Lauren Boebert Cites Giving Birth in a Truck as an Argument Against Parental Leave

Final month, the dream of paid parental (and medical) depart within the U.S. died an unceremonious dying when it turned clear that supposedly-a-Democrat Joe Manchin would not assist it, becoming a member of Republicans who assume ladies ought to give delivery after which get again to the meeting line an hour later and that males ought to see their new child infants on nights and weekends, until they occur to be working then, wherein case, robust shit. Then on Wednesday, a small glimmer of hope emerged when Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that paid depart was again within the social-safety-net package deal, although its destiny nonetheless rests within the palms of a man who ought to simply switch parties already however received’t as a result of he loves the ability that comes with fucking with hundreds of thousands of individuals’s lives.

Why doesn’t the U.S. have paid depart within the 12 months 2021? It’s an important query for which there aren’t any good solutions—every other wealthy nation in the world supplies such a profit and the US can clearly afford it given how a lot it spends on protection, whereas concurrently permitting the nation’s zillionaires to pay basically nothing in taxes. However there are a number of silly solutions re: why America shouldn’t present staff what quantities to a relative pittance, in comparison with more evolved countries, to care for his or her youngsters. And on Monday, Consultant Lauren Boebert provided one up for the taking.

Addressing no matter viewers tunes right into a present she calls Bullet Points With Lauren Boebert, the cartoon villain defined that as a result of she apparently gave delivery to one among her youngsters in a truck, nobody is entitled paid depart. “I delivered one among my youngsters within the entrance seat of my truck. As a result of as a mother of 4, we obtained issues to do,” Boebert says within the video. “Ain’t no one obtained time for 2 and a half months of maternity depart. We have now a world to avoid wasting right here.” Setting apart the truth that no matter Boebert will get as much as in Washington is the literal opposite of saving the world, it’s not clear why her delivering one among her 4 youngsters anyplace has something to do with paid depart. Perhaps she gave delivery within the truck as a result of the child got here faster than anticipated. Perhaps she was too distant from the hospital to get there on time. Perhaps this entire story, like the one she tells about why she carries a gun, is “primarily fiction.” Perhaps it’s true, which nonetheless doesn’t clarify why different individuals shouldn’t get a couple of weeks off to bond and care for his or her newborns.

Boebert’s argument, if it may be referred to as that, got here amid a homophobic rant in opposition to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for having the audacity to reap the benefits of the depart coverage offered by his employer, the U.S. authorities. “Whereas the nation fell into one of many worst supply-chain crises since 1979…the man accountable for all of it, Mayor Pete, was on a two-month maternity—paternity, regardless of the heck you wish to name it—depart. The man was gone, the man was not working,” she says. “As a result of why? He was attempting to determine chest feed.” (This was a reference to a photograph Buttigieg posted of himself and his husband, Chasten, holding their twins in a completely regular pose that has nothing to do with breastfeeding, until you’re a bizarre Republican who thinks actual males carry infants in buckets.) “Perhaps somebody ought to inform him so he can get again to work.… Whereas Mayor Pete builds up his picture as doting dad, the nation is burning round him as every part falls aside.… When the supply-chain disaster means you possibly can’t rejoice Christmas like mayor Pete and Chasten, you understand who in charge.”

Like many issues the fitting tries to scare voters over, we’re unsure being a “doting dad” is as dangerous as Boebert thinks it’s. In the meantime, she apparently had nothing to say about the truth that Buttigieg’s son was within the hospital over the weekend as a result of, as you’ll have observed, she’s an evil troll.

The White Home has stated it totally helps Buttigieg’s determination to take the depart afforded to him, with Press Secretary Jen Psaki tweeting that the transportation chief is among the “position fashions on the significance of paid depart for brand spanking new dad and mom.” Buttigieg himself told The New York Occasions that he has a newfound “private appreciation for the truth that [parental leave] is figure. It could be time away from knowledgeable position, however it’s very a lot time on.”

Research have shown that parental depart advantages not simply youngsters however the economic system, information that apparently don’t match into Boebert and the GOP’s narrative of paid depart being for losers.

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