Why is it so difficult to say "I support equal pay for equal work?"

[shipperx]

Honestly, why is it so damn difficult for Romney to say "I support equal pay for equal work"?

Maybe the Chamber of Commerce, and the Tea Party don't?  Or maybe because he still lives in 1962?  

For six months his campaign has evaded the simple question of whether he supports the  Fair Pay Act.  Instead of supporting equal pay for the same work, he said this:

CROWLEY: Governor Romney, pay equity for women?

ROMNEY: Thank you. And important topic, and one which I learned a great deal about, particularly as I was serving as governor of my state, because I had the chance to pull together a cabinet and all the applicants seemed to be men.

And I — and I went to my staff, and I said, "How come all the people for these jobs are — are all men." They said, "Well, these are the people that have the qualifications." And I said, "Well, gosh, can't we — can't we find some — some women that are also qualified?"  And — and so we — we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet.

I went to a number of women's groups and said, "Can you help us find folks," and they brought us whole binders full of women.

Binders full of women.

That was his pitch to the 'lady voters.'  He once looked at some binders with women in them. 




Just one problem.  David S. Bernstein explains:

What actually happened was that in 2002 -- prior to the election, not even knowing yet whether it would be a Republican or Democratic administration -- a bipartisan group of women in Massachusetts formed MassGAP to address the problem of few women in senior leadership positions in state government. There were more than 40 organizations involved with the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus (also bipartisan) as the lead sponsor.

They did the research and put together the binder full of women qualified for all the different cabinet positions, agency heads, and authorities and commissions. They presented this binder to Governor Romney when he was elected.

I have written about this before, in various contexts; tonight I've checked with several people directly involved in the MassGAP effort who confirm that this history as I've just presented it is correct -- and that Romney's claim tonight, that he asked for such a study, is false.

So Mitt Romney didn't look for women. He didn't ask.  He didn't do anything. 

The women came to him. They told him that he needed to hire more women.

And you know what he did?

None of the senior positions Romney cared about -- budget, business development, etc. -- went to women. 

And...

A UMass-Boston study found that the percentage positions held by women actually declined during the Romney administration.

Then again this is also the guy claiming that he had a good jobs record in Massachusetts (it was 47th in the nation in job creation... back when the economy was good) .

And while we're at it, there was also this exchange:

ROMNEY: I’d just note that I don't believe that bureaucrats in Washington should tell someone whether they can use contraceptives or not, and I don't believe employers should tell someone whether they could have contraceptive care or not.


I see what you did there Romney. 

See, Romney supported the Blundt Amendment (cosponsored by Ryan).  

 That's what the Blundt amendment did!    It gives employers have the right to decide whether their employees have access to contraceptives covered in their insurance.

Now one might say that Romney is bald-faced lying or one may be generous and say that he's splitting hairs (the question was on insurance not legality, but he doesn't have to answer the question if he doesn't want to) to make his position sound more moderate than it is, because it is true that his position doesn't make it illegal to buy contraceptives.  It just allows your boss to decide whether or not it's covered by your health insurance. 

The same health insurance that covers Viagra.  Bosses don't get to decide about that, but they do get to decide whether your lady bits are covered... regardless of whether it's for contraception, your endometriosis, or ovarian cysts.  (Sometimes they aren't so sure how the female reproduction system works) 

'Cause your employer says so, that's why.  

And because some in Washington had a hissy-fit that it was covered and wrote up legislation to give the boss the right to make that decision for you.  Because it's any of your boss' damn business...