Posted on 10/18/2021 4:53:11 AM PDT by Kaslin
While the nation faces yet another crisis, this time to do with transportation, it happens to be coming at a time when Sec. Pete Buttigieg is on paternity leave.
The issue is not so much that he took paid family leave to bond with his newborn adopted children--at least it shouldn't be. The issue is we're just now hearing about it, and during a crisis. "Oh, So That’s What Pete Buttigieg Has Been Doing," Katie's article was aptly titled, citing insight from POLITICO Playbook.
Writing "Can Pete Buttigieg Have It All?," for the Thursday "West Wing Playbook," Alex Thompson and Tina Sfondeles acknowledgde that the secretary "has been MIA."
Further down they wrote:
They didn’t previously announce it, but Buttigieg’s office told West Wing Playbook that the secretary has actually been on paid leave since mid-August to spend time with his husband, Chasten, and their two newborn babies.
Not only did the office not "previously announce" something that happened two months ago, but the office also isn't forthcoming about it, period:
In the past, Cabinet secretaries felt compelled to come back sooner. Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development JULIÁN CASTRO took about a “week or so” of leave after his child was born, his spokesperson told us.In part, that’s because Cabinet secretaries are not eligible for the same paid family leave benefits that federal workers are. “Individuals in the executive branch who are appointed by the President to positions in the Executive Schedule are not covered by the leave system,” a spokesperson for the Office of Personnel Management said. “They do not earn leave and serve at the pleasure of the President. The President can choose to allow him to take time off.”
Asked if Biden approved the leave, a White House official didn’t directly answer but said in a statement that “Pete’s been a key member of the team since Day One, and has been critical as we shepherd the President’s agenda across the finish line. We’re overjoyed for him and Chasten, and believe every American should have access to paid family leave.”
Now, there will be people making this about criticizing paid family leave. Fox News host Tucker Carlson made headlines for bringing up "chestfeeding." On Sunday's edition of CNN's "State of the Union," Buttigieg was asked by host Jake Tapper about it:
BUTTIGIEG: As you might imagine, we're bottle-feeding, and doing it at all hours of the day and night. And I'm not going to apologize to Tucker Carlson or anyone else for taking care of my premature newborn infant twins.The work that we are doing is joyful, fulfilling, wonderful work. It's important work. And it's work that every American ought to be able to do when they welcome a new child into their family.
I campaigned on that. So did the president. The Build Back Better agenda includes provisions for paid family leave. And, by the way, we're pretty much the only country left that doesn't have some kind of national policy for paid leave.
I think it's down to us and Papua New Guinea. It is long past time to make it possible for every American mother and father to take care of their children when a new child arrives in the family.
It need not be a talking point from the Left that the United States needs to get on board with the rest of the world here when it comes to having a national policy in favor of paid family leave. It's smart and it's compassionate. It's also pro-life. So why are pro-abortion leftists pushing it, then? It should be a conservative talking point, especially for the sake of encouraging families.
In 2016 I wrote for Live Action about paid family leave from a pro-life perspective. For so many women who have abortions, finances tend to play a factor. Specifically, a Guttmacher Institute Study from 2005 found that 21 percent said they "can't leave job to take care of a baby."
In an opinion piece last month for The Washington Examiner, Madeline Fry Schultz asked "Why don’t conservative organizations offer more paid family leave?"
Even if he makes good points about family leave, we shouldn't let Buttigieg off the hook for job failures. When Tapper tried to ask the secretary why he didn't announce it, he demurred, naturally:
TAPPER: We're thrilled for your family. And we're happy that parental leave is a reality for so many in the U.S.Looking back, as a Cabinet secretary, why didn't you or the Department of Transportation make an official announcement when you went on parental leave? And why did you not appoint an acting secretary while you were away?
BUTTIGIEG: Well, so, the way this works is, there is a deputy secretary, Polly Trottenberg, who's doing phenomenal work and who, as deputy secretaries do, can fill in when a secretary is not available.
