Susan Collins Voted Against The Paycheck Fairness Act Again

Maine Republican Susan Collins makes $174,000 a year, along with great retirement and health benefits-- the same as the boys make. And that's the way it should be. But yesterday Collins, a millionaire, joined the Republican Party filibuster seeking to prevent a simple up-or-down vote on Barbara Mikulski's Paycheck Fairness Act, S.2199. 52 senators voted to end the filibuster, a majority… but not a big enough majority.

Ever since Olympia Snowe retired, Collins has lost any inclination-- and spine-- to stand up against the extremists and radicals in her party. She's just another knee-jerk vote for whatever the Republican Party strategy happens to be-- and that means she's backing the neo-Confederates and fanatics who set GOP policy… even on women's equality. I mean, why would Susan Collins of Maine-- not Jefferson Beauregard Sessions IV of Alabama-- vote against allowing a bill that was meant to prevent employers from discriminating against women employees? And this is the 4th time Collins pulled this kind of crap since Snowe retired-- which might help explain when you don't see her out campaigning for Collins this cycle.

Her opponent in November, Shenna Bellows, has an entirely different perspective than Collins. "Women deserve equal pay for equal work," she said flatly. "The Paycheck Fairness Act would put in place commonsense protections for workers who stand up against pay discrimination. Any employer deliberately discriminating against his or her employees should be held accountable, and every working American should know that pay is based on merit. The working people of Maine deserve a senator who leads on equal pay, not one who finds reasons to vote against it."

Another Senate candidate Blue America is backing, South Dakota populist Rick Weiland, was also incensed about the GOP blocking the bill and, in effect, killing it for 2014. "Vote again and if it doesn’t pass, do it again. Keep voting on this bill until it passes because it is the right thing to do," he told his supporters yesterday right after the vote. "Instead of voting for everyday families, the Senate just voted to protect the bottom line of their billion dollar donors. Pay discrimination is robbing working women and we can’t afford it. South Dakota has the worst wages in the country, the lowest teacher pay, and a minimum wage that can’t keep our families out of poverty. And somehow there are Senators who oppose Equal Pay for Equal Work. No wonder the Senate approval is in the single digits." Rick's campaign released a more detailed position paper:

It is simply unconscionable that Mike Rounds’ Republican allies killed legislation that would have strengthened Equal Pay for Equal Work laws. If two people are doing the same exact job but one is a man and the other is a woman, the woman has to work 3 extra months to get the same pay. Somehow Mike Rounds and his Republican supporters think that is ok.

South Dakota leads the country in people working two jobs. Under Mike Rounds, we had the lowest wages. We had the third lowest weekly salary. We have the worst paid teachers. At the same time, South Dakota families are relying more and more on working moms to keep a roof over their heads and their kids fed. South Dakotans flat out can’t afford pay discrimination. Mike Rounds doesn’t get that. His idea of economic success is one where the rich get richer and the poor struggle to make ends meet. Rick Weiland stands for hardworking South Dakota women who need a fair shake and an even playing field.

49 days to go. You can lend a hand to both Shenna Bellows and Rick Weiland on this ActBlue Senate page.

Foolishly, Crackpot Republican Die-hards Are Still Running Their Crazy War Against Women

Study: Wisconsin Republicans fear and loathe women even more than other Republicans do

Today is the twentieth anniversary of Joe Biden's Violence Against Women Act, signed by Presdient Clinton on September 13, 1994. It had broad bipartisan support and passed the House 235-195 and the Senate 61-38. Needless to say, the opponents were conservatives, who almost immediately went into action trying to undercut it on every level after it became law. Reauthorizing VAWA has become more difficult as time went by, as fewer and fewer Republicans were willing to support something that flies so directly in the face of their cherished War Against Women.

The bill was introduced in the House on October 26, 1993 by Jack Brooks (D-TX), 131 Republicans voted against it; 46 Republicans voted for it. Shamefully 64 Democrats crossed the aisle in the other direction and voted with the Republicans, including Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN), Nathan Deal (then a Georgia Blue Dog, now a corrupt, right-wing Republican governor of that state), Ralph Hall (then a Texas Blue Dog who soon switched parties and is now completely senile and drooling on himself and was recently defeated for reelection in a primary), Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN) and Nick Rahall (Blue Dog-WV).

Some of the prominent Republicans who you are still familiar with but who voted in favor of men beating up women with impunity are Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), sick and deranged sex criminal Ken Calvert (R-CA), House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI), presidential wannabe Rob Portman (R-OH), sex-obsessed sociopath Rick Santorum (R-PA), and, of course, GOP felons Duke Cunningham (CA), Tom DeLay (TX), and Newt Gingrich (GA).

Among the anti-woman senators who voted in favor of violence against women only 7 are in the Senate today: Dan Coats (R-IN), Thad Cochran (R-MS), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), John McCain (R-AZ), Miss McConnell (R-KY), Richard Shelby (R-AL). Larry Craig (R-ID) was forced to resign after it was proven beyond any reasonable doubt that he spent virtually all his spare time trolling men's restrooms in airports and train stations looking for men to perform fellatio on; several of the most vehement GOP misogynists finally died and went to Hell-- like Strom Thurmond (R-SC) and Jesse Helms (R-NC), although most of them are lobbyists or in rest homes today.

The last time the House voted to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, the GOP rammed through a weakened version that passed 222-205 while the actual reauthorization was defeated 187-236. Shockingly, only two Republicans voted for it. The Senate then went ahead and passed the real bill on February 12, 2013 with only 22 of the most virulent anti-women right-wing idiots in the history of Congress voting no-- all the regular suspects, like Ted Cruz (R-TX), Marco Rubio (R-FL), John Thune (R-SD), Miss McConnell (R-TX), Lindsay Graham (R-SC), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Mike Lee (R-UT), Jefferson Beauregard Sessions (R-AL), etc. The Senate version was then shoved up the House's ass because of public outrage and it passed 286-138 every single Democrat + 87 Republicans voting YES, but with 138 Republicans still proudly waving their anti-women flags (including Tennessee rapist Scott DesJarlais).

Although it is an entirely different bill, Republican opposition to the Paycheck Fairness Act, stems from the same sick, toxic worldview and hatred for and fear of women. On June 5, 2012 the Republicans were able to filibuster it to death in the Senate, even fake moderate Susan Collins (R-ME) voting to continue the filibuster. When the Democrats brought it up again this year, on April 9, the GOP successfully filibustered it again. Paycheck fairness, they made clear, is not something they believe in.

Because Senate Republicans keep killing it with filibusters, the House Republicans can keep it buried in committee. However, this week, miraculously, the Democrats overcame a Republican filibuster and now there will at least be an up or down vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act itself… at least in the Senate. The cloture vote passed 73-25, 18 Republicans trying to avoid the grief of another anti-women vote so close to the midterm election. (Of course, most of the die-hard haters-- folks like Ted Cruz, Jim Inhofe, Ron Johnson, Mike Lee, Marco Rubio, Pat Toomey, and sex pervert David "Diapers" Vitter-- happily filibustered away.

So that may put the House in an awkward position. The GOP strategy has been to bottle the bill up in John Kline's Education and the Workforce Committee and just let it die there. If it passes out of the Senate, that will make that strategy less effective and the pressure of Kline particularly will become intense. His Democratic opponent, Mike Obermueller, is already turning up the heat.

"It's not surprising that there would be strong bipartisan support for the Paycheck Fairness Act," he told voters in Minnesota this week. "This bill will help make sure that women get equal pay for equal work and will prevent employers from firing a female employee just because she asks her male co-worker how much he makes. Everyone in our country deserves a level playing field to work with and people here in Minnesota want action on this important middle class issue. Out in Washington D.C., Congressman John Kline doesn't seem to be listening, as he has been sitting on the Paycheck Fairness Act in his House committee for months. Nearly 200 members of Congress have demanded that the Paycheck Fairness Act be brought to the floor for a vote. Congressman Kline should immediately move this bill out of his committee and onto the House floor, where I predict it will pass with broad bipartisan support as well."

