May 7 2012

President Obama will be in Boston for 3 events on Monday June 25

If you have been waiting to donate to the campaign the time has come.  Show your support for the re-election now.
The President will be in Boston on the afternoon and evening of June 25, 2012.  There will be three events.  The big event will be at Symphony Hall.  This will be a large and exciting event that will be accessible to most budgets.  Tickets are $250 for the balcony and  $1000 or  $2500 for seats at table on the floor of the hall (pops style) ; hosts for the event (write or raise $10,000) will have the opportunity for a photo with our President!  Please respond ASAP-  we expect this event to sell out.
There will also be an afternoon round-table with the President limited to 25 people as well as an evening dinner party at a private home.  These events require a significant donation to attend.  If you are interested in one of the higher dollar events please contact me for more details at  mkarmel@womenforchange.com
Jun 2 2012

MA Women for Obama Newsletter

GOP plans record 1 billion blitz to take down the President
What can we do?
Friends-

It may seem impossible for the average person to do anything to counter the massive donations by uber wealthy Republican donors; but if enough of us donate, even small amounts, together we can spread the President’s message and fight back against right wing attacks.  I’m sure you know just how much is at stake, beginning with the Supreme Court, healthcare, and the survival of the middle class.

To that end, please support the Obama campaign by attending an event, donating, or even volunteering to host an event.  I know many of us have donated before and have already done more than our fair share for the campaign – but until the election is over, it is up to each of us to continue to do everything in our power to make sure that President Obama is re-elected.  Please act now – the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Here’s one way to help:

President Obama will be visiting Boston on Monday, June 25th for a terrific event at Symphony Hall 

Doors will open at 4 PM.  We will be entertained by Grammy Award Winning Violinist Miri Ben-Ariis http://www.miribenari.com/
followed by speakers TBD, and culminating in a speech by President Obama.  The evening is expected to end at 7:15.

Tickets:
Table seating on the floor of the hall “Pops style”:
$2500 per person for premium seating
$1000 per person for preferred seating
or
$250 per person for regular theater seating in the balcony

Host reception and Photo with President Obama – write or raise $10,000

RSVP using this link: Barack Obama | Please Join President Obama in Boston

In addition the President will attend two higher dollar events, a roundtable discussion with 25 people and a lovely dinner at a private home. For more information on those events please send an email to mkarmel@womenforchange.org 

This will be the President’s last Boston fundraising visit –  if you have been waiting to see him the time has come.  I know many of us are supporting other critically important races, but without the Presidency, those efforts may be wasted. Please dig deep to help our President get his message out and set the record straight on his accomplishments to date.

I shudder to think what our country would look like with a Romney presidency.  We must continue to move the country forward. We can’t return to economic policies that favor only the wealthy, or allow the religious right wing to dictate the social agenda. It’s up to each one of us to do our part to preserve an America that works for all the people not just the special interests. For the details on what we are up against read more about the Gop Super Pacs 

If you will be away or are unable to attend,  you can still do your part by making a donation in any amount by using this link:
Donate | You Power This Movement

Please help us get the message out  – success depends on you.

I hope to see you at Symphony Hall –

Best Regards-
Marianne

Marianne Karmel
MA Women for Obama
the blog –  newomenforchange.org
mkarmel@womenforchange.com
Jun 2 2012

New England Events – June update

June 7, 2012
Dedham Reception with Ken Burns
The home of Hope & Shaw McDermott
580 Bridge Street
Dedham, MA
$500 (Sponsor)
$1,000 (Co-Host)
Staff Contact: Ryan Fleury at rfleury@barackobama.com
Tickets: https://my.barackobama.com/June7KenBurns

June 9, 2012
Obama University
Time: 8 a.m. -12 p.m.
Obama U Presenters include:
Rhode Island Treasurer Gina Raimondo
Spencer Overton on the Obama U Network
Ari Greenberg on using Social Media Tools
DNC National Finance Chair Jane Stetson
RSVP to  Ryan Fleury at rfleury@barackobama.com

