WASHINGTON – You knew it was coming. While Illinois U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth was lauded and applauded for her fight to bring her newborn daughter onto the U.S. Senate floor, there was an underlying agenda to all that feel-good media she pulled together.
That agenda was rolled out today when Senator Duckworth sent out an email to supporters saying it is time for paid family leave – another special privilege for expectant and new parents for which she wants employers and company owners to pay.
She writes Monday, and asks for stories from parents who weren't allowed to bring their babies to work like she has been …
Last month, my colleagues and I changed the rules of the Senate to allow babies on the floor so Senators with young babies can vote. Now I, and those after me in the Senate, can take care of a newborn and still do our jobs at the same time. This was an important step for the Senate — an acknowledgment that our policies are outdated and need to change.
But one mother wrote an opinion piece in the Chicago Tribune that asked a very important question: "What about the rest of us?"
There are millions of working families across the country who can't push through updates to their workplace policies. They can't pressure bosses or boards of directors to take a companywide vote on giving employees paid family leave. They can't wave some magic wand and make child care more affordable.
The United States is one of the only industrialized nations without a paid family leave policy. In some areas of the country, quality child care costs more than in-state college tuition. If we want working families to be successful, both of these things need to change.
Just the thing to pull in those suburban moms that deal with family challenges – the voters the Left wants to pull to their side of the debate. Duckworth writes:
When we give these important policies context, it makes a strong case for why things need change. It's easy to dismiss numbers on a page — it's harder to dismiss the newborn baby in her mother's arms on the Senate floor, with the knowledge it’s just the start.
Let's make that case together, and help push for policies that will truly help working families.
Just the way Illinoisans should expect their Leftist Senator to look at the world.
After all, it takes a village to raise a child, right?
