Republican We-Heart-Women Campaign Hits Another Snag

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate used the filibuster rule to block debate and a vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act. The Act would have made it illegal to punish employees who discuss their salaries and would have required that employers share salary information with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.  

Not one Republican Senator voted in support of advancing the bill.

what eye thynk:  I cannot fathom what Republicans are thinking.  Or maybe I just have to accept that, if the idea doesn't come from the GOP, it will simply be rejected out of habit.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) spoke against the bill and blamed the Obama administration for the plight of women workers, saying that, under his presidency, women have seen declining wages and growing poverty. How this is supposed to explain his choice to vote against a discussion of equal pay for equal work is beyond me.  And, of course, no mention of that pesky little recession brought about by W. and the fiscal policies espoused by his fellow GOP-ers or that it might, in any way, be to blame for falling pay or soaring unemployment.

The Senate Republican Conference called the bill "the latest ploy in the Democrats' election-year playbook."  Do they really believe that "we-don't-like-your-agenda" is a convincing argument for voting to block a bill designed to improve the lives of women--the same women their party is attempting to attract?

Republicans claim that existing anti-discrimination laws make any new legislation redundant.  But, one has to wonder, if existing laws are working so well, why are women consistently paid at a rate below their male counterparts?  Again, their reasoning has no basis in logic.

Fox News personality Melissa Francis offered her own interesting argument against equal pay for women: "Men lost jobs at two and a half times the rate of women in this last recession.  I know plenty of families where the man is now out of work and the woman is the one who's working full time.  Probably because she makes a little less, so she was able to keep her job."   (Would that be the job that Mr. McConnell says has resulted in lower wages and growing poverty?)

If Republicans can come up with a logical and fact-based argument against equal pay, I wish they'd share it.  I want them to explain why they are against it...you know, as would have happened had they permitted debate on the issue.  And by explaining, I don't mean saying  1. equal pay is a bad thing because pay fell under President Obama, or 2. they don't like equal pay because Democrats do, or even 3. they don't like equal pay because there are more unemployed men than women.  These are not arguments--they're excuses.  And women are tired of excuses.

While Republicans were rallying around the status quo, President Obama signed executive measures that impose requirements similar to those in the Paycheck Fairness Act on any company working under a government contract. At least some American women will have a fighting chance at true workplace equality.