GOP lawmaker says day care is driving a 'stake through the heart' of traditional families

A Kansas Republican is not happy at the idea of a day care assistance credit in the state — and explained it's bad policy because the state shouldn't "indoctrinate" children and "put mothers to work."

The progressive news service Heartland Signal obtained the recording of state Sen. Mark Steffen comments, in which he said it's "not the platform of the Republican Party to emphasize daycare and the separation of children from their parents."

"This could have just as easily been a child tax credit," he said. "And yet the decision was made to drive a further wedge into our Kansas traditional families, and that decision was made by the people who put their name on this bill. And you have to take credit for that, you have to take blame for that. There has to be a point where this stops."

"We know why it's being done," he continued. "It's the opportunity to get these kids away from parents and indoctrinate them. It's an opportunity to put mothers to work. We know all that, and we know the result it has on our society. And yet here we are, our leadership continues to drive a stake through the heart of the Kansas traditional family."

Steffen, an anesthesiologist by trade, previously garnered controversy in 2022 for threatening that doctors in Kansas could face legal action if they do not treat COVID-19 using ivermectin, a horse deworming medication touted by far-right alternative medicine but which has no proven use as an antiviral.

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He also generated outrage last year after telling a Muslim woman who asked how he would serve non-Christian constituents he would be "happy to convert you." Steffen initially tried to deny he made the remark, only to be exposed as lying when it emerged the conversation was recorded.

Watch the video below or at the link here.