Many are reeling at the comments from the Heritage Foundation’s Rachel Grezler, saying expectant parents should take out a loan for their very own parental leave.
Grezler revealed this highly controversial option at a recent panel hosted by the Ethics and Public Policy Center that included speakers from the conservative Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute.
Grezler shared the following per the Atlantic:
“At one point during the panel discussion, Greszler suggested that instead of relying on the government, Americans seeking to take parental leave could take more initiative by “going to the bank and taking out a loan in your own name.”
“I don’t think banks offer loans for parental leave,” one of her fellow discussants pointed out.
“They don’t now, but maybe they would,” Greszler responded. “Banks offer loans for all types of reasons.”
She added: “If the private sector doesn’t provide it and we have to go to the government to get it, then you’re relying on the government,”
“You’re not relying on yourself.”
Grezler also encouraged a since debunked idea that additional tax cuts like the one pushed through the Trump administration would lead to more companies feeling generous and giving their employees more benefits out of the goodness of their hearts.
“The more money that you put back in workers’ pockets and in businesses’ revenues, the better able the businesses are to provide paid family leave,” Greszler shared.
A resident scholar, Aparna Mathur, a very conservative American Enterprise Institute who understood the lack of paid leave is an issue that needs solving at a larger scale.
“We cannot stop the conversation at, ‘There are costs, so let’s forget about it,’” Mathur shared prior to asking “rhetorically,” in the words of the Atlantic, “What’s the larger goal of conservatives? Is it to encourage human economic opportunity, to encourage human flourishing? Or is it just to minimize the size of government?”