Paul Ryan, the newly appointed Speaker of the House, appeared on Fox News Sunday where host John Roberts grilled the Republican representative about his “family oriented” beliefs.
Ryan stated that he personally needs time with his family in Wisconsin, yet will continue to block legislation that would guarantee all received time off after a birth of a child, calling it a “new entitlement” that would only waste tax payer money.
Roberts asked Ryan about the proposed Family Medical Leave Act, a law that would secure workers’ jobs for up to twelve weeks while they deal with a birth of a child or a family illness. Republicans, led by Ryan, have blocked President Obama’s push for the new legislation.
Ryan believes that a law to protect workers’ jobs while they deal with family issues is an entitlement and a waste of taxpayer money. However, despite his belief that family time is an entitlement, Ryan still returns home to Wisconsin for personal time, something he believes is essential to his job performance.
“I think people want to have members of Congress who represent them, that are like them. Don’t you want your member of Congress to be a citizen legislator who lives with you among you, who has your own kinds of concerns, who wants to spend time with his children on Saturdays and Sundays?” Ryan asked. “I’m going to keep living in Janesville, Wisconsin where I’m from, where I raise my family. I’m going to keep going back and forth to D.C.”
Ryan made it clear that while he needs a “work-life balance” in order to do his job, other workers do not even deserve job security when dealing with a new child or a family illness.
Ryan’s solution seems to be that if you want a “work-life” balance, you’re out of luck unless you have a high-paid job with a law firm. The act would not secure pay for workers who are taking time off — it would simply allow them to keep their job after up to twelve weeks away — but Ryan still dismisses it while speaking about the importance of his personal work-life balance.
“If you’re asking me, because I want to spend — I want to continue being the best dad and husband and Speaker I can be, getting that work-life balance correct means I should sign up for new unfunded entitlement, that doesn’t make any sense,” Ryan concluded.
Watch the video below, via Raw Story:
Leave a Reply