Dems blast Sessions women-to-smokers comparison

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.), the head of the Republicans campaign committee, caused a stir at last night's Rules Committee meeting when he suggested that treating female-related health conditions was comparable to insurance-company imposed restrictions on smokers.

"Why should a woman pay more than a man?" asked New Jersey Democrat Frank Pallone, according to the Courthouse News Service.

"Well, we're all different," Sessions explained. "Why should a smoker pay more?" he said before interrupted.

That prompted major pushback from Democrats, who say that it proves that House Republicans don't care about working-class women.

“The NRCC and extreme right wing of the Republican Party are totally out of step with women," said Jennifer Crider, spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

"First, the NRCC says that a man ought to put the first woman Speaker of the House ‘in her place.' ...I don't know what's scarier, whether NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions actually believes women are second class citizens or whether he believes it's political beneficial for the NRCC to say so."

Glenn Thrush is senior staff writer at Politico Magazine.