Last updated on April 5th, 2019 at 11:25 am
Photo by:Jason Easley
The contrast is stunning. While President Obama spent the day outlining his vision of a better nation for working families, Republicans were dreaming up ways to harm America’s workers.
At the White House Summit on Working Families, President Obama called family the bedrock of our lives, and he discussed the decisions that people shouldn’t have to make in the conflict between work and family.
The president talked about how Americans have to figure how to balance work and family, and how hard it is for people to get by. President Obama talked about the fact that the relative wage hasn’t really gone up in 15 years. He talked about the importance of workplace flexibility. The president said that workers often have to make painful decisions because of the lack of paid family leave,
Obama said that in 31 states child care costs more than a mortgage. He moved on to the minimum wage and said 28 million Americans would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage to $10.10, and the average minimum wage worker is 35 years old.
Obama said many of these issues aren’t partisan until they get to Washington. The president announced a memorandum giving federal employees access to flexible work schedules. He also announced $25 million for childcare for parents who want to enroll in job training programs.
The president closed by bringing up an interview where he was asked if this was political because women are more likely to vote for Democrats. The president answered, “Women are smarter.”
President Obama said that he takes this issue personally because, “I am the father of two unbelievable young ladies.”
The president laid out a vision of a country that actually makes it easier for working people to have jobs and families.
This was the complete opposite of the Republican agenda. The Republican position on families hasn’t changed in the 21 years since the Family and Medical Leave Act was passed. In 1993, future Speaker of the House, John Boehner warned, “America’s business owners are a resilient bunch, but let there by no doubt, HR 1 will be the demise of some. And as that occurs, the light of freedom will grow dimmer.” Of course, FMLA didn’t destroy freedom, but as the income gap continues to grow, the need for paid family leave has never been greater.
Instead of trying to improve conditions for working families, Speaker Boehner’s office tried to sell repealing Obamacare as the Republican plan to help working families.”The House has passed bill after bill to help working families. In a recent guest post on the Speaker’s blog, Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC), chair of the Republican Women’s Policy Committee, highlighted several of these solutions, including legislation allowing private-sector workers the same comp time flexibility as their public-sector counterparts, and more.”
The bills that Boehner claimed that the House has passed to help working families were actually attempts to take healthcare away for working families and cut taxes for businesses.
While Obama and the Democrats are trying to help working families in America keep up with the rest of the developed world, Republicans refuse to create jobs, extend unemployment benefits, and are opposed to common sense measures that would make life easier for workers.
President Obama is beginning this fight, but it is clear that Democrats and the left are going to be the ones to finish it.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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