The Big Game!!

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   Two Minute Reviewposted 11 years ago

   Today is February 2nd, 2014. And as most Americans know, the Big Game is taking place later this afternoon. The Super Bowl? Yeah, that's happening too. But I'm talking about the Big Game between President Obama and Fox News blowhard Bill O'Reilly. They've met twice before on Super Bowl Sunday, and they have good conversations. But after 5 years of an Obama presidency, here are some questions I'd like to see asked:
   
   ON EQUAL PAY FOR WOMEN:
   "Mr President, the first piece of legislation you signed was the Lily Ledbetter fair pay act. Yet after several years, Lily Ledbetter herself said that the law has done little if anything to level the playing field. Further, you yourself do not pay women on your staff comparable wages. Yet you and others in your party mocked Republican nominee Mitt Romney for his clumsy "binders full of women" comment, when in fact Romney did more to elevate women into leadership positions and pay them fairly than any governor in US history. HOW DO YOU SQUARE THAT HYPOCRISY, SIR?"
   
   ON MINUMUM WAGE:
   "Mr President, you implored congress to raise the federal minimum wage, and even acted yourself by raising the minimum wage for government contractors. Yet there are many White House interns who don't draw ANY compensation for their 60-70 hour weeks. HOW DO YOU SQUARE THAT HYPOCRISY, SIR?"
   
   ON EQUAL OPPORTUNITY:
   "Mr. President, conerning the question above, what type of person is the kind who can actually afford to serve as a White House intern and spend thousands of dollars of their OWN money to live and work in the DC area? Aren't those likely the children of the wealthy? How are the disadvantaged ever supposed to move up with this type of policy? HOW DO YOU SQUARE THAT HYPOCRISY, SIR?"
   
   ON JOBS:
   "Mr President, you talk about the need to create solid, stable, intrastructure jobs. Yet earlier this week, your State Department released a study that said that there would be no negligible environmental impact to the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Will you finally act after 5 years of contemplation on this project? And if not, will you continue to rail against the GOP for something that is entirely in your control? HOW WOULD YOU SQUARE THAT HYPOCRISY, SIR?"

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   1. 71

      Quilligrapherposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Hello TMR. May I call you TMR? Thank you. I do not think we have ever exchanged views before. Have we?
      
      Strange you would shout the President is a hypocrite without first fact checking your own claims.
      
      If you use the same formula that produced the 77-cents per hour number and you ignore comparable job functions, i.e. look at all workers regardless of what jobs they hold, the white house pays women staffers 91-cents per hour for every dollar men make. {1}
      
      However, when you compare actual job functions you see a different picture. Eric Schultz, White House spokesman, explains that the equal pay legislation calls for equal pay for equal work. “That’s what we have at the White House,” he said. “Men and women in equivalent roles earn equivalent salaries.”
      
      Specifically, all press assistants make $42,000 regardless of gender; most presidential assistants, including Press Secretary Jay Carney and Lisa Monaco, Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, make $172,200; and the two White House deputy chiefs of staff, one male and one female, make the same salary. In addition, 16 department heads, over half of whom are women, also make the same salary.
      
      Please provide the data you used to determine the White House does not pay wages to women on staff comparable to men performing the same job. I would be interested in seeing it.
      
      There is another claim in the same section of your post which is quite objective, easy to verify, and absolutely false. You said, “Romney did more to elevate women into leadership positions and pay them fairly than any governor in US history.”
      
      Again, I would like to see the data you examined yourself before making that claim.
      
      Gov. Romney’s judicial appointments contradict you big time. Forrmer Gov. Paul Cellucci, 1997-2000, made 40% of all his judicial appointments female. Before him, Governor William F. Weld managed to make a third of his judicial appointments female. {2} After Gov. Romney’s third year in office, Marianne LeBlanc, President of the Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts in 2005, highlighted the governor’s judicial appointments. “Since taking office,” Ms. LeBlanc said, “the governor has put forward 19 judicial nominees; 17 men and two women.” {3}
      
      According to a study by the University of Massachusetts Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy, the percentage of women appointed to senior-level positions in Massachusetts government rose from approximately 30 percent prior to the 2002 election to 42 percent by 2004. Between 2004 and 2006, however, women made up only 25 percent of Gov. Romney's 64 new appointments. That ratio was even smaller than when the governor was first elected. I have no doubt that you already know there were no women partners at Bain Capital when Romney was CEO.{4}
      
      In contrast, over a quarter of President Obama's initial cabinet appointees were women. In the current Obama administration, eight of 23 (35%) of the president's cabinet or cabinet-rank positions are women. {5}.
      
      Thank you TMR for sharing your political opinions with us.
      
      {1} http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/01/29/2 … rylink=cpy
      {2} http://www.forbes.com/sites/shenegotiat … tration/2/
      {3} ibid.
      {4} http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fact-checki … men-claim/
      {5} Ibid

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