Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) went on Face the Nation today to do the dirty work for Republicans in an attempt to deflect well-earned criticism for their lockstep vote to deny women equal pay for equal work. Given the fact that there is little dispute that women earn substantially less then men, she didn't have a lot to work with. Laughingly urging us to go back through history to find the abundant evidence that it is actually Republicans who are fighting the good fight on behalf of the womenfolk was like watching her mouth fall down the stairs.
Before we get to that though, she first gets her two cents worth in on Obamacare, and that is exactly what it was worth, two cents. With a completely straight face, Blackburn insisted that the 7 million people who signed up for the program is a boondoggle for Democrats, not the Republicans who desperately fought to keep our citizens uninsured. This leads her to spout repeal and replace nonsense with the promise of continued impotent attempts to strike down the law.
Bob Schieffer: And back at our capitol, a lot of the same old same old. Republicans and Democrats fighting over equal pay for women and there was talk about the resignation of health and human services secretary Kathleen Sebelius. We're going to talk about that now first with Republican Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn. She's in Nashville this morning. Congresswoman, thank you for joining us this morning. While you were in New Hampshire yesterday with a lot of the Republicans who are thinking about running for president, was there any consensus among them about what the resignation of Katherine Sebelius means? And is it going to quiet the controversy over Obamacare?
Rep. Marsha Blackburn: No, it's not going to quiet the controversy, Bob. I think it's quite the opposite. What it has done is to elevate some of the concerns. Burwell is an interesting choice. And I think there are many of us and probably a bit of a growing consensus that they know they've got a math problem with Obamacare. And the numbers are not going to work out so that the program is actuarially sound. And they're going to have to have somebody to kind of spin the numbers. And this is something with Burwell coming from O.M.B., I think they're expecting her to be able to do for them. How many of these seven million people have paid? How many actually signed up and paid and completed the process? How many got subsidies? How many are on Medicaid? How many are young? You know, if those numbers don't work out exactly right, they've got a big funding issue on their hands.
Schieffer: Well, will Republicans still run on repeal and replace? Or will they offer something different? Or will they try to fix this system that we now have?
Blackburn: I think what you're going to see is a continue to repeal it and replace it. Now we know we're not going to get it off the books until this president is out of office...
Schieffer: Let me ask you about this--
Blackburn: Sure.
Schieffer: --debate over equal pay for women.
Blackburn: Sure.
Schieffer: There was a lot of debate on that last week. Finally, Republicans blocked it in the Senate. Are Republicans against equal pay for women? And is that going to be a good political issue in these coming midterm elections?
Blackburn: You know, I find-- this "war on women" rhetoric just almost silly. It is Republicans that have led the fight for women's equality. Go back through history and look at who was the first woman to ever vote, elected to office, go to Congress--
(Overtalk)
Schieffer: But why did the Senate Republicans then block this?
Blackburn: Well, because the legislation was something that was going to be helpful for trial lawyers. And what we would like to see happen is equal opportunity and clearing up some of the problems that exist that are not fair to women. We're all for equal pay. I would love for women to be focused on maximum wage. And I have fought to be recognized with equality for a long time. A lot of us get tired of guys condescending to us. But, you know, I gotta tell you, one of the things that we need to do is look at access to capital, small business owners that are female. That is their number one problem is access to capital. We need to also look at regulations, how that is affecting them. Obamacare has been very unfair to women. We hear a good bit about this. Women are the primary health care consumers in the country. 80% of all health care decisions are made by women, whether they're for their family or elderly relatives that they're caring for. And by the way, the White House paying women 88 cents for every dollar that a guy earns in--
Schieffer: All right.
Blackburn: --comparable positions. They need to go clean up their own act first.
Schieffer: All right, we have to stop there. There's so much news this morning, Congresswoman. We'll get the other side of this from the Democrats. But thank you.
Blackburn: Thank you.
Emphasis mine.
Marsha, Marsha, Marsha. Do you really want American voters picking up that rock and looking underneath at the squirming, writhing Republican history on women's rights? It's all there for anyone to see. It doesn't serve you well to invite people to go back and take a look at it, no not at all.
Arguing that the Republicans only blocked the vote because they were simply concerned about what a windfall this would be for trial lawyers is worthy of the great Sarah Palin. To go on to state how unfair Obamacare has been to women to deflect the topic was perhaps my favorite part. I so wish Shieffer had grilled her on exactly how the ACA has damaged women. That would certainly have been entertaining.
It really didn't help her case much when she started harping about the evil Obama Administration paying only 88 cents on the man-dollar and what an unclean act that is. The Republicans hate this President so fiercely that they will happily undermine their own argument if they can get in a dig at that damned usurper.
You know, Marsha, even though I am not a woman I can safely say you are absolutely correct that "A lot of us get tired of guys condescending to us." I can also safely assume that women like it even less when the condescension is coming from another woman. Good luck with that.