The House of Representatives is pushing a budget that threatens our still-fragile economic recovery and most vulnerable people. Unaffordable tax cuts and increased military spending coupled with massive cuts in funding for education, job training and other important domestic programs is a recipe elevating corporate executives at the expense of the rest of us, and especially at the expense of women.

Throughout history, the federal government has played an essential role in spurring economic growth and increasing opportunity for its people, making the railroads, interstate highways, and land grant colleges possible. Government programs including Unemployment Insurance, Social Security and Medicare have made Americans more secure, saving us from deep poverty due to economic downturns, old age or illness.

A January Pew Research Center poll confirmed that the American people believe that strengthening the economy and spurring job creation are the nation`s top two priorities. And a Greenberg/Democracy Corps poll showed that fully 41 percent of respondents said that they or someone in their immediate family had been unemployed in the past year, explaining why Americans are desperate for better economic times.

While it is true that the long-term federal deficit must be addressed, this country can reduce the deficit over time through a balanced approach that includes equitable increases in revenue and thoughtful reductions in expenditures that aren`t key to the public interest. Coming out of the Great Recession, wise investments will spur job creation and build a stronger economy that will enable the federal government to reduce the deficit more rapidly moving forward.

But the U.S. House of Representatives` approach to reducing the deficit has been to protect wasteful military spending that even security experts agree does not add to our nation`s security, while wildly chopping the budget with harmful consequences to women and families, and all lower– and middle-income people trying to build a solid economic future. Examples include:

Decimating job training programs by 50 percent, or $3.8 billion, preventing eight million workers from getting the training or services they need to land a job with a living wage;

Stripping over $1 billion from early learning support – 218,000 children would lose Head Start and 150,000 child care assistance – and taking many of their mothers out of the workforce;

Cutting funding for Pell grants, denying or cutting the help 9.4 million low-income students need to make college affordable;

Putting the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) at danger of not being able to provide food for everyone who is eligible.

This slash and burn agenda weakens our nation by reducing income for millions of families and diminishing economic opportunity. We can`t afford to do this, with 2009 yielding the largest number of people living in poverty since it`s been measured, and adult women 32 percent more likely to be poor than adult men. The federal government must be an engine for shared prosperity.

Furthermore, the House budget completely ignores the question of revenue. President George W. Bush`s tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy making more than $250,000 per year have been extended, resulting in diminished revenue to continue and strengthen the programs that create jobs and provide greater economic security for struggling lower and middle-income families.

Our budget should reflect priorities for the good of our nation and our people:

Increase job training and job creation. It really is about “jobs, jobs, jobs” if we are to strengthen our economy for the future.

Protect education, health care and programs to assist low-income families struggling for economic security. The budget cannot be balanced on the backs of America`s most vulnerable.

Raise taxes for corporations and the rich. Reducing the deficit over the long-term requires that all of us pay our fair share.

The United States should strive to provide everyone with economic opportunity and the ability to live in dignity. Realizing our potential requires sound investments in the education, job training, and human needs infrastructure for success that make the American Dream available to all.

Linda Meric is the Executive Director of 9to5, National Association of Working Women, a national membership-based organization of low-income women working to improve policies on issues that directly affect them.