Republicans vote against equal pay

Presidential election years are touchy things.

Back in 1992 Alan Greenspan aggressively pushed down interest rates in an attempt to save his friend George H.W. Bush from the recession triggered by the Gulf War and decreases in military spending spurred by the fall of the Soviet Union.

It didn’t work, but the Fed was accused of meddling in presidential politics – and those same low-rate policies were embraced by Bill Clinton and created the roaring mid-90s economy that led to his landslide 1996 re-election.

To be sure, politics is at its worst right now; but what can you expect from a country that kills the spending power of 50% of its own consumers by ensuring they’re not paid enough to properly stimulate the economy? The bill that would’ve paved the way for women to more easily gain equal pay failed to clear a procedural hurdle last night as Republicans united against the measure for the second time in two years. If passed, the bill would have built on the 2009 Ledbetter legislation.

This year, with unemployment and recession still dogging Obama, the Fed feels it’s on watch to keep cards that will improve the economy close to the vest.