Long before Nancy Pelosi hands over her gavel and does the walk of shame from her escorted military aircraft back to her new, small office, the 2011 Congress needs to get to work, and what a job they have in front of them.
Americans, in particular conservative women, have spoken and they are going to hold this new Congress accountable. Pledges and campaign promises, bus tours and town hall meetings will all be remnants of 2010. Hopefully 2011 will be remembered as the year that America stopped out of control government spending, cut out earmarks, created jobs, boosted the economy and embraced the country’s traditional moral values and roots.
And this transformation cannot come soon enough. The damage done by President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid runs deep. Obamacare needs to be repealed. Regulations and new taxes must be lifted off the backs of small businesses. The Bush tax cuts must be kept intact for everyone. Traditional marriage must be protected and taxpayer-funded abortion has to be stopped. These are the priorities for the 2011 Congress -- without compromise.
In a new poll co-commissioned by Concerned Women for America and conducted by the polling company, inc/WomanTrend, 61 percent of female respondents – all of whom voted in the election – said that the government must stop spending immediately in order to prevent increases in the national debt even if it means not addressing current needs. Women understand balancing their checkbooks. We know you can’t have it all -- someone has to pay.
In the same survey, when asked about the greatest challenges facing future generations, a full 77 percent of women said economic decline and a close second among women, at 63 percent, was the decline of morality and values.
This makes sense. Many pundits wrongly led the nation to believe the Tea Party, who had enormous influence in this past election, was only about fiscal conservatism. On the contrary, it is because of the moral values that these Americans hold so dear - the right to life and liberty - that they believe in both fiscal and social conservatism. We see abortion, marriage and debt and unemployment as moral imperatives that harm future generations.
The economy and jobs are obviously the biggest concerns among Americans, especially women since they typically head up the household finances and have become the family breadwinners, now more than ever since the Recession has hit those jobs held by men the hardest.
The challenges facing the class of 2011 seem almost too enormous to overcome.
President Obama has no idea the country has rejected his policies. He only thinks that “we all must do better” in order for Americans to approve his agenda. He even thinks that Democrats and Republicans can work together yet he has called those who disagree with him “enemies” and said just last week that Republicans can certainly get on the bus but they have to “sit in the back.”
Why in the world would anyone think the president is willing to work with Republicans, or anyone who disagrees with him for that matter? The battle is going to be uphill but nothing ever worth fighting for has been easy.
Americans don’t have two more years to waste on failed policies and historic levels of government spending. More taxes and mandates from Obamacare will continue to be implemented, hurting American women and families and businesses even more. The nation has no time to waste.
Fifty percent of the voters polled in our survey said they were “concerned” and a third indicated they were “frustrated.” Nearly half of these numbers are coming from voters who voted for Obama in 2008. Obama has failed Americans, especially women, who voted overwhelmingly for him.
Women expressed their “concern” at the polls in the midterm by leaving the liberal ideology in droves.
As opposed to the faux urgency Pelosi and Reid espoused when shoving Obamacare, the bailouts and TARP down the throats of all Americans, this time the urgency is real and apparent. There is no time to waste in stopping government spending, dealing with the debt and protecting American families. We women have very long memories when it comes to promises made to us by suitors. The new Congress would do well to remember who which date brought them to the dance!
Penny Nance is CEO of Concerned Women for America, the nation’s largest public policy women’s group.
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