Obermueller is correct. If the bill gets to the floor of the House is should have smooth sailing. Most of the anti-women Blue Dogs who would vote against this kind of thing were defeated in 2010 and the handful of asshole left aren't enough to make a difference. And there are enough Republicans in precarious positions electorally-- despite Steve Israel's malpractice in running the DCCC-- to make it too dangerous for at least a couple dozen Republicans to vote NO on Paycheck Fairness. These dozen vulnerable Republicans, for example, wouldn't dare further piss off women voters in their districts by voting no:

• Fred Upton (MI-06)
• Dave Reichert (WA-08)
• Rodney Davis (IL-13)
• Frank LoBiondo (NJ-02)
• David Valadaio (CA-21)
• Chris Gibson (NY-19)
• Mike Coffman (CO-06)
• Joe Heck (NV-03)
• Peter King (NY-02)
• Mike Fitzpatrick (PA-08)
• Jeff Denham (CA-10)
• Sean Duffy (WI-07)

Speaking of Sean Duffy, Wisconsin Republicans repealed the state's own statewide equal pay law a couple of years ago when they won control of both houses of the legislature and the governor's mansion. It's what Republicans do when they get the chance. In November Duffy is facing Blue America-backed Kelly Westlund in a swing district being ignored by the DCCC. Duffy is vulnerable and Westlund has been a strong and articulate advocate for equality. Yesterday she told us that "Ron Johnson's vote against paycheck fairness for women is, sadly, what we've come to expect from Republicans in Wisconsin. Sean Duffy voted against equal pay for equal work and co-sponsored Todd Akin's bill to redefine rape. Under Scott Walker's leadership, Wisconsin actually repealed the state version of the paycheck fairness law. This oppressive Republican Boys' Club has got to go."

All the Blue America candidates support equal pay for equal work and, going into the last months of the campaign, can all use whatever help you can afford to give them. Steve Israel has a deal to not go after any Republican committee chairmen or party leaders, like Upton, Ryan and Kline. He never has and until they throw his corrupt ass out of the DCCC, they never will. However… looks like someone else is riding to the rescue this year while Israel plays footsie with Boehner. The following statement from Mike Obermueller's campaign was issued last night in response to news that Kline had been selected for Bill Maher’s Flip-a-District contest:

“This news confirms what we’ve been hearing more and more of each day: folks in the second district are tired of John Kline, and they’re ready to kick him out office. People are fired up and are organizing across the district to remove him from a seat he’s become too comfortable in.

“From willingly shutting down the government as a political stunt, to holding up Equal Pay for Equal Work legislation, to trying to raise interest rates on student loans, Kline has proved again and again that he does not truly represent our neighbors in this district.

“We’re glad that the low-profile Kline is beginning to receive the attention he deserves for his actions. It’s a boost to everyone who has worked so hard on our campaign to know Kline is starting to be seen for the Tea Party congressman he is.

“Our momentum is building every day. And even with this attention, our efforts won’t change. We’re continuing to build our campaign on the strength of the grassroots organizing we know it will take to win this race.”

Suck on it, Steve Israel, you fucking crooked a-hole!

Little Women

The wingnuts are now demanding that Romney pick Ryan as his running-mate. Ryan, far more than Romney, has won the... well, hearts and minds of the Republican faithful and has set the agenda. Amazing that such an intellectual lightweight is now the engine behind American conservatism, a conservatism based almost entirely on the vision of one grand dame: Paul Ryan's inspiration, Ayn Rand. Oddly enough, in one of the few instances where Ayn Rand did make complete sense, her ideas were utterly rejected by Ryan and Romney and the Republican Party.

An embryo has no rights. Rights do not pertain to a potential, only to an actual being. A child cannot acquire any rights until it is born. The living take precedence over the not-yet-living (or the unborn).

Abortion is a moral right-- which should be left to the sole discretion of the woman involved; morally, nothing other than her wish in the matter is to be considered. Who can conceivably have the right to dictate to her what disposition she is to make of the functions of her own body?

That was from Rand's book, The Voice of Reason, not one that Ryan passes out to Republican staffers on Capitol Hill. And here's another salient quote Ryan and his cronies ignore, from The Ayn Rand Letter: "Never mind the vicious nonsense of claiming that an embryo has a “right to life.” A piece of protoplasm has no rights-- and no life in the human sense of the term. One may argue about the later stages of a pregnancy, but the essential issue concerns only the first three months. To equate a potential with an actual, is vicious; to advocate the sacrifice of the latter to the former, is unspeakable... Observe that by ascribing rights to the unborn, i.e., the nonliving, the anti-abortionists obliterate the rights of the living: the right of young people to set the course of their own lives. The task of raising a child is a tremendous, lifelong responsibility, which no one should undertake unwittingly or unwillingly. Procreation is not a duty: human beings are not stock-farm animals. For conscientious persons, an unwanted pregnancy is a disaster; to oppose its termination is to advocate sacrifice, not for the sake of anyone’s benefit, but for the sake of misery qua misery, for the sake of forbidding happiness and fulfillment to living human beings."

The Objectivist Forum (June, 1981) reaches into the future and smacks Ryan and the rest of the GOP crazies around: "A proper, philosophically valid definition of man as 'a rational animal,' would not permit anyone to ascribe the status of 'person' to a few human cells." But, of course, right-wing political movements are always by nature paternalistic if not downright misogynistic. Let's take a look at an analysis of the Republican Party agenda towards woman, compliments of Joshua Holland's book, The Fifteen Biggest Lies About The Economy. He begins the chapter with a quote from a right-wing woman, Arrah Nielsen of the Independent Women's Forum, who makes the case for paternalism:

Because men are more likely to take jobs that are unpleasant, dangerous or dull in exchange for higher pay, they reap the financial benefit. Another reason women’s average earnings are less than men’s is that they take more time out of the workforce for care-giving.

Scholars can debate whether it is societal pressure or innate desire that makes women elect to spend more time with their children. But so long as these decisions are a reflection of women’s expressed preferences, this isn’t a problem that needs to be solved.

Holland then goes on to explain the societal catastrophe that is embedded in the whole glass ceiling approach that is at the heart of right-wing philosophy about women's roles, a philosophy that, conveniently, leads to women earning 78 cents for every dollar a man with similar qualifications earns. "Conservatives," he writes "minimize not only the damage these inequities cause for women, but also the economic toll they take on tens of millions of households in which women are the primary breadwinners. It’s estimated that during a forty-year career, the average American woman gets short-changed $434,000 in earnings. That’s not chump change."

Women have entered the workplace in huge numbers in every advanced economy during the last fifty years, but the United States is alone among the wealthy nations in basically telling women to suck it up. Every other wealthy country-- and most poorer ones-- offers some form of flexible workplace policy that allows women (and men!) to take time off to have a baby without sending their careers back a step.

Women are also penalized for cultural assumptions about gender. As the designated caregivers for sick children and elderly parents, women are expected to put their careers on hold, and they take a financial hit every time they do. There’s no earthly reason this burden shouldn’t fall on men as often as it does women, but that’s the reality and women pay the price.

And here’s a very important thing to understand about the gender wage gap: it varies quite a bit from country to country, and the United States has one of the largest. Dutch economist Remco Oostendorp studied the effect during a sixteen-year-period in eighty countries. Among the thirteen “high-income countries,” the United States tied for the fourth-greatest disparity in earnings between men and women.

For the most part, those national differences can be explained by workplace policies that either allow or prevent women from hanging onto their jobs when life demands that they take some time off. These differences are discussed at length in this chapter. The wage gap is also related to how much power workers have in general. Economists Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn looked at the wage gap in twenty-two countries during a ten-year period and found that when unions play a larger role in determining pay scales, the gender wage gap shrinks.

Women play a greater role in the U.S. economy today than at any time since Rosie the Riveter gave up making bombers and went back home to make babies after World War II, but U.S. corporations-- enabled by a political class still dominated by men-- continue to punish them for the high crime of being female.

The American workforce has one of the highest rates of female participation in the world. Between 1955 and 2002, the percentage of working-age women who had jobs outside the home almost doubled, while men’s workforce participation fell by more than 10 percent.7 Women went back to work as it became harder for a single earner to keep a family afloat. Economist Doug Henwood showed that a worker making an average manufacturing wage had to work 62 weeks in order to earn the median family income in 1947. By 1973, that had risen to 74 weeks, and in 2001, it was 81 weeks.

So, we can thank women’s participation for a significant chunk of the U.S. economy’s much-vaunted “dynamism.” Highly educated women entering the workforce in the 1990s added to America’s “productivity miracle.” Harvard economist Richard Freeman studied labor stats in 1998 and found that women moving into the workforce increased the employment rate by almost 10 percent. Forget about “business-friendly” regulatory environments and the wonders of “Rubinomics”-- the injection of female workers into the workforce accounted for almost two-thirds of the difference between the unemployment rate in the United States and other advanced economies (more on those data later).

