Women Like To Work for Less. Ann Coulter Says So. And We Think She's A Woman.

Yesterday, as we were lamenting the lack of comprehensive community mental health facilities in this country, one of the examples we mentioned was Scott Walker, CEO of the Koch Brothers Midwest subsidy, formerly known as Wisconsin. In his race to be the first sitting governor of a state recalled with a 100% plurality, Mr. Walker had just signed a bill repealing the equal pay enforcement act.

Well, of course he did you think. If you don't need unions to protect the rights of workers through collective bargaining, why would wage protections be necessary? Surely you don't think employers would discriminate based on gender, race or age do you? What kind of a worker's utopia would that be?

Tru dat. Silly us. Guess we just weren't thinking. Good thing Republican state senator Glenn Grothman, a major driver of the repeal was there to explain it to everyone.

Grothman says companies are being bombarded with false accusations of discrimination. “It’s an under-reported problem, but a huge number of discrimination claims are baseless,” he said.When asked to give some examples of the companies being "bombarded" Grothman said he couldn't name any right off hand, but a "friend of his brother-in-law's cousin" had Tweeted him there were "tons."

He argued that the Wisconsin law, which allowed for damages of up to $300,000, the same amount as in federal law, raised the cost of doing business in the state to intolerable levels. “It just puts Wisconsin way out of whack with other states,” he says. “I’m not sure there are any other states this bad off.” When a reporter pointed out that 33 other states either have no cap or the same cap as Wisconsin, Grothman said that by "bad off" he hadn't meant the equal pay issue per se, but instead was referring to the fact that Wisconsin law seems to assume all people were equal and should be treated as such. "What crazy liberal thought that up?" he asked.

Grothman told reporters that the equal pay enforcement act was unnecessary because the whole idea of pay discrimination against women is fraudulent. "It's like the difference between a Cadillac and a Volkswagen," he explained. "You're going to pay more for the Cadillac because you get more car. Same as in the workplace."

Whatever gaps exist, he insisted, stemmed from women’s decision to prioritize child-rearing over their careers. "It says right in the bible that women would rather stay home and raise kids than go out into the workforce and out perform men. Except for the lesbos of course."

He continued, “What you’ve got to look at, and Ann Coulter has looked at this, is you have to break it down by married and unmarried..."

Wait, wait. Just a minute. Excuse us. You're citing Ann Coulter as a resource? Ann Coulter? You realize what that means senator Grothman. It means, first of all, you're admitting to knowing who Ann Coulter is, secondly that you read the stuff she writes, and third--and we can't overstate how important this particular one is to your credibility--that you think she makes sense.

"Look, she's blond and she's hot," Grothman retorted. "I mean smart. She's smart."

A reporter pointed out that A 2007 study by the American Association of University Women found that college-educated women earn only 80 percent as much as similarly educated men a year after graduation. Part of that is attributable to differences in life choices and family circumstances, but not all. “After accounting for college major, occupation, industry, sector, hours worked, workplace flexibility, experience, educational attainment, enrollment status, GPA, institution selectivity, age, race/ethnicity, region, marital status, and number of children, a 5 percent difference in the earnings of male and female college graduates one year after graduation was still unexplained,” it said. After 10 years in the workforce, there’s an unexplained 12 percent gap.

“The American Association of University Women is a pretty liberal group,”  Grothman said. Oh yeah, and Ann Coulter is the font of objectivity.

"You could argue that money is more important for men because that's one of the ways they control women," Grothman added. "I mean, if my wife made more than I did, or even the same, she's drop me like a lit match."