<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/raul-labrador-paid-family-leave-832dd5094af7">https://thinkprogress.org/raul-labrador-paid-family-leave-832dd5094af7</a><br clear="all"></div><div class="gmail_default"><br></div><div class="gmail_default"><p name="eb5f" id="eb5f" class="gmail-graf gmail-graf--p gmail-graf-after--figure" style="margin:38px 0px 0px;font-family:medium-content-serif-font,georgia,cambria,"times new roman",times,serif;font-size:21px;line-height:1.58;letter-spacing:-0.003em;color:rgba(0,0,0,0.8)">On Tuesday morning’s <em class="gmail-markup--em gmail-markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings:'liga' 1,'salt' 1">Morning Joe</em>, host Mika Brzezinski welcomed House Freedom Caucus member Raul Labrador (R-ID) to discuss the failure of the Republican health care plan. Labrador <a href="http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/03/23/gop-rep-raul-labrador-still-no-health-care-bill-obamacare-replacement" class="gmail-markup--anchor gmail-markup--p-anchor" rel="noopener" target="_blank" style="background-color:transparent;color:inherit;text-decoration:none;background-repeat:repeat-x;background-size:2px 0.1em;background-position:0px 1.07em">opposed Trumpcare</a> for not cutting enough, so Brzezinski opened the interview by asking him why he doesn’t support paid family leave. She was astonished when he didn’t seem to care.</p><p name="2f97" id="gmail-2f97" class="gmail-graf gmail-graf--p gmail-graf--startsWithDoubleQuote gmail-graf-after--p" style="margin:29px 0px 0px;font-family:medium-content-serif-font,georgia,cambria,"times new roman",times,serif;font-size:21px;line-height:1.58;letter-spacing:-0.003em;color:rgba(0,0,0,0.8)">“It should be up to the business,” Labrador explained. “I owned a business for ten years. I paid for my — for the insurance for the people that worked for me. I gave them leave whenever they needed leave and I helped them out. It should be up to the individual business person to decide that.”</p><p name="0973" id="gmail-0973" class="gmail-graf gmail-graf--p gmail-graf-after--p" style="margin:29px 0px 0px;font-family:medium-content-serif-font,georgia,cambria,"times new roman",times,serif;font-size:21px;line-height:1.58;letter-spacing:-0.003em;color:rgba(0,0,0,0.8)">When Brzezinski pressed whether the leave was specifically <em class="gmail-markup--em gmail-markup--p-em" style="font-feature-settings:'liga' 1,'salt' 1">family </em>leave, Labrador tried (but failed) to avoid the question, admitting he offered vacation and sick leave, but not a separate paid family leave. “They have vacation, they had sick days, they had a bunch of things,” he said. “Those things cost me money and I did it willingly. I don’t think the government should be forcing that. I know you want the government to force more spending, but I don’t.”</p><p name="0688" id="gmail-0688" class="gmail-graf gmail-graf--p gmail-graf-after--p" style="margin:29px 0px 0px;font-family:medium-content-serif-font,georgia,cambria,"times new roman",times,serif;font-size:21px;line-height:1.58;letter-spacing:-0.003em;color:rgba(0,0,0,0.8)">Brzezinski kept trying to find a way to see if Labrador was at all concerned about families who need that kind of leave, but he simply insisted that it wasn’t what he was there to talk about...</p><p name="0688" id="gmail-0688" class="gmail-graf gmail-graf--p gmail-graf-after--p" style="margin:29px 0px 0px;font-family:medium-content-serif-font,georgia,cambria,"times new roman",times,serif;font-size:21px;line-height:1.58;letter-spacing:-0.003em;color:rgba(0,0,0,0.8)"><br></p></div><div><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><font size="2">Ron Force<br>Moscow Idaho USA</font></div></div></div>
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