--- title: Tim Kaine Slams Donald Trump's Family Leave Plan description: Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine criticized Donald Trump’s maternity leave plan at a roundtable on Thursday canonical: https://time.com/4495728/tim-kaine-donald-trump-family-leave/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-15T18:40:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:37.566Z article:section: Politics og:title: Why Tim Kaine Doesn't Like Donald Trump's Family Leave Plan og:description: It doesn't go nearly far enough, Kaine said og:url: https://time.com/4495728/tim-kaine-donald-trump-family-leave/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte549f04d8122ae10/6988a6468e06013a024677bf/tim-kaine.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Tim Kaine og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Tim Kaine Doesn't Like Donald Trump's Family Leave Plan twitter:description: It doesn't go nearly far enough, Kaine said twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte549f04d8122ae10/6988a6468e06013a024677bf/tim-kaine.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Tim Kaine Says Donald Trump's Family Leave Plan Doesn't Do Nearly Enough > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=a8d4b51b-20ff-46c3-9016-29b007b74692&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Sep 15, 2016 6:40 PM UTC  Tim Kaine speaks during a campaign rally at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Sept. 13, 2016. Tim Kaine speaks during a campaign rally at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Sept. 13, 2016. Paul Sancya—AP by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Sep 15, 2016 6:40 PM UTC Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine criticized Donald Trump’s maternity leave plan at a roundtable on Thursday, saying the plan is outdated and doesn’t do enough to protect working parents of newborns. [Trump’s plan](http://time.com/4489898/donald-trump-joins-the-mommy-wars/?iid=sr-link1), which calls for six weeks of unemployment benefits for new mothers, is not a full-paid maternity leave plan. The plan also does not cover men who decide to stay at home to take care of their children. [Trump announced his plan](http://time.com/4489898/donald-trump-joins-the-mommy-wars/?iid=sr-link1) on Tuesday night. “Maternity leave has kind of a 1990s feel to it. It’s not 2016\. Because in 2016 not only do women take off to take care of kids when they’re born, but men do too,” Sen. Kaine said at a roundtable event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Kaine added that “because of the way they use this unemployment insurance, it doesn’t really protect your income.” Clinton’s paid family leave plan would guarantee up to 12 weeks of paid family leave for a newborn child and ensure employees receive at least two-thirds of their wages while on leave. It would apply to men as well women. Democrats have also [criticized](http://time.com/4489872/donald-trump-ivanka-childcare/) Trump’s plan for childcare, which would give families a tax deduction instead of a tax credit to pay for care. Deductions benefit high-income earners more than low-income earners. “The huge chunk of this benefit that he’s proposing in terms of childcare, in terms of a deduction would go to people on the top,” Kaine said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4495728/tim-kaine-donald-trump-family-leave/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4495728/tim-kaine-donald-trump-family-leave/"},"headline":"Tim Kaine Says Donald Trump's Family Leave Plan Doesn't Do Nearly Enough","datePublished":"2016-09-15T18:40:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:37.566Z","description":"\"It doesn’t really protect your income\"","url":"https://time.com/4495728/tim-kaine-donald-trump-family-leave/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Donald Trump","Tim Kaine"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte549f04d8122ae10/6988a6468e06013a024677bf/tim-kaine.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte549f04d8122ae10/6988a6468e06013a024677bf/tim-kaine.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Tim Kaine","caption":"Tim Kaine speaks during a campaign rally at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Sept. 13, 2016.","creditText":"Paul Sancya—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4495728/tim-kaine-donald-trump-family-leave/","name":"Tim Kaine Says Donald Trump's Family Leave Plan Doesn't Do Nearly Enough"}}]}] ```