Gimme a break!

This summer at least one of us got a real vacation. President Bush spent five weeks at his Crawford, Texas, ranch. Oh, sure, it was a “working” vacation, with occasional meetings, bills to sign and a speech or two to deliver. Not to mention clearing all that brush. But then, don’t we all take work with us on vacation these days?

Liberal critics were quick to denounce the president’s less than nose-to-the-grindstone work ethic. Al Franken praised the workaholic Bill Clinton, “who hardly ever took a week off.”

But his critics are wrong. They ought to thank Bush for setting a good example. Vacations are essential to good health, vitality and creativity. Two-day mini-breaks don’t do the trick.

Our failure to understand this sets Americans apart from the citizens of nearly every other industrial nation. Europeans get at least four weeks with pay, mandated by law, after a year on the job. And average paid time off on that side of the Atlantic is six weeks. The Chinese get three weeks off by law. By contrast, the Ask a Working Woman poll, conducted for the AFL-CIO, found that 26% of American workers and 37% of women earning less than $40,000 a year get no paid vacation at all. The average overall is just over two weeks’ vacation.

With his long vacations and comparably short workdays, President Bush is modeling a good work-life balance for all of us. The problem is that he never suggests that ordinary Americans ought to enjoy some leisure too. Why doesn’t Bush just come out for a three-week paid vacation for all Americans? We’d still be getting less of a break than those much-maligned French, but it would be a good start.

The president’s own pollster, Frank Luntz, has said that his polling and focus groups have found the No. 1 problem facing American women is “lack of time.” And statistics on worker stress and burnout find men feeling continuous, increasing pressure as well. Americans have become the workaholics of the industrial world. When you count the extra hours worked on a given day, we’re on the job nine weeks more each year than most Western Europeans. The result is increased health problems, failing families, fragmented communities and a diminished life.

We can turn that around, but only by developing public policies that guarantee American workers the right to some time off. A three-week vacation law would be a welcome first step. International comparisons make clear that ordinary citizens have more time for family, community and health where laws protect their time.

Corporations will scream that such policies would make them uncompetitive. But, according to the World Economic Forum, many of the most competitive economies in the world -- including Finland’s, Sweden’s and Norway’s -- are also among the most protective of workers’ rights to vacation and other time off. Simply put, well-rested workers are more productive.

I suspect President Bush will find it hard to suggest that ordinary Americans ought to have a taste of the time off he takes for granted. But Republicans haven’t always championed the work-till-you-drop ethic. In 1910, President Taft suggested a two- to three-month vacation for all American workers. Richard Nixon was the last president to advocate a shorter workweek. Ronald Reagan put his own penchant for relaxation like this: “People say that hard work never killed anyone, but I figure, why take the chance?”

Luntz has said Republicans can’t advocate paid-leave policies because their business base would rise up against them. But instead of knocking Bush for taking vacations, Democrats should champion annual holidays for the rest of us. I think overworked Americans would applaud such a campaign.

In 1940, the Democratic administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed through a law making the 40-hour workweek the law of the land. Now, with many Americans working 50 hours a week and more, Democrats ought to remember their history by again becoming the party that gives time back to Americans. Our health, families and communities would benefit from such courage.