Obama’s ‘Spidey quote’ triggers Twitter outrage
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Dec. 23: The US President, Mr Barack Obama, has directed federal personnel officials to draft “appropriate workplace accommodations” for federal employees who are nursing mothers. A memo that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) got also said the draft be published when ready, reported the Washington Post.
Provisions in the health-care overhaul bill passed this year require new breastfeeding rights, primarily for hourly workers in the private and public sectors and hence the changes. White House sources said the President, however, wanted the authorities to go one step further by making new guidelines for all employees regardless of their status.
Many federal agencies like the National Security Agency, Government Accountability Office and departments of Labour, State and Transportation already have breastfeeding policies, NSA being the first to implement them in the 1980s, sources in the OPM said. Though three out of four new American mothers start out breastfeeding, the number that continue throughout the baby’s first year is stagnant and low, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Meanwhile, Mr Obama has taken Twitter by storm after quoting, “With great power comes great responsibility” — a hit line from the movie Spider-man — at a press conference. Speaking about greater bipartisanship between his Democratic Party and the Republicans, Mr Obama noted that Republicans recognised that “with greater power comes greater responsibility”, reports the Courier Mail.
Twitter lit up with comments about the quote, ranging from praise to claims he was trivialising national affairs with a superhero reference.
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