This week, as Senate Republicans killed a bill that would have helped close the gender-based wage gap, the Grand Old Party continued to twist itself in rhetorical knots. They simultaneously argue that they understand the bread-and-butter economic issues that worry women most, and that women—who know they make less money than men for the same work—don’t make less money than men for the same work.

Never mind that study after study confirms that even when you control for variables like profession, education, hours worked, age, marital status, and children, men still are compensated substantially more—even in professions, like nursing, dominated by women.

No wonder there’s a gender gap.