State Republicans now trying to kill the enemy of big business, the Family Medical Leave Act. Why not?

State Republicans now want to kill Wisconsin's Family Medical Leave Act because they say, it just duplicates the federal law which was modeled after our own. But the thing is it doesn’t.

Yes, the attacks on hard working Wisconsinites is getting more brutal. What this sets up is a federal one party Republican government that will then kill medical leave on a national level, with no state backup law.

Deceptively, Republican Rep. John Nygren “says the proposal to repeal is not backed only by the GOP,” suggesting Democrats are on board. Nope, the Democratic party is no longer a factor, because they’ve been replaced by the League of Municipalities, Counties Association, other organizations and business groups.

Well then, what are we waiting for? From WSAW: 

Wisconsin's Family Medical Leave Act has been in place since 1988. It recognizes that our state's workers have dueling responsibilities - between their jobs, kids or taking care of an elderly parent or sick spouse.

"This is not just an issue that's something that Republicans are asking for - are supportive of basically federalizing our law," Nygren said.

But like most state and local laws, the state FMLA is stronger than the federal knockoff. Democratic Sen. Julie Lassa explained:

"The federal law requires you to work more hours a year than the state law does, it also limits the type of care that a worker or their family can take time off to receive, as well as, it makes it easier for employers to be able to deny the family medical leave." 

Under the federal law, employees cannot substitute types of paid leave, and could, instead, go unpaid. "Policies like this that Republicans are looking at adopting, will make it much more difficult for those middle-income families as well as low-income families to be able to make ends meet."