Family Values

Statement

A big and boisterous Iowa crowd packed into an auditorium at Drake University in Des Moines on Friday when Bernie Sanders talked about family values in an important new way.

"My Republican colleagues talk a lot about quote-unquote "family values,'" Bernie said. "What they mean is opposition to a woman's right to choose, opposition to women getting contraception and strong opposition to gay rights. And on all of those issues I strongly disagree," Bernie said. He had something different in mind than those wedge-driving social issues. He actually wants to help working families.

"It is important for us to begin to talk about what real family values are," he told the crowd that filled all of the auditorium's 777 seats -- and then some.

"The United States must end the international embarrassment of being the only major country on earth which does not guarantee workers medical and family leave, sick time and vacation time. Last place is no place for America," he said.

"Let me be very clear. It is not a family value to force the mother of a newborn baby to go back to work a few days after she gives birth because she doesn't have the money to stay home and bond with her baby. That is not a family value," Bernie said. "That is an insult to everything that I know about what family is about."

A day earlier in Washington, the senator outlined his family-values package at a news conference in the Capitol. He introduced a bill that would provide 10 days of paid vacation for workers with at least a year on a job. He co-sponsored Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's (D-N.Y.) bill calling for 12 weeks of paid leave if a worker has a baby or is diagnosed with a serious medical condition. And he signed onto legislation by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) to guarantee at least seven paid sick days for short-term illness, routine medical care or to care for a sick family member.

Near the end of his speech, Bernie was optimistic when he mentioned his own family upbringing. "I have seen the promise of America in my own life. My parents would have never dreamed that their son would be a U.S. Senator, let alone run for president. But for too many of our fellow Americans, the dream of progress and opportunity is being denied by the crush of an economy that funnels all the wealth to the top. I believe we can restore the promise of America again to every person who wants to work hard to build a future for themselves and their family."

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