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Look What Romney Said About Stay at Home Moms
Would you look at what Mitt Romney said about stay-at-home moms:
“While I was governor,” Romney said, “85 percent of the people on a form of welfare assistance in my state had no work requirement. I wanted to increase the work requirement. I said, for instance, that even if you have a child two years of age, you need to go to work. And people said, ‘Well that’s heartless,’ and I said ‘No, no, I’m willing to spend more giving daycare to allow those parents to go back to work. It’ll cost the state more providing that daycare, but I want the individuals to have the dignity of work.’”
Not only do they not “work”, but there is no dignity in their non-work. I anxiously await the fire hose of crocodile tears from conservatives across the country.

This is all news because some Democratic strategist whose name I know you don’t even remember said Mitt Romney’s wife “never worked a day in her life”. Never mind that Democratic strategist whose name I know you don’t even remember was basically saying that Ann Romney’s life is not indicative of most women (it clearly isn’t) and that she therefore doesn’t understand what is important to most women. It doesn’t matter. It was a stupid statement from Democratic strategist whose name I know you don’t even remember. Taking care of a child is work. Period. Implications otherwise are just ignorant.

I’ll admit, I took this one a little more personally than the usual horse race political story. Watching Republicans disingenuously take up the mantle of working moms was nauseating. My wife is a stay-at-home mom. I’ve seen first hand that she does work that is mentally and physically challenging. It’s something I think a lot of people don’t realize until they see it first hand. I certainly didn’t get it at first. Watching her work being used for cheap political gain irked me.

The reason this new support of stay-at-home moms from fiscal conservatives doesn’t ring true is because their actions show they don’t believe in the value or difficulty of the work. As Romney’s remarks show, they don’t believe it counts as real work. I will tell you right now that taking care of a young child is one of the best ways you can spend your time. Developing a child is one of the most important tasks people engage in in a society. I’m not exaggerating. Genetics are part of how a person develops, but environment plays a giant role. You can literally turn your kid into a saint or a sociopath and everything in between. I don’t think people like Romney believe this work is that important.

Given the recent debate over the federal tax code, I doubt many fiscal conservatives think much of stay-at-home moms. Those moms don’t make any money (though it saves a lot), which more and more seems to be how we judge a person’s worth in this society. With no income they pay no federal income tax (which is now apparently the only tax we talk about), so they’re basically stealing from the rich, if you believe the rhetoric.

The other part of the phony outrage is the sudden conviction that being a stay at home mom is hard. If staying at home to take care of your child is so hard you would think the Republican Party would support some policies that make it easier - especially given that the party is made up of a lot of social conservatives who prefer mothers not to work. But no, their governing philosophy prioritizes laissez faire market regulation over the societal gain from more childcare. Ask a fiscal conservative if he or she supports the Family and Medical Leave Act (which during the Clinton administration was opposed 3 to 1 amongst House Republicans, and by over 50% of Senate Republicans). Do they think - and this is not part of FMLA - women should get paid during their time off? Should men get more time off from businesses (also not part of FMLA)? Should businesses be able to fire a woman who goes on maternity leave? What about guaranteed child health care? A social safety net to guard against child poverty? They may support these policies in public. FMLA and not being able to fire a pregnant woman are popular policies. But I submit that these go against their governing philosophy.

Update: I'm going to give Romney a little more credit. In the quote paragraph he says:
No, no, I’m willing to spend more giving daycare to allow those parents to go back to work. It’ll cost the state more providing that daycare, but I want the individuals to have the dignity of work.
So he has proposed a policy that acknowledges the importance of child care. I doubt this holds true for most fiscal conservatives, but for Romney - at least until he changes his mind - this flies in the face of my assertion that he cares more about low taxes than child care. The funny thing is that he doesn't deem it worthy unless someone is getting paid for it.

 
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