On the Senate floor, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) tried to justify blocking paycheck fairness women by accusing President Obama of pushing millions of women into poverty.
Before every single Republican along with Independent Angus King voted to to block the Paycheck Fairness Act, McConnell said:
The Obama Economy has had a devastating impact on the people we represent. It’s hurt millions in the Middle Class, and people from every region of the country and almost every walk of life. And when you consider this week’s debate in the Senate, a few statistics jump out in particular.
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Under this President’s watch, more than 3.7 million American women have fallen into poverty. The average American woman now makes about $730 less than when the President took office. And if she’s a college graduate, she’s actually seen her income shrink by about double that amount.
In other words, when it comes to American women overall, what we’ve seen over the past five and half years is less income and more poverty. That’s the story Senate Democrats don’t want to talk about.
McConnell suggested that women don’t deserve equal pay for equal work because…..Obama. His argument makes no sense. The rest of his remarks on the Senate floor were dedicated to lying about the ACA.
Lead Democratic sponsor of the bill Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) vowed that Democrats will continue this fight, “I want everyone to know, everyone in the Senate and everyone in the United States of America, although we lost the vote. We’re going to continue the battle.”
The two political parties are each defining themselves with this issue. Democrats are projecting the image of a party that will fight for equality and fairness for all. Republicans, whether they like it or not, are defining themselves as the party of wealthy, men, and inequitable status quo.
The Obama administration has been fighting against pay discrimination from the moment that this president took office. The president has taken numerous steps to encourage equality in healthcare and in the workplace.
Everything that Obama has tried to do has been met with Republican opposition. It is ridiculous for Mitch McConnell to try to sell himself as a champion of equal pay and economic opportunity when he has spent decades denying women equality.
Mitch McConnell is facing the potential end of his Senate career at the hands of Democratic challenger Alison Lundgren Grimes, and his strategy for political survival is to try convince women that President Obama is their real enemy.
At the end of the day, McConnell’s anti-Obama rhetoric can’t hide the fact that Republicans don’t want women to be given the equal pay that they earn.
The Republican Titanic is sinking, and it looks like Captain Mitch is going down with the ship.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
