Shameful GOP Voting - The Ledbetter Act

I missed this a couple of days ago and thank the Rude Pundit for reminding me.

On Tuesday, Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, named after a Goodyear tire factory supervisor who only after nearing retirement, found out she was paid less than men in her position. She filed a lawsuit that went all the way to the Supreme Court. In their infinite wisdom, the SCOTUS disregarded the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and ruled against Ledbetter citing that a statute of limitation, 180 days from the date that Goodyear first paid her less than her counterparts, had expired. In the Supreme Court's blind eyes of justice, she was 18½ years too late.

While congress attempted to pass a bill to overturn that decision, the George W. Bush White House opposed the bill and would have vetoed it. But the Obama White House thought otherwise and President Obama signed the bill into law on Thusday.

Equal work for equal pay, right? Well, at least some our Congressional Representatives still believe that to be the case. The Ledbetter Act past 250-177 in the House, and 61-36 in the Senate. Of those combined 316 yea votes, 97.5% came from Democrats. The Repubicans were of course looking out for the employer, afraid of lawsuits "decades" after the fact, even though the bill states that the statute of limitations is now 180 days from the last paycheck received, not the first. As Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski said, “If you don’t want to be sued, don’t discriminate.”

But what really galls me about the 213 combined votes against the bill is not the typical Republican thought of corporations first, although that's bad enough as it is. It's the fact that 16 female congresswomen voted against it. (There were no female senators that voted against it.)


House
Michele Bachmann, (Republican-Minnesota)
Judy Borg Biggert, (Republican-Illinois)
Marsha Blackburn, (Republican-Tennessee)
Mary Bono Mack, (Republican-California)
Shelley Moore Capito, (Republican-West Virginia)
Jo Ann Emerson, (Republican-Missouri)
Mary Fallin, (Republican-Oklahoma)
Virginia Foxx, (Republican-North Carolina)
Kay Granger, (Republican-Texas)
Lynn Jenkins, (Republican-Kansas)
Cynthia M. Lummis, (Republican-Wyoming)
Cathy McMorris Rodgers, (Republican-Washington)
Candice Miller, (Republican-Michigan)
Sue Myrick, (Republican-North Carolina)
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, (Republican-Florida)
Jean Schmidt, (Republican-Ohio)
Virginia (Ginny) Brown-Waite, (Republican-Florida) DID NOT VOTE

Way to look out for equal rights, huh?

I respectfully submit that these women immediately put forth a bill that would cut their salaries by the same percentage that Lilly Ledbetter was shorted for her nineteen years of service to the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. If they don't believe that Ledbetter should have been receiving equal pay for the same work her male colleagues were doing, then these female Republican representatives should get paid less for the same obstructionist work of their male Republican counterparts.