At a Georgia Republican Party convention over the weekend RNC Chairman Michael Steele said that gay marriage will create an undue burden on small business owners.

From the Associated Press:

Steele said that was just an example of how the party can retool its message to appeal to young voters and minorities without sacrificing core conservative principles. Steele said he used the argument weeks ago while chatting on a flight with a college student who described herself as fiscally conservative but socially liberal on issues like gay marriage.

“Now all of a sudden I’ve got someone who wasn’t a spouse before, that I had no responsibility for, who is now getting claimed as a spouse that I now have financial responsibility for,” Steele told Republicans at the state convention in traditionally conservative Georgia. “So how do I pay for that? Who pays for that? You just cost me money.”

Think again Mr. Steele.

Gay marriage has provided $111 million in economic stimulus to Massachusetts since becoming legal in 2004. If Proposition 8 had failed back in November, gay marriage would be pumping millions into the California economy according to this study.  Similar economic benefits have been projected in D.C., Maine and Vermont.

And just ask the florists, photographers, event planners and the whole range of other small business owners that would profit from marriage equality legislation.

This is simply another instance of forsaking party principals and letting bigotry and intolerance win out over profit. How un-Republican.