This is everything wrong with Democratic Party policymaking

Why are D.C. Democrats getting cold feet on paid leave?

What a tangled web the Democrats weave.
(Image credit: Ikon Images / Alamy Stock Photo)

The fact that having children in America is an incredible pain in the neck has become an increasingly urgent political priority among liberals. These days, both parents in a typical family basically have to work to make ends meet — but unlike every single other peer nation, the United States makes no provision for universal parental paid leave. New parents are forced to juggle taking unpaid time off or quitting their job, thus losing a ton of income, or paying through the nose for child care.

Blue states like California have been advancing paid leave schemes that are an improvement on the meager 12 weeks of unpaid leave for certain employees under the Family and Medical Leave Act. And so in December, Washington, D.C., set a new bar with a best-in-the-nation paid leave plan.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.