(Newser) – First daughter Ivanka Trump is defending a White House proposal to mandate paid leave for new parents in a letter to the editor published Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal, the AP reports. In a previous editorial titled "The Ivanka Entitlement," the paper had criticized the Trump administration plan, which would be funded through unemployment insurance, "as bad policy and worse politics" that would increase taxes on businesses. But Ivanka Trump says in her response that "providing a national guaranteed paid-leave program—with a reasonable time limit and benefit cap—isn't an entitlement, it's an investment in America's working families."

Her letter adds that "those who need these benefits aren't getting them," meaning the "poorest, most vulnerable workers in our society." She notes, too, that the Trump administration's paid-leave policy would have "an especially positive effect for women," who are traditionally the ones who've had to leave their jobs to pick up more of the child-care responsibilities. The Journal stances that Ivanka Trump does agree with: that "a growing economy is the best antidote to inequality" and that "government benefits should not be a substitute for private-sector investment." The program has limited GOP backing, but more modest tax policies could be included in a Republican tax overhaul effort. Her entire letter here. (Read more Ivanka Trump stories.)

