'We pay the same for food, we pay the same for gas ... even though we're getting paid less'

Recognizing that the fight for fair pay doesn't end the day after the fourth anniversary of the signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act any more than it ended on any random day in the four previous years, Democratic senators spoke out for the Paycheck Fairness Act on the floor of the Senate Wednesday. Maryland's Barbara Mikulski, California's Barbara Boxer, Michigan's Debbie Stabenow, Washington's Maria Cantwell, and, apparently representing the boys, Alaska's Mark Begich called for the Senate to take up the bill, which would close loopholes in the Equal Pay Act of 1963.

'We pay the same for food, we pay the same for gas and we pay the same for the mortgage even though we're getting paid less,' Stabenow said. 'That's just not right.' [...]

'We're calling on [Republicans] in the spirit of fairness and justice to give all the women in America the same opportunity as their male counterparts,' Boxer said. 'If there is [another] filibuster to this bill, I will not understand it.'

There was, of course, a way to make it much less likely Republicans could or would filibuster the Paycheck Fairness Act and so many other bills, but that ship has sailed and this bill, like all the rest, will have to deal with the obstruction-enabling rules of today's Senate. Then, too, John Boehner would probably give up golf and alcohol for as much as a month before he'd consider calling a House vote on a bill that would make it easier for women to find out if they're being discriminated against and increase penalties on employers who do discriminate against women. But even when the odds are long, the right thing to do is to keep pushing for good policies, as these Democrats are doing.

Please tell Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act and give women a better chance to fight discrimination.