On Tuesday, Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Mike Lee, R-Utah, introduced the Child Rearing and Development Leave Empowerment Act, legislation that would for the first time provide universal access for all workers to paid parental leave. The concept of the Cradle Act is sound: Allow new parents the option of borrowing from their Social Security safety net which they have already paid into. Parents who choose to take cash payments now to help with the costs of a new addition to their family and taking time off work will simply pay it back later by delaying their retirement for a few weeks. It doesn’t cost the government anything, it isn’t a new entitlement, and it gives families another valuable option in these most precious weeks of a child’s life.
If there is one area where Democrats and Republicans should be able to agree, it is on supporting new parents and young families. There are existing proposals from the Left and Right, but politics is the art of the possible, and this concept deserves an open-minded review on its merits. Congress should seriously consider this bill before the 2020 presidential campaign is in full swing and bipartisan legislating grinds to a crawl.
