Women's Rights -- An Important Overlooked Constituency

April 11, 2008

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Ali Frick, and Benjamin Armbruster

WOMEN'S RIGHTS

An Important Overlooked Constituency

As Americans count down to the end of the Bush administration, they know the next president will inherit a nation rife with problems. He or she will face a war with no end in sight, an economy most likely in recession, an unprecedented national debt, and a national government severely damaged by eight years of cronyism and executive power grabs. The next president will also have to address the particular challenges faced by an important segment of the American population: single women. A report released this week by the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF) and Women's Voices. Women Vote (WVWV) details the difficulties single women face in today's economy. Forty percent make under $30,000 a year, less than married people or single men. Of 12.2 million single-parent households in the United States, more than 10 million are headed by single women. "[F]or the last eight years, the needs of unmarried women have been largely ignored," write the report's authors, Page Gardner, WVWV founder, and John Podesta, President and CEO of CAPAF. The next president has an opportunity to lead and address the unique challenges single women face.

REWARD WORK TO EXPAND OPPORTUNITY: Single women still suffer unequal pay. They make only 56 cents to the married man's dollar. Overall, women's median wages pay only 77 cents for every dollar men earn. The next president should raise the minimum wage to 50 percent of the average wage, Gardner and Podesta say. Even after last year's raise -- the first in a decade -- an employee working 40 hours a week at minimum wage only earns $15,080, barely above the poverty line for a family of two ($14,000) and under the poverty line for a family of three ($17,600). Improving access to higher education will also help single women close the wage gap; currently, 84 percent of single mothers do not have a college degree. Just yesterday, the Washington Post reported that nearly 50 student lenders -- 12 percent of the market -- "have stopped issuing federally guaranteed loans in recent weeks because of paralysis in the credit markets," making it harder for single women to afford college. Addressing the credit crisis will thus be an integral duty of the next president. With over 35 percent of children born to single women in 2005, single women have a large stake in their children's future. The next president must invest heavily in early childhood education and make universal preschool a reality, the report states. It is a sound investment: For every $1 invested in high-quality early-childhood education, the estimated return is $7.

A RENEWED SOCIAL CONTRACT: The average cost of child care can range anywhere between $3,000 and $13,000 a year per child -- an enormous burden for struggling single women. Though some funds are currently available for state-run child care subsidy programs, "the next president should make child care assistance available to all families below 200 percent of the poverty level," Gardner and Podesta write. Moreover, the United States and Australia are the only industrialized countries that don't require employers to offer paid maternity leave for new mothers, though some states do -- another issue the next president will have to address. The housing crisis has a disproportionate effect on single women as well, as they are more likely to be subprime borrowers. They also spend proportionally more on housing than single men. "Unmarried women need a president who will make affordable housing a priority." Finally, Social Security must continue to be part of the guaranteed safety net. "More than a third -- 35 percent -- of unmarried women are over the age of 50 and face retirement on their own rather than with combined savings with a spouse," and older, single women are one of the poorest demographic groups in the United States. The CAPAF report recommends universal 401(k) accounts to encourage saving, an idea economist Tyler Cowen calls "the most likely to bring general prosperity" among proposals to address inequality.

IMPROVED HEALTH CARE FOR ALL: Health coverage is a particularly important issue for women. Four in 10 women have a chronic condition that requires ongoing medical care -- a significantly higher rate of chronic illness than men experience. At the same time, approximately 20 percent of single women have no health coverage at all. Gardner and Podesta emphasize the need for universal health care coverage that covers complete physical and mental health. This must cover fair access to reproductive health options, including prenatal care, well-woman care, abortion, and contraception. Finally, a strengthened and expanded State Children's Health Insurance Plan -- twice vetoed by President Bush -- could provide needed assistance to single women trying to provide health care for their children.

ADMINISTRATION -- NOMINEE TO BE EPA'S TOP LAWYER EMBRACES 'UNITARY EXECUTIVE' DOCTRINE: In his nomination hearing yesterday, David Hill, the nominee for General Counsel of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), was asked by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) what the EPA Administrator should do "if the President of the United States tells him to do something illegal." "I believe that the courts have held, Senator, that within the unitary executive the administrator and the EPA, just as with all executive agencies, work for the President and are responsible to the President of the United States," responded Hill. The "unitary executive" theory is a formerly obscure, right-wing legal argument that asserts that "all executive authority must be in the President's hands, without exception." In other words, the president has practically unlimited executive power, and no actions of the courts nor the Congress can override it. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is a champion of the doctrine. President Bush has used the theory to justify at least 145 signing statements -- including those that assert his right to ignore laws restricting on torture, open mail without a warrant and block congressional oversight of military spending. Boxer's question was not purely hypothetical. The current administrator of the EPA, Stephen Johnson, has overruled his staff's scientific recommendations on global warming regulations and ozone limits -- both apparently at the behest of the White House. Yesterday, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) issued a subpoena to compel the EPA to turn over documents involving communications with the White House.

