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Julie Vogtman, Senior Counsel

Julie Vogtman is Senior Counsel for the Family Economic Security Program at the National Women’s Law Center. She works on a range of issues involving economic support for low-income women and their families, including minimum wage policies, unemployment benefits, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). She also contributes to the Center’s work on federal budget and tax policies, including implementation of the tax credit components of the Affordable Care Act.  Prior to joining the Center, Ms. Vogtman was an associate with Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, DC. She is a graduate of Furman University and Georgetown University Law Center.

My Take

House Votes Tomorrow on Speaker Boehner’s Latest Plan to Slash Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security

Posted by Julie Vogtman, Senior Counsel | Posted on: July 26, 2011 at 04:13 pm

As the August 2 deadline to raise the debt limit and avoid default quickly nears, the number of budget plans in the mix continues to multiply while the parties seem no closer to an agreement. Though it’s still far from clear what a final deal might be, let’s hope it looks nothing like the latest approach from House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), which the House is expected to vote on tomorrow.

Not long after he walked out of negotiations with President Obama last Friday due to a dispute over (what else?) taxes, Boehner raised a new proposal, which he described last night as a plan to “cut [spending] by more than one trillion dollars, and [have] a serious, bipartisan committee of the Congress… begin the hard but necessary work of dealing with the tough challenges our nation faces.” He forgot to mention that it would likely unravel the safety net while leaving tax cuts for millionaires, billionaires and corporations untouched.

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Dangerous “Cut, Cap, and Balance Act” Fails in the Senate – Time to Strike a Fair Deal

Posted by Julie Vogtman, Senior Counsel | Posted on: July 22, 2011 at 02:44 pm

Earlier this week, the House voted on a radical bill – misleadingly titled the “Cut, Cap and Balance Act” – that would slash vital programs and tie any increase in the debt limit to passage of an extreme balanced budget amendment.

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Birth Control Without Co-Pays Expands Opportunities for Women

Posted by Julie Vogtman, Senior Counsel | Posted on: July 21, 2011 at 12:48 pm

Raising kids is expensive – at least, that’s what my parents tell me, and my husband’s parents, and my friends who have kids. I do want children of my own someday, but first I want to make sure my husband and I are financially stable and as prepared as we can be for a slew of new expenses (not to mention new stresses!). In the meantime, I’m relying on prescription birth control, which is no small expense itself – but I’m lucky to have a good job with health insurance coverage that picks up most of the cost. And when the time comes, I know I’ll have access to quality care to make sure I’m healthy before, during, and after a baby.

For many low-income women, however, these choices are much harder. Even women who have health insurance may face high deductibles and co-payments for doctor’s visits and prescriptions. Co-payments for contraception typically cost $15 to $50 a month, and alternatives to the pill, such as the IUD, can cost hundreds of dollars and often aren’t covered by insurance at all. For a young woman trying to cover groceries and rent on the $1,200 or so she earns each month from her minimum wage job, paying for birth control may seem impossible. A study commissioned by Planned Parenthood last year found that 34 percent of women voters have struggled with the cost of prescription birth control at some point in their lives – and among young adult women, who are most at risk for unplanned pregnancy, more than half (55 percent) have experienced a time when they could not afford to use birth control consistently.

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House Votes Today on Slashing Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, Child Care – and More

Posted by Julie Vogtman, Senior Counsel | Posted on: July 19, 2011 at 11:23 am

You didn’t know? That’s not surprising. It’s been tough to keep track of the constantly shifting budget plans over the past few days. Among the competing proposals, you may have heard some politicians calling for a balanced budget constitutional amendment (BBA).

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Will Women and Their Families Bear the Brunt of Deficit Reduction?

Posted by Julie Vogtman, Senior Counsel | Posted on: July 06, 2011 at 10:16 am

The headlines on the budget front haven't changed much in the past few weeks. As the country moves perilously close to reaching the debt limit on August 2, Republican leaders continue to insist that revenue increases cannot be part of any budget deal. In other words, rather than asking millionaires, billionaires and wealthy corporations to pay even a dime more in taxes to reduce the deficit, Republicans are demanding that any deficit reduction come exclusively from spending cuts — and based on the House Republican budget plan, federal programs that people with low incomes depend on (like Medicaid, SNAP/Food stamps, child care and Head Start) are the likely targets for major cuts.

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