Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

Listen to the npr link http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99995431
Whatever I write can not give justice to Nina Totenberg's news story.

For anyone who knows me, I'm sure you are aware of how important not only pay equity is to me, but this specific issue with Lilly Ledbetter. She is an American hero, bring civil rights and "equal pay for equal work" back onto the national scene. In 2006, the supreme court decision Ledbetter v. Goodyear was decided against Ledbetter: she had sued Goodyear for paying her less than men doing the same job and the court decided that any pay discrimination claim had to be filed within 180 days of the pay agreement. This was a huge setback in civil rights. Employees don't discuss their pay with each other, so how could she possibly know? She only found out after working at Goodyear for TWENTY years.

In 2007, Sen. Kennedy introduced the "Fair Pay Restoration Act", which would change the court's ruling from 180 days after the original pay setting decision to 180 after each paycheck. Kennedy justified that each paycheck should be seen as an act of discrimination. The House passed it, but the Senate fillibustered it- not that it would matter because Bush said he would veto it. John McCain had this to say of the bill: "I don't believe that this would do anything to help the rights of women." And this man wonders why, at one of his town hall meetings on the campaign trail, a young woman asked him, "Sen. McCain, why do you hate women?". McCain skipped the vote on the "Fair Pay Restoration Act" because he was too busy campaigning to fly back to Washington for something that wasn't really important. That's ancient history. So is McCain.

Today Obama signed his first peice of legislation (after going through both houses), "The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act". It helps to mitigate the affects of that awful supreme court decision by giving women and minorities more tools to sue their employers in cases of pay discrimination. It is interesting that among the 5 senate republicans who supported it- 4 of them were women. So, all male senate republicans- except for Arlen Specter- voted against it. All I have to do is point to this statistic when I am accused of being one sided and only liking democrats. How can I like a party that stands for discrimination? Where is their moral compass pointed to?

To those people who doubt the affect that the federal government has on your life- let this be a lesson. Do you want to earn 40% less than your male collegaues?

I am proud that our President's first signature on a bill was one that takes us closer to equality- the notion that America was founded on, but never seems able to fully grasp.

Stimulus Package

The House passed the stimulus package yesterday, and now it's off to the Senate. The $820 billion package offers lots of relief to people who need it. It would provide money for tax cuts, states, social programs, and infrastructure building. By raising unemployment compensation and increasing welfare programs, such as food stamps, the government will be giving money to people with the highest marginal propensity to consume- a sure way to get beneficiaries of the money to spend it on goods. The problem with giving money to people who have high paying jobs is that they will most likely save the money, or use it to pay off debts- which is good for the individual, but not for the macroeconomy.

I hope that college students are included in his tax cuts. Each person is supposed to get a $500 refund. In Bush's stimuls last year, which gave each worker (making under $150,000) around $600, students got jipped! If you were under 18, your parents got $300 for you. But students over 18 (who are dependents) got nothing. Lame.

I hope the Senate doesn't stall too long to get this bill passed!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/us/politics/29assess.html?_r=1&em=&pagewanted=all

Environment

Obama is considering allowing each state to make its own laws regarding emissions testing for cars. That means much tougher standards will be set in place than the last eight years. The tri-state area- CT, NY, and NJ- already have all said their states standards will be much higher than the regluations (or lack there of) we have seen the past eight years from Washington.

The Govern-ator might be the happiest one of all. On NPR he said how happy he was to finally have an administration that will let California enforce and carry out its environmental laws- which are among the strongest in the country. Twelve states have adopted the CA standard.

Clearly, much more has to be done to save the planet- but it's a start in the right direction.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/27/AR2009012703013.html

Obama Revokes Gag Rule

Two days after becoming America’s 44th President, Barack Obama took a stand for women all over the world by repealing the global gag rule. The global gag rule states that any nongovernmental organization in another country receiving federal funds is not allowed to support any form of abortion services. The gag rule was started by Reagan in the 1980s, continued by George H.W. Bush, repealed by Bill Clinton, and then reinstituted by George W. Bush in 2001. Gag rule support is strictly divided among party lines: when a republican becomes president, he puts it into effect, while when a democrat is elected, he removes it.

The global gag rule is known as “The Mexico City Policy”, named after the city where Reagan first introduced it in 1984. Alan Keyes, Reagan’s Assistant Secretary of State, developed the policy’s final language. Exactly twenty years after Keyes’ establishment of the gag rule, he ran for an Illinois Senate seat- against Barack Obama- and lost, to the now sitting President. It is a small, tangled world in American politics: the man who once defeated Keyes in a Congressional election, has now revoked the policy he enacted 25 years ago.

The global gag rule politicizes women’s bodies and jeopardizes their health. The rule does not just affect American money. If a foreign NGO accepts a single penny of U.S. federal money, it can not provide abortion services- even if most of the organization’s revenue is not American-aid. So, if America contributes to only 10% of an NGO’s revenue, the organization becomes restricted in how it uses 100% of its money!

Republican administrations have enforced this rule as a way to promote abstinence-only education around the world. To cut down the number of abortions, they think that all they have to do is stop funding them. What they don’t mention is that women still have abortions; they are just much riskier to their health: “Ipas, an international organization that works to prevent abortion-related deaths, estimates that more than 500,000 women have died from unsafe abortions during the eight-year tenure of the Bush administration because they have not had access to legal and safe abortions,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Obama’s repeal of the gag rule means that organizations in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe, among others, will have their American-aid returned to them. They can go back to providing family planning services and supplying contraception to needy women. Obama is showing the rest of the world that America has returned to its moral obligation in protecting women’s health and human rights.

Sources:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/25/EDDS15G5IF.DTL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_gag_rule