Yet despite all that women contribute to our economic health, the United States was one of only 4 countries out of 173 studied by McGill University’s Project on Global Working Families that doesn’t mandate some form of paid maternal leave. That puts the United States-- among the wealthiest nations on the planet-- in the company of desperately poor Liberia, Papua New Guinea, and Swaziland.

What’s more, 145 of those 173 countries mandate that employers provide paid leave for workers who become ill or who have to care for a sick child or an elderly parent, but the United States is not among them. The best we do is require some U.S. employers to offer unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). This doesn’t cover all workers-- only 40 percent of the private sector workforce fall under the act-- and conservatives fought tooth-and-nail against the measure when it was passed during the Clinton administration. Conservatives continue to oppose family leave policies to this day.

Regardless of how enlightened we believe we are, the yoke of housework, childrearing, and eldercare still falls disproportionately on women. The legendary progressive economist Marilyn Waring was the first to consider the economics of unpaid housework in the 1980s. Waring estimated that if what has traditionally been thought of as “women’s work” were counted economically, it would constitute the world’s single largest service and production sector. Suzanne Bianchi, a sociologist at the University of Maryland, found that working mothers spent an average of twelve hours a week on child care in 2003, an hour more than stay-at-home moms did in 1975.

The economic penalties imposed on working women when they take time off for family responsibilities creates a double whammy that lowers fertility rates and impacts the wealth of both single women and two-income families in myriad ways. Inflexible workplaces offer socially mobile women a devil’s choice: they can advance in their careers or they can have families. According to Business Week, female corporate execs are twice as likely to be child-free as are women in the population as a whole. Those making $100,000 per year are two-and-a-half times more likely to be childless.

Yet more often, women don’t have a choice, and they take the financial hit. Karen Kornbluh noted that women without children made 90 percent of what their male counterparts earn, but working mothers earn less than 75 percent. A first child lowered a woman’s earnings by an average of 7.5 percent, a second child by 8 percent more.

It’s not that women leave the workforce permanently to have kids or care for a sick child or parent; it’s that when they leave their jobs, they usually can’t return (or they lose their seniority when they do). According to economist Heather Boushey at the Center for American Progress, “If women have paid leave they are much more likely to go back to their jobs, and much less likely to quit or switch jobs.” Not having it creates a ripple effect in their working lives, costing them seniority, raises, and future promotions and benefits. Former Clinton adviser Gene Sperling pointed out that the average time a worker needs to stay on the job to get pension benefits-- if people get them at all in our wonderful “New Economy”-- is 5 years. Men’s average time working the same job is 5.1 years; for women it’s less than 4.18

According to the Employee Benefits Research Institute, women older than sixty-five who have income from pensions and annuities pull down, on average, $10,866 per year, while their male counterparts enjoy an annual income of $16,933-- 56 percent more. And with our uniquely inflexible workplaces, a third of U.S. women work in “nonstandard” or part-time jobs with no pension benefits. Both of those factors help explain why women older than sixty-five are twice as likely to live in poverty as men.

Pretty much every aspect of women’s reproductive work is punished economically in the U.S. workplace, and that affects all two-earner, nuclear households-- the ideal to which we’re all supposed to aspire. It doesn’t need to be this way. We’re so far behind the rest of the world in commonsense, pro-women, and pro-family policies that we don’t need to reinvent the wheel to figure out what works. Yet just about every measure to close the wage gap or mandate parental leave policies is opposed by the dead-enders of a cranky old patriarchy whose views are increasingly out of step with the realities of modern life and the imperatives of a global economy. When Bill Clinton managed to squeeze the Family and Medical Leave Act through Congress, the late Strom Thurmond warned that similar measures in Europe had “contributed to a stagnating economy and unemployment.” The Chamber of Commerce has been fighting the FMLA ever since and has formed a fake grassroots group called the National Coalition to Protect Family Leave, the goal of which is to, well, destroy family leave legislation. Yet in fact, among the ten countries with the most competitive economies (according to the World Economic Forum’s annual rankings), only the United States lacks generous family leave policies.

The truth is that family-friendly policies are also good for business. In his book The Pro-Growth Progressive, Gene Sperling reviewed the gains made by firms that have gotten ahead of the curve in workplace flexibility. He cited a study of a hundred U.S. businesses that found paid parental leave to be associated with a 2.5 percent increase in profits. He mentioned another study that concluded that employees who participated in one company’s “work-life” programs were 45 percent more likely to say they’d “go the extra mile” for their employers than were workers who didn’t take part in the program. Sperling concluded that giving employees more flexibility resulted in improved “motivation, making workers more productive,” and ended up cutting costs by reducing employee turnover.

The return on investing in working families is high. A study of the impact of an after-school program in North Carolina found that enabling parents-- primarily mothers-- to work a full day before picking up their kids added $590 million to the state’s economy. The Department of Education estimates that the cost of universal after-school programs nationwide would be between $5 billion and $10 billion annually, a drop in the bucket as far as federal spending goes.

Women and the families they support-- with wages and unpaid labor-- have every reason to feel beleaguered by a culture that doesn’t care about their values. They have a clear choice between progressive and conservative solutions; they can support the right-wingers who whine about sex on TV but never do anything about it, or they can support liberals fighting for the United States to catch up with Mexico and Greece in terms of family-friendly public policies. Arguing for an economy that works for women and their families is the type of politics that once upon a time fueled the New Deal Coalition-- it represents the promise of a humanist economy.

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan out of touch with women's concerns? Now why would anyone think that?

The Ladies Get Slapped Down By Conservatives... Again

After over a century of opposition from conservatives here in the U.S.-- and many centuries of opposition worldwide to political equality for women-- Congress passed the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote on June 4th, 1919. A year later, on August 18, 1920, it was ratified-- Tennessee being the 36th state to go for it (that was the number needed at the time), 50-99. The amendment itself had been written in 1878 (by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton) and introduced by Aaron Sargent, a Republican senator from California. Conservatives defeated it 34-16 the first time it was voted on and just kept on defeating it year after year. Ultimately it took 41 years for Congress to give the franchise to citizens of the females persuasion, although some states enfranchised women earlier, like California and Washington and most western states gave women the vote before the Constitution mandated it. But six of the most backward states in the country opposed ratification long after women were given the right to vote. A half dozen of the most right-wing, anti-democracy states in the country didn't ratify until relatively recently, Mississippi being worst of all-- March 2, 1984! The other states that felt women shouldn't be allowed to vote until recently were Florida (1969), South Carolina (1969), Georgia (1970), Louisiana (1970), and North Carolina (1971).


This week President Obama was still doing battle against conservatives who are as determined as ever to control women as though their were chattel. "Tomorrow, Congress is going to have a chance to vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act," he told the media. "I don't have to tell you how much this matters to families across the country. All of you are working day in, day out, to support the basic principle, equal pay for equal work... Congress has to step up and do its job. Women are the breadwinners for a lot of families, and if they're making less than men do for the same work, families are going to have to get by for less money for childcare and tuition and rent ... Everybody suffers."

This afternoon the Senate took up the Paycheck Fairness Act which would require employers to demonstrate that any salary differences between men and woman doing the same work are not gender-related and prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who share salary information with their co-workers. It would require the Labor Department to work harder to eliminate pay disparities. Women may have gotten the right to vote in 1919 but they still make 77 cents for every dollar that men make in the same job. And the Republican Party filibustered it to death. The final vote for cloture to end the GOP filibuster was 52-47. The vote was strictly along party lines, with the two Independent senators, Bernie Sanders (VT) and Lieberman (CT) voting with Democrats andMark Kirk (R-IL) not voting. Majority Leader Harry Reid changed his vote so that he could bring the bill up again.

The leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) and Keith Ellison (D-MN) blasted the GOP filibuster against equality. Raúl: “Republicans are standing against public opinion, common sense, and fifty years of advances in gender equality. Now everyone in this country who pays women less than men for the same job knows who their friends are in Washington. This is an open insult to every working woman and man in this country, not only because it means families earn less for their honest labor but because it creates inequality between colleagues where none should exist. Shame on everyone who votes for discrimination in the workplace.” Keith: “The idea that a woman would be paid less than a man for the same work is grossly unfair. Why would anyone subvert the democratic process to pay women less than men? Women lose significant income during their lifetimes due to pay inequity. This unfairness extends to the children, elderly parents and families who rely on women for support. This unequal treatment has to end.” And this was President Obama's statement:

This afternoon, Senate Republicans refused to allow an up-or-down vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act, a commonsense piece of legislation that would strengthen the Equal Pay Act and give women more tools to fight pay discrimination. It is incredibly disappointing that in this make-or-break moment for the middle class, Senate Republicans put partisan politics ahead of American women and their families. Despite the progress that has been made over the years, women continue to earn substantially less than men for performing the same work. My Administration will continue to fight for a woman’s right for equal pay for equal work, as we rebuild our economy so that hard work pays off, responsibility is rewarded, and every American gets a fair shot to succeed.

