Our guest blogger is Adam Jentleson, the Communications and Outreach Director for the Hyde Park Project at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

At a town hall today, McCain said his record shows that he is “committed to making sure that there’s equal pay for equal work” for women:

We haven’t done enough. We have not done enough. And I’m committed to making sure that there’s equal pay for equal work. That there is equal opportunity in every aspect of our society. And that is my record and you can count on it.

Watch It:

Nothing could be further from the truth: McCain has consistently opposed efforts to guarantee women equal pay for equal work – and he has the record to prove it.

In April, McCain opposed a major Senate bill seeking equal pay for women. He told an audience in Kentucky that the real issue is disparities in education and training among women and men.

In 2000, McCain opposed an amendment that aimed to “provide more effective remedies to victims of discrimination in the payment of wages on the basis of sex.”

In 1985, McCain voted against a study to investigate pay differences among federal employees, and determine whether they were the result of discrimination. [1985 CQ Almanac; HR 3008, vote # 318, 10/9/85]

In fact, McCain’s record proves that for decades, he has opposed efforts to make sure that women receive equal pay for equal work.

Our guest blogger is James K. Galbraith, author of The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too. A former executive director of the Joint Economic Committee, Galbraith teaches at The University of Texas at Austin.

Phil Gramm is not John McCain’s pastor. He’s his closest economic adviser, and according to many reports practically the designated Secretary of the Treasury in a McCain administration. John McCain believes Phil Gramm to be a great economist. To the extent that John McCain has economic ideas, he gets them from Phil Gramm. Or did, until yesterday. So it is perhaps worthwhile to ask, what kind of economist is Phil Gramm?

The public record is clear, and I summarized it a few months ago for The Washington Post: “Phil Gramm’s career was the most aggressive advocate of every predatory and rapacious element that the financial sector has. He’s a sorcerer’s apprentice of instability and disaster in the financial system.” (It is worth noting that when the Post asked Gramm about this, he denied it.)

Back in 1995, when Phil Gramm was politically invincible in Texas, various so-called friends suggested that I should be the sacrificial lamb to run against him. I ducked, as any sensible person would have. But (at their request) I did supply the Dallas Morning News with a referee report on Gramm’s dissertation, along with a few notes on that of his wife. Needless to say, hers was much better.

To inject a note of academic sobriety into this election campaign, my review follows. Read more