RUSH: Democrats in California are playing “Sandy” Claus again. This time, small businesses will pay the ultimate price.

On Monday, California legislators passed a measure letting millions more employees take advantage of the state’s paid-family-leave law. Now under that law, people can take off work for two months to bond with their newborns, or take care of sick family members — and while they’re not working for two months, their employers have to pay them up to 70% of their salaries.

Until now, California’s paid-family-leave program was only forced on big companies, but not anymore. The new bill makes small businesses obey the paid-family-leave law, too. According to the Democrat who sponsored the measure, Hannah-Beth Jackson, access to paid time off is “especially critical” due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Two months of paid time off? Wow. That’s a deal. But anybody who understands how business really works can tell you what’s inevitably gonna happen next.

Small businesses — which are barely hanging on after Democrats forced the shutdown of California’s economy for month after month — are gonna have no choice but to close their doors for good if they are forced to pay employees 70% of their salaries for not working.

Now the workers that these idiot liberals think they are helping can have all the time off they want. They can bond with other people when they’re out of work — “funemployment,” I think they called it once — while they’re unemployed.