GOP releases plan to eliminate wage/gender gap

But the GOP seems perfectly comfortable killing the bill, risking legions of negative headlines and coordinated Democratic attacks on the GOP as a party out of touch with women.
(Also on POLITICO: Obama hits GOP over equal pay bill)
Republicans argue the bill is unnecessary, given existing pay laws, and will increase litigation rather than encourage pay equity between men and women. And they say that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s tight grip on the chamber’s amendment process is preventing their alternatives from ever seeing the light of day.
The GOP is hoping that voters know better than to fall for what Republicans call Democratic “show votes” in the pitched seven-month battle for control of the Senate. Minority Whip John Cornyn of Texas said he’s even privately chided Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) — who’s designed much of the Democrats’ election-year Fair Shot for Everyone agenda — over how transparently political Democrats have become in the past few weeks in laying out a Senate floor strategy heavy on legislation that has little chance of becoming law.
“This whole thing is really backfiring on the administration and on our Democratic friends because people are seeing it for what it is: It’s a transparent political campaign. It isn’t actually about solving problems, because the law of the land is already paycheck equity,” Cornyn said in an interview.
Added Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the chamber’s No. 3 Republican: “They don’t care about the fix. All they care about is who pays at the ballot box.”

Indeed, the Senate’s Republican women and those who have sided with Democrats on fighting discrimination based on sexual orientation are prepared to shrug off Democrats’ familiar messaging that paints Republicans at odds with the interests of women.
“There are already laws against discrimination. And this is just a completely political attempt to try to take an issue and misconstrue it,” said Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who backed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/paycheck-fairness-act-vote-republicans-105504.html#ixzz2yRWwSCNV

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