In the budget deal reached last week, the GOP didn’t only win huge tax cuts for their corporate supporters and the super-rich; they also used the impending government shutdown as leverage to further limit D.C. residents’ ability provide access to abortions for low income women, even though 100% of funds used come from local tax dollars.

“The Republicans’ actions during the latest Washington budget debacle demonstrate once again that the GOP values corporate welfare over the wellbeing of Americans,” said Michael Keegan, President of People for the American Way.  “By giving away billions in tax cuts to insurance and oil companies while slashing Medicaid, food for working families and basic women’s health services, the Right Wing is clearly committed to taking every opportunity to pursue their extreme social agenda at the expense of the American people. Nowhere is that more true than in the GOP’s unilateral declaration that residents of D.C. cannot make up their own mind as to how to spend their local tax dollars. This gives lie to the GOP claim that their primary focus is on reducing the deficit: not one penny of federal money is used for this purpose.

“Unfortunately, citizens of the District of Columbia are used to being used as pawns in the Right Wing’s assault on individual liberties. This time, it’s the women in D.C. who must bear the burden. Citizens of D.C. deserve the same right to self-government afforded to the rest of the nation. It’s ironic that a party that claims to want to limit the federal government’s reach has spent so much energy to do the direct opposite.

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