Now, look, even though I have been on maternity leave, and I'm proud of it, obviously, given the nature of my job, when you take a job like mine, you understand and accept that you're going to have to be available 24/7, depending on what's going on, and you're going to have to engage.
And I did, even if that meant taking a phone call or making a decision from a hospital room. But I am so thankful for the phenomenal work that my colleagues at the Department of Transportation have done and are doing. And I'm thankful to be part of an administration that is walking the walk on our family values.
This administration is full of gaslighting experts. Has Trottenberg actually been doing "phenomenal work," though? If Buttigieg really has been "available 24/7," why are we facing yet another crisis?
To allow the White House and paid family leave advocates to frame it this way and only this way amounts to deceiving the American people.
Didn’t he say this crisis is a good thing ? It’s a good thing he was on leave because he knows nothing about transportation just watch
Classic straw man argument. Family leave is not the issue. The problem is when ideology is put ahead of common sense and national security for the good of the oligarchy.
1) He’s not a single parent.
2) There’s an absolute supply crisis in this country that is getting worse daily.
3) Sadly for U.S. citizens he seems to have no idea what he is doing. He was a small town mayor.....no qualifications for this job.
4) Sorry, a crisis trumps parenthood. You should be, but are not, doing your job.
What, was Chaasten suffering from post partum depression?
In any case, Buttigieg presented himself as someone who cared about the country, and he should have weighed his civic responsibility more highly.
Yes, maybe he should just stay home period.
No, he doesn’t deserve maternity leave.
Yes, is it very much the point!
The dude he calls his “wife” doesn’t actually have a vagina. He didn’t actually give birth. He’s not sore. He did not have a caesarean. He did not have an episiotomy.
HE HAS NO RECOVERY.
F- both of these dudes.
AMEN. and shame on whoever lets that happen.
“Has Trottenberg actually been doing “phenomenal work,” though? If Buttigieg really has been “available 24/7,” why are we facing yet another crisis?”
Easy question. None of biden’s people actually do their job. Being on any type of leave is essentially the same for them as being at work.
I think he intends to return to work after all of our transportation systems collapse. He can blame everything on Biden as he’ll probably be replaced with VP Hilarious by then.
A period of time for the MOTHER is one thing. She’s just gone thru 9 months of pregnancy. Her hormones are often out of whack. Possibly a C-section. Often large weight gain. She NEEDS some recovery time.
Pete is NOT A MOTHER. He didn’t give birth. He didn’t have a C-section. He isn’t breast feeding the baby. He is one of two ADOPTIVE FATHERS. If he wants a week of leave? OK. But it is insanity to pretend fathers need the same recovery time - or face the same physical stresses - that a mother does.
Unlike Pete Butty-Guy, I’ve been a father and I’ve watched my wife deal with post-pregnancy, and I KNOW he has NONE of those stresses on him! He’s just a lying, reality-denying lazy butt!
Pete is in so far over his head that we would have to pipe daylight to him.
12 weeks out of 52==23 % of a year...
AN EMPLOYER is required to pay 23% of a years salary for ZERO? work????
I would be hiring 50 plus year old military vets.
I am old enough to remember:
The men of South Bend sitting on their porches & “Waiting for Studebaker to come back”.
Yep. 20-25 years ago, women got six weeks maternity leave after giving birth.
The fathers took off a day or two in most cases.
Women have to heal from childbirth and often nurse the baby.
After the six weeks, women were back at work, often pumping milk at the office.
Why would two men need two months of leave? Wonder whether they have help, too, like a nanny, while they’re on leave.
; )
Great post!
Post Partum depression?
Episiotomy tenderness?
Get the boy a rubber donut to sit on.
You know they have at least one if not several nannies.
I was raised on a Wisconsin dairy farm.
Lady on next farm was pregnant with 5th kid.
She was taken off the tractor she had been working on for a week at 11 AM.
Drive to hospital was 45 minutes.
She had baby around noon.
She was back on tractor the very next day & oldest daughter was watching baby. She was breastfeeding and did so every couple of hours-—and kept working on the tractor between feedings.
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