Bernie Sanders on Family Values

Bernie Sanders on Family Values
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Quote:

“I will be talking about family values, but not the family values that my Republican colleagues talk about, which for them means that a woman cannot have the right to control her own body or that gay people should not have the right to get married or that women should not have access to contraception. That is what their concept of family values are about. That’s not my concept,” Sanders said at the breakfast, sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor Breakfast in downtown D.C. “My concept about family values is about is that the United States should not be the only major country on earth that does not guarantee paid family and medical leave when a woman has a baby. So that right now we’re seeing a situation where a woman is having a baby and a week later is forced to go back to work because she doesn’t have the income to stay at home and bond with her child,” Sanders said. He then outlined three family-oriented policies that would be at the center of his “Family Values Plan”: making sure that all American have 12 weeks of paid maternity leave, paid sick leave and 10 days a year of paid vacation time. As he explained his agenda, based loosely on programs that already exist in European countries, Sanders’ voice took on the impassioned populist tone that has helped him draw bigger than expected crowds — “I have been surprised by the size,” Sanders admitted Thursday — in Iowa and New Hampshire. “It is beyond comprehension that again the United States of America, our great nation, is the only nation on earth that does not guarantee sick leave. Sick leave!” Sanders exclaimed. “Today, in McDonalds and Burger Kings all over this country, there are people who are sick, who are handling are food, who should be at home. There are mothers who are sending their kids to school because they don’t have paid sick leave to take care of their kids. That is a family value,” Sanders continued. “That when a husband comes down with cancer, that a wife has a right to spend some time with him at home. That is a family value.”

“Family values” is not a term owned by either party. At least Sanders is actually speaking about values that most families in amerce share, whereas most conservatives’ idea of “family values” they advocate for seem to revolve around some restriction on family activities that they want the government to outlaw or restrict

via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1FbRIGb