I just received this email from MomsRising and I took two seconds to let U.S. Senator Patty Murray, the one woman on the Super Committee, know I'm behind her all the way as she stands up for women and families on the Super Committee

Please sign on too, Sen. Murray is going to need all the support she can get as she fights for families in this budget battle. And when you sign on you'll also help let the national news outlets and top leaders know that it's critical to have women's voices at the table when making decisions which are going to deeply impact our lives!

Thanks!
C.J.

****Email Forwarded Below**********

Only 1 woman on the "Super Committee"? Ouch. [1]

Here's the math: Women are 50.7% of our population, only 17% of Congress, and an appallingly low 8% of the Super Committee.

This lack of representation on the debt ceiling Super Committee which is charged with cutting $1.5 trillion from the federal budget is pathetic, particularly given that critical programs---like Medicaid, Medicare, child care, education, food assistance, and Social Security--which have the biggest impacts on women and families are at stake. [2]

Let's give the one woman on the Super Committee, Senator Patty Murray, some super powers through grassroots mom-powered backup right now!

*Tell U.S. Senator Patty Murray that you're behind her all the way as she stands up for women and families on the Super Committee--and when you sign on you'll also help let the national news outlets and top leaders know that it's critical to have women's voices at the table when making decisions which are going to deeply impact our lives!

http://action.momsrising.org/sign/Super-Committee-08-11-11/?referring_akid=2895.1884802.HZj-gu&source=taf

After you show your support by signing via the link above, we'll deliver a real superhero cape, tennis shoes with wings, and your signatures directly to Senator Murray. Together we'll let Senator Murray know just how very many moms, dads, sons, daughters, grandparents, and families stand behind her. And MomsRising will also let national news outlets and leaders know just how outraged we are about this situation, and why it shouldn't happen again.

Senator Murray, who first ran for office as, "A Mom in Tennis Shoes," is going to need all the super powers and super grassroots backup we can give her as she serves on this committee.[3]

The solutions that come out of the Super Committee need to reflect the needs of Main Street, and not just greedy Wall Street corporations. This Committee needs to put people back to work in our nation, and not continue bad tax break policies for the very wealthiest Americans who can afford to buy political influence while everyday people struggle.


Why is it an "ouch" that there's only one woman on the Super Committee--and why do we need to give Senator Murray as much grassroots backup as possible?

Because, as more and more studies reveal, "When women aren’t at the table, programs that disproportionately benefit and employ women—like child care, education, food assistance, and Medicare—are often the first to go."[4]

Numerous recent studies show that having equal representation of women at negotiating tables benefits outcomes. NPR recently reported, "Psychologists have found that when groups are predominantly male, individuals tend to act in increasingly aggressive ways... They show off." [5]

Further, the Harvard Business Review recently reported, "If a group includes more women, its collective intelligence rises." [6]

Every bit of American ingenuity possible is needed to fix our economy--and not having equal representation of women on the Super Committee hurts us all. Our nation simply can't afford to continue the way we're going with tax breaks for millionaire CEOs and corporate jet owners, while the rest of us pay an unfair portion of the taxes and have poorer schools and services.

Our economic system is out of whack: A Northeastern University study recently found that since 2009 "corporate profits captured 88% of the growth in real national income while aggregate wages and salaries accounted for only slightly more than 1% of the growth in real national income. …The absence of any positive share of national income growth due to wages and salaries received by American workers during the current economic recovery is historically unprecedented.” [7]

We need a better approach.

It's simply un-American to ignore the needs of real people while greedy Wall Street corporations take their profits elsewhere.

Balanced, common-sense solutions for real people are needed. And there's wide agreement that the best way to reduce the budget deficit is by a combination of both cutting federal spending AND by increasing revenues through ending tax breaks to the very wealthy.[8] Representatives on the Super Committee will need to take a hard look at the Bush tax breaks because as one study found: "The Bush tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will account for almost half of the $20 trillion in debt that, under current policies, the nation will owe by 2019." [9]

It's going to be an uphill battle on the Super Committee to make the changes we need in our nation. And to help get our nation back on track for real families, Senator Murray is going to need all of the grassroots backup we can muster in order to move forward common-sense solutions for real people, real moms, and real dads in our nation.

*Don't forget to tell U.S. Senator Patty Murray that you're behind her all the way as she stands up for women and families on the Super Committee--and, as you sign, you'll also help alert the national media and top leaders that women need equal representation in the future!

http://action.momsrising.org/sign/Super-Committee-08-11-11/?referring_akid=2895.1884802.HZj-gu&source=taf

Please forward this email to friends and family right now. The more signatures we have, the better we can support Senator Murray and remind others that it is critical to have women's voices at the table when making decisions that are going to deeply impact our lives.

Together we're a powerful voice for women and families.

-- Kristin, Joan, Mary, Donna, Nanette, Sarah, Ruth, Ashley, Anita, Claire, Elisa, Monifa and the whole MomsRising.org team.

[1] http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/11/super-committee-who-are-these-guys/?iref=storysearch

[2] http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/10/house-and-senate-republicans-name-deficit-panel-members/?scp=1&sq=super%20committee&st=cse

[3] http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/08/from-mom-in-tennis-shoes-to-one-of-the-nations-most-powerful-democrats/243458/

[4] http://publicola.com/2011/08/11/sen-murray-as-only-woman-on-budget-cutting-committee-ill-fight-for-women/?utm_source=RSS+Feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+publicola+%28PubliCola%29 and and http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/08/03/286764/women-debt-ceiling/ http://publicola.com/2011/08/11/womens-representation-on-supercommittee-twice-as-bad-as-in-congress-as-a-whole/?utm_source=RSS+Feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+publicola+%28PubliCola%29

[5] http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/07/29/138802290/political-negotiations-also-shaped-by-human-psychology

[6] http://hbr.org/2011/06/defend-your-research-what-makes-a-team-smarter-more-women/ar/1?cm_sp=most_widget-_-default-_-Defend+Your+Research%3A+What+Makes+a+Team+Smarter%3F+More+Women

[7] http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/06/30/258388/corporate-profits-recovery/