How would Barack Obama affect you as a Mother?

[ToddlerBrain82]

Here is a compilation of information, taken right from Barack Obama's  web site, with his stances on issues that affect us as Mothers in America. More in-depth information can be found at the links I've provided, at the bottom.

Barack Obama...

• Committed to making sure that all Americans have health insurance by the end of his first term.
• Introduced legislation to fund development of products called Microbicides, which women can apply topically to prevent HIV infection.
• Supports legislation to increase access to health care for rural and low-income women.
• Was a co-sponsor of Johanna's Law, which promotes awareness of ovarian cancer.
• Helped pass legislation in Illinois to increase funding for mammograms.
• Introduced legislation to lower the level of mercury emissons, which would lower the mercury level in water and fish, because 1 in 6 babies may have developmental problems due to mercury exposure in the womb.
• Supports a woman's right to choose, and opposes attempts to overturn Roe v. Wade.
• Co-sponsor of legislation "to expand access to contraception, health information and preventive services to help reduce unintended pregnancies."
• Supports partnerships between domestic violence programs and Fatherhood or Marriage programs, with the intent of preventing domestic violence. Co-sponsored the Violence Against Women act.
• Supported legislation to provide equal pay to women, because statistics show that in this day and age women earn 77 cents for every dollar a man earns.
• Supports paid sick days.
• Encourages women to become business-owners, and committed to lowering discrimination in lending to woman business owners.
• Plans to raise the minimum wage to $9.50 by 2011.
• Has a five-year plan for funding programs that have already been shown to be effective in helping low-income Americans find jobs.
• Supports expanding early childhood education, and has a detailed plan addressing support and education for children ages birth to five years. This includes expanding Head Start and Early Head Start.
  
• Has an education plan that includes mentoring for new teachers, recruiting math and science teachers, and incentives for teachers who seek professional development.
• Will increase funding for charter schools, with stipulations that are aimed at improving the performance of charter schools.
• Will address the high school dropout problem by having interventions that begin in middle school.
• Supports expanding good quality after-school care programs.
  
• Committed to reducing the cost of education at public colleges and universities, and make the financial aid process more simple.
• Supports expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit.
• Supports expanding the Family Medical Leave Act, and making it available to more workers.
• Will help states set up a Paid Leave fund.
• Plans to encourage businesses to allow flexible work schedules, and will set up the federal government as a model.
• Supports an increase in funding for Autism research, and supports increasing funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
• Co-sponsored the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
• Will sign a law into place that will remove some burdens and penalties on married families, and enforce the law against fathers who avoid their child support payments.
• Will expand a program that provides home visits by a registered nurse for low income pregnant women.
• Plans to establish twenty "Promise Neighborhoods" in American inner cities, modeled after the Harlem Children's Zone.
  

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/womenissues

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/education/

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/poverty/

[JoyeAustin]

Sep. 22, 2008 at 9:13 PM

Hmmm. All of this wonderful. Does he mention how he's going to pay for it all?

[Gaia_Rain]

Sep. 22, 2008 at 9:16 PM

Excellent post!!

[ToddlerBrain82]

Sep. 22, 2008 at 9:30 PM

Joye, he has a pretty in-depth plan that covers a lot of angles. Closing corporate tax loopholes, cutting inefficient and ineffective government programs, reducing federal earmarks, and auctioning off surplus government property are just some of his proposals. This gives you some pretty good information about where he's looking to "trim the fat" so to speak.

(Original Poster)

[ToddlerBrain82]

Sep. 22, 2008 at 9:33 PM

I wanted to add - he is putting a lot of resources towards prevention rather than cure. Study after study has shown that no matter what field you are talking about, you're better off preventing a problem than averting a crisis. Investment in early childhood education is associated with a reduction in crime rates and high school dropouts in the target population. Investing in mammograms and PAP smears is a lot cheaper than treating breast or cervical cancer.

(Original Poster)

[JoyeAustin]

Sep. 22, 2008 at 9:33 PM

According to my parents, he's just going to jack up everyone's taxes til we choke to death on it.  ;)

[ToddlerBrain82]

Sep. 22, 2008 at 9:39 PM

Yeah, I've heard a lot of that too ;) I just look at what the facts are. It's simply a better, smarter plan to address these issues BEFORE they become problems. Just like the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I called in a local political radio show to ask the Republican candidate for Congress about his position on early childhood education. He told me that he does not support funding ANY early childhood ed programs, that he believes it is only the parent's responsibility to prepare a child for school readiness and the government shouldn't fund any of it. Well, ideally YES, more parents would be willing and able to get their children ready to enter school at age five and be ready to learn, but the reality is that's just not going to happen! So what are we going to do about that - let those children and families fall by the wayside? It's very flawed logic to me, and a dangerous position since we KNOW that improving education for everyone will benefit our whole society.

(Original Poster)

[Xakana]

Sep. 22, 2008 at 10:01 PM

Joye--on Obama and taxes: unless your family is making over $600,000 a year, your taxes will go down under his plans, not up. And if you're making that much... honestly, I can't believe you'd begrudge the people who need help to get it, just because you'd lose what would be basically pocket change. On the other hand, McCain's tax plan doesn't do you much good until you're making over $100K a year and even then, it's only a 2.5% decrease. You get that same decrease from $37K-$66K, 3.6% decrease if you make $19K-$37K and a 5.5% decrease if you make under $18.9K (information from the Washington Post taken from the candidates proposed tax plans).

So, um, "jack up taxes"? No. In fact, unless you're part of the wealthiest people in America, your taxes would go down more with Obama than McCain. I've got a few other myths debunked here as well.

There is also some truth to the claim that Obama would impose "new taxes" to finance his health care plan, depending on your interpretation of "new." He has said he would pay for much of his plan "by allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire for people making more than $250,000 per year, as they are scheduled to do." That would certainly be a tax increase for those high-income persons, compared with what they are paying now. But whether that's imposing a new tax, or just letting an old one come back, depends on your point of view.

[Xakana]

Sep. 22, 2008 at 10:04 PM

The journal is interesting, but seems to apply mainly to working moms. I was glad to see the FMLA act mentioned there and the Paid Leave fund. Right now, there's only a couple states with that and the rest of us are just at the mercy of individual employers--putting us at the worst parental leave in the world, save for a couple other countries (who are about to surpass us). There are third world countries who treat their workers better.

I do see how it's a benefit to women, but it seems designed to encourage separation between mother and child... not that the Republicans have any intention of helping moms who want to stay at home. Seems like no one wants that and it's really too bad.

[0Jenna0]

Sep. 22, 2008 at 10:05 PM

Thank you for the post!!

[ToddlerBrain82]

Sep. 22, 2008 at 10:15 PM

Xakana, thanks for your comments! Yes there are a lot of good points in his plan, put in place to help working women. Probably no one woman will be affected by everything I mentioned. I think that many aspects such as the early childhood education, protection from domestic violence, reforming No Child Left Behind, and providing health insurance to children are applicable to many people, whether they happen to be a working mother or not.

(Original Poster)