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Does a nation without paid parental leave really value its children?

Today is the twentieth anniversary of the signing of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The FMLA allows for employees to have 12 weeks of unpaid leave when they have children or have a serious illness.

The FMLA is an important accomplishment, but the United States still lags behind most of the world — both rich, developed countries and even poor, developing countries — in offering guaranteed meaningful, paid parental leave to all employees.

Here’s a rundown of some other countries that have paid parental leave:

India: India, even with its extreme poverty, guarantees 12 weeks of paid leave after the birth of a child. The employee gets 100 percent of normal pay during this time.
Rwanda:Ai??In the poor nation of Rwanda, employees get one month of paid leave at 100% of pay.
France: As a rich developed country (but one still poorer than the United States), France offers 16 weeks of of paid leave (at 100% pay) for the first 2 children and 26 weeks for the third child. The French also get a compulsory 6 weeks before birth.
Sweden: Sweden has perhaps the world’s most generous paid parental leave policy, offering one year paid parental leave at an 80% rate.

Even with the meager FMLA protections we have, up to 40 percent of employees are not even eligible.

Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) has been a huge supporter of both fracking and subsidies for Big Oil. At a town hall this weekend, some of his constituents took issue with his support for these dirty industries.

After defending the exemption of fracking from the Clean Water and Clean Air acts, one constituent asked him about the over $100,000 he’s gotten from the oil and gas industries. He responded that he has “no idea” where that money came from:

CONSTITUENT QUESTION: Do you think the fracking industry should remain exempt from the Clean Air and Drinking Water Acts? […]

REED: […] I am not a believer in expanding federal government, I believe we have to downsize federal government. What we’re on a path here by doing that I think is expanding government. […] I would defer to the state and defer to the local bodies on that.

(Audience hissing)

CONSTITUENT 1: Water and air are across state borders!

CONSTIUTENT 2: Where did your $126,000 from gas companies come from? Which lobbyists? Which companies besides Chesapeake and the other lobbyists?

REED: No idea. No idea. We don’t keep track of that. I don’t keep track of that.

Watch it:

Reed should know that he is actually legally required to “keep track of that” — and that it’s actually public information. The oil and gas industry was his third-largest donor in 2012. Here’s some of the biggest backers:

Chesapeake Energy: $10,000 to Reed. Chesapeake, one of America’s largest fracking companies, has angered homeowners nationwide with its excessive use of legal maneuvers to gain access to land to drill on.
National Fuel Gas Corporation:Ai??$10,000 to Reed. This fracking company is based in Western Pennsylvania and New York.
America’s Natural Gas Alliance: $4,400 to Reed. This is one of the main advocacy coalitions for natural …

Last week, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) hosted veterans groups, labor unions, and others at a press conference to oppose the chained CPI proposal, which would reduce benefits to Social Security beneficiaries and veterans.

At the event, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, which represents 200,000 veterans and supporters, blasted the proposal. The IAVA’s Tom Tarantino said the proposal would “balance the budget on the backs of those who fought for us”:

TARANTINO: And I want to point out that this is the 2nd time in so many months that we’ve been brought to talk about this. And that is totally insane to me that we have to keep coming back and talking about how cutting benefits for veterans is not the answer to our fiscal woes. You hear chained CPI and you hear all these complicated policy terms. And really what you’re saying is we’re going to balance the budget on the backs of those who have fought for us. And these proponents of the chained CPI they apparently okay with that. You know, I’m not okay with that. They say times are tough. You know what, tell me about it. Tell me times are tough. For me and my friends who spentAi??theAi??last ten years fighting war. Tell the Gold Star widows and the surviving spouses how tough times are. Tell the Vietnam and World War II and Korean veterans who depend on their benefits to supplement their incomeAi??becauseAi??they’re still suffering from wounds from their service. Tell that disabled veterans, who has invisible wounds, who needs their veterans benefits, so that they can help recover. We lost more veterans lastAi??yearAi??to suicide than we did to combat. Tell those veterans about how times are tough. I have lost …

The NRA’s president David Keene recorded an interview with the conservative news site The Daily Caller that it will be releasing in full today. In an excerpt, Keene compared the weapon used in the Sandy Hook massacre to the musket:

KEENE: This nation was founded as a result of the fact, people, citizens who had a musket above their fireplace grabbed the gun when an emergency confronted them. For four million Americans, the AR-15 is the musket of today.

Click here to watch it.

For reference, the AR-15 can fire between 700 to 950 rounds a minute. In contrast, the muskets that the American revolutionaries used typically fired three rounds per minute if they were used by skilled marksmen.

Sign our petition supporting the bold White House gun plan.

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) just introduced a federal so-called “right to work” law that would undermine labor organizing nationwide. Here’s an excerpt from his press release touting the legislation:

“Every American worker deserves the right to freedom of association – and I am concerned that the 26 states that allow forced union membership and dues infringes on these workers’ rights. Right to work laws ensure that all Americans are given the choice to refrain from joining or paying dues to a union as a condition for employment. Nearly 80 percent of all Americans support the principles and so I have introduced a national Right to Work Act that will require all states to give their workers the freedom to choose.”

