The Diane Rehm Show

Access to healthcare, particularly reproductive healthcare, is an economic issue...

Maybe women are more motivated by it despite sharing similar views on things like abortion is because women pay for it directly whether it is the additional insurance premiums, out of pocket expenses for birth control and healthcare, or the time out of the workforce and the mommy-penalty whereas men only pay for it indirectly to the extent they are are partnered.

As a college educated, married, white woman with children, I won't vote with Romney because:
(1) I want consistent access to healthcare for myself and my children and think everyone should have the same.
(2) Bush Sr. was right that trickle-down economics is voo-doo economics and excessive concentration of wealth harming our economy and social fabric.
(3) I want my local community (schools, healthcare, transportation) to work and be healthy, I don't want "choice" and "free market" solutions that will further hollow my community institutions.
(4) Regulation and taxation is not what is hampering the economy -- it is hording pure and simple.
(5) The sabre rattling is frightening -- I've had siblings and classmates serve over the past 11 years and I think we need to be much more cautious about our approach to foreign policy. Obama has been disappointing on this front but I trust Romney even less because he hired a bunch of neo-cons who got us into the last 2 wars.

Gov Romney proved his total ignorance of real health care cost containment over the weekend when he said the ER was the proper safety net for the uninsured. He said a person having a heart attack would be picked up and cared for at an ER, despite the fact that every US hospital must do cost shifting in such circumstances; those with insurance pick up the costs of the uninsured before all the features of ACA phase in......averaging 1K per year per policy.
This was said avoiding the reality that the heart attack patient must get to the ER in the first place........ambulances and emergency techs involvement further runs up the tab.
A major aspect of ACA is the statistically based fact that proper reproductive care BEFORE pregnancy and throughout a woman's life greatly reduces costs to the individual and to insurers. Note that "reproductive" care affects men too.....prostate screening and drug therapy, not to mention care for their spouses, does impact males.
For a governor who installed mandated government health care, Romney displays little know how about the details.......must be beneath his pay scale.

"Percy wrote:

I listen to this program daily and find it valuable and entertaining. However, this is one of the worst segments I have heard. I'm not sure who is responsible for booking the guests but I may decide to give up DR until after Nov 6.

To listen to these women spout their spun rhetoric is just disgusting. Want to do a program about women voters? Select female voters at random. That would be far more interesting than listening to 4 women spout pre-formed BS lines for 50 minutes.

Really DRShow. This was perhaps the most ill conceived and valueless program in your history.
September 24, 2012 - 10:37 am"

I didn't hear the Broadcast, you may be right about the Panel. But NPR does interview Voters at random, all the time, and it's usually 80-90% banal, inane gabble.

"I hate the Negative Campaigning". "I wish the Candidates would talk more about The Issues". "Blah, blah, blah".

I haven't tallied the apparent leanings of NPR's "Random" interviews of Voters, but I do sense there is a bias in favor of Conservatives.

Monte Haun mchaun@hotmail.com

ecgberht wrote:

James Todd wrote:
"I think the Tea Party has given a greater gift to the president than anyone else could have."
That's what the Dems thought in 2010 as well.
The anger, vitriol, misrepresentation, and outright lies from the left are palpable the closer we get to November 6th. They see the handwriting on the wall. President Obama remains well under 50%. He received 53% of the vote in 2008. So depending on the poll, say 8% of those who voted for him are undecided. That's like asking a wife if she wants to remain married to her husband, and she replies "I'm undecided".
Everything old is new again. It's 1980.
September 24, 2012 - 11:37 am

ecgberht wrote:

Um, yeah. Be real. You want to talk hate and fear? How about:
Class warfare (the 99% v. the 1%), the "war on women", the "war on seniors", "the war on Hispanics", "the war on gay people", "the war on 'name your group'", Republicans want diry air and dirty water, Republicans want to eliminate regulation, Republicans want to ship jobs overseas, Republicans want to eliminate Government, blah, blah, blah.
THAT is the propaganda of hate and fear.
September 24, 2012 - 11:56 am

ecgberht wrote:

Chuck-Suhali Hadar asked:
"Which way do you expect people to vote when they're constantly under attack? "
I would expect them to vote against the party that enslaves its constituents to the government. I would expect them to vote against the party that has put more people on food stamps than any other. I would expect them to vote against the party that has placed an additional 60% worth of debt on its children and grandchildren; now over $50K for every man, woman, and child in the United States.
September 24, 2012 - 12:38 pm

(Cont)

"(4) Regulation and taxation is not what is hampering the economy -- it is hording pure and simple."
Of course ... we've got to spread the wealth around, right abra? Companies and small business owners are holding cash and refraining from hiring, primarily because they are scared to death of what is to come. After PPACA, you can't blame them.
"(5) The sabre rattling is frightening -- I've had siblings and classmates serve over the past 11 years and I think we need to be much more cautious about our approach to foreign policy."
We're agreed on that. On the other hand, you have to be willing to admit that the world is a dangerous place and there are times when American interests are at stake overseas whether one chooses to admit it or not.
September 24, 2012 - 3:05 pm

"ecgberht wrote:

mchaun wrote:
"I haven't tallied the apparent leanings of NPR's "Random" interviews of Voters, but I do sense there is a bias in favor of Conservatives."
You sense that because you are delusional.
September 24, 2012 - 8:04 pm"

And he calls me delusional!!!

Monte Haun mchaun@hotmail.com

These statistics really suffered for context.

If women care more about "their household" perhaps it is because more women are in poverty and have sole responsibility for their children.

I don't think the inverse of this is "thinking more about the country as a whole." The inverse is privilege and security, at which point you are comfortable enough to talk to pollsters about something else.

And why are "Walmart moms" quoted as if they representative of all women? What is the demographic of a "Walmart mom"? I had no idea what she was talking about, and there were no follow-up questions.

And birth control and abortion only came up when they opened the phone lines? And then there was no analysis, just a paranoid-Republic-party-line.

Meanwhile is the entire 51:40 they did talk about foreign policy, environmental preservation, or a host of other issues I and all the women I know are deeply concerned about.

This was just a terrible hour of journalism, if it can be called that.

Hey, mchaun. Thanks for the nice summary of my work! Could you do this every day? That way, mb participants don't have to go combing through dozens of liberal posts to find mine and read the truth.
Thanks again!

I feel a need to respond to this post too.
Robinlee wrote:
"I'm a woman, and there is no way I would vote for Romney/Ryan. I am 62. As far as I am concerned, they are women-haters. They want power over women. They do not care about women".
Who hates women? I always thought it was the ones who favor on-demand, sex-selected abortion which favors aborting females over males.
"They want to force women to have babies. A fetus who cannot yet feel pain is more important to them than a woman or stem cell research."
A fetus who cannot yet feel pain? Exactly how do you know that, Robinlee? Exactly when does the "pain" set in? At 3 months? 6 months? How about during birth? They're all legal for on-demand abortion you know?
The callousness of the left toward the most helpless in our society is startlingly heartless. May God forgive your hardness of heart.

Mitt Romney is the man that has everything minus the president. Reviewing Mitt record he is an investor, olympic person of interest, gov for only one term not to run again been their done that. Have the american dream family and kids. Now he need the president to add to resume and do not forget he also want secret servirce paid by gov for the rest of his life. Carl Rowe and friends run the oval office Romney just want the titles and perks. If he can buy the office he will this is why he is not worried about what he says. He is the
Corporation.

gisele@14 wrote:
"Mitt Romney is the man that has everything minus the president. "

"Now he need the president to add to resume and do not forget he also want secret servirce paid by gov for the rest of his life. Carl Rowe and friends run the oval office Romney just want the titles and perks. "

Not one shred of evidence for any of this. None. Nada. Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Cipher. Naugh. Void. Zip-a-dee-doo-dah.
Got it, gisele?