June 11, 2012
LGBT & Allies Reception
5:30-7:30 p.m.
Portland, ME
RSVP here: https://my.barackobama.com/june11portlandhouseparty  
Staff Contact: Ryan Fleury at rfleury@barackobama.com

June 25, 2012         President Obama in Boston Massachusetts for Obama 2012 Reception 
Large Reception, Boston, MA at 4:00 p.m.
Tickets:
$250 (Balcony)
$1,000 (Preferred Seating)
$2,500 (Premium Seating)
$10,000 write/raise  (Host Committee)
Online Tickets:        https://my.barackobama.com/June25BostonReception
Staff Contact: Ryan Fleury at rfleury@barackobama.com

Private Dinner
Location:       The Home of Judi and Douglas Krupp, Weston, MA
Time:             6:30 p.m.
Format:         Dinner for 150 guests with Co-Chair Greet & Photoline Opportunity for all guests
$17,900 per person ($35,800 per couple)
$175k Write/Raise (Co-Chair) (includes Co-Chair greet)
$50k Raise (Host Committee)
(attend as Host Committee member)
RSVP Here: https://my.barackobama.com/June25BostonDinner
Staff Contact: Justin Brennan at jbrennan@barackobama.com

Jun 2 2012

Inside the campaign


Swing state economic performance favors Obama
POLITICO // Ben White
Auto and steel workers in battleground Ohio are getting jobs again. The unemployment rate in the state on Election Day is expected to be close to 7 percent. The national rate, now 8.1 percent, isn’t likely to be much below 8 percent on Nov. 6 – and could be higher. ‘Most of the swing states by the third quarter of this year will have a lower unemployment rate than the national average,’ said Xu Cheng, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics who compiled the latest state-by-state economic data and updated Moody’s voting model for POLITICO. ‘And most of the battlegrounds will be below 8 percent unemployment, which will negate the “grumpy voter effect.”‘ Cheng was referring to data suggesting voters will discount by half any improvement in joblessness if the national rate remains above 8. The Moody’s model, which accounts for unemployment, historical voting patterns, per capita income and other factors, currently predicts Obama will win at least 26 states and 303 electoral votes. …

New DNC Video Says ‘Little to Like’ About Romney
National Journal // Alexandra Jaffe
On the heels of Mitt Romney securing the GOP nomination, the Democratic National Committee launched a new web ad called “Little to Like” that chronicles Romney’s arduous path to 1,144 delegates. The ad works backwards over Mitt Romney’s Facebook timeline as seen through the DNC’s lens, which highlights gaffes, negative comments from his former opponents and news articles highlighting some of his less palatable policy positions, like a Philadelphia Inquirer clip headlined “Romney tax plan would favor the rich.”   A release from DNC Communications Director Brad Woodhouse says that over the past year, “we’ve learned that Mitt Romney and his brand of Romney Economics is wrong for the middle class.”

Washington Times: Equal pay bill puts Romney on the line on women
Mitt Romney survived an April skirmish over women’s pay, but he and fellow Republicans are about to face a tougher test as the Senate takes up the Paycheck Fairness Act — the next big fight in pay equality between the sexes. Democrats call the legislation the logical follow-up to 2009’s Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which granted women more time to file discrimination lawsuits. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a vote on the new bill next week, when the upper chamber returns from its Memorial Day holiday.Business groups are opposed to the new legislation, saying it would create a legal morass — but Mr. Romney, the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee, has been silent. His campaign didn’t respond to five messages left over the past week seeking his stance on the Paycheck Fairness Act…’Republicans deny they’re waging a ‘war on women,’ yet they’ve launched a series of attacks on women’s access to health care and contraception this year,’ he said as he announced next week’s scheduled vote. ‘Now they have an opportunity to back up their excuses with action.’

