For years, I’ve spoken up about what I call the unintended consequences of liberals’ misguided compassion. Practically every big-government social program that liberals have instituted in America has ended up doing more harm to the people they’ve claimed they were trying to help. I know, because I lived that experience as a child, and I’ve witnessed it every day in Black communities in the six decades since. The American Families Plan fits into this category. 

Let’s look at some of what the left says it wants to achieve and what the plan would actually do. 

The left says the plan will provide a government-paid family leave program for employees who need extended paid time off for family issues. 

What the plan would actually do is create a one-size-fits-all government program that would be more restrictive and less generous than existing employer-provided programs. Instead of simple, flexible, employer-provided programs, employees would be at the mercy of a federal bureaucracy with rigid eligibility requirements and waiting periods before they could access benefits. 

And such a program isn’t needed. After the 2017 tax cuts and regulatory reductions, more money was left in the coffers of private-sector employers, and many used those dollars to provide family leave to employees. In fact, the percentage of companies offering paid leave has more than doubled, to 55% offering maternity leave and 45% providing paternity leave. As more employers offer such competitive benefits, others are sure to follow suit.

Read more as Kay Coles James writes in The Washington Times.