Tell Congress: Support the FAMILY Act, not the Rubio-Trump plan to cut Social Security

Petition to Congress: “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 and support the FAMILY Act instead." Add your name: At a recent congressional hearing on paid family leave, Sen. Marco Rubio outlined his brand new, Ivanka Trump-supported plan to force people to sacrifice their retirement in order to take care of their loved ones.1 It's a cruel and false choice – after all, the richest country on the planet can afford to ensure that both new parents and senior citizens are able to meet their basic needs. But dangerously, the hearing has produced a wave of coverage touting Ivanka Trump's support and the "bipartisan" interest in paid family leave.2 We need an immediate response showing support for the progressive alternative – the FAMILY Act. Tell Congress: Support the FAMILY Act, not the Rubio-Trump plan to cut Social Security. Click here to sign the petition. The Rubio-Trump bill would require people to accept a cut in their future Social Security benefits in exchange for six weeks of paid parental leave. But this false choice pits earned benefits against family needs. 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.3 The progressive FAMILY Act would give people up to 12 weeks of paid time off, earning up to two-thirds of their regular wages, to care for new children or deal with serious family or health issues. In contrast to the Rubio-Trump bill, it is funded by a small increase in payroll taxes – less than $2 per person – instead of pitting family leave and earned Social Security benefits against each other.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 – and instead support a real progressive alternative. Tell Congress: Support the FAMILY Act, not the Rubio-Trump plan to cut Social Security. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/rubio_paid_leave?t=7&akid=29257%2E3130208%2EN8mgrM Thanks for everything you do, Josh Nelson, Co-Director, CREDO Action CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: References: Social Security Works, "Ivanka Trump and Marco Rubio Want to Cut Your Social Security as the Price for Caring for Your Newborn," Feb. 5, 2018. Heather Marcoux, "Ivanka Trump champions paid family leave policy—and calls for bipartisan support," Mother.ly, July 11, 2018. Elissa Strauss, "Paid parental leave elusive 25 years after Family and Medical Leave Act," CNN, Feb. 5, 2018. National Partnership for Women and Families, "Fact Sheet: The Family And Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act," September 2017.

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.

URGENT! Contact Ivanka Trump and ask her to talk to her dad about the Paris Climate Agreement.

This is urgent. The Washington Post and The New York Times are reporting that President Trump is now leaning toward pulling the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement, and that it could happen any day.

Withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement could join a long list of bad decisions coming out of Washington lately. This Includes yesterday’s passage of a disastrous health care bill by the U.S. House of Representatives that would undermine families’ health benefits to give away more tax breaks for the rich, and executive orders last week from the president opening our coastlines, public lands and national monuments to more oil and gas drilling.

But we still have time to persuade President Trump to not withdraw from the Paris agreement. And we need your help to flood the White House phone lines, generating a massive outcry that will be difficult for the White House to ignore. It will only take a few minutes, but if enough people call, our impact could last for generations.

Ms. Trump claims to be a "moderating influence" on her father and it's been widely reported that she has argued for keeping the U.S. in the Paris agreement. With enough pressure, we just might be able to persuade her to push harder to persuade the president that sticking with Paris is the right move.

Just days ago, hundreds of thousands of people marched past the White House at the Peoples Climate March — and it's critical that we speak out with just as much force now.

-Rhea Suh. President, NRDC

I called the White House Comment Line at 202-456-1111 to leave a message for Ivanka Trump, but the volunteer operator said that wasn't allowed. He suggested that I write in care of Ms. .Invanka Trump at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500. He said she would probably get it. I went ahead and left a message for President Trump.

Use these talking points:

Hi, my name is __________, and I'm writing you with the hope that you'll do everything in your power to convince your father not to abandon the Paris Climate Agreement. You call yourself a "moderating influence" on the White House. This is your chance to show it.  Abandoning the Paris agreement would have disastrous consequences for our country and the planet.  It would also have serious consequences for our relationships with other countries, making the U.S. a global pariah. Thank you.

Since the comment line won't allow us to leave a message with Ivanka, you can sign NRDC's online petition to Ivanka Trump and then send a post card ASAP. NRDC will send your petition message directly to Ms. Trump by email.