama's plan to create employment opportunities for teachers and other public sector workers, and rebuild the nations infrastructure.6 These legislative actions have established a template that many regard as representing a "war on women,"7 not only because women comprise the majority of public sector program recipients, workers, and union members, but also because government services underwrite women's unpaid labor in the home.