Republicans Say No To Equal Pay For Women

There are those on the right who say that women have achieved equality in America and there is no longer a need for feminism.   That is just not true.   While some things are better in this country, women (and minorities and homosexuals) still have not achieved true equality.

About 45 years ago, Congress passed the Equal Pay Act.   But there still exists a shockingly large difference between the pay women get and the pay men get for the same kind of work. On average, a woman in America makes only 77 cents for every dollar a man (white man) makes -- about $10,000 a year for the average female worker.   It's even worse for minority women.   For African-American women it is 61 cents and for Latinas it is 52 cents.

And it looks like that is just the way the Republicans want to keep it.   For the last two years the Democrats have been trying to close this gap by passing the Paycheck Fairness Act.   Think Progress says this would close some loopholes of the Equal Pay Act by "strengthening incentives to prevent pay discrimination, and prohibiting retaliation against workers who inquire about employers' wage practices or disclose their own wages.   The act would have also addressed pay secrecy, which is a prevalent problem prohibiting employees from knowing whether discriminatory practices are occurring."

The Paycheck Fairness Act had easily passed the Democratically-controlled House of Representatives, but ran into trouble in the Senate.   Senate Republicans don't have the votes to defeat it so they have been filibustering the bill.   They evidently think it's bad enough that American businesses have to pay white men a semi-fair wage, and they're not about to make businesses pay women that same wage (for the same or equal work).

Yesterday the Democrats in the Senate tried to close off debate and allow the bill to come up for a vote.   They needed 60 votes to stop the Republican filibuster.   They only got 58 votes.   Every single Republican in the Senate voted to keep filibustering the bill (except Murkowski, who was on her way to Alaska to celebrate her write-in victory).   Even such Republican "moderates" such as Olympia Snowe (Maine) and Susan Collins (Maine) voted against equal pay for their fellow women.

One Blue Dog Democrat also voted with the Republicans and against equal pay for women -- Ben Nelson (Nebraska).   I really don't know how this creep can look his fellow Democrats in the eye (or even have the gumption to call himself a Democrat).   I can't remember the last time he voted with the Democrats to help any ordinary Americans.

To those brave women who are fighting for equality, I'll just say that your day will come.   I'm just sorry it's not now.   To those foolish women who voted Republican in this last election, you're getting exactly what you voted for.   It's just sad that you voted against your own interests (like the majority of elderly people did in this last election).   Rest assured, the Republicans will show you the wrongness of your vote in the next couple of years.