Hours after I published Why Conservatives Shouldn’t Support Federal Paid Parental Leave, Ramesh Ponnuru criticized it and the work of other Cato scholars on the same topic.


Ramesh takes exception with my use of the new Cato paid leave poll that tested the conservative response to paid leave costs, estimated using the Democrat’s plan for paid leave (the only formalized Republican proposal for publicly‐​provided paid leave is Rubio’s plan, which is not popular).


Yet the context was former Senator Santorum’s article, which argued for reaching across the aisle to find agreement with Democrats on a federal paid family leave policy. Santorum leaves the ultimate design of the policy open‐​ended.


As Ramesh must know, the Republican plan for paid leave is not an appealing compromise for congressional Democrats. In fact, senator Rubio’s proposal has zero co‐​sponsors. On the other hand, the Democrat’s FAMILY Act has 34 co‐​sponsors in the Senate and 160 in the House.