As he made his pitch for paid family leave in Iowa, Sen. Bernie Sanders slammed Hillary Clinton for not taking a firm stance on the issue.
Sanders urged the Democratic front-runner to back bills in Congress that support paid family leave, citing the bill proposed by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. He also claimed that while Clinton often speaks of improving lives for working families on the campaign trail, she only has “talked in vague and general terms” about paid family leave and has yet to propose any concrete plans.
Clinton, in an attempt to get ahead of Sanders’ speech, released her own family leave plan on Thursday.
Though both candidates support family leave, the big distinction between their plans is how they’ll be funded. Sanders proposes increasing the payroll tax, the idea being that the program would have more longevity as a broad entitlement that nearly all workers help pay for, as has been the case with Social Security and Medicare. Instead of funding it through a payroll tax, however, Clinton has vowed to pay for the plan by increasing taxes on the wealthy.
“Apparently Secretary Clinton believes that a $1.61 payroll tax for the average worker is too high a price for three months of paid family and medical leave. I strongly disagree with that,” Sanders said, referring to his preferred financing mechanism for family leave.
In releasing her plan, the Clinton campaign argued, “Hillary strongly believes that middle class families deserve a raise, not a tax increase. American families need paid leave, and to get there, Hillary will ask the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share.”
In the beginning of his primary campaign, Sanders pledged to run an entirely positive campaign, but as Iowa and New Hampshire quicly approach, his campaign has begun to attack the former secretary of state more aggressively.
