W loves big business; Women? Whatever!

This one got my blood boiling earlier today. This week, it's anticipated by Washington insiders that the House will finally bring the Paycheck Fairness Act to the floor for a vote, legislation that would help close the wage gap between working men and women and “close loopholes that have allowed employers to avoid responsibility” for discriminatory pay.

It certainly makes sense to me. After all, women have been getting the shaft for decades centuries in our country for doing the exact same jobs as men (and their being allowed to even perform the same jobs as men is a recent phenomena in many fields). And this isn't a historical embarrassment for the employers and management executives, this is going on to this day.

In 1980, women, on average, made 60 cents on the dollar compared to men for doing the same job. In 2000, that number had narrowed to about 75 cents, and today it hovers between 80 and 85 cents, depending on which study or statistics you consult. Progress? Sure, but it's still an outrage. And it's instances like this where Congress can step in and right a wrong, ending injustice in how American women are paid. Makes sense, right?

Naturally, Our National Embarrassment is threatening a veto. From Think Progress:

In an official statement, the White House announced it would veto the bill:

The bill would unjustifiably amend the Equal Pay Act (EPA) to allow for, among other things, unlimited compensatory and punitive damages, even when a disparity in pay was unintentional. It also would encourage discrimination claims to be made based on factors unrelated to actual pay discrimination by allowing pay comparisons between potentially different labor markets. In addition, it would require the Department of Labor (DOL) to replace its successful approach to detecting pay discrimination with a failed methodology that was abandoned because it had a 93 percent false positive rate. Thus, if H.R. 1338 were presented to the President, his senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill.

Bush is clearly in Disneyland. For a bumbling, disastrous president now searching for his "legacy," this was a real chance to make a difference among the working class in America. Then again, I probably give the president too much credit, since he's never been a worker, and he's aptly demonstrated he has very little class. 

Here's hoping that Congress passes the Bill will overwhelming force, thereby sending Bush's veto pen right where it belongs. Hmm, just wondering - where are all of those bitter, angry women who were all hip to vote for John McCain because Hillary didn't get the nomination? Shrinking like Bush's popularity, one can only hope. I mean, really, that makes a load of sense - vote for a guy who has no problem calling his wife a "cunt" and who has made repeated, appalling jokes about rape, and whose party would rather side with big business than try to ensure that women get the pay they deserve.

Seriously, clear thinking women who aren't hopelessly ideological can't possibly consider voting for McCain, which would in so many ways be four more years of Bush's policies, can they? Only time will tell.

Seriously, what's next? African-Americans voting for David Duke?