Politico has a piece by Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York on the women’s vote headlined “For Women, the differences are stark.” Indeed, they are, but not for the reasons Maloney cites.
Maloney never mentions that unemployment among women has gone up 15 percent since President Obama was inaugurated or that the overall unemployment rate has been at more than 8 percent for an unprecedented span of time. She doesn’t seem to be focused on creating a thriving economy to benefit women—and their families—but rather on government giveaway programs that foster dependency.
Though Rep. Todd Akin’s nutso remark on what the dim Akin called “legitimate rape” have been condemned by almost every Republican from coast to coast, Maloney—predictably—begins with Akin:
In light of Rep. Todd Akin’s (R-Mo.) recent remarks that “legitimate rape” victims have “ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” the results of a recent poll are truly puzzling. The USA Today/Suffolk University Poll found 90 million Americans who are eligible to vote might not do so, with 42 percent agreeing that: “there’s not a dime’s worth of difference” between the two parties. I must respectfully disagree.
See—she doesn’t really say anything about Akin. Maloney just wanted to mention him. This is what might uncharitably be called a scare tactic. I would agree that Akin’s views are scary, but so do most people, regardless of political affiliation. (Expect a steady diet of Akin—sort of the Akin Diet instead of the Adkins Diet. The tone was set by the increasingly agitated New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who writes that, in trying to get Akin to withdraw from the race, Republicans “are trying to cover up their true identity to get elected.”)
Maloney hails as benefits to women the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which definitely helps tort lawyers. But women? Not so much. She notes Obamacare, which would turn the most intimate health decisions of women over to a board of unelected bureaucrats. And my personal favorite:
On the issue of family planning: Obama has said that instead of defunding Planned Parenthood, we should make sure that women control their own health care choices, knowing that access to affordable contraception and the ability to space and time their children has a huge impact on the health of millions of women.
See above: unelected bureaucrats making health care decisions for women.
Second, with regard to "the issue" of contraception, there isn't one. Contraception is widely available and inexpensive. This will continue to be the case, no matter who is elected in November. Republicans have no plans to change this. Republicans do believe that religious employers who have moral reservations about contraception should not be forced to pay for contraception coverage. But otherwise, Republicans have no plans regarding contraception. It is extremely dishonest of people such as Ms. Maloney, who undoubtedly knows this, to try to pretend otherwise for political gain.
On the Planned Parenthood front, Mitt Romney does indeed want to defund it. Planned Parenthood in 2009 received $363.2 million in government grants and contracts—about a third of its budget. No matter what beliefs you hold about abortion, that is a heck of a lot of money for a government that now spends more than it takes in.
Republicans have to make their points above the Akin din. They can do it. Still, it's to bad Last Chance Claire foisted him upon us.