The current public outrage in England concerning a new welform reform bill that would put single mothers to work when their youngest child turns one shocked me. Here in the United States, a single mom will receive a mere 6-12 weeks of unpaid leave for the birth of her child. I can't even imagine the years of paid leave offered in England for all mothers (with no judgement on how they became mothers). What a contrast.

Listen to the words of David Cameron, and try to imagine a politician from our country making the same argument:

"There is a rotten apple in the Government's barrel. The Government wants to force single mothers of pre-school children to start the process of getting back into work.

"That includes mothers of children possibly as young as one year old.

"Many parents choose to go back to work and we should support them in that choice.

"But the state prodding, pushing and cajoling you into work like this with children so young, I believe, is wrong.

"I don't know whether James Purnell is just trying to be tough or if he genuinely thinks it is OK to force mothers of young children to go to work. Either way, I think this is a shameful proposal.

"It is vital in this recession that we at the very least don't do anything that makes our broken society worse. We need to help families, not make life harder for them, and that especially applies to single-parent families who already have it hard enough.

"It won't do much good for our economy and it certainly won't do any good for our society."

Oh, what a dream...