“A smart man learns from his mistakes,” goes a Latin proverb, “but a truly wise man learns from the mistakes of others.” Then there’s Barack Obama, who makes a mistake, learns it was a mistake, and then repeats it 24 hours later.
The Washington Examiner reports that on Monday, Betsey Stevenson, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, declared defiantly that women are “stuck at 77 cents on the dollar, and that gender wage gap is seen very persistently across the income distribution, within occupations, across occupations, and we see it when men and women are working side by side doing identical work.”
The claim stood up for all of five minutes — until McClatchy reporter Lindsay Wise provided unimpeachable evidence that the claim is bogus, prompting Stevenson to recant:
If I said 77 cents was equal pay for equal work, then I completely misspoke. So let me just apologize and say that I certainly wouldn’t have meant to say that.
Misspoke? Stevenson seemed pretty adamant about the 77-cents figure, but at least the matter has been put to rest, right? Don’t bet on it. Today is “Equal Pay Day,” and two hours ago Obama tweeted:
President Obama: “Today, the average full-time working woman earns just $0.77 for every $1 that a man earns.” #EqualPay
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 8, 2014
