The general election campaign has begun, and from the start it is clear that Mitt Romney is no friend of women. Romney spent the Republican primary joining aggressive Republican attacks on women’s rights and now, in an effort to appeal to independent voters, Romney is attempting to hide his record on women by attacking President Barack Obama.
But it is no surprise that recent polls show that women — by significant margins — don’t trust Romney to stand up for them. Women voters are smart. We can’t be fooled into voting against our basic rights and the economic interests of our families.
When asked recently whether he supported the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the Romney
campaign tersely replied “we’ll get back to you on that.” Granted, some complicated questions do require careful consideration — but whether women should have the ability to take their bosses to court to get the same pay as their male coworkers is not one of those issues. If equal pay for equal work isn’t a no-brainer, what is?
There is no question where President Obama stands on this issue; the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was the first piece of legislation he signed as president. And both Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe supported the Fair Pay Act in the U.S. Senate.
Lilly Ledbetter herself responded last week to Romney’s failure to take a stand: “It took me more than 20 years to get an answer for the injustices that I suffered as an unfairly paid worker … Mitt Romney told me and millions of other women that he couldn’t commit to fighting
with us or for us.”
On the issue of a woman’s right to choose, Romney’s record is scary. He said the Supreme Court should overturn Roe v. Wade, that he would “get rid of” Planned Parenthood, and that he supports legislation that would give basic women’s health decisions to their bosses.
On the issue of birth control, Romney even went so far as to launch a petition against the
federal Department of Health and Human Services for including birth control as a part of their basic preventive services in health care plans. Worse, he commented in a winter Republican debate that a nearly 50-year-old Supreme Court decision making it illegal for states to ban birth control (Griswold v. Connecticut) was wrong.
Romney boasts that he is the candidate to fix the economy, but he has no solid plan to accelerate job creation to strengthen the recovery. In fact, Romney’s plans include tax increases that disproportionately hurt women, raising taxes on 18 million working families, instead of asking the wealthy to pay their fair share.
Under President Obama’s leadership, women are gaining jobs during the recovery. Over the past 25 months, women have gained nearly 1.2 million private-sector jobs. And President Obama’s efforts have helped keep 400,000 teachers in classrooms and ensured that nurses and health care professionals stay on the job — measures that disproportionately support women workers. In addition, the president’s payroll tax cuts helped nearly 75 million working women bring more of their paycheck home during difficult times.
Mitt Romney joined congressional Republicans in opposing the Buffett Rule, a rule promoted by the president and spurred by Warren Buffett’s outrage that he was being taxed at a lower rate than his secretary. The Buffett Rule improves tax fairness by ensuring Americans who make more than $1 million a year can’t get special deals to pay a lower rate than middle-class families. Contrast that with Romney’s tax plan, which gives the average millionaire a $250,000 tax break.
Mitt Romney has spent months taking increasingly strong stands against women’s rights in an effort to appeal to his party’s extreme right wing. Maine women have to wonder: if he’s willing to throw women under the bus to win the GOP nomination, what will he be willing to do as president?
Hannah Pingree of North Haven is the former Speaker of the Maine House. She is the daughter of Democratic 1st District Rep. Chellie Pingree.
Hannah should run against Angus King
Chellie would have but the national media is saying that Angus and Chellie are friends and the national Democratic party pushed Chellie out in favor of Angus.
and this why she won’t
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/senate/me/maine_senate_summers_vs_dunlap_vs_king-3181.html
Congratulations for an excellent editorial.
Very disappointing commentary from the former speaker. The “war on women” is totally fabricated. Republicans might as well say that the Dems are making war on humans – which would be closer to the truth.
It shouldn’t take a liberal to observe that the once reputable GOP has morphed into the Party of Attila and is largely being run by reactionary white men who appear entirely incapable of comprehending the political perspectives and priorities of women, minorities and millions of other working Americans. For politically moderate voters too defeating as many radical conservatives running for Congress as possible will be every bit as important as defeating Mitt Romney and the corporate money machine.
If only the elected Ds were free of that corporate money machine.
Why don’t you tell that to the Koch brothers! They might actually laugh.
Nothing surprising about this editorial coming from the pen of Hannah Pingree.
Yep the BDN should only print the uncontrovertial truth that Rush Limbaugh gives us.
When has the BDN ever printed something even mildly complemetary of, never mind written by, Rush Limbaugh?
They haven’t that I know of, that’s why I still buy it every day;)
Do you know what I like about Rush Limbaugh?
Nothing.
Excellent commentary.
Corporate money machine? At least Romney’s Mommy & StepDaddy don’t own their own Newspapers from their home state! I thought I lived in the USA where the Constitution stands firm on “Freedom of Religion” and (our ?) government doesn’t tell the Church what to do, say and buy? Of course Obama’s dismal record on jobs should make him a 1 term President!
