Last Thursday, Ivanka Trump did a Facebook post that let US know what a truly dangerous thing she is working on “behind the scenes” with Congress in DC-
“When Google extended their #PaidFamilyLeave policy, they saw a 50% increase in employee retention. Unfortunately, those who need it the most, are least likely to receive this benefit. As we work with Congress to build support for a national #PFL policy, we encourage private sector commitment to investing in the workforce – it’s not just the right thing to do, it’s good business.”
Bless Her Heart! (Said in the truest Southern way) Anyone who has followed this writer at all knows that I am whole-heartedly supportive of President Trump and the heavy lifting and hard work he is doing to Make America Great Again. But I’m hoping that he won’t listen to the First Daughter on this potentially disastrous Socialist idea, particularly as a national government program. Yes, I know the idea of this warm and fuzzy support mechanism sounds just wonderful, but I’m also pretty sure that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid started off sounding just as wonderfully warm and fuzzy. And look at the economic disasters all three have turned out to be.
Over the last 20 years, if I haven’t learned anything else, I have learned that our national government is the single most ineffective, inefficient and incompetent operational entity in the World today. We see every day countless examples of the national government’s inability to do even the smallest and simplest things, so why would we want to give this bumbling behemoth the next giant socialist entitlement program? Well, we don’t.
Over this past weekend, through the wonders of “Social Media”, I initiated and was involved in several discussion threads on this subject. To be perfectly honest, some of the comments in these discussions were downright scary. Why? Because they boldly illustrated that at least some of my fellow US Citizens haven’t learned anything from the disasters that every true operational program of the national government have become. And history shows that the bigger the program, the bigger the disaster. More than several people even called me a Liberal because I didn’t support Ivanka’s national #PaidFamilyLeave initiative? If that doesn’t scare you then I’m worried about you.
I did learn some interesting things too. Did you know that several States and Puerto Rico already have State-based #PaidFamilyLeave programs? I didn’t. These States and Territory- Rhode Island, Hawaii, New Jersey, California, New York and Puerto Rico, have some form of a paid maternity leave program for their residents. Now, doesn’t that make a lot better sense than the national government getting involved in this situation? Let any State that wants to offer these benefits to its residents do so in the way they choose to set it up. Or not offer it at all, if that is what the representatives of the residents of the State choose.
Also, I find the post that Ivanka did last Thursday to be a “slight of hand” misdirection play. She started off talking about what a great program this was when Google extended it to their employees and the great increase in “employee retention” it provided. Then she went right to her work to gain support in Congress for a “national” #PFL program because she says, “Unfortunately, those who need it the most, are least likely to receive this benefit.” Well, if a private company wants to offer this as a benefit to their employees, great. That should be their choice and business decision. To FORCE a business to “offer” this benefit, through an edict by the national government, that is nothing but the exact definition of Socialism.
Back in the 1990s Congress passed, and President Clinton signed, the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to allow parents to take time off for various family medical emergencies and to protect their jobs while they did so. But what the FMLA didn’t do was to create a giant national government bureaucracy, which could waste billions of taxpayer dollars, through their gross inefficiency and incompetence. It didn’t create thousands of new Democrat-voting national government public employees like Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid did. So in the eyes of the national government bureaucrat, FMLA is a total waste because of those failings. That’s why we MUST now have the #PAIDFamilyLeave program.
At this point we feel that the whole idea of a new national government #PaidFamilyLeave program, after the great successes of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, is just reinforcing Einstein’s definition of insanity- “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” We intend to do any and everything we can to stand against this expansion of national government insanity! On the idea of a national government #PFL program, Nancy Reagan had the right plan- “Just Say No!”
God Bless America! And America, please Bless God again!
