Trump offers entitlement for working mothers
Will Republicans support the proposal? 'The O'Reilly Factor' investigates
This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," September 14, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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O'REILLY: "Campaign 2016" segment tonight. Donald Trump to go left hand turn in Pennsylvania last night open a big new entitlement for working mothers that would help pay them for child care. And give them government guaranteed pay after the baby is born.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We need working mothers to be fairly compensated for their work. And have access to affordable, quality child care for their kids. These solutions must update laws passed more than a half a century ago when most women were still not in the labor force.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: Now, if Trump wins and Republicans hold at least one House in Congress, direct payments to mothers would be a tough thing for President Trump to get passed. I believe the solution lies in cooperation between the Feds and private companies. Facebook is a great example. That ultra- successful corporation gives four months paid leave for all new parents, dads included. He also gives employees $4,000 check when the baby is born.
And $3,000 each year for baby-sitting expenses. Facebook is to be applauded for its worker friendly benefits. Yes, I know, many companies can't afford that but if the feds partner with private enterprise, fairness in the workplace will be easier to achieve.
With us now, here in New York City, Eboni Williams and Monica Crowley. So, you are a staunch Republican, would that be accurate?
MONICA CROWLEY, PH.D., FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Staunch?
O'REILLY: Yes.
CROWLEY: No, I'm a conservative.
O'REILLY: All right. But you know the Republican Party very, very well, having worked for Richard Nixon and your PHD and all of that. When I heard Trump last night, that could have been given by Bernie Sanders, that speech, could it not?
CROWLEY: Yes. Or Hillary Clinton who has a child care proposal of her own. This was a very politically savvy speech for Donald Trump to give. It's also no coincidence that he gave it in the suburb of Philadelphia.
O'REILLY: Yes. We've made that point.
CROWLEY: Okay. So --
O'REILLY: Right.
CROWLEY: Pennsylvania obviously critical.
O'REILLY: Right.
CROWLEY: He needs suburban voters but more specifically, he means suburban women voters to at least give him the second chance. Remember that he has a gender gap with Mrs. Clinton between 15 and 20 percent. So through speech like this, whether or not he can get this through Congress as president, a speech like this inspires a lot of women to take another look at him and say maybe I judged him too soon.
O'REILLY: Okay. But for a conservative, like you, this -- if implemented means bigger government, okay. And an expansion of entitlements.
CROWLEY: Right.
O'REILLY: Which goes against the conservative philosophy.
CROWLEY: Oh, yes. So, as a conservative, I'm totally opposed to.
O'REILLY: All right.
CROWLEY: I understand why he is.
O'REILLY: No. We all understand why politically speaking. But you would be opposed to.
CROWLEY: The constitution doesn't give the federal government the authority to redistribute taxpayer funds to create a new child care entitlement.
O'REILLY: No, but it does give --
CROWLEY: And on top of that.
O'REILLY: It does give the power to Congress to have safety nets. And that's pretty much what this might be.
CROWLEY: This is a massive new entitlement. And how he says he would pay for it, a lot of people are saying --
O'REILLY: Yes.
CROWLEY: -- there is no way can he pay for it this way.
O'REILLY: All right. So, on the other side, on the left-hand side, okay, they're basically saying today, and the reaction is oh, he is a phony, he would never do this. I think Trump would do it. I don't think Trump is ideological.
EBONI K. WILLIAMS, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Look, I agree, I said for a long time, Bill, that Trump is uniquely positioned as the Republican nominee because he is not really beholden to the old guard conservative party in that same way. I think I agree with Monica, great politics. We all know why he is doing this. It's a problem for a policy on this though, Bill. It's got severe unintended consequence. I think it could be disastrous for women because it's exclusively offering maternity leave. And it could start to look like a task to some businesses that aren't Facebook like attacks on hiring women. And I think that could actually, you know, back fire on women that do want to --
O'REILLY: But it wouldn't be attacks on hiring women if the federal government picks up the most of the tab. What I'm trying to do is and I think my solution is always is the best.
(LAUGHTER)
Is to encourage the federal government to give businesses like Facebook financial incentives to do these things. So you wouldn't have to create this massive new bureaucracy to, you know, write the checks and do the taxes and all of these. I mean, the IRS would have to expand like double for all of these things if it were ever implemented.
CROWLEY: Yes. That's where the government can be helpful is creating a tax environment.
O'REILLY: Right. Where Facebook and the other big corporations --
CROWLEY: Of any size --
O'REILLY: Sure.
CROWLEY: Has the --
O'REILLY: And then if you didn't do it, you would be the mean business.
WILLIAMS: Yes. Look, my mom had two child care facilities growing up. They are small families and she catered to low income. So, I know a bit about this. Here's the problem. Again, he talks about only offering maternity and not maternity and fraternity. Some businesses are saying, you know, on Facebook already Bill, they were saying, if you make us do this for women, I will just hire men. So again --
O'REILLY: I don't think anybody would do that. Then they run into all kinds of bias complaints and gender bias.
CROWLEY: Here is the thing. This election is not ideological the way past elections unlike Barack Obama, John McCain, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney. Donald Trump's whole appeal is attitudinal. It's not ideological.
O'REILLY: It's populous.
CROWLEY: Yes. And he can cross these lines.
O'REILLY: Right.
CROWLEY: The problem that some conservatives have, they don't want the federal government mandating this kind of thing.
O'REILLY: Yes. I don't know how many -- look, based on the new Monmouth poll, it says 66 percent of Trump supporters who support him say they don't like Hillary, I don't think they will going to change their support because he is offering this big entitlement program. Because Congress, as we said, would very, very tough to get it through.
But thank you, ladies, we appreciate it.
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