title:  HORRIBLE News For Do-Nothing GOP: Americans Support Paid Family Leave Across Political Lines
text: Republican lawmakers oppose paid family leave. But the majority of Americans say they support it, which is bad news for the GOP.As Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders vie for the Democratic nomination, one of their shared interests includes support of a federal law that mandates paid family leave.Paid family leave would allow workers to take time off to care for a newborn child or deal with any other family illnesses without having to worry about not getting a paycheck to take care of the bills.The Family and Medical Leave Act already requires employers to give workers 12 weeks of leave, but the only drawback is that the leave is unpaid, which means many workers can t afford to take that much time off if any at all. Paid leave would change that.Three states already have such a law on the books and other states are poised to follow suit. However, because Congress is controlled by Republicans, the effort to pass a federal mandatory paid leave law has gone nowhere because of GOP obstruction.But as the idea becomes more and more popular among Americans, Republicans may be forced to fall in line, and a new poll makes it clear that the GOP should start paying attention to what the people want.According to the Associated Press,An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released Friday said 72 percent support paid family leave. Democrats were more likely to back it, but Republicans also expressed strong support. Overall, support was stronger among people age 40-64 and among women.Strong support among Republicans means that GOP lawmakers may have no choice but to throw their support behind the effort if they want to make their constituents happy.In Michigan, which is controlled by Republicans at the moment, Mary Jo Morelli says she supports paid family leave because  I feel that in the U.S., we need to realize that employees, or the workers, can t really do the best job possible if you are worrying about a family member. Pushing for paid family leave would put Republicans in a difficult spot since they would rick losing their corporate sponsorship if they side with workers on the issue. And if they chose to side with corporations, they risk being booted out of office by the voters, which means the issue has enough power to flip state legislatures into Democratic hands if enough voters are made aware of the campaign to enact paid family leave.The Associated Press reports that despite such a law existing in California about 44 percent had never heard of it. That means people in every state need to be educated about paid family leave and how it can benefit them so that the fight can be taken more seriously by lawmakers.Because a happier, healthier workforce is what is best for business and America.Featured Image: Pete Souza 