CNN: Axelrod launches attack on Romney’s home turf
The Obama re-election team launched an all-out offense against Mitt Romney’s record while governor of Massachusetts on Thursday with his top strategist arguing the “failed” policies supported by Romney as governor mirror those he now espouses. On the steps of the Massachusetts State House, David Axelrod compared the promises Romney makes on the trail to those he delivered to Massachusetts voters, policies that he said led, among other things, to an increase in taxes and debt, a drop in job creation and cuts to education.

Boston Globe: As governor, Mitt Romney backtracked on promised reforms in appointing judges
Mitt Romney marched into the Massachusetts State House in 2003 as a self-declared reformer, pledging to fix a judicial nominating system he decried as riddled with patronage and backroom deals. Quoting John Adams, the new governor vowed to appoint judges purely on merit, put partisanship aside and restrict political contributions by those applying for the bench. “The citizens of Massachusetts deserve to have a squeaky-clean process that has no room for politics and favors,” Romney said as he announced changes to judicial selection that were hailed as a national model. Three years later, Romney changed course. He effectively took over the independent judicial-screening commission he had unveiled with such fanfare. And as he geared up to run for president in 2008, he dismissed members of the commission who were resisting his choices for judgeships, according to documents and interviews.

Jun 1 2012

Employment Situation in May

·         Today’s employment report shows that private sector payrolls increased by 82,000 in May and the unemployment rate ticked up from 8.1 to 8.2 percent.

·         The fact is, we’re still fighting back from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.  The economy is growing but it’s not growing fast enough.  Businesses are creating jobs, but as we learned in today’s jobs report, they’re not creating enough.

·         We lost more than 8 million jobs as a result of the Great Recession.  Since the President has taken office the  economy has added private sector jobs for 27 straight months, for a total of 4.3 million jobs during that period.

·         Gas prices are starting to come down again, but when they spiked over the last few months, it hit people’s finances pretty hard.  The crisis in Europe’s economy has made our businesses more uncertain when it comes to hiring and investment.  Even though we can’t fully control everything that happens in other parts of the world, there are plenty of things we can control here at home and there are steps we can take to make a difference.

·         The President sent Congress the American Jobs Act in September, which contains the kind of proposals that in the past have enjoyed bipartisan support, that could have put millions of people back to work. But time and again Republicans in Congress have blocked action on these measures.

·         He also sent them a plan that would have reduced the deficit by $4 trillion in a way that’s balanced – that pays for the job-creating investments we need by cutting unnecessary spending and asking the wealthiest Americans to pay a little more in taxes.

·         Congress has passed little else than one part of that jobs bill – a tax cut that’s allowing working Americans to keep more of your paycheck every week.  But they haven’t done much else.

·         At this make or break moment for the middle class there’s much more we need to do right now to create jobs – here are some of the proposals in the American Jobs Act that Congress should pass this summer:

·         To start, Congress should pass a bill to help states prevent more layoffs, so we can put thousands of teachers and firefighters and police officers back on the job and pass a bill to put thousands of construction workers back on the job rebuilding our roads and our bridges and our runways.

·         Additionally, the President has called on Congress to act on a “To Do List” – a set of common sense initiatives that’ll create jobs and help restore middle class security.  The Congress’ To-Do List includes items like tax cuts for small businesses, helping veterans find jobs, and assistance to responsible homeowners – in other words, the kinds of priorities that Republicans and Democrats should be able to work together on to help the economy and support the middle class.

·         In fact, the President is traveling to the Honeywell Golden Valley facility in Minnesota to urge Congress to act on the “To Do List”, specifically highlighting the need to honor our commitment to returning veterans by passing legislation that creates a Veterans Jobs Corps to help Afghanistan and Iraq veterans get jobs as cops and firefighters, as well as other jobs serving their communities.

·         So, there are steps we can take right now that’ll make a real difference.  It’s time for Congress to act.

