Sign the petition: Tell Congress don’t pit Social Security against paid family leave

The petition to Congress reads: “Pitting paid family leave against Social Security is a cruel false choice. Reject Marco Rubio’s plan to pay for paid family leave by cutting Social Security benefits.” Add your name:

Sen. Marco Rubio and Ivanka Trump are coming after your Social Security benefits. The pair is reportedly building congressional support for a proposal that would require people to accept a cut in their future Social Security benefits in exchange for six weeks of paid parental leave.1 This is a cruel false choice. The richest country on the planet can afford to ensure that both new parents and our senior citizens are able to meet their basic needs. We must build overwhelming opposition to the cold-hearted Rubio-Trump proposal before it gains traction in Congress. Tell Congress: Don’t pit Social Security against paid family leave. Click here to sign the petition. New parents should not have to choose between caring for their children and keeping their jobs. Yet more than 25 years after Congress passed the Family and Medical Leave Act – which requires some employers to allow employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to attend to family-related matters – the United States remains the only industrialized nation in the world that does not offer all citizens paid family leave.2 Paid family leave is a good, progressive policy that CREDO supports. But we can’t allow Sen. Rubio and Ivanka Trump to pit paid family leave against Social Security. As Social Security Works President Nancy Altman put it, “our country can afford to increase, not cut, Social Security’s modest benefits, while also adding paid family and medical leave.”3 Under the proposal reportedly being discussed, new parents who choose to receive paid family leave would be forced to push back the date at which they would be eligible to receive Social Security benefits. The end result of such a scheme would be a cut in Social Security benefits, as individuals would receive benefits for a shorter period of time.4 The Rubio-Trump proposal is yet another cynical Republican attempt to cut Social Security benefits under the guise of helping families. It is up to us to make sure members of Congress don’t fall for this Trojan horse attack on Social Security. Tell Congress: Don’t pit Social Security against paid family leave. Click the link below to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/ss-trump-rubio?t=7&akid=27218%2E3130208%2E5Z6MMF Josh Nelson,CREDO Action Add your name:  Seung Min Kim, "Ivanka, Rubio find a new project: Paid family leave," POLITICO, Feb. 4, 2018. Elissa Strauss, "Paid parental leave elusive 25 years after Family and Medical Leave Act," CNN, Feb. 5, 2018. "Ivanka Trump and Marco Rubio Want to Cut Your Social Security as the Price for Caring for Your Newborn," Social Security Works, Feb. 5, 2018. Rebekah Entralgo, "Rubio’s ‘paid family leave’ plan is actually just cutting Social Security," ThinkProgress, Feb. 6, 2018.