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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Terie Norelli, the former speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives and Sylvia Larsen, the former president of the New Hampshire Senate wrote an op-ed discussing how Donald Trump has broken every promise he made to women in the Granite State on health care, child care, and the economy – and how New Hampshire women deserve better.
Key points:
“As president, Trump has consistently harmed the health, well-being, and livelihoods of New Hampshire women in order to advance a right-wing agenda and his own political interests.”
“Even during an out-of-control pandemic, he is seeking to rip health coverage away from tens of thousands of Granite Staters and allow insurers to charge us higher rates based on our gender and medical history.”
“Every day, New Hampshire women are paying the price for Donald Trump’s incompetence and broken promises. We can’t afford another four years of his failures.”
Concord Monitor: New Hampshire women deserve better than Trump’s broken promises By Terie Norelli and Sylvia Larsen Over the course of his campaign, Donald Trump variously promised Granite Staters that he supported equal pay and that he would make child care more affordable. At one stop in Keene, he assured us that “nobody respects women more than I do.” At another stop in Hampton Trump declared, “I will help on women’s health issues more than anybody.” Those promises would be laughable today if they weren’t ultimately broken in such a dramatic and profoundly dangerous fashion. As president, Trump has consistently harmed the health, well-being, and livelihoods of New Hampshire women in order to advance a right-wing agenda and his own political interests. Trump’s most devastating failure – his flailing response to the coronavirus pandemic – has left New Hampshire women and families to pick up the pieces in the midst of an unprecedented health and economic crisis. From the beginning of this pandemic, Trump failed to put our health first. He wasted precious time ignoring his own advisers as they begged him to prepare for the coming crisis. Instead, he downplayed the virus, started fights on Twitter, and searched for others to blame. As Trump sent record shipments of N95 masks overseas, Granite Staters began a months-long scramble for personal protective equipment. And as the months passed, the comprehensive national testing strategy that experts said was essential to defeating the pandemic would never come. The consequences of Trump’s incompetence continue to fall squarely on the shoulders of women. As Granite Staters struggle through the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression, women are even more likely to have been laid off or pushed out of the workforce in order to care for loved ones. But rather than follow through on his explicit child care promise when Granite Staters needed it most, Trump scaled back emergency paid leave requirements, slashing protections for 75% of American workers. It was far from the first time he turned his back on New Hampshire women – his tax scam had already slashed the value of the child care tax credit for working families while handing massive giveaways to corporations and the ultra-wealthy. Long before the pandemic, from his first days in office, Donald Trump has never hesitated to break his most fundamental promises in order to help himself. Far from fighting for women’s health care, he and Republicans have waged a cruel campaign to overturn the Affordable Care Act. Even during an out-of-control pandemic, he is seeking to rip health coverage away from tens of thousands of Granite Staters and allow insurers to charge us higher rates based on our gender and medical history. And at a time when every dollar counts, New Hampshire women are fighting to make a living without even basic equal pay protections. In his first months in office, Trump revoked President Obama’s fair pay executive order that had required many employers to report details on employee compensation. Without that information, women lost one of the few tools we had to hold our bosses accountable and ensure we receive a fair paycheck. Every day, New Hampshire women are paying the price for Donald Trump’s incompetence and broken promises. We can’t afford another four years of his failures. We need a president who’s prepared to tackle this crisis head on. We deserve a leader who will put women’s health and economic security at the heart of our nation’s recovery. (Terie Norelli of Portsmouth is a former speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. Sylvia Larsen of Concord is a former president of the New Hampshire Senate.)
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