Michelle Malkin: “Google to Pay Heterosexuals Less Than Homosexuals”

(Image and caption on Michelle Malkin’s website. Nice, huh?)

While extreme Right Wing bigot and self-hating demagogue Michelle Malkin complains about her parenting responsibilities, tweeting, “I am my kids’ summer day camp chauffeur. My minivan needs a meter. 😉,” her guest blogger Doug Powers penned this nasty piece of homophobic, right-wing ridiculousness: “Google to Pay Heterosexuals Less Than Homosexuals.”

Yes, that’s right. America’s Right Wing, ever trolling to find ways to “prove” they are victims and the unfairly-treated majority, thinks now that because same-sex couples, who for, well, forever, have had to pay over a lifetime thousands upon thousands of dollars more in taxes than their opposite-sex married counterparts, are getting a “break” from beneficent corporations like Google, that it’s tantamount to discrimination against straights.

Yes, evidently, straights are being discriminated against because they pay lower taxes.

Good Lord!

Google announced they are going to make up the difference in the taxes their same-sex coupled employees are legally forced to pay the government on the cost of their health care insurance that is unfairly taxed, in a manner different than if they were a legally-married opposite sex couple, whose marriage is recognized by the federal government, and therefore able to take advantage of the 1138 benefits the federal government offers opposite-sex married couples that same-sex couples are legally unable to access.

Here’s Powers’ “logic.”

If that doesn’t seem like discrimination, let’s flip it on its ear: I own a company that employs both caucasians and minorities. I put out a memo announcing that I’ve discovered that my white employees are paying higher property taxes, so in order to make it “fair” to everyone, I’m going to start paying white employees more so they can cover their extra property taxes.

Well, Mr. Powers, if the government were creating laws specifically designed to make white employees pay more in property taxes than minorities, and those property taxes had something to do with the benefits you as an employer gave your employees, then it wouldn’t be discrimination.

But you like to, as conservatives often do, see the world as a zero-sum game, and therefore have to exclude facts that render your argument, well, ridiculous.

Powers links to an MSNBC piece which states,

“Under federal law, employer-provided health benefits for domestic partners are counted as taxable income, if the partner is not considered a dependent, the newspaper said, noting that the tax owed is based on the value of the partner’s coverage paid by the employer.”

“Citing a study, the Times said employees with domestic partners will pay about $1,069 more a year in taxes than a married employee with the same coverage. Google will essentially cover those costs, the newspaper said, putting same-sex couples on an even footing with heterosexual employees whose spouses and families receive health benefits.”

In a typically conservative rush-to-judgment, Powers obviously failed to ever read the ground-breaking New York Times piece from last fall, “The High Price of Being a Gay Couple.”

The Times piece says, “Most large employers do not provide coverage for same-sex partners, so one partner may need to provide coverage. But even domestic partner coverage has a cost, because it is counted as taxable income.”

Let me repeat that: Because it is counted as taxable income.

The Times piece also lists how much more same-sex couples, because we cannot marry and have our marriages recognized by the federal government, are forced to pay.

For example, according to the piece, a same-sex couple over the course of their lifetime together could pay up to $211,993 more than a married opposite-sex couple in health insurance, and $88,500 more than a married opposite-sex couple in social security.

So the fact that Google wants to “pick up the tab” for government taxes which are unfair, is not, as Powers says, “discrimination.” It’s a sign of a good employer.

Powers also, stupidly writes,

“Since it’s illegal to ask an employee (or interviewee) to divulge his or her sexual preference, how exactly is Google finding out who’s straight and who’s gay to they know who to pay more?”

Well Mr. Powers, I guess you’ve never worked for a corporation. To receive benefits as a same-sex couple you actually in most companies have to sign a document affirming your relationship status. It’s not illegal for the company to ask you to do that so you can receive benefits they do not legally have to provide. It may be illegal to ask that question in an interview but not of an employee.

Again, facts, logic, and common sense are just too high a bar for conservatives to reach.

As I wrote last year about the Times piece,”only slightly” does it mention the emotional costs of being in a same-sex couple, because of the government’s and society’s mandate of making us second-class citizens.

A high price to pay, indeed, although infinitely worth it, because I know the ground we’re breaking will help the next generation. Something conservatives like Michelle Malkin and Doug Powers only claim to care about.

Update:
Via “Are you Freaking Stupid?“:

“Straight people will get paid less because they could get married and get a tax cut. How wonderful. And someone tell me, would it be considered discriminatory if I paid straight people more because they are less likely to get HIV? Could I pay straight people more because married straight couples tend to live longer and healthier?

Liberals hate discrimination. As long as you define “discrimination” as “not giving special benefits to the groups they like”.

Welcome to the stupid hatefest spawned by the Michelle Malkin brand of homophobia and ignorance.

The somersaults anyone with half a brain could do on that logic is astounding.

What more can I say?