Queer Quote: Speaker Boehner Lies About ENDA (Again)

Speaker John Boehner has been under increasing pressure to allow a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) since the measure passed the United States Senate recently. Boehner's response to LGBT advocates calling for leguslative action to outlaw anti-LGBT workplace discrimination has generally been to lie about what the law does.

He was asked about ENDA on Thursday and repeated his false statements on the bill, which is today's Queer Quote:

I am opposed to discrimination of any kind — in the workplace and any place else. But I think this legislation — that I have dealt with as chairman of the Education Workforce Committee long before I was back in the leadership — is unnecessary and would provide a basis for frivolous lawsuits. People are already protected in the workplace. I am opposed to continuing this.

Listen, I understand people have different opinions on this issue, and I respect those opinions. But as someone who has worked in the employment law area for all of my years in the statehouse and all of my years here, I see no basis or no need for this.

It must be repeated that this statement is simply not true, and that if Speaker Boehner really believes this is a true statement, then he must be an idiot. The fact is that 29 states do not have laws that protect LGBT people from being fired based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Since it is probably not the case that Boehner has risen to be second in line to become President of the United States while being an idiot, one can only conclude that Speaker Boehner is deliberately repeating a lie in order to deflect attention from the call to allow a vote on ENDA.

Queer Quote: Michele Bachmann

This week's Queer Quote comes from Michele Bachmann, the certifiably insane Congresswoman from Minnesota who ran for President in 2011 and 2012. Bachman gave an interview (recorded on video) to USA Today where she said that "Obama is extremely wealthy":

Well, President Obama is extremely wealthy. He and his wife have been wealthy for a number of years, and so I think that's really the issue. President Obama is wealthy, what do, or -- what does he understand about the common man right now?  

And I think what people care about is not hating someone for what their assets are -- the American people don't hate President Obama because he's a very wealthy individual. What they care about is how their lives are, would their lives be better? And I think it's very clear under the Romney-Ryan ticket the average Americans' lives [sic] will be much better, they'll have a lot more money to spend in the way that they want, and they'll also have a much more secure future for their children. That's what the American people want, and that's what we'll offer with this new Romney-Ryan ticket.

Fascinating that she would attempt to contrast President Obama's wealth with Mitt Romney's. Obama has been at most wealthy since he became a United States Senator in 2004 and published best-selling novels books. Romney's father George Romney was Governor of Michigan, ran for President and was chief executive of American Motors Corporation. Clearly Mitt Romney has been wealthy for his entire life; his wealth is currently estimated to be between 200-250 million dollars, and this is only an estimated number because unlike his father, Romney refuses to release his tax returns while running for President.

But facts mean nothing to Michele Bachmann or most Republicans, particularly when they are delivered in a political setting, which is basically every day until the Presidential election. Happily, most Americans know the truth that Republicans favor rich people, while Democrats favor people who are below the 1% in the wealth spectrum.

hat/tip to Joe.My.God