Woman... Making Trouble Again

The Senate got back to work yesterday, their first formal session since the midterms. And the first thing they took up was S.3772, the Paycheck Fairness Act, which the Repubicans filibustered to death. It's their version of H.R. 12, Rosa DeLauro's bill that passed the House on January 9, 2009 256-163, 10 manistream Republicans abandoning the reactionary GOP leadership to vote for gender equality in the workplace. (The 3 right-wing Blue Dogs who voted with the Republicans on this-- Bobby Bright, Parker Griffith and Walt Minnick-- have all been rejected by their constituents and, thankfully, will no longer be serving in Congress as of January.) This is what, in short, the bill is meant to accomplish:

Amends the portion of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) known as the Equal Pay Act to revise remedies for, enforcement of, and exceptions to prohibitions against sex discrimination in the payment of wages.

Revises the exception to the prohibition for a wage rate differential based on any other factor other than sex. Limits such factors to bona fide factors, such as education, training, or experience.

States that the bona fide factor defense shall apply only if the employer demonstrates that such factor: (1) is not based upon or derived from a sex-based differential in compensation; (2) is job-related with respect to the position in question; and (3) is consistent with business necessity. Avers that such defense shall not apply where the employee demonstrates that: (1) an alternative employment practice exists that would serve the same business purpose without producing such differential; and (2) the employer has refused to adopt such alternative practice.

Revises the prohibition against employer retaliation for employee complaints.
Prohibits retaliation for inquiring about, discussing, or disclosing the wages of the employee or another employee in response to a complaint or charge, or in furtherance of a sex discrimination investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, or an investigation conducted by the employer.

Makes employers who violate sex discrimination prohibitions liable in a civil action for either compensatory or (except for the federal government) punitive damages.

States that any action brought to enforce the prohibition against sex discrimination may be maintained as a class action in which individuals may be joined as party plaintiffs without their written consent.

Authorizes the Secretary of Labor to seek additional compensatory or punitive damages in a sex discrimination action.

Sounds pretty cut and dry, right? I mean it's 2010, not 1810 when this kind of stuff was controversial. Nevertheless, every single Republican-- including so-called "moderates" Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and putative Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska-- decided the best way to proceed was to filibuster the bill to death.

During the election cycle I mentioned that I feared West Virginia's conservative Democratic governor, Joe Manchin, would be an even worse senator than Ben Nelson. This was his very first vote and... he stuck with the Democrats and with the working women of his state. This was President Obama's statement of the filibuster yesterday:

I am deeply disappointed that a minority of Senators have prevented the Paycheck Fairness Act from finally being brought up for a debate and receiving a vote. This bill passed in the House almost two years ago; today, it had 58 votes to move forward, the support of the majority of Senate, and the support of the majority of Americans. As we emerge from one of the worst recessions in history, this bill would ensure that American women and their families aren’t bringing home smaller paychecks because of discrimination. It also helps businesses that pay equal wages as they struggle to compete against discriminatory competition. But a partisan minority of Senators blocked this common sense law. Despite today’s vote, my Administration will continue to fight for a woman’s right to equal pay for equal work.

His Administration is too diplomatic to call Ben Nelson out on this and give him any reason to think there might be some consequences for this kind of behavior-- unlike the way the Republicans have whipped Olympia Snowe into shape. Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, was less reticent and made it clear to DWT that Nelson was as much a problem as the GOP was on this.

Senate Republicans-- abetted by Senator Nelson-- today disrespected America’s working women by voting to prevent any debate on the Paycheck Fairness Act. Simply put, blocking the Paycheck Fairness Act encourages discrimination of women in the workplace.

Efforts like this legislation to close the income gap in our country are an essential component to long-term economic recovery. Republicans in the Senate have remained content to leave the middle-class and the poor out in the cold in pursuit of their political goals and interests of their Wall Street allies. They have had but one message to the elderly, the unemployed, the uninsured and now even women, ‘No’.

Progressive Mainers-- and women there in general-- were shocked that Collins and Snowe, in effect, killed the bill. Sarah Standiford, executive director of the Maine Women's Lobby said "Right now, Maine women are earning just 77 cents to a man's dollar--the wage gap is actually widening," she says. "It's an issue of fairness, certainly, but it's also, importantly, an issue of economics, for both families and for economic recovery." Snowe responded with a standard GOP talking point she might have been unwilling to regurgitate just a few months ago, claiming the bill "would raise the cost of doing business for all companies." Snowe and Collins are also prepared to kill both the DREAM Act and the repeal of DADT, two things they have supported in the pre-teabagophobic past.

The Republican War On Working Families Hits A Roadblock-- And Lilly Ledbetter Act Passes The Senate... By A Landslide

As soon as the new House got back to work, it repassed, quite overwhelmingly, the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act, both meant to ensure equal pay for equal work. Ledbetter passed in the House 247-171 with only 3 Republicans joining every Democrat except 5 reactionary dogs from the old slave-holding states who, basically, agree with the GOP that women belong behind a stove, not in the workplace: Allen Boyd (Blue Dog-FL), Bobby Bright (freshman wingnut-AL), Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK), Parker Griffith (freshman wingnut-AL), Travis Childers (wingnut-MS). The Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 12) passed with an even wider margin, 256-163 and only three reactionary women-haters among the Democrats crossing the aisle to join the GOP on that one: Bobby Bright (AL), Parker Griffith (AL) and Walt Minnick (ID).

President Obama has already said he is eager to sign both bills. And yesterday Ledbetter moved to the Senate. Beverly Neufeld at TortDeform-- The Civil Justice Defense Blog set the stage nicely in the morning and warned against likely amendments by reactionaries that were introduced to weaken the intent of the bill. Needless to say, the GOP had no problem finding a lady-shill as their anti-woman stooge. Texas clown Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is eyeing a run for governor, offered an amendment, or actually a substitute bill, that would require women to prove "a reasonable suspicion of discrimination" before they would be allowed to proceed with claims that date beyond six months. Most senators saw right through her tactic and her efforts came to naught, with every single Democrat plus Republican Olympia Snowe voting it down, while all the other Republicans (40) voted for it. (The Senate had already killed a GOP attempt to filibuster the bill last Thursday, passing a cloture motion 72-23, all the Democrats plus 17 Republicans including even Mitch McConnell, who had sabotaged the same bill last year! Only the most radical right Neanderthals, led by DeMint and Kyl voted to filibuster equal rights in the workplace for women this time around.

Snarlin' Arlen Specter (R-PA) then tried 2 more maneuvers yesterday, amendments the Chamber of Commerce wrote for him that would, in effect, nullify any benefits of the bill. Specter was able to attract the two most reactionary Democrats-- Mary Landrieu and Ben Nelson, each a devoted shill of Big Business-- on his first try but the attempt was handily thwarted by the rest of the Democrats plus Snowe. His second shot not only lost Landrieu and Nelson, but also sent Susan Collins over to the Democratic side. It failed 55-39.

Next up was Wyoming winger Mike Enzi but his boneheaded amendment was beaten back as well, Snowe sticking with the Democrats (although Webb defected). Johnny Isakson also tried weakening the bill with an amendment which was defeated 59-38, attracting no Democrats and losing Collins, Snowe and Specter. Yesterday was a bad day for the enemies of working families in the U.S. Senate. A little bit of change has indeed come to Washington.

After all this posturing and game-playing by the Republicans over equality for women in the workplace, the GOP's arch-obstructionist and the Senate's worst enemy of working families, Jim DeMint suddenly chimed in with an amendment he and David Diapers Vitter cooked up to weaken the ability of working people to organize and bargain with business collectively. Basically it was a tactic to throw sand in the faces of supporters of the Employee Free Choice Act. It was defeated, 67-30, all the Democrats voting yes, along with 11 Republicans, especially ones who are up for re-election in 2010 like Judd Gregg, Lisa Murkowski and Arlen Specter, as well as the Republicans who have already announced they are retiring and would rather stop beating up on working families in their last days in the Senate-- Kit Bond, Mel Martinez ad George Voinovich. Vitter then offered his own anti-worker bill, which was also defeated 59-38, every Democrat standing firm against the onslaught, along with Specter, Murkowski and Voinovich, a good indication that the Employee Free Choice Act will pass when it finally comes up for a vote.