·         We know what’s at stake: the very survival of the basic American promise that if you work hard, you can do well enough to raise a family, own a home, and put enough away for retirement.

·         The defining issue of our time is how to keep that promise alive.  No challenge is more urgent; no debate is more important.  We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while more Americans barely get by.  Or we can build a nation where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules.  At stake right now are not Democratic or Republican values, but American values – and for the sake of our future, we have to reclaim them.

May 31 2012

Time For the Dems to step up

POLITICO: GOP groups plan $1 billion blitz

POLITICO: GOP groups plan $1 billion blitz

By: Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei

May 30, 2012 04:34 AM EDT

Republican super PACs and other outside groups shaped by a loose network of prominent conservatives – including Karl Rove, the Koch brothers and Tom Donohue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – plan to spend roughly $1 billion on November’s elections for the White House and control of Congress, according to officials familiar with the groups’ internal operations.

That total includes previously undisclosed plans for newly aggressive spending by the Koch brothers, who are steering funding to build sophisticated, county-by-county operations in key states. POLITICO has learned that Koch-related organizations plan to spend about $400 million ahead of the 2012 elections – twice what they had been expected to commit.

Just the spending linked to the Koch network is more than the $370 million that John McCain raised for his entire presidential campaign four years ago. And the $1 billion total surpasses the $750 million that Barack Obama, one of the most prolific fundraisers ever, collected for his 2008 campaign.

Restore Our Future, the super PAC supporting Mitt Romney, proved its potency by spending nearly $50 million in the primaries. Now able to entice big donors with a neck-and-neck general election, the group is likely to meet its new goal of spending $100 million more.

And American Crossroads and the affiliated Crossroads GPS, the groups that Rove and Ed Gillespie helped conceive and raise cash for, are expected to ante up $300 million, giving the two-year-old organization one of the election’s loudest voices.

“The intensity on the right is white-hot,” said Steven Law, president of American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS. “We just can’t leave anything in the locker room. And there is a greater willingness to cooperate and share information among outside groups on the center-right.”

In targeted states, the groups’ activities will include TV, radio and digital advertising; voter-turnout work; mail and phone appeals; and absentee- and early-ballot drives.

The $1 billion in outside money is in addition to the traditional party apparatus – the Romney campaign and the Republican National Committee – which together intend to raise at least $800 million.

The Republican financial plans are unlike anything seen before in American politics. If the GOP groups hit their targets, they likely could outspend their liberal adversaries by at least two-to-one, according to officials involved in the budgeting for outside groups on the right and left.

By contrast, Priorities USA Action, the super PAC supporting President Barack Obama’s reelection, has struggled to raise money, and now hopes to spend about $100 million. Obama’s initial reluctance to embrace such groups constrained fundraising on the Democratic side, which is now trying to make up for lost time.

Labor could add another $200 million to $400 million in Democratic backing.

The consequences of the conservative resurgence in fundraising are profound. If it holds, Romney and his allies will likely outraise and outspend Obama this fall, a once-unthinkable proposition. The surge has increased the urgency of the Democrats’ thus-far futile efforts to blunt the effects of a pair of 2010 federal court rulings – including the Supreme Court’s seminal Citizens United decision – that opened the floodgates for limitless spending, and prompted Obama to flip-flop on his resistance to super PACs on the left.

“We’re not making any attempt to match American Crossroads or any of those groups with television ads,” said Michael Podhorzer, political director for the AFL-CIO. Instead, much of labor’s money will be spent on talking directly with union members and other workers.

“Progressives can’t match all the money going into the system right now because of Citizens United, so we have to have a program that empowers the worker movement,” Podhorzer said.

Much of the public focus has been on how these outside groups will tilt the balance of power in fundraising at the presidential level. But POLITICO has learned that Republicans involved with the groups see the combined efforts playing out just as aggressively at the congressional level, in below-the-radar efforts designed to damage Democratic candidates for the House and Senate. Continue reading →

May 29 2012

We Can’t Wait – Reforming No Child Left Behind – from our inbox

In order to achieve an economy built to last, we must re-design our nation’s education system so that it prepares each of our students for college and successful careers.  Our nation’s parents, students, teachers and educational leaders cannot wait any longer to begin that important work.

