Iraq, Healthcare and ... Paid Family Leave?

Just a couple of days after an Alternet post blasted Hillary Clinton for ignoring family policies in the race for the White House, Hillary came out this week with her work-life balance proposals. This is probably a topic best left for On Balance, but I wanted to flag it here.

What Hillary has proposed, if enacted, would certainly be the best thing to happen to parents, legislatively, since FMLA was passed way back when. Though I am wary of looking a gift horse in the mouth, I have to wonder if this could have been even better. Chucking a billion dollars at the states is a nice gesture, but I'd be happier with something a bit bolder.

Messrs. Obama, Richardson, Dodd, Kucinich, Biden and Edwards: care to up the ante?

[UPDATE: Daddy Types just linked to yesterday's Gail Collins piece on the subject in the NYT, which was a nice reminder that Sen. Dodd does have a pretty good track record on the subject. And she's not bowled over by Hillary's proposals either. And I didn't mean to exclude the Republican candidates from my list above, just being realistic. I would certainly applaud any dogs-and-cats-living-together scenario in which the Republicans try to get to the left of the Democrats on the issue.]