Oh, and when the actual Ledbetter Act came to a final vote last yesterday afternoon, it passed 61-36, a nice healthy margin. Every single Democrat voted yes, of course, and they were joined by the 4 Republican women Senators plus Specter. It's 2010 but 36 reactionary Republicans voted against equality for women, including John McCain and, needless to say, the Senate's biggest whoremonger, David Diapers Vitter. Overall, Republican senators say they were just happy to be able to offer their poison pill amendments and debate them and promise they won't abuse the process to hold up Obama's agenda. I like it too because it shows Americans exactly what the GOP stands for.


UPDATE: LEDBETTER NOW HEADED FOR A CONFERENCE COMMITTEE RECONCILIATION

The House version, as usual, is more progressive and encompassing than what the Senate passed yesterday, and the two bodies will appoint a conference committee to iron out the differences. This won't be problematic and it is expected that Ledbetter will be the first new law signed by President Obama.

Why Does Bobby Bright (D-AL) Hate Women And Children And Love Republican Ideology?

He even LOOKS like a Republican!

Yesterday Alabama freshman Bobby Bright joined the House Democratic caucus' most reactionary member, Jim Marshall (Blue Dog-GA), in opposing the Democratic Party's attempt to reach needy children with health insurance (S-CHIP). They were the only two Democrats to vote against the bill, which passed in a massive landslide, 289-139, with 40 mainstream conservative Republicans joining the rest of the Democrats to pass it. Currently there are 76,000 uninsured children in Alabama (and 307,000 in Georgia). If SCHIP passes the Senate and becomes law 66% of the Alabama kids will be covered (and 59% of the Georgians). Both numbers are significantly higher than the national average (47%). Earlier in the day, Bright and Marshall, along with 3 other arch-reactionaries, had joined the GOP in an obstructionist tactic to kill the bill through a motion to recommit, something the Democratic leadership was able to beat back.

Last Friday, Congressman Bright participated in his first roll call votes as a member of Congress. Generally speaking he showed himself to be a perfect little dupe for the Republican Party. He voted with them on their parliamentary tactics to kill Democratic legislation. When the GOP attempted to derail the bill to make sure women who are not paid fairly have some kind of recourse under the law, Bright joined 8 other extreme right wing Democrats to cross the aisle and vote with the Republicans. And when that bill, the Paycheck Fairness Act came up for a vote, Bright and two other right wing freshman Democrats (fellow Alabaman Parker Griffith and Walt Minnick of Idaho) joined all but 10 Republicans in voting against equality for women.

Later the same day the landmark Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 came up for a vote and Bright was one of only 5 Democrats to cross the aisle and join the GOP to register their contempt for the concept of equal pay for equal work for American working women, the others being Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK), Allen Boyd (Blue Dog-FL), Parker Griffith (AL), and Travis Childers (MS).

During the 2008 election cycle we warned the DCCC and Alabama voters that Bright's reactionary record indicated clearly that he could be counted on to support Republican Party positions on even the most basic, core Democratic values and principles. The DCCC proceeded to spend $1,177,847 in Independent Expenditures alone on electing Bright. They also helped him raise the bulk of the million dollars he spent on his campaign apart from that. At the same time dozens of real Democrats were given not one dime-- or even the time of day-- by the DCCC, some of whom were able to hold their Republican opponents to tiny margins. Here is a list of some of the Republican incumbents who could have been beaten had the DCCC not wasted all that money on proto-Republican-in-Democratic-clothing Bobby Bright. The key to remember here is that the Democrats who ran against these Republicans got no financial help (zero), in terms of Independent Expenditures, from the DCCC:

Dan Lungren (CA-03)- 50%
Brian Bilbray (CA-50)- 50%
Thaddeus McCotter (MI-11)- 51%
Ken Calvert (CA-44)- 52%
Jim Gerlach (PA-06)- 52%
Dana Rohrabacher (CA-46)- 53%
Judy Biggert (IL-13)- 53%
Michael McCaul (TX-10)- 54%

This morning I got a letter from David Canter, a progressive Democrat running for Congress in 2010 against far right Republican Mike Coffman in Colorado's 6th CD (suburban Denver). The e-mail deals with equal rights for women.

Believe it or not, on January 9th newly elected Congressman Mike Coffman, my opponent in the 6th Congressional District, voted AGAINST equal rights for women-- not once, but twice!

These were Mr. Coffman's FIRST TWO VOTES in Congress, and they give us an idea of what we can expect from the next two years. I am running for Congress to replace Mr. Coffman and I say that's not acceptable!

The Declaration of Independence says that "all men are created equal." But what about women? The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution says that "all persons" shall have equal protection under the law, but let's face it, throughout American history women have not had equal protection, and they do not enjoy completely equal rights even today.

Did you know that research released in April 2007, shows that just one year out of college, women working full time already earn less than their male colleagues, even when they work in the same field. Ten years after graduation, the pay gap widens. To match men's earnings for 2008, women have to work from January 2008 to April 2009-- an extra four months! Click here for more info: AAUW's Position on Pay Equity.

What does this have to do with Mike Coffman and my campaign?

In 2008, the American people overwhelmingly elected Barack Obama to the Presidency and a larger majority of Democrats to the U.S. House and Senate to get things done, and that's what the new Congress came to Washington to do. The new House convened on January 6th, 2009, and by January 9th had already passed two bills to address equality for women, and particularly pay equity.

Mike Coffman voted against both of those bills!

While Barack Obama and the newly expanded Democratic Congress came to Washington to work for the American people, Mike Coffman showed up ready to do the only thing he can do as a Republican in Washington today-- obstruct progress toward solutions to America's problems. That he chose to do so by voting against equality for women tells us exactly how far outside the mainstream Mike Coffman is!

I believe this is wrong and I will fight to fix it! I believe in equality for women, not only in the workplace and in pay, but in the right to make decisions about their own bodies. I invite you to visit my website, and specifically the page on Women's Rights, for more information. Here's a link to make it easy: Women's Rights.

If you agree with me that issues such as Women's Rights are too important to be left to the whims of Mike Coffman's extreme right wing ideology, then I'm asking you to please help me win this seat so that I can support Barack Obama and help solve the problems facing America today. Please visit my website to learn more about me, to sign up to help, and to donate. Your donation today, of any size or amount, will help us get this campaign rolling and win in CD6!

Substitute so-called Democrat Bobby Bright's name for extremist Republican Mike Coffman in Canter's letter. Then tell the DCCC that you want accountability for the money they spend on reactionary fake Democrats. Millions of dollars were wasted in the last two cycles on "Democrats" who consistently vote against the most basic Democratic principles, "Democrats" who revel in crossing the aisle and voting with the GOP. In this year's freshman class, we have already seen Bright, Parker Griffith and Walt Minnick showing how helpful they're going to be to John Boehner and the GOP leadership as it prepares to obstruct everything Barack Obama plans to do to rescue America from years and years of Republican misrule and corruption. But God knows those weren't the only candidates DCCC money helped elect who have gone on to support the Republicans. We'll see how long it takes for conservative freshmen like Gerald Connolly, Michael McMahon and Kathleen Dahlkemper to start crossing the aisle but for a solid baker's dozen Democrats there is no need to wait. Right wing kooks calling themselves Democrats who vote with the GOP again and again on substantive matters include Gene Taylor (MS), Collin Peterson (MN), John Tanner (TN), Mike McIntyre (NC), Travis Childers (MS), Jim Marshall (GA), Dan Boren (OK), Allen Boyd (FL), Jim Matheson (UT), Chris Carney (PA), John Barrow (GA), Bart Gordon (TN) and Lincoln Davis (TN).

Next year the DCCC has proclaimed they will devote most of their resources to incumbent retention. Money shouldn't be wasted on retaining the above members. There has got to be some kind of accountability for Democrats who vote with the Republicans as a matter of course.

Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act Passes Overwhelmingly In The House-- On To The Senate

We've covered the Lilly Ledbetter fight extensively here at DWT and I'm happy to report that what amounts to a law guaranteeing Equal Pay For Equal Work has passed once again in the House (just a couple hours ago), 247- 171. Five of the worst reactionary fake Democrats-- Allen Boyd (Blue Dog-FL), Bobby Bright (freshman wingnut-AL), Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK), Parker Griffith (freshman wingnut-AL), Travis Childers (wingnut-MS)-- joined all but 3 Republicans in voting against equal rights for America's working women. The 3 Republicans: Chris Smith (NJ), Ed Whitfield (KY) and Don Young (AK).

Here's the statement by the bill's sponsor, Rep Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) on passage:

“In this economy, families are struggling to make ends meet. Not one of them deserves to be shortchanged, but because women still earn 78 cents for every dollar men earn, many unfortunately are. But this does not need to be.  Today, by passing the Paycheck Fairness Act, we send a strong message that gender discrimination is unacceptable and women will have the tools they need to combat it. We are standing up for working women and their families. It is our moment to fight for economic freedom and eliminate the systemic discrimination faced by women workers. With this legislation, we begin the change, make history, and change lives.”

The bill will once again go to the Senate, where McConnell and his reactionary allies, at the urging of their lobbyist paymasters, have filibustered it to death in the past-- and hope to do the same thing again. Can they? I doubt it. Forty-two Republicans voted against equal pay last time around and that includes two Republicans who were defeated in November, Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) and Ted Stevens (R-AK), each of whom was replaced by a strong proponent of equal rights for women, Kay Hagan and Mark Begich. And then there's McCain. He ducked the vote last year and this one will be a test of where he's going to be on mainstream issues, with the vast majority of Americans or with the extremist fringe. Perhaps someone should remind him-- as well as some of the Republicans who will face the voters in 2010 (like anti-equality fanatics Arlen Specter, Jim Bunning, Lisa Murkowski, Chuck Grassley, George Voinovich, Judd Gregg, David Diapers Vitter, John Thune, Johnny Isakson and, of course, the malevolent Jim DeMint)-- that in 2007, women earned only 80 cents for every dollar a man earned and that the pay gap was even greater for minorities, with African-American women making only 70 cents and Hispanic women making only 62 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts! Is that McCain's idea of putting America first?

I want to remind readers that the Republicans aren't the only enemies of working families in our country. Remember Congressmen Boyd, who has gubernatorial aspirations in Florida, right-wing Blue Dog kook Dan Boren, and reactionary neo-Confederates who the DCCC wasted millions of dollars on electing, Bobby Bright, Parker Griffith, and Travis Childers. Fortunately, every single Democrat in the Senate, from every region of the country, supports equal pay. I hope women voters in Oklahoma, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi remember who stood with them and who stood against them in 2010. (We'll remind you.)


UPDATE: PAYCHECK FAIRNESS ACT ALSO PASSED

Earlier today, the House passed the Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 12) with an even wider margin, 256-163. Ten Republicans joined the Democrats to pass this law, which will amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide more effective remedies to victims of discrimination in the payment of wages on the basis of sex, and for other purposes. Big Business lobbyists and the Chamber of Commerce nazis rallied Republicans against it, of course. The only Republicans brave enough to stand up to them were Anh Cao (R-LA), Howard Castle (R-DE), Charlie Dent (R-PA), the Diaz-Balart Brothers (R-FL), Jim Gerlach (R-PA), Tim Johnson (R-IL), Dave Reichert (R-WA), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chris Smith (R-NJ). Six of the ten, Dent, the Diaz-Balarts, Gerlach, Reichert and Ros-Lehtinen had tough challenges from Democrats in November and they will probably tread more carefully this year and next than they have in the past, at least when it comes to victimizing working families.

On the other hand, 3 reactionary freshman "Democrats" went the other way and joined the Republicans in voting against this: Bobby Bright (AL), Parker Griffith (AL) and Walt Minnick (ID). Thanks, DCCC for getting these three right-wingers into Congress as Democrats; they could never have done it without you!

Before the vote, the Republicans tried to use a parliamentary maneuver to kill the bill. It was soundly defeated 240-178. Interestingly 9 reactionary fake Democrats strolled across the aisle to vote with the GOP on this, knowing full well that these kinds of procedural votes don't get held against you when you go begging to labor unions for money at election time:

Bobby Bright (AL)
Chris Carney (Blue Dog-PA)
Travis Childers (MS)
Jim Marshall (Blue Dog-GA)
Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT)
Walt Minnick (ID)
Harry Mitchell (AZ)
Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC)
Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS)

Equal Pay For Equal Work Passes By Large Margin, Despite Dogged Republican Opposition

Yesterday the House passed, by 247-178, the Paycheck Fairness Act. Every single Democrat voted for it and 14 Republicans-- mostly cowards running from their records-- joined then. The worst of the GOP ideologues and extremists all voted no. Connecticut Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro explained why this bill is so meaningful:

"With this resolution, we take up an effort that began more than 150 years ago when visionary women came together to stand up for women's rights, to better the status of women in our society. In this tradition, more than 11 years ago, I first introduced the legislation that we consider this morning, the Paycheck Fairness Act, and I cannot help but think of all the Aprils we have commemorated Equal Pay Day without legislative movement. But today the legislative inertia we have experienced for years have come to an end. The wage gap is real… Over the course of her lifetime, a female high school graduate will make $700,000 less than the young man she graduates with. Compared to a man, a female college graduate stands to lose up to $2 million in the course of her career. This is true across the board."

Although endangered, petrified Bush rubber stamp reactionaries like Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), the Diaz-Balart Brothers (Rs-FL), Charlie Dent (R-PA), Robin Hayes (R-NC), Dave Reichert (R-WA), Phil English (R-PA) and a small handful of Republicans being encouraged to abandon Republican "principles" by Tom Cole and to run against the GOP, crossed the aisle today so they can lie to women and tell them they support equality, most Republicans up for re-election in November didn't have the sense to dodge this one.

During a conference call, the National Republican Congressional Committee chairman instructed candidates, campaign managers and press secretaries that given the anti-incumbent environment, it could be beneficial for House GOP candidates to distance themselves from politicians they may be serving with next year.

“These [congressional approval] ratings are worse than we had on the eve of losing the majority,” Cole said. “Don’t be afraid to say you are disappointed in fellow Republicans… don’t hesitate to be anti-Washington, D.C.”

The NRCC chief discouraged candidates from attending the national convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, saying that spending days there would be a “waste of time,” and they would be better off campaigning.

Among the Republicans voting against equal pay for women-- daring Republican women to vote against them-- were a wide range of Republicans from make believe moderates like Mark Kirk (R-IL), Judy Biggert (R-IL), and Mary Bono Mack (R-CA or FL; who knows anymore) to died in the wool far right radicals like Michele Bachmann (R-MN), John Culberson (R-TX), Thelma Drake (R-VA), woman-hating closet queens David Dreier (R-CA) and Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Randy Forbes (R-VA), Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Virgil Goode (R-VA), Ric Keller (R-FL), John Kline (R-MN), Joe Knollenberg (R-MI), Randy Kuhl (R-NY), Tom Latham (R-IA-- who is still voting the way Bush wants but is at great pains to claim he's not a Bush clone by bragging to Iowa newspapers that Bush isn't welcome on his campaign), Mike McCaul (R-TX), Steve Pearce (R-NM), Mike Pence (R-IN), Adam Putnam (R-FL), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Mean Jean Schmidt (R-OH), John Shadegg (R-AZ), Tim Walberg (R-MI), Frank Wolf (R-VA) and Bill Young (R-FL).

We reached out two two of self-made women who have been endorsed by Blue America for congressional seats whose opponents are against equality of pay for equal work. Debbie Cook is the mayor of Huntington Beach in Orange County, CA and she's running against reactionary--and somewhat batty-- incumbent Dana Rohrabacher. His vote yesterday may have disgusted her but she wasn't surprise. She told us that "Rohrabacher has voted to increase his own pay 10 times in 11 years. While voting himself $90,000 in pay raises, he's voted against equal pay for women, against access to birth control, against Head Start programs, and against health care for children. Dana Rohrabacher's record on women's issues is clear: he doesn't care at all about the health and well-being of the women in his district."

Judy Feder in Northern Virginia had a similar reaction to the anti-woman vote from her member of Congress, Frank Wolf. "This is the third time in just the last couple of weeks that Congressman Wolf has voted against hardworking Americans and hardworking families in Virginia. And I have to say, as a woman, this particular vote is the most offensive to me," Judy told us this morning. "Not only is this an issue of basic fairness, but as families try to deal with stressful economic times, equal pay for women is also about helping millions of families meet their needs on a daily basis."

