Judy Cunningham: What Republicans Must Do to Get Women’s Votes
Dear Editor:
Tom Stege may be amused, but he is confused if he thinks women are so easily side-tracked from the important issues they care about by his references to a 1993 law misconstrued by the Supreme Court. If Republicans want to get women’s votes, here is a short list:
Women also value cooperation and know that much more can be accomplished when they work together so everyone can succeed. Maybe Republicans need to re-think their policies. Policies that unfairly attack women, especially low-income women, will never get our votes.
Dear Editor:
Tom Stege may be amused, but he is confused if he thinks women are so easily side-tracked from the important issues they care about by his references to a 1993 law misconstrued by the Supreme Court. If Republicans want to get women’s votes, here is a short list:
- Women care about children’s financial /food security. Single-mother households make up 25% of US households, or about 4.1 million, and 41.5% of these women and children live in poverty. Yet, Rep. Ray Franz (R) and Sen. Darwin Booher (R) voted to strip these hard-working mothers of the child tax credit and cut the Earned Income Tax Credit to offset tax cuts to businesses. This raised taxes on 800,000 working families in Michigan and pushed 14,000 children into poverty.
- Women care strongly about equality and fairness. Women working hard to support their families are still paid only 77 cents for every dollar men are paid. Yet, Rep. Dan Benishek (R) voted against closing the 23% gap.
- Women care about a strong public education system because it is the key to every child’s future. In 2012, Rep. Ray Franz (R) and Sen. Darwin Booher (R) voted to cut 1 Billion from the school budget. Also, lack of state funding for higher education has led to higher costs for Michigan students working their way through college. This is a bad economic policy.
- Women care about the health of their families and know the serious financial risks of not having medical insurance. Yet, the Republican Party has made repealing Obamacare their primary goal.
- Women care about quality of life, and family planning is critical to the financial stability, health and well being of their family. Yet, Planned Parenthood clinics, clinics that provide health services and contraceptives for low–income women, are consistently under threat of being de-funded and closed by Republicans.
Women also value cooperation and know that much more can be accomplished when they work together so everyone can succeed. Maybe Republicans need to re-think their policies. Policies that unfairly attack women, especially low-income women, will never get our votes.