  • Today, the Obama Administration announced that 8 additional states that have agreed to implement bold reforms around standards and accountability will receive flexibility from the most burdensome mandates of No Child Left Behind.
  • The states approved for flexibility under the law are: Connecticut, Delaware, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island. This builds on the initial round of waivers the President announced, which include Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.
  • The decision to provide flexibility followed extensive and ongoing efforts to work with Congress to rewrite No Child Left Behind.  In March 2010, the administration submitted a “blueprint for reform” to the Hill and has met extensively with Republican and Democratic legislators.

·         Congress is now 5 years late in fixing No Child Left Behind.  During that time, 3 million children have entered and graduated from high school. Our kids can’t afford to wait any longer.

  • Current law labels too many schools as failing, dictates unworkable remedies, and results in driving down standards, weakening accountability, and narrowing the curriculum.
  • In exchange for flexibility, states must adopt and have a plan to implement college and career-ready standards.  They must also create a statewide system of meaningful differentiated accountability for schools, including recognition and rewards for the highest-achieving and highest-progress schools and a commitment to tackle persistent achievement gaps and low-performing subgroups. Additionally, states must create comprehensive systems of teacher and principal development, evaluation and support that include factors beyond test scores, such as principal observation, peer review, student work, or parent and student feedback.
  • This partnership with these states is about a smarter federal role in education – one that supports innovation and drives reform in the states while maintaining a high bar for the success of all students. We want to be good partners with states as they put into place the standards and assessments that will prepare students for 21st century careers, and as they establish the policies that will ensure an effective teacher in every classroom.

·         This process is also about recognizing the great work being done by teachers, principals, and school and community leaders across America.

May 29 2012

Investing in Clean Energy Manufacturers – from our inbox

 Earlier this month the President called on Congress to act on a “To-Do List”  that’ll create jobs and help restore middle class security.

 The President  traveled to TPI Composites to highlight the need to reduce our reliance on foreign oil and develop more secure domestic energy sources by investing in clean energy manufacturing.

·         He will call on Congress to pass legislation that will extend the PTC to support American jobs and manufacturing in the wind industry alongside an expansion of the 48C Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit that supports American-made clean energy manufacturing. According to industry estimates, the wind industry supports nearly 20,000 direct jobs along with over 30,000 manufacturing jobs in its supply chain.

·         These credits have played an important role in fueling that job creation, and as a result have strong bipartisan support from Governors, Members of Congress, as well as industry.

·         Since 2008, the United States has nearly doubled generation from renewable energy sources. We need to keep this momentum going. But if Congress fails to act on these credits, industry experts project that tens of thousands of Americans will lose their jobs. That’s unacceptable and unnecessary.

·         At this make-or-break moment for the middle class Congress needs to take action on these common sense initiatives.  We need to create an economy built to last that creates secure American jobs and makes things the rest of the world buys – not one built on outsourcing, loopholes, or risky financial deals.

This is the fourth item on Congress’ To Do list:

 

  1. 4.       Invest in American clean energy manufacturers who create American jobs through innovation of new technologies and new fuels that reduce our reliance on foreign oil and lead to more secure energy sources.

Background on TPI Composites:

·         Because of the growth in the wind industry, much of it stimulated by the federal Production Tax Credit (PTC), TPI Composites – a leading global provider of composite wind blades to major turbine manufacturers – built a plant in Newton in 2008 and today employs more than 700 workers.

 

May 29 2012

One of Mitt Romney’s most outlandish attacks on the President

Have you heard one of Mitt Romney’s most outlandish attacks on the President? “Since President Obama assumed office three years ago, federal spending has accelerated at a pace without precedent in recent history.” Strong words that might be an effective criticism of the President, were it not for one small issue:

It’s completely and utterly untrue.

The Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch ran a report this week titled, “Obama spending binge never happened,” which showed that federal spending is actually rising at the slowest pace since Dwight Eisenhower was president. At the same time, we’ve made strategic investments in the things we need to build an economy meant to last, like education, innovation, and clean energy. But that hasn’t stopped Romney and his Republican allies from using ridiculous and laughable terms — like “spending inferno” — to describe the President’s fiscal management.

Mitt Romney’s general disregard for the truth is why you all are so important to this campaign. So many Truth Team members have told me: You give us the facts to get the President’s back, and we’ll get it done.

So check out the chart and make sure your friends see it, too:

 

Obama spending binge never happened,
May 25 2012

ROMNEY ECONOMICS: Mitt Romney Would Run the Country as He Ran Bain Capital, and the Middle Class Would Suffer

Last week the Obama campaign launched RomneyEconomics.com to highlight economic philosophy behind Mitt Romney’s business experience, which he has continually claimed as his chief qualification to be President. Romney economics is about doing whatever it takes for him and his investors to profit, regardless of the cost to workers, companies and communities. He believes in two sets of rules – one for himself and others at the top, and another for everyone else.

 The campaign released a new Romney economics video about another company Romney and his partners bankrupted – a paper company called Ampad. Like in so many cases across the country, Romney and his partners got a huge return on their investment while workers and community lost out.

o Please see this new campaign video titled “Romney Economics: Job Loss and Bankruptcy at Ampad.”

o For more information, go to www.RomneyEconomics.com.

 Indiana: Romney economics helped Romney and his partners multiply their initial investment in a paper company 20 times over while 1,500 Americans lost their jobs.

o Romney and his fellow investors bought the company in 1992 for $40 million – $35 million of which they borrowed.

o Two years later, Romney and his partners bought a plant in Marion, Indiana. All the workers were forced to reapply for their jobs with reduced pay and benefits.

o Less than a year later, Romney and his partners shut down the Marion, Indiana, plant, which cost all 250 workers their jobs. More than 1,500 workers were laid off when they loaded Ampad up with debt, drove it into bankruptcy, and closed factories across the country.

o Romney and his partners made $100 million on the deal, walking away with a major profit off of their initial investment after driving a company into bankruptcy and driving workers out of a job.

 An outstanding question was what would happen to the unsecured creditors who lost out on $170 million when Ampad went bankrupt. Today Politico revealed that they’re getting two-tenths of a cent for every dollar they were owed – they waited 11 years to find out they’re getting a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of what they’re owed.

o Please see this Politico article on the subject.

 Romney economics does not make Romney a job creator. He was in business to make money for himself and his investors, not to create jobs. His partners have said it, he’s said it and everyone knows it.

o Kansas City: Romney and his partners walked away with millions after closing a 105-year-old steel mill and putting 750 people out of work.

o Florida: They walked away with a quarter of a billion dollars after closing two medical-equipment manufacturing facilities and putting 850 people out of

May 25 2012

EDUCATION: Mitt Romney Opposes Reducing Class Sizes; Wants to Let Schools Lay Off Teachers and Pack More Kids Into Classrooms

Mitt Romney told teachers and parents yesterday that he knows better than they do which class sizes are better for their students. 

 Romney opposes smaller class sizes, which help students get the individualized attention they need from teachers, particularly in the earliest grades. While the President has kept hundreds of thousands of teachers in classrooms across the country, Romney has even claimed that reducing class sizes can “hurt” education.
o As Governor: On Romney’s watch, Massachusetts students saw their classrooms get more crowded while teachers got laid off. By his second year as governor, Romney had already forced Massachusetts schools to take the second-largest percentage cuts, per pupil, in the country.
o As President: He promises to slash education investments, leading to larger class sizes and fewer teachers, all to fund his budget-busting tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

 School Accountability: Romney would abandon a generation-long national commitment to trying to improve our schools. He’d stop trying to turn around failing schools, instead creating a redundant school report card that duplicates a requirement that already exists. He wants to tell parents that their child’s school is failing, but he won’t do anything more to help.

