WASHINGTON, April 5 (Reuters) – The White House said on
Thursday that budget cuts proposed by congressional Republicans
would hurt American women more than men, tailoring criticisms
from President Barack Obama to one of his key voting
demographics.
Obama, a Democrat, slammed the election-year budget plan
that cleared the Republican-controlled House of Representatives
this week as “thinly veiled social Darwinism” that would pare
down social services including health and retirement assistance.
Senior administration officials said the deficit blueprint
that Republicans, including the party’s likely 2012 presidential
nominee Mitt Romney, would put teachers out of work, take away
funds for violence prevention and cut medical care for millions
of poor and elderly women.
Republican calls to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Obama’s
flagship 2010 healthcare restructuring, would make it even
harder for women to get prenatal and postnatal care, mammograms
and bone density scans as well as nursing home assistance, they
told reporters.
“It would be devastating for women,” one official said the
day before a White House forum on women and the economy.
Another said that one-third of babies born in the United
States are now delivered with Medicaid assistance for the poor,
and that among Medicare beneficiaries over the age of 85, some
70 percent are women.
Medicare and Medicaid are government-run healthcare programs
for the elderly, the poor and the disabled.
“Anything you do to Medicare is going to disproportionately
affect women,” the official said. “Medicaid disproportionately
benefits women at every stage of the life cycle.”
Republicans say Obama’s spending has put the country on a
dangerous fiscal path, and that tighter controls are needed to
avoid a crisis from spiral ling health and retirement costs. The
budget proposal that passed the House is not expected to clear
the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Obama administration officials denied suggestions that
Friday’s forum was timed to draw attention to Obama’s record on
women’s issues at a time when contraceptive rights have become a
major campaign theme.
The administration angered Roman Catholic bishops and other
social conservatives when it adopted in February a policy that
requires most employers to provide free coverage for women’s
birth control under the healthcare overhaul.
Although churches and other places of worship are exempt,
the rule applies to religiously affiliated hospitals,
universities, charities and other institutions. To accommodate
their concerns, the administration has called for third-party
administrators including insurers to handle contraceptive
coverage for self-insured groups.
Obama is keen to secure strong support from women voters for
his Nov. 6 re-election bid.
A USA Today/Gallup poll released on Monday showed Obama now
holds a wide margin over Romney among women voters in electoral
battleground states such as Ohio, Florida and Virginia.
(Reporting By Laura MacInnis; Editing by Paul Simao)