American Parasite: Romney’s Bain Represents Capitalism’s Worsthttp://www.sfweekly.com/2012-04-18/news/mitt-romney-bain-capital-georgetown-steel-armco-creative-destruction/
A vote for Romney will take women back to the 1960’s when contraception for women were illegal and so were abortions. This did not mean women could not have an abortion, they just had to do it themselves using coat hangers, usually killing the mother in the process.
And this is what Romney wants? He said he supports laws defining personhood as starting at conception. So a return to the barbarity of the ’60’s is what to expect from Romney.
How can anyone vote for this?
Only the poor women or those who weren’t well connected had abortions back in the time before Roe v Wade. Women of wealth and those with connections had female problems which were cured by a simple D&C in nice sterile conditions.
Romney does not support outlawing birth control. Once again, if you think women are just a reproductive tract waiting to be worked on one way or another, then abortion and contraception are the only issues women care about.
I think women are more than a reproductive tract. Having an abortion is not going to feed the children I choose to have, or pay my mortgage, or fill my gas tank–and it certainly is not going to be a pleasant experience that increases my happiness in life.
Obama told us he knew how to fix the economy and
create jobs. Marvelous job he has done. He has done
nothing to get women jobs, That is garbage. He has done
his best to destroy the private sector and in spite of Obama
it still is there and does it’s own hiring. As for the phoney
argument about a war on women, only gullible women
and gullible sheep would think that. This is just rhetoric
made to create another class warfare item. It’s disgusting
that this admin must use such tactics because they can’t stand
on anything they have accomplished. Oh, lets’ throw those
“hated” women a bone…free contraceptives…and say the other
party dislikes women. Hey sheep, are you that easily snowed?
Yep you could have had the voice of the Tea Party heard and let GM, Chrysler and Ford (which would have been drug under with them) fold. That would have done wonders for the American economy.
Are you disappointed that the millions of jobs are still there?
It would have been cheaper to have all of these companies that had been bailed out go through a restructuring after going into bankruptcy. Instead we are bailing them out especially in awful economic times with the majority of Americans struggling. While those companies and their CEO’s are laughing all the way to the bank. Including Chellie Pingree’s Wealthy Multi Billionaire Wall Street Hedgefund Hubby Donnie Sussman is laughing as well after getting hundreds of millions of bailout bucks. If you live off of Welfare , Handouts, Subsidies (Wind Power) and Bailout bucks your doing fine , but those of us who go to work everyday for a living are left wondering when is the nonsense going to end.
I believe that when Obama took office the colapse had all ready begun, the bail outs were in progress and under the urging of both political parties they were carried out. Not to bash Bush, but I wonder how he would have fared if he took office under those conditions. Bush also enjoyed a rubber stamp Congress after 9/11, where you could have counted in one hand the number of politicians who had nerve enough to question anything the White House was doing for fear of being labled as anti-American.
Well said. Nobody on the right has declared war on women. The left self perpetuated it. They will do anything they can to make the right look bad, and of coarse the libs here already hate anyone that resembles a Republican. So much for tolerance.
Surely you don’t consider the rights push on the repeal of Roe v Wade as an attempt to limit womens rights.
I’m not aware of any serious push to challenge Roe vs Wade. Educate me.
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2012/02/virginia_ultrasound_law_women_who_want_an_abortion_will_be_forcibly_penetrated_for_no_medical_reason.html
http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/sarahmoricebrubaker/5559/vaginal_ultrasound_required_for_abortion_in_texas/
Only if you consider that women’s rights only concern her right to an abortion. That really is very demeaning to women, who are much more than the sum of their reproductive tract.
Ms. Pingree–It is always a pleasure to see how well you hold true to your progressive ideals. I hope you are planning on bringing your vision to the Blaine House in 2014.
She would would do worse than Libby Mitchell did last election she would finish a distant third or fourth to LePage , and to any of those who would be Independents Cutler, Barbara Merrill, Rosa Scarcelli etc.. She should just stay home and raise her child and find a job in the private sector. She has no future in politics she is has too much hatred coming from everyone who isn’t a Democrat.
I am not a democrat. I have met Ms. Pingree and am impressed with her understanding of the human condition and also her understanding of the political process–two understandings that are not found in concurrence often and that the current resident of the Blaine House lacks in both aspects. I think you are wrong–Ms. Pingree has a brilliant future in politics should she choose to be so unselfish as to engage in it.
She would lose against running someone who has name recognition. She is a Leftist Liberal who most see as one of the folks who is responsible for the problems this state has. She has no future in higher political office because it will be easy to run ads and a campaign against her, just as it will with Emily Cain, etc.. Doesn’t matter how nice of a person she is once you are seen as the cause of the issues with Augusta your future is doomed. That is why Baldy didn’t run for Senate. Those who think Angus King has this in the bag trust me once the campaign gets going he will have a hard time defending his record. Those who think 1.5 Billion dollar shortfalls King left Baldy with is bad wait till he gets his hands on the real checkbook (Washington D.C.).
