As a lot because the Trump administration claims to look after households and wants to encourage having children, you wouldn’t comprehend it from its actions. In its newest transfer to make life tougher for federal workers, the termination of union contracts for roughly 400,000 workers on the Division of Veterans’ Affairs leaves expectant mother and father within the lurch.
Decrease courts blocked President Donald Trump’s March executive order purporting to have the ability to arbitrarily cancel union contracts overlaying a whole lot of hundreds of federal staff. However federal appeals courts lifted these injunctions earlier this month, so Trump will get to do that whereas the litigation proceeds. The VA was the primary company to terminate nearly all its union contracts, however since Trump’s govt order had a carveout for unions that assist him, VA police, firefighters, and safety guards didn’t have their contracts terminated.
With that contract revocation on the VA came the revocation of all authorised maternity and paternity go away, together with taking it away from individuals days away from giving beginning. Making it extra ridiculous, that is unpaid go away. Underneath the union contract, workers had been entitled to an extra 4 weeks of unpaid parental go away on high of the 12 paid weeks required by legislation. Actual pro-family transfer there, forcing individuals again into the workforce early as a substitute of letting them have extra time to handle and bond with their child.
The reason about this might not be smugger. Per VA spokesperson Pete Kasperowicz, that is a lot fairer: “Now that VA has terminated collective bargaining agreements for many workers, its parental go away coverage is way more equitable.”
Huh?
Sure, as a result of now all VA workers can request go away topic to the wants of the company. So, in Trumpland, a contract that provides everybody the identical profit is unfair, however a coverage that lets your employer unilaterally determine should you get that profit of additional go away is completely honest. Positive.
That is one other entrance within the administration’s comprehensive war on kids and households. A lot of that focus has been on eliminating applications that present kids from lower-income households with such frivolities as warmth, schooling, and well being care. However the swiftness with which it was glad to grab away parental go away from federal workers reveals they don’t have any intent of limiting these assaults.
Simply take a look at how the Division of Training has killed most investigations of civil rights complaints in schools. Or how at the beginning of July, the administration arbitrarily withheld $6 billion in funding for after-school and summer season applications for issues like little one care and English-language instruction. That cash additionally funded trainer improvement. It was solely after Republican senators pressured the administration that the money was released three weeks later.
By no means one to shrink back from being horrible, Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. positively has a giant position right here in making the world worse for youngsters. In April, the company canceled $11.4 billion of funding used for immunization clinics and seems to be planning to remove the Meals and Drug Administration’s approval of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for youngsters beneath 5.
Amid this frenzy of assaults on households, Trump and different creepy natalist types in his administration are working round speaking about how vital it’s for (white) individuals to have extra infants, together with the genius concept of giving moms a medal for having six or extra kids. Vice President JD Vance is a full-fledged natalist, complaining about how we’re dominated by a childless elite and such, so that you’d suppose he’d wish to guarantee individuals get a bit extra day off caring for his or her new child, however you’d be unsuitable.
What about how if Trump gained in 2024, he promised to mandate protection for in vitro fertilization, with Trump saying he’d both require the federal government to cowl it or require insurers to take action. Nicely, that’s not occurring anymore, with an administration official just lately saying that the president couldn’t mandate IVF with out Congress passing laws about it. After all, for the reason that administration has flouted Congress’ authority at each flip, it’s only a handy excuse right here.
The only real pro-family effort the administration can level to is the institution of “Trump Accounts,” a onetime cost of $1,000 for each little one. Gosh, a complete $1,000? That’s positive to make an enormous distinction when the price of elevating a baby to age 18 nowadays recurrently tops $300,000. One way or the other, $1,000 doesn’t actually seem to be sufficient of an incentive.
There isn’t a precise want on the a part of the administration to assist kids or households. It’s glad to make life tougher for everybody.