The fact is, no one is forced to join a union. What so-called “right to work” laws allow is for workers to receive union benefits without paying union dues, which undermines the ability for unions to represent workers.

Researchers from the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute have found that the economies of states who have these laws “are associated with significantly lower wages and reduced chances of receiving employer-sponsored health insurance and pensions.” They estimated that hourly wages for all workers — not just union workers — in these states are 3% lower.

There has never been a serious push for a national “right to work” law, making Paul’s effort fairly unique. The National Right To Work Committee gave $7,500 to Paul’s campaign, and Koch Industries — which bankrolls state-wide efforts to install these laws — is his third largest contributor.

Click here to join our Take Back Democracy campaign to help stop the influence of money in our politics.

(Photo source: Flickr user DonkeyHotey)

Social Security is fully solvent until 2037 and is not in crisis. But one way to make sure there are no cutbacks in benefit cuts after that is to lift the payroll tax cap so wealthy Americans contribute more into the system.

A new survey from the National Academy of Social Insurance finds that most Americans want to do just that. When survey respondents were asked how they felt about the statement “It is critical to preserve Social Security even if it means increasing Social
Security taxes paid by wealthy Americans,” 87 percent of them agreed, with 62 percent of them strongly agreeing.

It’s worth noting that this number includes even 71 percent of self-identified Republicans (and 86 percent of self-identified independents).

Click hereAi??to pledge to hold any Democrat who agrees to a deal that cuts Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits accountable.

Do rich Maryland boat owners really need a tax cut?

MarylandAi??Delegate Ron George (R-Arnold) Ai??and Senator John Astle (D-Annapolis) have just filed bills to give a tax cut to some of the state’s richest boat owners. The tax cut is being pushed by the boating industry, and it should be noted that Astle has received $3,250 from a sea transport association over the past 8 years.

Currently, Maryland has a vessel excise tax that charges boat owners 5 percent of the value of their boat if they keep it in the state for more than 90 days a year.

Under the new bill, this tax would be capped at a total of $10,000. That means that the cap would exclusively benefit boat owners whose boats are worth more than $200,000. The owner of a $1 millionAi??yacht, for example, would save $40,000 if this cap was put into place.

According to statistics from the National Marine Manufacturers Association — which represents the boating industry nationwide — the average “price of a new boat, motor, trailer package was $25,554” in 2007. The average price of a new powerboat that same year was $35,486.

Thus, by their own statistics, the boating industry admits that most boat owners will not see a tax cut from this bill, and that it will only benefit owners of boats that are much more expensive than average.

An AR-15

Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) released a new report today looking at mass shootings in the United States since 2009.

Highlighting the importance of looking at new gun regulations, the report finds that 28% of mass shootings since 2009 involved either high-capacity magazines or assault weapons. The report also notes that 9% of these mass shootingsAi??occurredAi??in schools (either primary, secondary, or college campuses).

Sign our petition supporting the bold White House gun plan.

Yesterday, the Senate held its first hearing on gun reforms. At the hearing, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) asked NRA president Wayne LaPierre if he really thinks the second amendment’s purpose is for citizens to arm themselves against the government. LaPierre responded that this was the purpose of the amendment, and also for citizens to protect themselves absent of the government. Baltimore Police Chief James Johnson called this view of gun rights “scary, creepy, and not based on logic”:

DURBIN: Your NRA members say, you just don’t get it. It’s not just about hunting, it’s not just about sports, it’s not just about shooting targets, it’s not just about defending ourselves from criminals, as Ms. Trotter testified. We need the firepower and the ability to protect ourselves from our government, from our government. From the police, if they knock on our doors we need to fight back. Do you agree with that point of view?

LAPIERRE: Senator, I think without any doubt if you look at why our Founding Fathers put it there, they had lived under the tyranny of King George, and they wanted to make sure these free people in this new country would never be subjugated again and have to live under tyranny. I also think though that what people all over the country fear today is being abandoned by their government if a tornado hits, if a hurricane hits, if a riot occurs, that they’re going to be out there alone and the only way they’re going to protect themselves in the cold in the dark when they’re vulnerable is with a firearm. And I think that indicates how relevant and how essential the second amendment is in today’s society to fundamental human survival.

DURBIN: Well, Chief Johnson, you heard it, the belief …

The corporate front group the American Legislative Exchange Council helps corporations write bills and then get state legislatures to pass them. But the group has beenAi??hemorrhagingAi??members since itsAi??involvementAi??in passing “Stand Your Ground” and voter suppression laws.

Yesterday, two renewable energy associations announced that they’d be leaving ALEC in response to it fighting green technology at the state level:

The American Wind Energy Association and the Solar Energy Industries Association joined the industry-backed coalition for a year because they wanted a “seat at the table” to discuss hot energy issues, said AWEA spokesman Peter Kelley.

But the groups decided to drop out afterAi??ALECAi??adopted theAi??“Electricity Freedom Act”Ai??model bill in October, which would end requirements that utilities generate a set amount of electricity from renewable sources, such as wind and solar (E&ENews PM, Nov. 5, 2012). SEIA allowed its one-year membership to expire last fall, and AWEA dropped out earlier this month.

Click here to join our campaign calling on Democratic lawmakers and major corporations to dump ALEC.