 Student Loan Reform: The President ended taxpayer subsidies to banks, cutting out the middlemen and using those savings to increase Pell Grants, strengthen community colleges and make it easier for students to repay their federal student loans. Romney wants to repeal the President’s reforms and give banks $60 billion in subsidies they don’t need, which would mean smaller college scholarships, weaker community colleges, and less affordable federal student loans.

 Romney Economics: In both the public and the private sectors, Romney favored short-term profits that helped only those at the top over long-term investments that helped everyone. He would do the same to our children’s education, putting budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthiest ahead of good schools and affordable higher education.

Romney’s vision for education doesn’t make any sense.

May 22 2012

We’ve got the President’s back – how about you?

 At a press conference Monday, the President was asked why the campaign is taking a look at Mitt Romney’s record as a corporate buyout specialist, a record Romney’s been claiming as his chief qualification for the presidency.

The President said that while there’s nothing wrong with private equity, Romney’s priority wasn’t to create jobs — it was to maximize profits for partners and investors. A president has to focus on more than just that.

Watch the rest of his response on why Romney’s record should be looked at, then share it far and wide:

Video: President Obama on Romney's record


Share on Facebook    Share on Twitter    Share via Email

President Obama said of Romney, “his main calling card for why he thinks he should be President is his business expertise … And when you’re President, as opposed to the head of a private equity firm, then your job is not simply to maximize profits. Your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot.”

Folks, that’s what we’re going to be fighting for this year — and it’s up to us to lay out the stark differences between Romney’s views and our President’s. Get our President’s back — pass it on:

http://my.barackobama.com/Truth-Team-May22

May 18 2012

Happy National Women’s Health Week from the Whitehouse Council on Women and Girls

Weekly Women’s Update: Happy National Women’s Health Week!

Greetings All –

This week is National Women’s Health Week, an opportunity for all women to prioritize their health well-being by scheduling annual screening and exams. Due to the Affordable Care Act, more than 20.4 million women with private health insurance have received preventive health services at no additional cost.

Valerie Jarrett, the Chair of the Council on Women and Girls, addresses the Violence Against Women Act in a timely and important blog post.

On Monday, President Obama delivered the commencement address at Barnard College. Barnard is one of the famous “Seven Sisters” — liberal arts colleges founded to offer first class education to women before many elite institutions admitted women.

Thank you for taking the time to watch, read, and share this material.

Very Best Wishes,
The Council on Women and Girls

President Obama at Barnard College

Monday was a wonderful day, not just for the promising young women graduating from Barnard College, but for the recognition of women’s accomplishments everywhere, and all of the people who are committed to their success. Read more about the President’s visit here.

Please find (and feel free to share) the following:

President Barack Obama sits with Barnard College President Debora Spar, left, and Chairwoman Jolyne Caruso-Fitzgerald before he delivers a commencement address for Barnard College graduates at Columbia University in New York, May 14, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

Update on the Violence Against Women Act

The Violence Against Women Act puts women’s safety above partisan politics. Last month, Democratic and Republican Senators came together to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act. The bill they approved would address the high rates of domestic violence committed against Native American women, ensure that LGBT victims have access to services, and make college campuses safer places to live and study. Through its bipartisan vote, the Senate not only acted to preserve the original bill — they improved it, protecting even more women from violence and abuse.

However, the bill passed in the House of Representatives leaves out the important new protections found in the Senate bill, exposing more students, Native Americans, and LGBT Americans to the threat of violence. To learn more about the Violence Against Women Act, read this blog post by Valerie Jarrett, the Chair of the Council on Women and Girls.

