Let them eat Buttigieg

The Democrats' parental leave policy could be gone but the liberal media insists that Pete's leave will magically nudge America to the Promised Land.

The night before my niece was admitted to the hospital to have a baby, she pulled an overnight shift at a nursing home.

This was no accident or premature birth. Dynastie—a 22-year-old black woman—had her labor induced last month because of a doctor’s concerns for her and her unborn daughter’s health due to a struggle with iron deficiency anemia. When I visited her last month, Dynastie nearly fainted while lounging in the park because of her health issues.

Still, she worked as a CNA until almost literally the last moment before giving birth because she and my nephew Aaron desperately needed the money to feed their family. Her job—which is in the healthcare industry ironically enough—offered only unpaid medical leave and they’d need a financial cushion to endure her weeks of leave. Luckily, Dynastie and my new great-niece Harmony are in good health, but she’s already picking up shifts again to help make ends meet. 

But here’s big news that should be a huge comfort to Dynastie and my family: Pete Buttigieg is taking an extended period of paid paternity leave from his new White House gig! 

Aren’t you thrilled? You should be according to the corporate media, who chirped loudly about the individual heroism of Pete’s choice amidst conservative criticism but has remained relatively quiet about the Democrats’ failure to keep 12 weeks of paid family leave in their social spending bill. 

“Pete Buttigieg’s paternity leave nudges America closer to what families need,” was the headline of a recent Chicago Tribune column, which didn’t mention a word about the fleecing of the Democrats’ paid leave policy. It simply used Pete’s parental leave as fodder for culture war mudslinging against Republicans.

Oh, about that proposal. Last week, Joe Biden announced that the push for 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for all workers across the country covered by federal or state aid had been slashed down to four weeks. Now, Mighty Joe Manchin, Devourer of Spending Bills, Slayer of Progressives, has snapped his fingers and may have purged paid family leave completely from the final version of the Build Back Better Act, according to recent reports.

If the final bill remains paid leave free, it means that the U.S. would remain on a list of infamy: one of six countries in the world with no national paid leave, joining such luminaries like Suriname, and Papua New Guinea. Even Eswatini offers some measure of paid leave and until reading this New York Times article, I’ve never even heard of it (it’s the South African country formerly known as Swaziland). 

The Democrats’ fumble is awkward considering that Donald Trump campaigned on six weeks of paid maternity leave and managed to get 12 weeks of paid parental leave for all 2.1 million federal employees through a 2019 defense bill. Technically, that means that Buttigieg’s two months of paid leave from his job as Transportation Secretary is at least partially due to Trump. Yikes. 

Not that you’d hear that from the media. They’re too busy promoting the idea that Mayor Pete’s high profile decision to spend months with newborns Penelope and Joseph will somehow inspire the rest of the country to follow suit. 

“By taking the time off to welcome his new children, Buttigieg is also serving a major public good: He is helping to normalize paternity leave,” proclaimed NBC News. 

You’d think that actually legislating paternity leave would be better than ‘normalizing’ it but hey, liberals have long believed in their own enlightened version of trickle-down economic theory.

For their part, Dynastie and Aaron had no opinion on Pete’s big paternity leave when I asked. “Who is that?” they replied.