If you're tuning in here looking for a Monica-type confession, keep looking! Instead, I have a heart-warming tale about a time that government got it right; about how a political decision made in Washington, DC had a direct impact on some very little lives.
From today's Cheers and Jeers, by Bill in Portland Maine:
CHEERS to good government. 12 years ago today, Congress approved legislation giving employees unpaid leave in the event of a birth or a medical emergency in their family. President Clinton signed it into law after doing something the current president doesn't do with bills: read it.
In January of 1993, while I cradled my two month old, first-born son, I turned on my television to watch William Jefferson Clinton take the oath of office.
I was enjoying my time home as a new mom, but in the back of my head, I was counting every precious minute, because in a few weeks I would need to go back to work. Although my husband and I were living modestly in a small townhouse in upstate NY, we still needed my income as a teacher in order to keep making our house payments, student loan payments, car payments, and of course, all those newborn baby bills. Still, we probably could have afforded to have me stay home for a much longer stretch except for one, big, thing: Health Insurance.
Our whole family's health insurance came through my job. Because of some job changes, we couldn't get coverage through my husband's job. Since I now wasn't working, the cost to maintain that insurance was over $400 per month. Ouch. Even if we could have swung losing half our income, coming up with an additional 400 Benjamin's each month just wasn't going to happen. Going without health insurance, with a newborn in the house, also wasn't an option.
So I went back to work, much earlier than I had really wanted to, leaving a four month old baby in the hands of an excellent day care, yes, but not home with me, where I really wanted him. I'd always planned to be a working mom, but I would have loved a longer stretch at home while my son was so very little. I would have loved to be able to keep nursing without dealing with pumps and long washroom breaks. I would have loved more time to be a full-time parent.
By the time my daughter was born, in 1994, the world seemed like a different place. The Family Medical Leave Act, designed & delivered by the Clinton Administration, was the law of the land. Now even though staying home meant the same cut in income, we weren't getting walloped with the additional expense of healthcare, because under the bill's provisions, I could maintain our health insurance at the same cost as when I was working full time.
Bill Clinton, I never thanked you, but your vision and support let me spend the first year of my daughter's life home caring for her full time, and also gave me back some extra time at home with my (by then) two year old boy.
Despite anything that the man said or did later, and despite every charge of immorality leveled at him, I will forever consider Bill Clinton the ultimate of a family values politician, because he actually DID something that showed that he valued families.