Unpaid “Paid” Leave
By 
Senator Mike Lee, the konztitooshunal skolar from Utah, and my new old friend, Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, have come up with an idea, and it’s not just any idea. No, sirree, bob. It is an idea that is the quintessence of the conservative Republican concept of a social safety net.
Yes, dear friends, it’s that bad. Let them tell you about it. From CBS News:
Republican Senators Joni Ernst and Mike Lee are unveiling a new proposal for paid [?????????? -ed.] family leave. The Cradle Act would allow new parents to tap into their Social Security savings, and later delay their retirement, to take paid time off after the birth or adoption of a child.
“I think most people would look at this as an opportunity that they might not otherwise have, an opportunity to benefit from payments that they’ve been making already for years,” Lee told CBS News chief congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes.
This couldn’t be any more Heritage Foundationish if Jim DeMint himself came out of retirement, stripped naked, and rubbed it all over with bacon fat. By this plan, parents would be encouraged to…wait for it…rob their own Social Security to pay for child care. In other words, according to Mike and Joni, they are proposing to give you paid family leave that you pay for!
In their next proposal, Ernst and Lee will call payday loans “freelance income.”
I don’t think this “conservative populist” movement is ever happening…