Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) told Lenny (a newsletter and website started by Golden Globe winner Lena Dunham) that she hopes newly minted House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) will re-evaluate his stance on family leave.
“I think it’s great that he wants to spend time with his family. I think all parents want to spend time with their family,” Gillibrand told Lenny’s editor Jessica Grose as a part of their Friday interview series. “But for low-wage workers, that’s not always possible.”
Gillibrand said the importance of mandating sick days, a higher minimum wage and paid leave “really matter” to all workers, but to low-wage workers who have limited control over their schedules, these are critical.
“Paul Ryan has a huge salary, and he has more than enough resources. So I would hope that his instinct and desire to spend time with his family could be replicated in family policies across the board that allow all workers to have some family time, not just the most affluent, and not just the lucky few who happen to be the next Speaker of the House,” Gillibrand told Lenny.
Ryan will never see the disconnect between his ‘need’ for family time and the need of others for the same benefit…
it requires empathy and some identification with people that he clearly lacks… he seems to consider himself special and above the fray…
he believes the AynRand crap about special people deserving special benefits…
as if ‘working’ @120 days a year is especially demanding and much much harder than people working 60 hour weeks with no additional compensation or people working two jobs at minimum wage in order to survive…
his stance on family leave will steadfastly remain simply a self absorbed view of justifiable personal privilege - and only for a highly select few… and certainly not for peasants.
It won’t do any good to hope for the best with this guy…He is paid by the corporations to represent their interests…and that is what he will do…I hold out no hope for our nation, until the gop is thrown out of power…and that is going to be difficult, in this environment…We know the gop will not govern…yet here they are…
"He is paid by the corporations to represent their interests " - BINGO!!!
Paul Ryan is an unmitigated, opportunistic whore who will use his position to amass the largest pile of wealth conceivable - through any means necessary - it is all about him!
“Family Values” Ryan. Here is the opportunity to make the Republican party more relevant to working people by simply letting them spend more time with their family. A lot of working people are busting ass to find ways to parent their children into a better life. It’s amazing how much effort Republicans expend to make damn sure this will never happen.