Almost four months ago Tom Kean Jr, a Republican, vanished from public view.

He missed more than 100 votes,
all while continuing to collecthis full taxpayer-funded salary of $174,000 along with excellent benefits.

The only explanation given for his absence was a cryptic statement from his office in late April saying he was dealing with a “personal health matter”.
Kean’s father, former New Jersey governor Tom Kean Sr, further told CNN in May that his son was battling a temporary illness and would be back to work soon.
This week, Kean finally resurfacedand explained that he’d been absent due to inpatient treatment for depression.

Why hadn’t he said anything about this earlier?
Kean said he was “private person by nature”.
Which is great, but maybe don’t choose a job in public service in that case.

Depression can be debilitating, and empathy should obviously be extended to anyone suffering from it.
However, as Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview:
💥“There’s a valid discussion here about when it comes to the volume of an absence, what is our responsibility to our constituents in communicating around that?”

🔥There’s also a valid discussion here about how Kean is a massive hypocrite
who has devoted his life to ensuring normal Americans are not afforded the same sort of time and resources to deal with a personal crisis that he has just enjoyed.
Not everyone gets to take four months of paid leave when they need it:
👉 the US is the only OECD country without a national paid leave policy.
Some employers will offer paid time off for mental health reasons, and various states offer paid leave benefits,
but a majority of Americans have to figure it out on their own.

According to a 2024 Department of Labor fact sheet, “among the lowest wage workers, who are predominately women and workers of color,
95% have no access to paid family leave
and 90% lack access to short-term disability leave.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/04/tom-kean-jr-sick-leave-mental-health-depression?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other