IRAQ -- GATES NO LONGER HOPES TO GET DOWN TO 100,000 TROOPS BY 2009: Last September, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that it was his "hope" that there would be "about 100,000" U.S. troops in Iraq by the time the next president takes office. Yesterday during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) noted what Gates had said last year and asked: "Do you still have that hope?" "No, sir," Gates replied. Gates later said -- with somewhat of a smirk -- that hoping is "one of the benefits of being Secretary of Defense." Also during the hearing, Gates differed with President Bush and Gen. David Petraeus on troop levels in Iraq, the LA Times notes. Yesterday, in accepting Petraeus's recommendation to halt troop drawdowns indefinitely this July, Bush said he would give Petraeus "all the time he needs" to decide on future troop cuts. But Gates "told a Senate hearing that he hoped to resume troop reductions soon after a 'brief' 45-day pause this summer."

ECONOMY -- CONSUMER CONFIDENCE IN ECONOMY HITS NEW LOWS: A new RBC Cash Index study shows that consumer confidence has "dropped to a mark of 29.5 in April, down from 33.1" in March "dragged down by worries about mounting job losses, record-high home foreclosures and zooming energy prices." Feelings about the economy and financial stability also fell sharply from a negative 41.6 to a negative 48.3, "the worst [reading] on record." The Employee Benefit Research Institute also released a new study that finds that "confidence about having enough money for retirement" dropped from 27 percent to 18 percent over the past year, "the sharpest one-year drop" since the group began the survey 18 years ago. The study also found an 8 percent drop in confidence over "access to employer-paid health insurance in retirement." Consumers are not the only ones with decreasing confidence in the economy. A new Wall Street Journal survey of economists finds that three-quarters feel that the "economy hasn't yet hit bottom."

This Sunday at 8 pm ET, CNN will broadcast The Compassion Forum. Sponsored by the Faith in Public Life, the presidential candidates forum will focus on "five key issues to folks of faith: domestic and international poverty, global AIDS, climate change, genocide in Darfur, and human rights and torture." Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) have both confirmed that they will participate. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has thus far declined the invitation, which is still open.

In a hearing yesterday, Attorney General Mike Mukasey said the Fourth Amendment "applies across the board, regardless of whether we're in wartime or in peacetime," even though the memo by John Yoo, former head of the Office of Legal Counsel, had concluded otherwise. Mukasey, however, refused to say whether that memo was withdrawn.

A Justice Department Inspector General report "on the FBI's role in the interrogations of prisoners in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and Iraq has been delayed for months because the Pentagon is reviewing how much of it should remain classified." Fine said that he has pushed the Pentagon to finish its review, but officials have not complied "in a timely fashion."

"House Judiciary Committee lawyers declared that the White House and Congress are at a 'constitutional impasse' in a legal motion filed Thursday in federal court aimed at forcing former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten to testify before the panel." In the motion, the lawyers compared the impasse "to President Nixon's attempts to stonewall inquiries into the Watergate scandal." Read the full motion here.

"I've told him he'll have all the time he needs," Bush said yesterday of Gen. David Petraeus, after endorsing the general's "indefinite suspension"of troop withdrawals from Iraq this summer.

During a Senate Armed Forces hearing yesterday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates was forced to apologize to Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) for "confusion" over Iraqi reconstruction money. On Tuesday, Amb. Ryan Crocker told Levin that the United States was "no longer involved in the physical reconstruction business," but on the same day, Levin received a letter from the Pentagon about "a coming shift of $600 million to pay for Iraqi reconstruction."

And finally: A photograph of Vice President Cheney wearing sunglasses while fly-fishing in Idaho has caused a stir on the Internet, "fueled by speculation about what is being reflected in his sunglasses." ABC News notes that within 48 hours, the picture had "been posted, linked, enlarged, enhanced on dozens of Web sites." Guesses on the image in his lenses ranged from a naked alien, Osama bin Laden, and a "woman in her birthday suit." Cheney's spokeswoman, however, said the image is nothing more than an arm casting a reel. (See an enlarged version of the photo here.)

The research team that brings you The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org needs summer interns! Click here for more information.

"Within a month," YouTube plans to create a "commercial-free zone" where lawmakers can post the videos of their choice.

HAWAII: Maui is facing $4 per gallon gasoline.

MISSOURI: "A bill increasing requirements on local law enforcement agencies to enforce immigration law and verify legal status won approval Thursday in the Missouri House."

ILLINOIS: State House blocks tax increase on richest residents.

THINK PROGRESS: Gen. Colin Powell: Troops are "very, very stretched."

WONK ROOM: Disturbing trends in income inequality.

MEDIA MATTERS: Neal Boortz on his inability to use a floor buffer: "I would make a lousy Mexican."

WASHINGTON WIRE: Gen. David Petraeus says he's "not aware" of an Iran-al Qaeda link.

"[I]n a best-case scenario, Defense Secretary Robert Gates says there would still be about 100,000 U.S. troops in Iraq when the next president of the United States is sworn in on January 20, 2009."
-- ABC News, 9/14/07

VERSUS

Q: "[Y]ou hoped that we could get down to 100,000 troops in Iraq by January of '09. Do you still have that hope?"
GATES: "No, sir."
-- Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, 4/10/08

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An Important Overlooked Constituency

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