The Republicans’ “War on Women” is just a made-up talking point, but the Democrats’ war on children – or the taxpayers those children will grow up to be – is very real. Would Ms. Pingree care to tell us how she feels about selling future generations into debt bondage, just so her colleagues can buy votes for a few years more?
So all the examples that Pingree brings up are “made-up”?
Republican opposition to specific Democrat-sponsored proposals on the grounds (carefully avoided by Ms. Pingree) that they’re ill-advised hardly amounts to a “War on Women.”
When the Republican position on abortion is that the only way a woman should be able to get one is to impale herself on a coat hanger, yes, there is a war on women.
That’s a breathtakingly nonsensical comment. Trying to reply would be like trying to parse the sentences of someone speaking in tongues.
Don’t know much about the fairpay act, but my guess is that it is incredibly broad and would open the door to endless litigation. Every single one of my employees is paid differently because they are paid for performance, not tenure and not only by job description. My top paid employee is a woman, but her gender has nothing to do with it: she’s my most valuable employee.
I guess in a true meritocracy, how on earth would you ever enforce a “fairpay” law? We’d literally have to wade through every single employee on a case by case basis to ensure their merit based pay is appropriate. Pingree admits there are still issues to sort out, so why take Romney to task for saying they’ll “get back to you”?
I don’t know, Romney’s record in Mass is as a very moderate Republican. To suggest he’ll send us back to the 60’s, in light of surviving eight years of W without such a trip, is baseless hyperbole. Lost a lot a credibility with this article, Hannah.
Oh, ‘comeon, Mrs. Pingree, Mitt Romney, although not my fave type of character, certainly has not lost ALL favor with women voters. See? I DID put your names together in one sentence side-by-side. The problem that was outlined about Romney is the fact he (Romney) is in-critique with Obama’s ongoing rapping women’s rights the way he does; underhandedly and inconspicuous. There is plenty to “attack” Obama on, and your reversal of opinion on women’s rights and who is to blame in the first paragraph is mean.
Current “polls” are insignificant, as they only encounter a minuscule, nanofractatious representation of society. The Liberalistic’s will definitely vote (again) for Obama, and God Help Us!
The “Fair Play Act” shun (?) by the Romney camp was meant only to put the comment aside until further education into this “Act” could be learned, then, at the appropriate time, if the question arose again, Romney could answer fairly and effectively. But enforcing such a proposal would be difficult at best. I wonder if Lilly’s query to Romney was justified because Romney was not the one who evoluted the “Act”, nor was the one promoting it or controlling it or uncontrolled it. If Lilly had problems in getting equal rights and equal pay, then she had an obligation to seek counsel with her boss and then take alternate steps to get that right she deserved. Now she made a mountain of a molehill, as Equal Rights laws equate to everybody across the board as it is. The “Fair Pay Act” you should read-up on, too!
The broader picture is for a debate on the subject of Planned Parenthood and a Reproductive Health Law in the US. Not adjudging the now time-and-place of it. What should be of high concern, Mrs. Pingree, is not so much if Hillary is seeking the Vice Presidential or Presidential ticket later on, (another God Help Us!) but the massive blow-out of foreign aid and foreign policy spending now into the trillions of dollars every year, the Obama Administration is set to pay out, making other countries (and their government leaders) rich beyond measure and causing international corruption as a result. This in itself delineates the US economy and is the reason for the economical, financial, and disastrous effect the dollar has taken in a massive drop in worldwide exchange rates and its primary effect in the USA, the WB and IMF.
Sorry, Mrs. Pingree, your take on Romney is ultra Liberal and off-center. We all have problems, ma’am, and no matter what, there are or will be no perfect President.
I believe it is very important that all women should take the time and read carefully what is written on that ballot in November. Let us not forget that our very own Representative Ms. Pingree in Washington voted on several bills that were not read before she cast her votes. The people of the great State of Maine were short changed by her selfish behavior. Even women in this State deserve more than just a blind vote. If this is the way we do business in Maine we all need to take a hard look at ourselves and be ready for that socialist culture that is being pushed by the folks in Washington. One more fact about elections. You do remember all those promises that our President offered during his 2008 campaign. It has been three years later and I am still waiting. And you criticize Romney???
What an embarrassment the Pingree women have become. If either actually tried to work for a living they would understand that it is their policies that have caused our current economic problems – for men and women. They would gladly give the government control over our bodies via Obamacare, but they think it is an attack on women to actually give them the right to choose for themselves which health coverage they wish to purchase. These fabricated, coordinated attempts to create divisions are exactly what is wrong with career politicians and it is insulting to women who are not as stupid as the Pingrees would have us believe.