President Obama's Weekly Address - March 12, 2011

Women’s History Month & Fair Pay

If You're A Woman, Why Vote Republican?

This isn't a rhetorical question. Seriously think about it before you answer.

I've posed this question to myself in different incarnations. If you're an immigrant and you know that the Republican Party is completely unserious in its immigration reform policies (and use fearmongering tactics particularly pertaining to our southern border shared with Mexico), why vote Republican?

If you're lower or middle class and you know that the Republican Party caters to the whims of corporate interests, and instead of letting tax cuts expire for the top income earners in the country so that their tax rate would increase from 36% to 39%, they instead look for spending cuts in Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and block legislation to extend unemployment benefits, why vote Republican?

And now comes word the Senate has just voted on the Paycheck Fairness Act, legislation that would close the pay gap between women and men and would help end discriminatory pay practices.

According to the National Women’s Law Center, “This persistent pay gap translates to more than $10,000 in lost wages per year for the average female worker.” The gap is even worse for women of color: African-American women earn 61 cents and Latinas earn 52 cents for every dollar a white non-Hispanic man earns.

It failed. The final vote was 58-41. Two votes short. Every single Republican Senator voted against it, including Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins.

Every. Single. Republican. Senator.



Couple that with most Republicans in general insisting on pro-choice restrictions, wanting the government to have a say in what you do with your body and your personal medical choices, and I have to ask again: if you're a woman, why would you vote Republican?