My initial reaction to the news that Governor Sununu was climbing into bed with Vermont on a two-state family medical leave plan was something with a couple of asterisks in the middle. What in the name of General John Stark Are You Doing! Put those asterisks wherever you like.
After reading a not clear-enough report on the proposal from Seven Days VT It’s not hard to get a first-impression. Democrats, Unions, and Leftists don’t like it.
The Vermont Family and Medical Leave Insurance Coalition, which is made up of social services organizations, advocacy groups and unions, condemned the proposal after Scott teased it in his inaugural address last week.
“Without a universal insurance pool, the program will become cost-prohibitive for Vermonters and Vermont small businesses,” the coalition said in a statement after the speech.
News Flash! With a universal insurance pool, the program will become cost-prohibitive for Vermonters and Vermont small businesses.
Coalition co-chair Ashley Moore, the state director of Main Street Alliance, said that the coalition remains focused on a mandatory, universal program.
It sounds like Gov. Scott’s plan interferes with the socialist vision of our shared future.
Steve Howard, the executive director of the VSEA, said Wednesday afternoon that the union supports a mandatory statewide paid leave program similar to the proposal Scott vetoed. But he said the announcement was a promising step.
The left wants a mandatory statewide taxpayer-backed boondoggle. A Family Leave Medicaid for all. Complete with it’s institutionalized, government run-away budgets and the legions of bureaucrats needed to run it. Inefficient. Expensive. No competition. So, what have Scott and Sununu proposed?
The Two-State Solution
According to the reporting,
The proposal would allow covered employees to take up to six weeks of paid family leave while receiving 60 percent of their usual salaries. Businesses enrolling their entire staff would get a discount on premiums, Scott said, but the insurance would be available on an employee-by-employee basis as well. Workers at businesses that don’t opt in to the program could sign up individually, Scott said.
I can’t tell if you are automatically opted out. That was one of the many horrible features of the New Hampshire plan we opposed last session. New Hampshire’s plan also had a special exception for state employees. The new plan appears to cover the cost for state workers. So, taxpayers are on the hook already. The Green Mountain state estimates $2.4 to $2.5 million annually.
But there are other positives. Democrat’s in New Hampshire don’t like it either. Democrat State Sen. Dan Feltes called it a ‘PR Stunt’ according to the Union Leader.
Amanda Sears, director of the Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy, an organization that advocates in New Hampshire on family and medical leave, said what Sununu and Scott are proposing “falls way short of the mark” of the family leave that some Granite Staters have been working on for the past three years.
Is there where I say something like where’s the aisle-crossing, compromising, we’re in this together, rhetoric?
Feltes has the answer.
New Hampshire Democrats have worked “tirelessly to craft a plan that addresses Gov. Sununu’s demands,” Feltes summed up. “Unfortunately, instead of working together, unbeknownst to Democrats, Gov. Sununu did this PR stunt.”
Democrats Don’t Work With Republicans
Democrats have done no such thing. They want the nationally approved, Democrat Socialist rubber stamped best opportunity to grow government at the expense of the people. Getting some stupid Republicans to agree with them is what they call working together. Everything else is, well, a PR stunt.
The Sununu – Scott plan, which they’ve named the Twin State Voluntary Leave Plan appears to require those getting the benefits to invest more in the coverage they want. Democrats want another giveaway that maximizes the growth of government and taxpayer exposure.
I don’t want either of those things. My plan is for the government to stay the f**k (there they are) out of the way or, if anything, make the environment more friendly for the free market to do what employees and employers need and want.
This ain’t that.
But it pisses Democrats off, so I’m still smiling. Just a little bit.
Image Credit: Seven Days VT
