Friday, July 11, 2008

Obama Works the Working Women

Yesterday presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama addressed women in Fairfax, VA about his economic plan for working women. The coverage in today's Wall Street Journal (don't worry, there's a stipple of both Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton) took until the 16th paragraph to actually delve into what his plan was, filling in the preceeding paragraphs with a lot of crap about the completed primary race. I guess that explains the stipple of Hillary Clinton. By the time they got to it, they devoted a whole sentence to it.

The plan (pdf) is a little more detailed than that, and actually a lot of his proposals for "women" fit into his broader economic plans. He proposes raising the minimum wage to $9.50 by 2011, providing affordable health care (presumably through his plan to offer the government health care to the general public), provide 7 days of paid sick leave (part of the Family Medical Leave Act), and expanding tax cuts on child care. Interestingly enough, the one part that is specific to women and not to families is his endorsment of Hillary Clinton's Fair Pay Restoration Act, which he promises to sign into law. This law would restore the old precident of allowing women to sue for pay descrimination, renewing the alloted time period (usually 180 days) after each discriminatory pay check.

Video of the speech here:

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