Nor, of course, is it only women who are supporting equal rights for women. Bob Lord, the Arizona progressive Democrat running against sleazy reactionary John Shadegg, who has a shady and disgraceful history with women and now thinks he's going to inherit John McCain's senate seat, finds Shadegg's vote against equality as typical of a disturbing pattern among rubber stamp Republicans. "John Shadegg just voted against equal pay for women," Bob told DWT this morning. "Shadegg keeps showing us that he is one of the most conservative members of Congress that votes with Bush nearly 100 percent of the time and this clearly is one of the worst examples yet. Shadegg epitomizes what is wrong with Congress and he made that loud and clear yesterday-- that and it's time to elect new leadership."

Watch George Miller (D-CA) answering disgraceful Republican charges that there is no disparity between men and women.



A thorough analysis from Andrea Miller, the exceptionally brilliant progressive running against garden variety rubber stamp Randy Forbes in southern Virginia:

Randy Forbes has been voting again and here's reason 1,245 why I'm running against him. It's hard to imagine in the 21st century that some legislators still can't accept the idea that women deserve equal pay for equal work. If you follow his voting record, it's hard to believe that Congressman Forbes is actually from humble beginnings, though now he's a millionaire and maybe that's the key to the real problem. Forbes has gotten so rich that he simply can't or won't remember what it's like to really depend on a paycheck. He also seems to consistently forget that while folks on the Chesapeake and Chesterfield side are doing reasonably well, though we're not rich by any means, more than 35% of the district exists on less than $30,000 per year and many of these are households depending upon a woman's salary for their daily bread and butter. Do the words "out of touch" and "totally clueless" come to mind?

There are two critical components of this bill that can really help women. First, the long overdue salary adjustments that are certain to result and second, women will be offered negotiation skills. Women instinctively "fight" for their children and when necessary, even for a husband. Women often are not willing to "fight" for themselves because their mothers taught them to put others first. Putting others first has helped create the paycheck inequality in the workplace.

Randy Forbes, with this vote, just voted against the working women in the 4th District. That's no surprise since he's voted against veterans, children's healthcare, mortgage relief and just a bit of tax relief.

McCONNELL AND SENATE REPUBLICAN EXTREMISTS KILL EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK BILL

Perhaps Miss McConnell will take care of your (boy) child if you need to find a second job

We've been writing a bit about the equal pay for equal work bill that should have been voted on today. The House already passed it by a healthy margin. And a nice majority favored it in the Senate today. The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act had two Republican co-sponsors and managed to win 56 votes in the Senate, including every single Democrat and both independents. McCain ducked the vote, of course-- what a maverick, what a moderate, what a hero-- but only 42 Republican wingnuts voted against equality for women. But because Kentucky closet queen Mitch (Missy) McConnell led the forces of reaction in a filibuster, the bill was killed-- without ever actually getting a chance to be voted on. You need 60 votes to break a filibuster.

Kathryn Kolbert, president of People For the American Way, one of the organization leading the charge on equal pay, seemed angry today after the vote. Remember, Kathryn was the attorney who saved Roe v Wade in front of the Supreme Court. She takes this kind of injustice very seriously.

“Republican Senators made it painfully clear tonight that they take their marching orders from business lobbyists, not the American people. Congress had a rare opportunity in the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to reverse the destructive Supreme Court ruling in Ledbetter vs. Goodyear. The House of Representatives delivered for workers, but Senate Republicans stopped it in its tracks.”

“The Ledbetter decision, written by President Bush’s nominee Samuel Alito, made it easier for businesses to practice pay discrimination with impunity. Workers who face pay discrimination but fail to file a complaint within 180 days of the initial discriminatory act are left with severely limited legal recourse, even if they do not learn of the discrimination until much later. This is unfair and unpractical but all too consistent with the larger effort by right-wing judges to undermine the ability of Americans to seek redress when wronged by powerful interests.

“We’re deeply disappointed, but not surprised, by the decision of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to aggressively fight fair pay for American workers. We encourage Senate Democrats to continue pushing for passage of the legislation. The difficulties facing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007 drive home for us the importance of having fair-minded judges on the Supreme Court who will protect and uphold equal rights for all.”

McCain didn't bother even showing up to vote but, campaigning in rural eastern Kentucky, where poverty is higher than in most of America-- and even worse for women-- he said he would have voted no. Several treacherous Republican senators who generally rubber stamp all of Bush's most contemptible agenda items are so frightened of losing in November that they broke ranks with their extremist leaders today and slinked over to the Democratic side, including Susan Collins (R-ME), Gordon Smith (R-OR), Norm Coleman (R-MN) and John Sununu (R-NH), all of whom voted to confirm the judge who wrote this hideous opinion, Sam Alito. Kathryn Kolbert from PFAW again: "Senator Norm Coleman was against fair pay when it counted. He lined up with his Republican colleagues and voted to put President Bush’s nominee, Justice Samuel Alito, on the Supreme Court for life. Alito had a track record of right-wing judicial activism. He surprised no one when he authored a 5-4 opinion in Ledbetter v. Goodyear that made it easier for companies to pay discriminatory wages with impunity.”

“Now Senator Coleman is saying he is ‘very open’ to reversing the decision. The Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would effectively reverse the decision, is coming up for a crucial vote in the Senate today. Coleman, rather than supporting the bill outright, has said he will seek a “compromise”
on the bill. Meanwhile his Senate Republican colleagues have already lined up to quash it.

“Senator Coleman’s half-hearted lip service to fair pay is no consolation for Americans like Lilly Ledbetter who face pay discrimination and are left without legal recourse. In fact, it’s an insult. Coleman has shown himself to be a fair-weather friend of workers-- not there when you need them, and there when you don’t.

“The Supreme Court’s ruling in Ledbetter was unfair and unreasonable, and Senator Coleman played a key enabling role. People For the American Way will work to ensure that Minnesotans don’t forget this fact.”

The Republicans who will have to face voters in November who decided equal pay for equal work isn't as important to them as massive bribes from corporate lobbyists are:

John Cornyn (R-TX)
James Inhofe (R-OK)
Elizabeth Dole (R-NC)
Michael Enzi (R-WY)
John Barrasso (R-WY)
Miss McConnell (R-KY)
Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
Ted Stevens (R-AK)
Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
Pat Roberts (R-KS)
Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Roger Wicker (R-MS)


UPDATE: BUT WHAT ABOUT "MRS" McCONNELL?

His marriage of convenience mate is, if anything, almost as bad as he is! When it comes to denying equal pay to women Elaine Chao is a Republican extremist first and a woman... well somewhere I suppose. A few years ago she tried claiming credit for helping to shrink the wage gap but the real reason for change was that under the Bush Regime's economic policies men's wages have started dropping precipitously.

In 2007, women earned only 80 cents for every dollar a man earned. This pay gap was substantially greater for minorities, with African-American women making only 70 cents and Hispanic women making only 62 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts.

But Elaine and Mitch don't see a problem: in 2006 Elaine claimed the pay gap had shrunk, when all that really happened was men's wages fell, women didn't gain. Under Elaine's watch, the administration also tried to cut resources for the agency that gives women information about harassment, discrimination, family leave, and childcare.

Chao got a nice pay raise though and makes $180,100 in her day job. She and McConnell have become multimillionaires though, as unofficial lobbyists for Chinese industry in this country.

WHY DO REPUBLICANS HATE WOMAN, PART II

Miss McConnell never liked women but this is going way too far

Beltway newspaper, The Hill has already pronounced the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007 dead on arrival. It passed in the House 225-199 but the closet queen from Kentucky who will always be the champion of male domination, Miss McConnell, plans to use every weapon of obstructionism in his arsenal to stop it-- and if he fails, Bush has vowed to veto it.

The Hill reports that there aren't enough Republicans to join the Democrats in overcoming Miss McConnell's anti-women filibuster. The only GOP cosponsors are Olympia Snowe (ME) and Arlen Specter (PA). "Most Republicans oppose it and the White House has threatened a veto, so prospects for passage are dim. Yet it is expected to resurface as an advertising campaign against politically vulnerable GOP senators who are up for reelection, such as Norm Coleman of Minnesota and Susan Collins of Maine."

