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Pete Buttigieg on Families & ChildrenDemocratic Presidential Challenger; IN Mayor |
BUTTIGIEG: Well, I love my husband. I'm faithful to my husband. On stage, we usually just go for a hug, but I love him very much. And I'm not going to take lectures on family values from the likes of Rush Limbaugh.
It means making sure that we're supporting in particular areas that are underserved, getting more of those providers that they need, rural areas. It means using technology.
I'm proposing that we use federal dollars to fund what we call "Healing and Belonging Grants" to local communities, because often a different area will have a different combination of struggles when it comes to mental health, behavioral health, and addiction. And so I don't think all of the answers have to come from Washington, but more of the money should.
And we will empower local health departments, local communities, and local organizations seeking to deliver those solutions and make sure that they get funding to help them as they do.
But this is happening to folks at every level of the income spectrum. I meet professionals who sometimes say that they're working in order to be able to afford childcare in order to be able to be working. It makes no sense, and it must change, and we shouldn't be afraid to put federal dollars into making that a reality.
Subsidizing childcare and making sure that we are building up a workforce of people who are paid at a decent level to offer early childhood education, as well as childcare writ large. We can do that.
And until we do, this will be one of the biggest drivers of the gender pay gap. Because when somebody like the voter asking the question has to step out of the workforce because of that reason, she is at a disadvantage when she comes back in, and that can affect her pay for the rest of her career.
BUTTIGIEG: Well, we're hoping to have kids one day. And I want to know that our kids can thrive. When I got into this campaign, I talked a lot about the idea of generational justice. And at first, people looked at me funny, because I don't think it's something that's been talked about much, but each of us has an obligation to do our part not only to be just to those around us, but to those who will come in the future. When we're on the campaign trail, the questions I get from kids are almost always either about gun violence or about climate. These are personal questions. They're asking about whether they're going to be able to thrive. Again, it's why I think this isn't just saving the planet. This is saving the future for specific people who are alive right now.
15 CANDIDATES HAVE SIMILAR VIEWS: Michael Bennet; Cory Booker; Julian Castro; John Delaney; Tulsi Gabbard; Kirsten Gillibrand; Kamala Harris; John Hickenlooper; Jay Inslee; Amy Klobuchar; Seth Moulton; Beto O`Rourke; Tim Ryan; Bernard Sanders; Elizabeth Warren.
The congressional plan creates a universal, gender-neutral, national paid family and medical leave program allowing for up to 12 weeks of paid leave.
BUTTIGIEG: I don't see why not. I think it wouldn't be the first time that children have arrived to a first couple. But, obviously, that's a conversation I had better have with Chasten before I go into it too much on television.