Working Women and the Republican Party
By Caroline Melear
Faith, Family, and Country. These are the essential tenets we as Americans have lived our lives by for generations. As President Trump has famously and beautifully stated, “we know that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, are at the center of American life.” Yet in recent decades, we have watched government and bureaucracy take an ever-larger presence in our lives, perhaps nowhere more prevalent than when it comes to our families and children.
The Department of Education and the public school system are growing larger, more powerful, and less effective at teaching our children every year. After all, American children fall far behind other developed nations when it comes to education level, even in subjects most of us today take for granted, such as literacy and basic arithmetic. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen how government-run schools will defy all reason and data and outright refuse to operate, despite being one of the most “essential businesses” to exist. This goes against numerous studies showing a very low risk to teachers, and almost no risk to otherwise healthy children.
Therefore, it is bewildering to observe Americans lament the failures and ineffectiveness of big government and bureaucracy and simultaneously watch our leaders consistently call for more of it. Former Vice President and Democratic Candidate for President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party are including Universal Childcare as one of their primary policy goals. As outlined in the Democratic Party Platform, they intend to offer universal government-run pre-K for all three and four-year-olds in the nation. Many of the former Democratic Presidential candidates, including Senators Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand, discussed their desire to fund daycare services with federal dollars. Senator and Vice Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris’ desired plan goes even further by providing government-funded childcare from birth. True to their form, you can always expect Big Government politicians to push even further once they ultimately obtain power. European nations such as France already mandate schooling for 3 and 4-year-olds. As President Macron and his party now hold a comfortable majority, they have begun pushing for the abolition of homeschooling altogether. Make no mistake— the push for universal childcare is anti-family and seeks to dismantle your right to raise and educate your children as you see fit. Children in public schools are taught to reject traditional values and hate their country— this isn’t justice, it’s social programming, and it’s supported by today’s Democratic Party.
Meanwhile, polling shows that nearly 60% of American women would prefer to be home with their children if given the opportunity. Almost the same percentage of Americans believe that children are better off having one parent in the household who does not work full time. As conservatives, and more importantly, as Americans, we should do everything we can to support mothers exercising their freedom and desire to be home with their children whenever possible. A robust and competitive economy and consistent encouragement of two-parent households, which is exceptionally statistically significant as it relates to children’s wellbeing, should remain the principal focus of Republicans. Children from single-parent households are more likely to live in poverty, to drop out of school, become involved in crime, have behavioral and emotional problems, and less likely to have access to healthcare. These data points should remain top of mind for both policymakers and Americans. In the cases where childcare is either necessary or desired, we should focus on policies that lower the cost of daycare and give American families a broad range of options. We should not look to the federal government for “one size fits all” approaches covered in red tape and regulation.
For those mothers who would like to continue to work, including women such as Kayleigh McEnany and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, we can look to the Trump Administration for solutions to ease into motherhood while maintaining a career. Advisor to the President and First Daughter Ivanka Trump has made this her top issue, and as a working mother of three, understands it from a personal perspective. President Trump, with Ivanka at the helm, signed into federal law workforce paid family leave, which is highly popular among Americans, and became the first federal paid family leave law to be passed and signed in American history.
To be clear, a strong economy with a high level of competitiveness is the best way to ensure ultimate compensation and benefits for employees. However, Paid Family Leave is extremely popular among the American people, with 82% of Americans believing women should receive paid leave. To the extent we can encourage families to spend more time together, especially in the delicate newborn stage, when bonding and nurturing are critical, we should be looking to Republican leaders for options on paid family leave. President Trump and his Administration are among the first Republican leaders to take up this issue and make it popular among party leadership, largely on the advice of Ivanka Trump. Republican Senators Joni Ernst and Mike Lee have written vital legislation called The CRADLE Act based on a proposal from Kristin Shapiro of International Women’s Forum. This would be a budget-neutral option for paid family leave, allowing individuals to draw up to 3 months of paid leave on their own Social Security payments. On the tail end, this would delay the individual’s ability to draw on Social Security at retirement by double the time they took for Paid Family Leave benefits. For example, if a young woman takes two months from her Social Security to fund paid leave, she would delay her Social Security draw at retirement by four months.
A paid family leave bill with similar fiscal intentions was touted by Trump in his State of the Union address in February of this year. Known as the Advancing Support for Working Families Act , the bill allows new parents to draw on their future child tax credits and receive smaller credits for the next 10 to 15 years. The Trump Administration, through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, gave 40 million American families an average $2,200 extra as a result of the child tax credit. The ability of American families to have flexibility in using their own money is critical. Alternatively, Democratic proposals for paid family leave focus solely on raising taxes and deficit spending. Suppose we are to have Paid Family Leave in the United States. In that case, we should choose the most fiscally responsible form available that does not create an undue financial burden on American businesses, and continues to uplift and promote the American family.
We live in an incredibly diverse country, and women’s opinions on childcare and work are no exception. As we see the overwhelming majority of Americans’ desire for affordable childcare and paid family leave, we should continue to look to the Trump Administration for policy breakthroughs that align as best as possible with Conservative principles of fiscal responsibility and focus on healthy families.
Photo via @ivankatrump