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Sunday, April 29, 2012

THE REAL “WAR ON WOMEN” AND WHO’S ACTUALLY WAGING IT!

First of all, I am not about to dispute the fact that there is now currently underway in this country, a dedicated war going on against women. What I do take exception with, is all of the baseless accusations currently being hurled around that this war is actually being waged by Republicans, because nothing could be further from the truth. Those who are on the front lines in this continuing battle and who are working to essentially enslave women to government today, are those very same slimy characters who have creeping out from the same dark shadows for decades. And they are all proud members of the Democrat Party. What we’re now witnessing is yet another example of that which we always see as we near an election. Loudmouthed Democrats doing their best to distract attention away from their damaging policies by going out and accusing the opposition of behaving as they themselves do as they try to hoodwink women voters.

As much as Barry tries to convince women otherwise, the cold hard facts here is that there is an agenda underway here that has women coming out on the short end of the stick especially when it comes to being employed. There’s a trend that continued through March when women, again, lost out in the jobs market, and it’s according to an analysis of the latest government figures. Male participation in the workforce was up 14,000 while female participation fell 177,000, and that’s according to the labor department’s latest figures. "This recovery has not been great for women," said Betsey Stevenson, assistant professor of business and public policy at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton business school. Women are more likely to work in government positions, especially as teachers or clerical workers, areas that have been cut heavily since the beginning of the recession. They are also more likely to work in retail, a sector that cut jobs in March.

According to the latest government figures, supposedly 120,000 jobs were added to the US economy in March, and that was half of what was supposed to have been added in February. The figure was far lower than what had been expected. Employment rose in manufacturing, food services and drinking places, and healthcare, but was down in retail trade, again, at least according to the labor department. Retail trade employment fell by 34,000 in March. "I am concerned about what is happening with female unemployment," said Stevenson. She said it was clear that men were finding jobs much more quickly than are women at the moment, but it was not yet clear that a definite trend had been established. Men were laid off first in the recession as manufacturing jobs were hit and they are now finding jobs at a faster pace. "The question now is what are we going to see going forward," said Stevenson.

Sectors like healthcare, which added 26,000 jobs last month, have always been areas traditionally dominated by women in the workforce. But we’re now slowly beginning to see that change as men have increasingly retrained and are now competing for jobs with women in those same sectors, said Stevenson. "The healthcare sector is 75% women and yet men got more than half the gains," she said. Healthcare continued to add jobs through the recession as manufacturing continued to decline. Stevenson said it was right that men retrained for jobs in growing sectors. But it was now leading to concern about the future trends. In March the unemployment rate for women was 8.1% and for men 8.3%. In March 2011 the rate was 8% for women and 10.2% for men. So you do the math. While it may be too early to say we have a trend, things definitely don’t appear to be looking good for working women.

So Barry “Almighty’s” desperate quest for re-election has now led Democrats to embrace some rather cynical and even offensive tactics. Most recently we have seen them, first work toward creating the myth that it’s the Republicans who have begun a "war on women", and then to leave no stone unturned as they work to perpetuate that myth. It's time for the insulting and disingenuous rhetoric to end. Contrary to how the Democrats are desperate to portray them, the Republican Party is absolutely committed to the policies and priorities that improve the lives of women. Barry's economic policies stand in stark contrast to what the Republicans are trying to do, having taken us in the wrong the direction. In the Barry economy, women are decidedly worse off. The recent jobs report from the Labor Department had some alarming facts. The number of women employed in America declined last month as many dropped out of the work force, giving up on looking for work altogether.

Of the million or so jobs that have now been lost since Barry first strutted his cool self into the Oval Office, a very significant percentage of them were held by women. And the fact that women are now having a much more difficult time re-entering the workforce, many are now falling victim to a potential trend that, quite simply, is unsustainable. All across America, women are feeling the pain of Barry’s weak, and getting weaker, economy, not only in the job market but at the kitchen table as well. Wives are worried about shrinking wages and rising prices as they try to make ends meet. Mothers fear for their children's futures as the national debt skyrockets and a college education is rapidly becoming unaffordable for most. Businesswomen are frustrated by the regulations and economic policies that make hiring impossible. Fewer women are working, and more are now living in poverty. All thanks to Barry and the Democrats.

So it's no surprise then, that Democrats have become more than a little desperate to avoid any discussion regarding Barry record, or lack of, as the election grows closer. They are attempting to this by the ginning up of some perceived injustice being perpetrated against women by those evil Republicans. However, unlike Barry “Almighty”, Republicans want to enact policies that will truly jump start job creation and build a sustainable economic recovery—lower taxes, efficient government, lower deficits, less debt, and responsible regulation. That's what right for women, and right for all of America. No matter what the claims we continue to hear from Barry, you can pretty much forget that official 8.2% unemployment rate. Instead you need to be taking a long, hard look at what’s known as the U6 rate, which tracks not only those out of work but those who’ve essentially given up looking for work. That rate stands at about 14.5%.

While many economists go over the rather disappointing job numbers released Friday, just 120,000 jobs supposedly added in March, well below expectations, some continue to point out that it’s the U6 data that people should be focused on. I think it quite safe to say that the official figure used by the Labor Department is being manipulated in that it “leaves out a lot of people who’ve just given up,” said Aparna Mathur, a resident scholar and economist at the American Enterprise Institute. The U6 number is derived from a household survey that includes people who are actually unemployed as well as those who haven’t looked for work in over four weeks, Mathur explained. “If you’re unemployed and you haven’t been looking for work in the previous four weeks than you’re not considered part of the official unemployed,” she said. The U6 rate, meanwhile, “includes all of those people who are too discouraged to look for work."

The 120,000 jobs that were supposedly added in March was the smallest increase since October and effectively killed any momentum that might have been growing in the labor markets since late last year. The slowdown in employment growth last month likely reflected the fading boost from unseasonably warm winter weather. Despite the falloff in March, the “official” unemployment rate fell to 8.2% from 8.3%. Analysts said the drop in the unemployment rate is directly tied to Americans who have given up looking for work and are no longer counted in the official unemployment figures. One of the biggest obstacles to an economic recovery has been solving the problem of the long-term unemployed. According to a recent report from RBC Global Asset Management, the ranks of the long-term unemployed, or those out of work for 27 weeks or more, have soared to 7 million, up from 1 million in 2007 ahead of the onset of the financial crisis.

Mathur said about 43% of the 12.8 million Americans officially labeled out of work fall into the category of the long-term unemployed, “which is huge, we’ve never seen those kinds of numbers in any recession,” she said. And women make up the larger percentage of those long-term unemployed. And yet Barry seems to imply that the biggest problems facing women today is not their inability to find work but is, instead, their ability to have sex and to not have to worry about getting pregnant. Or, if they do get pregnant they should have their abortion paid for if they wish to have one. So I guess I’m finding myself in a place where I would like to hope that more women are concerned about their being able to get a job more than they are concerned about having risk free sex. So I’ll be on pins and needles until election time, waiting to see if a sufficient number of women will vote in such a manner as to prove that their brain is in fact in their head and not between their legs.

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