The #EqualPay hypocrisy of the Obama White House

Facts
Facts matter.

Glenn Reynolds aka Instapundit takes on the Obama White House’s glaring double standard when it comes to the issue of “equal pay” for women (via):

The “War On Women” theme was aΒ key componentΒ of Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign. And since politicians tend to repeat what works, the Democrats are pushing the same theme again for 2014 β€” and, no doubt, as preparation for a Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016 where all opposition will be treated as evidence of sexism. But have they taken it too far? Just maybe.

One clue is that even theΒ Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus, generally a reliable Democratic ally, isn’t buying the Democrats’ “revolting equal-pay demagoguery.” MarcusΒ writes:

“The level of hyperbole β€” actually, of demagoguery β€” that Democrats have engaged in here is revolting. It’s entirely understandable, of course: The Senate is up for grabs. Women account for a majority of voters. They tend to favor Democrats. To the extent that women β€” and in particular, single women β€” can be motivated to turn out in a midterm election, waving the bloody shirt of unequal pay is smart politics. Fairness is another matter. Since President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act in 1963, it has been illegal for employers to pay women less than men for the same work.”

The problem is that comparing what all men and all women earn isΒ deceptive. Men tend toΒ chooseΒ more jobs that requireΒ long hours, or that areΒ dangerousΒ β€” hence the much higher rate of vocational death among men than women β€” but that also pay more. Women tend to prefer jobs that offerΒ flexible or shorter hours, and clean indoorΒ conditions.

[…]

Then it turned out that theΒ Obama White HouseΒ itself pays women workers less than men. White House Press SecretaryΒ CarneyΒ didn’t mention his wife’s choices, but did argue that the number was misleading because women held different jobs. Well, yes. Federal law says you have to pay people the same for the same work; it doesn’t say you have to pay secretaries the same as press secretaries. This is true both in the White House, and in the private businesses that the White House was attacking.

Make sure to read the whole thing, especially if you want to learn more about other Democrats who don’t practice what they preach when it comes to their standard and definition of “equal pay” … including NC’s own Senator Kay Hagan.

Reviving the “war on women” meme is just another desperate election year tactic (like playing the race card) for Democrats who want to maintain control of the Senate and win more seats in the US House, as Reynolds notes above. Β But at least in the case of the phony equal pay argument, Β even many of the left’s reliable media outlets aren’t on board with it, so it looks like – at least in this case – the Democrats have engaged in a spectacular fail.

What.a.shame. /sarc

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