Posted on 07/11/2018 3:45:50 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
When it comes to supporting families, paid parental leave is a solution to a number of problems. Studies show that paid leave can reduce infant mortality, increase breastfeeding rates, can improve maternal mental health and strengthen the connection between fathers and babies.
There are a ton of benefits to parental leave, ones that American families should be seeing, but aren't. While some employers have been modernizing parental leave policies, federal policy lags behind. The last major policy change came in 1993, when the Family and Medical Leave Act passed with bipartisan support, guarantees more than half of American workers 12 weeks of job-protected unpaid leave.
The passing of that act has been called a case study in uniting Democrats and Republicans, and now Ivanka Trump is calling for that kind of unified support once again.
In an op-ed published by Fox News Wednesday, the advisor to and daughter of President Donald Trump called on lawmakers to "reach across the aisle, and create smart and lasting policy that does right by all."
"Paid family leave enables parents to balance the competing demands of work and family, pursue their careers, and build strong and thriving families. It is an investment in the future of our workers, our families, and our country," she writes, noting that paid family leave is endorsed by some social conservatives as a way to encourage "tightly bonded families and protect infants and parents at their most vulnerable."
Trump notes that Americans are having fewer babies, and suggests paid parental leave could change that. "If executed responsibly, paid family leave is targeted government action with the right incentives – designed to increase the independence, health and dignity of our citizens."
Trump's letter comes the same day as a U.S. Senate Finance Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy hearing on paid family leave policy.
The subject is a legislative proposal championed by senators Marco Rubio that builds on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. It would see businesses given a tax credit for offering workers partially paid parental leave, as well as leave for family health issues, and is in line with polls that suggest that while most Americans support paid leave, the majority also want employers, not the government, to shoulder the cost.
(TWEET-AT-LINK)
Critics of Trump's op-ed note that democrats have been working on parental leave for years. On Twitter Wednesday, Chris Lu, former White House cabinet secretary and assistant to the president during the Obama administration, responded to Ivanka Trump's promotion of the op-ed by pointing out the existence of a Democrat plan, The Family Act. which would be funded by employers and employees.
Trump replied that while true, the efforts have failed to gather bipartisan support, which is what her letter is officially championing.
You aren’t President, you hot babe you!
THANK YOU !!!
As a life long bookkeeper/accounting person who has been self-employed since 1980, the small businesses that I have done work for could NEVER afford to have such a leave policy.
You want to have a family ??? FINE-—do that.
However, do NOT expect a business & the owner & shareholders to subsidize your family planning & execution.
“Studies show that paid leave can reduce infant mortality, increase breastfeeding rates, can improve maternal mental health and strengthen the connection between fathers and babies.”
EMPIRICAL evidence shows that when the mommy stays home to raise the kids (instead some paid stranger) and daddy brings home the bacon, it yields even better results than your ‘study’.
Nice try, but we’re in the process of making America great again, not socialist again.
Ivanka, sit down and shut up. I did not vote for you.
First mention of this I thought was a cheap pandering ploy to gain a few young liberal votes for Trump.
Second time seems like conflict between a father and his daughter who used to be friends with Chelsea (pardon me while I spit). Wobbly political values from a younger person, based on feelings and moods. A plastic straw up a turtle’s nose was on a viral video causing leftists to demand straws be banned! Not a joke, it was stated in an NPR online story today.
I won’t vote for Ivanka except to keep Chelsea out of the White House (coming soon). Back to lesser of two evils.
If a business wants to give employees off for this sort of thing that is one thing, but the government has no business requiring such.
...do NOT expect a business & the owner & shareholders to subsidize your family planning & execution.
(((
Exactly.
EMPIRICAL evidence shows that when the mommy stays home to raise the kids (instead some paid stranger) and daddy brings home the bacon, it yields even better results than your ‘study’.
>>>
Hear! Hear!
I have seen some ignorant comments on the Freep over the years but this takes the cake. This isn’t a new entitlement. This is allowing someone to access future benefits in exchange for deferred benefits near the time of retirement. This is a great concept.
It’s an entitlement unless it has a “claw-back” provision. There’s no way of knowing, today, what a person’s future employment will be. I’m interested in the idea of a Social Security withdrawal for new parents, but individuals might not go back to work. Or, she might never return to paid, Social Security taxable, work.
Pardon, I got myself garbled. My second point was that the Social Security system could collapse completely before a person who pre-drew reached retirement age.
Entitlement upon Entitlements that might never eventuate ...
Maybe we should go all private-pay or private charity.
I am a fan of paid family leave - as a choice of the employer. For government to take the private property of the employer for this purpose and compel a free person to expend his wealth in that manner is an immoral and unconscionable overreach.
“... as a choice of the employer.”
Exactly.
PFL is ridiculous. And those that take advantage of it often look forward to returning to work to escape the demanding newborn.
On the upside, it may encourage professionals to have more kids which helps the genepool and future tax revenue.
Regardless, this shouldn’t be a federal issue.
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