Collins and Coleman are too scared of voters back home to do their normal rubber stamp routine and each is expected to swallow hard, whimper about how unfair their miserable lives are, and abandon Miss McConnell and the right-wing, voting for cloture. Greed and selfishness advocates inside the Republican coalition are screaming that it's another unfair regulation. Yes, imagine the injustice of having to pay people equal amounts for equal work, regardless of gender. Don't you feel terrible for these rotten bastards? No, well then remember to vote against every Republican in November, because the bribes they take from these businessmen and corporations is what compels them to vote against basic fairness issues like this. Arch-coward John McCain, of course, will avoid voting today.

Another reactionary, self-loathing closet queen in the Senate, South Carolina's light in the loafers McCain Mini-Me, Lindsey Graham tried twisting the popularity of equal pay in a limp attack on the bill's sponsors. “Most Americans get this. Most people understand that the government shouldn’t mandate wages like this. It’s not going to be an issue that we can’t defend against.”

And what is Miss McConnell's (and the Senate Republicans') rationale for blocking the equal pay bill for half the country's population? After all, they can hardly admit they have to do what their corporate paymasters insist on. According to this morning's NY Times Miss McConnell tried obfuscation: "We think that this bill is primarily designed to create a massive amount of new litigation in our country.” Unbelievable!

This is exactly why the Democrats need to have 60 seats in the next Senate. 60 seats; that means victory for Tom Allen (ME), Al Franken (MN), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Tom Udall (NM), Mark Udall (CO), Andrew Rice (OK), Mark Warner (VA), Rick Noriega (TX), Mark Begich (AK), Jim Neal (NC), and Greg Fischer (KY). (That means 60 without GOP puppet Holy Joe Lieberman.)

Ted Kennedy, the chief sponsor of the bill, and who blogged on it this morning at HuffPo, has a different way of looking at it than McConnell: "I can’t think of anything more in keeping with American ideals of fairness than equal pay for equal work."

Drum Major Institute has a well researched analysis on the impact of the bill on the American middle class. This week the Kentucky Women’s Political Caucus endorsed Greg Fischer in the Democratic Primary for U.S. Senate. Greg told the nonpartisan organization that "Women voters deserve someone they can trust to represent their values in the Senate and I am honored to have their endorsement.” When DWT contacted him today to ask him why the senior senator from Kentucky is thwarting equality for working women in Kentucky he certainly wasn't surprised. "In typical Washington fashion, Senator McConnell is blocking legislation that allows women to fight for their rights to equal pay. His obstructionism lets employers escape responsibility by hiding their decision to discriminate so they can run out the clock."

DO REPUBLICAN MEMBERS OF CONGRESS HATE WOMEN? THE ANSWER MAY SHOCK YOU

This morning People For the American Way put out an action alert, one that urges fair-minded citizens to call our U.S. Senators and urge them to pass H.R. 2831, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. We've been talking about the Ledbetter case since last year. The bill, which has already passed in the House. "remedies a terrible Supreme Court decision regarding protections against pay discrimination in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Because the Court's decision had to do with a piece of legislation and not the Constitution, Congress can amend the current law to make the language clearer and more explicit about the original act's intent -- and thus correct the Court. It looks like the vote will come tomorrow so today is the day to call your senator. The toll free number is 1-866-338-1015. The senators who talk about equal pay for equal work but who are likely to vote against the bill are:

Susan Collins (R-ME)
John Sununu (R-NH)
Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Norm Coleman (R-MN)
Elizabeth Dole (R-NC)
James Inhofe (R-OK)
John Cornyn (R-TX)
Gordon Smith (R-OR)
Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Ted Stevens (R-AK)
Pat Roberts (R-KS)
Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

Many people are unaware that under the Bush Regime women have had a particularly hard time keeping up. Today is Equal Pay Day but the effects of the Bush Recession is falling harder on women than on men.

     •     In the past year, the unemployment rate among adult women workers has gone up more rapidly than for men—rising from 3.8% in March 2007 to 4.6% in March 2008, an increase of 20%, compared with a 17% increase among adult men.


     •     The downturn has caused women's wages to fall and this decline is significantly larger than what men have suffered.  In 2007, the real median wage for adult women workers dropped 3%; wages for adult male workers dropped by.5% over the same period. Women's wages are also more volatile than men's wages, and they face a much higher risk of seeing large drops in income than men do.


     •     Women are also disproportionately at risk in the current foreclosure crisis, since women are 32% more likely than men to have subprime mortgages.


     •     Existing pay disparities for women exacerbate the economic strain on women and on households run by women, since women earn only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men


     •     Women have significantly fewer savings to fall back on in a time of economic hardship. Non-married women have a net worth 48% lower than non-married men, and women are less likely than men to participate in employer-sponsored retirement savings programs.

On top of that, today's Washington Post reports that life expectancy for women is falling-- for the first time since the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918. Heckuva job, Bush-- let's make sure to vote in another Republican just like him (or worse) in November!

And by the way, just so you get a better understanding of what the pay gap between men and women means in practical terms, the average 25-year-old working woman will lose more than $523,000 to unequal pay during her working life. Even with the inflation Republican economic policies has brought on, that's a LOT of money. Bush's chief obstructionist, Mitch McConnell is expected to lead a filibuster against equal pay and there will be a cloture vote to shut down the debate. One senator likely to support McConnell's filibuster against equal pay is Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe. Blue America has endorsed state Senator Andrew Rice in his bid to replace Inhofe and his reactionary policies this coming November. We asked Andrew if he thought there was any hope Inhofe could be persuaded to support equal pay for equal work.

“I hope that when Senator Inhofe considers his vote on the equal pay for equal work legislation in the Senate this week, he will take into account the status of women in our state. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Oklahoma ranks 45th among the 50 states in a cumulative measure of quality of life issues like employment, health, earnings and general well-being.  I believe we can do better, particularly because we Oklahomans place great value on life and equality.”

Does it matter to you? It isn't just Inhofe either. Do one of the senators on the list above represent you? Let him-- or Susan Collins, Lindsey Graham or Elizabeth Dole-- know what you think. That toll free phone number, again: 1-866-338-1015

Yes, Elizabeth Dole and Susan Collins-- two women, each trying to pass herself off as an independent-minded senator and a supporter of equal rights. And yet, each has been a serial rubber stamper of the worst of the GOP program. I contacted Jim Neal, the progressive Democrat running against Dole, and, like Andrew Rice, someone who has been enthusiastically endorsed by Blue America. Jim didn't comment on Dole or her shameful record specifically but what he told us leaves no doubt about the contrast North Carolina voters will be able to choose between: "Bad economics kills. Conservative economic policies have reduced Americans' incomes, and we see now reduced their life spans as well. The GOP has launched a frontal assault on all forms of reproductive health care as a proxy for their war on a woman’s right to choose. The Republicans have spent three decades distorting the record of the Great Society and the War on Poverty, Democratic programs which actually reduced poverty and improved the health of Americans. Now the jury is in on Republican economic policies, and we see they are literally killing us."

If you have a moment, please take a look at the ad that People For the American Way is running in Minnesota. It explains the difference between a senator claiming they support a lofty abstraction, like "equal rights" and supporting or failing to support the reality on the ground.




UPDATE: TOM ALLEN ON THE LEDBETTER FAIR PAY ACT

Blue America-endorsed Tom Allen has been one of Congress' strongest advocates of the whole idea of fair pay for equal work. He was one of the co-sponsors of the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007 last summer and this morning he came out swinging on the day when the Senate will try to overcome the Republican filibuster led by Mitch McConnell.

"Last summer I co-sponsored and helped pass the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007.  This bill reverses the Court's unacceptable and unfair reading of Title VII so that a more realistic and appropriate deadline applies to those who face discrimination in the workplace.
 
"This was the law before the Ledbetter decision, which once again demonstrated that President Bush's appointees have moved the High Court decisively away from the interests and aspirations of ordinary, hard-working Americans.
 
"A Court that was previously enlightened by the pragmatic wisdom of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is now controlled by the ideology-driven agenda of her replacement, Justice Alito.  
 
"When George Bush nominated him, Samuel Alito's record was clear.  
 
"I had no doubt that he would side with those who seek to turn the clock back on women's reproductive rights and who value employers' interests over those of workers. I would have voted against his confirmation for these very reasons, and as a member of the Senate, I will vote against the confirmation of any nominees who do not understand fairness and individual rights."

Susan Collins, the rubber stamp Republican senator Allen hopes to replace, voted, lemming-like, for Alito. It is expected that Tom's pressure could force her-- reluctantly-- to break with her party, something she rarely does, to vote to end McConnell's cowardly and disgraceful filibuster today.