Everything Old is New Again

        You know you've jumped the shark when you run a campaign ad using your daughter to promise to do what the other party has tried to do for decades and your own party has opposed for those same decades. In this case it's Ms. Trump promising that daddy will enact mandatory maternity leave and child care credits for working moms. Wow!  Okay we've seen the bullshit, now for the history!

        No developed country on earth has a worse record on this issue than the USA. The current legislation (mandating up to 12 weeks UNPAID leave) was the best the Clinton administration could get out of  GOP controlled Congress in 1993. So let's establish this right off the bat; Trump is promising exactly what his own party refused to do over 20 years ago. Wow, what a progressive guy -allowing those "fat slob pigs" to have maternity leave. Regarding child care credit - the legislation already exists, passed in 1973, and while Democrats have periodically proposed increasing the amount allowed ($3,000 per child annually), they have been stymied by GOP objections.  

        It took the United States until 1993 to mandate unpaid leave for new parents and other family and medical reasons. There is little doubt that  unpaid leave has helped, because it "protects hourly workers from being fired when they have a baby or need to care for a child or elder with a serious health condition." But that doesn't change the fact that "we need paid leave," progressives  say. (and I agree, as does Mrs Clinton.)

       According to the National Women's Law Center (NWLC), only 16 percent of workers get paid family leave through their employers. The idea that U.S. companies are driven by the world market to offer competitive leave benefits is "definitely a misconception," says Emily Martin, vice president and general counsel at NWLC. In fact, the only nations other than the USA which do not mandate maternal leave with pay are  - are you ready for this? - Swaziland, Lesotho, and Papua New Guinea! I guess this is simply another example of  "American Exceptionalism?"

       Among our global economic competitors, the length of leave and percentage of full pay are: Russia - 140 days, 100%, China - 90 days. 100%, Indonesia - 84 days, 100%.  In Indonesia, Brazil, the UK, Netherlands and others, even including Saudi Arabia, this is actually  maternity/paternal leave. That's right family leave - paid.

       Democrats have historically pushed several  proposals, the most recent  beginning in 2014 and stymied by the GOP in Congress, the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act, that would provide employees 12 weeks of paid leave, during which they would receive 66 percent of their monthly wages, capped at $1,000 a week. It is worthy of note that this is still worse than, say, Turkey (112 days, 67%) or India (84 days, 100%). The program would be paid for through small payroll contributions made by employees and employers. The bill had no Republican co-sponsors, even though apparently "plenty of Republicans support the idea" in public opinion polls.

       So summarizing: Trump allegedly wants to do what Democrats and some progressive Republicans, and yes there are some, have tried to do periodically since 1973 (child care credit) and 1993 (paid maternity leave). So this is  a platform?  "I want to do what my own party has opposed for decades."  What a whore.