Kerry RRC on Bush vs. Reality: "I love the strong women around me."

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://blog.johnkerry.com/rapidresponse/archives/003471.html#003471

REALITY: Women’s Rights, Health and Economic Opportunities Have Been Attacked By The Bush Administration. Bush’s rhetoric on women does not match the reality of his policies. Bush has failed women in regards to their civil rights. Under his watch: the DOL eliminated enforcement of equal pay laws and removed information regarding equal pay statistics from government websites; the Dept. of Ed. tried to weaken Title IX, the Dept. of Justice argued that women’s medical records were not private and has weakened enforcement of workplace discrimination; and Bush’s appointments and nominees have opposed civil rights laws and a woman’s right to choose. In matters of health, Bush has claimed to support a culture of life but proposed cutting funding for breast and cervical cancer research in his first year in office, banned stem cell research, and has withheld funding for the United Nations Population Fund which fights maternal and infant mortalities worldwide. In the workplace, Bush’s policies have made it more difficult for women to succeed. Bush’s push for deregulation removes workplace protections for that protect women’s safety; the federal government has not met its contracting goals for women’s small businesses; Bush closed the White House Women’s office which promoted women’s legislative priorities; and he tried to close the DOL’s regional women’s offices which promoted women’s economic opportunities. (NWLC, “Slip-sliding Away: The Erosion of Hard Won Gains for Women Under the Bush Administration and an Agenda for Moving Forward,” www.nwlc.org)

W. Is Wrong for Women In The Workplace. Bush has stymied women’s opportunities in the workplace. The Bush administration tried to close the DOL’s regional women’s offices, which advance women’s opportunities; even though women’s jobs are returning at a slower pace and this is the first recession where the most female workers have left the workforce. The wage gap has grown under Bush’s watch, but the DOL eliminated a program that trained women for higher paying jobs and enforced equal pay laws. Though women have had the largest loss in wages in nearly a decade under Bush, he has pushed policies that will take away overtime pay, cut funding for child care, left 12 million low and middle income children out of his tax cut, and has opposed a real minimum wage increase that would help 7 million working women. The only policy that Bush has put forth to potentially aid women workers, flex-time, curtails women’s opportunities to supplement their wages with much needed overtime pay. (Christian Science Monitor, 6/21/04; Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 8/27/04; AP, 8/24/99; New York Times, 12/19/01, 5/29/03, 9/9/04; www.cbpp.org; www.epinet.org)



"This tired old man that we elected king"...Don Henley & Bruce Hornsby, "The End of The Innocence"