been about and what it s not. and that s what this has been about. this has been about giving the democrats something to run on. by the way, this is a preview of what the fall campaign is going to look like. you re going to have democrats having one conversation with their set of voters about issues that they know do fire up democrats whether it s raising the minimum wage, whether it is paycheck fairness, whether it is some social issue. then republicans will have a totally separate conversation about health care and antagonizing the president, things like that. then it just becomes this who s going to fire up their base more. and in you look at this week in one hand that the white house got put on the defensive a little bit about the salaries at the white house but this entire week for them and the entire bully pulpit, they did have an entire week about this topic and didn t have a conversation about
quotes, revolting equal pay demagoguery. before you start e-mailing the editor that there s been a terrible mistake, let me be clear. i support women receiving equal pay for equal work. i d vote in the unlikely event someone elected me to congress. but the level of hyperbole of demagoguery that democrats have engaged here is revolting. the senate is up for grabs waving the bloody shirt of politics. i d vote yes on the bill but i can understand the concerns of those who worry about floods of litigation and business decisions second guessed by federal judges. there is a difference between opposing the paycheck fairness act and opposing paycheck fairness. politicians who choose to
unequal. but i understand b the concerns of those who worry about floods of litigation and businesses second guessing by federal judges. there is a difference between opposing the paycheck fairness and act opposing paycheck fairness. politicians who confuse the two, it s not a fair one. chuck todd is with us from austin, texas. perhaps a surprising take from ruth marcus at t the washington post about this. how is the white house approaching this debate here? clearly it didn t make its way through the senate. i don t think the president ever thought it would. what s the latest on this issue? this has been if you look at what they ve been doing on particularly economic issues focused on women, this is all part of the election year strategy for the democratic party. so, you know, this is i think ruth is just being very clear eyed about what this week has
and it needs to be dealt with. but you know what? i m frustrated because i feel like the republicans have been so busy saying no and trying to repeal laws that have been there. so what should democrats do? they haven t actually thought about admitting we ll get there. admitting this exists. if both sides could admit this exists, maybe there could be some negotiation. i think there must have been a failure on the part of the democrats in terms of giving them something to work with. so to an extent i could see how after the event, it s like what would i help you out? i got to go back to my district. so to me it seems like there should be a bipartisan effort whether it be a summit or something else that really looks at paycheck fairness and all the different parts of it. right. because women leaving the workforce happens because of children, because of families,
supporting paycheck fairness? as you mentioned, we have lily led bedder with us today. when you listen to your story, for 19 years, she was being discriminated against by her employer. that s a fact. the other fact is, she had no idea until someone passed her an anonymous tip letting her know she wasn t being paid fairly. that s another fact. the reason why it was anonymous is that her co-worker was afraid about retaliation if she shared it. so just think, 19 years went by where lily had no idea that she was being discriminated against. so what we would invite the members of congressened an republican party who talk about policies, well, you know, you can support a policy right in front of you today. it is against the law to discriminate against women but we know it happens each and every day and there s still a pay gap. what the president is saying is shouldn t we all work together to close that gap? one way to do it is to make sure there are equal pay for equal work. another way is t