Buthis answer?Paid family and medical leave.
Were the last nation on earth basically not to do this, he began.
It is so foundational to just basic decency and financial well-being.
US Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz greet supporters during a campaign event at Girard College on August 6, 2024, in Philadelphia.
And I think that would start to change both finances, attitudestrengthen the family.
And by doing so, they have changed the game.
As a lifelong advocateand also the founder of Paid Leave PAC, Ive never given up.
But not this presidential ticket.
Its noteworthy that both Harris and Walz have had a long and substantive commitment to the issue.
Hes tweeted about it nearly a hundred times, and continues to laud it as his legacy.
Harris had the strongest proposal for paid leave of any presidential candidateeverwhen she ran in 2019.
Together, Harris and Walz are the strongest champions for paid leave on a presidential ticket in history.
They understand innately how it resonates with the American people.
So why does this matter?
And only 27% of private sector workers have paid family leave through their jobs.
AsGlamourhaslifted up time and again, the reality of this is devastating.
Women go back to work just days after giving birth, broken and bleeding.
The sick and aging decline, and too often die totally alone.
These are impossible choices much of the world does not have to make.
And what does this translate to?
Enormous and compounding financial losses.
Working families lose more than $22 billion a year in wages alone without paid leave.
But also it leads to lost promotions, savings, opportunities.
It leads to an unconscionable maternal mortality rate, particularly for Black women.
It leads to worse physical and mental health outcomes for whole families.
A recent Pew study points to the rising number of adults in America who simply dont want kids.
I remember some of the challenges I faced when I had my own son nine years ago.
I remember the days of pumping in storage closets, mind-blowing exhaustion, pain and complications.
And yet I was one of the privileged ones.
I had a few weeks of paid family leave.
I was able to have grandparents help.
And to save up over years of work the money required to put my son in childcare.
But the experience rocked me.
It changed me forever.
It was certainly a big part of why I never had a second child.
And importantly, they dont take into account thehumancostemotional, financial, physical.
This comes down to whose work and labor we value or dont.
It cost me my milk supply, one person replied.
The one that floored me most: It cost me everything.
We shouldalreadyhave paid family and medical leave, we shouldalreadyhave affordable childcare and aging and disability care.
Many of us have fought for this for years.
But something remarkable is happening.
Both about the changing notion of political leadership and power itself, but the issues that inform it.
And paid leave is connected to it.
Issues like paid leave, freedom, and family are kitchen table economic issues.
Theyre common-sense solutions to complex problems.
But theyre also issues that unite us, across geography and demographics and walks of life.
Theyre issues that remind us why we are indeed here and alive, that remind us what matters most.
Theyre the issues that allow us health, prosperity, and security.
In a world that feels increasingly chaotic, its a reminder we are all connected.
As Vice President Harris says, we are imagining what can be, unburdened by what has been.
She has written forNewsweek, MSNBC, The Hill,and more.