National Women’s Health Week

This week is National Women’s Health Week, an opportunity for all women to prioritize their health well-being by scheduling annual screening and exams. President Obama’s health reform law requires that new health insurance plans cover preventative services such as memmograms, pap smears, and well-woman visits with no co-pay or deductible. Learn more about the law here.

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May 18 2012

ROMNEY ECONOMICS: Mitt Romney Would Run the Country as He Ran Bain Capital, and the Middle Class Would Suffer

As a businessman, Mitt Romney didn’t care about strengthening companies or creating jobs – he cared most about getting a high return on his investment no matter the cost to workers, companies or communities. The values and lessons Romney learned as a corporate-buyout specialist aren’t the ones we want in the Oval Office.

 Today the campaign released a new part of RomneyEconomics.com, an interactive map that highlights where Mitt Romney’s economic philosophy left companies bankrupt and Americans without jobs.
o Please see the map at www.RomneyEconomics.com/states.
o Please see this new DNC video highlighting the coverage Romney economics is getting, titled “The Bane of Romney’s Existence.”

 As CEO of a financial buyout firm, Romney didn’t care about growing companies and creating jobs. He and his partners cared most about making money for themselves and their investors no matter the cost. They loaded companies up with debt, put thousands out of work and bankrupted companies all so a handful of investors could make a fortune.

 We aren’t questioning Romney’s right to run his business as he wanted, or the private equity industry as a whole. This is about Romney’s values as a businessman, and what they would mean for the economic security of the middle class.

 Romney specialized in buying companies, borrowing money to load them up with debt, and extracting millions in profit for himself and his partners.
o To cut costs, he laid off longtime loyal workers and shipped jobs overseas.
o Those who kept their jobs too often saw paychecks, benefits and pensions cut.
o When the debt became too much, Romney and his partners drove several companies into bankruptcy and walked away with millions.

 Romney’s business values shaped the troubling economic policies he promises today. It’s the same Bush-era formula that benefitted a few, but crashed our economy and undermined security for the middle class and those trying to join it:
o More budget-busting tax cuts weighted to the wealthiest and paid for by the middle class.
o No investing in our nation’s long-term strength through education, decent health care, consumer protections, or our roads and bridges.
o Letting Wall Street and corporations write their own rules again.

 We can’t afford to go back to the same failed policies and wrong values that caused the economic crisis in the first place. Romney economics would hurt the middle class instead of helping it grow.

 President Obama is moving America forward, fighting for an economy built to last, where hard work pays off, responsibility is rewarded, and everyone has a fair shot, does their fair share, and plays by the same rules.
DEBT: Romney Economics Piled Debt on Companies and Massachusetts Taxpayers – and Would Do the Same to the Entire Country
Key Point: Mitt Romney has no credibility on controlling debt given his $5 trillion tax plan that would blow a hole in the budget, his private-sector record of piling debt on companies and his public sector record of running up debt on constituents.

 Hypocrisy: Romney is in New Hampshire attacking the President on spending and debt. He’s the last person who should lecture Americans about debt and reckless spending.
o Businessman: Romney economics loaded companies up with debt before bankrupting some and made millions of dollars for Romney and his partners while thousands of middle-class workers lost their jobs.
o Governor: Romney economics loaded Massachusetts taxpayers up with debt before he left his successor with a $1 billion deficit and taxpayers with the most per-capita debt in the country. State spending went up by 6.5 percent a year.
o As President: Romney economics promise to do the same thing. He’ll give $5 trillion in tax breaks weighted to millionaires and billionaires without saying how he’ll pay for it – because he knows that no matter what, the middle class will be stuck with the bill.

 Romney is attacking debt created by two unfunded wars started before the President took office. The President responsibly ended the Iraq war and he’s drawing down our combat mission in Afghanistan. Romney wants to keep fighting those wars with no end in sight.

 According to nonpartisan scorekeepers like the Congressional Budget Office, federal spending, taxes and deficits are all lower today than when the President took office.
o Please