Public Employee Press

2012 ELECTION
The GOP Agenda
The assault on men

The votes of working-class males are up for grabs when it comes to the November election.

A recent video released toward the end of September showed Republican candidate Mitt Romney speaking critically about people who depend on government programs or who pay no federal income tax.

"My job is not to worry about those people," Romney said. But looking beyond that callous remark, Romney's positions put him in opposition to critically important programs.

Working-class men, of course, care deeply about the economy. And President Barack Obama has addressed that concern. When he took office, the economy was losing 800,000 jobs a month. Since then, 4.6 million jobs in the private sector have been created, with 30 consecutive months of job growth.

The bailout of the auto industry, which the president engineered and Mitt Romney opposed, saved 1 million jobs. One out of every eight jobs in Ohio is connected to the auto industry.

Obama has also addressed working-class men's concerns about their children.

More than 3 million young people from the age of 19 to 25 are able to take advantage of their parents' health insurance owing to the new provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Another concern is paying for college. President Obama has doubled the funding for Pell Grants and established a college tax credit, thus putting college within reach for millions more Americans.

Obama specifically fought to prevent federal student loan interest rates from doubling for more than 7 million students and capped federal student loan repayments at 10 percent of income.

President Obama emphasized workers during his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, while Romney had virtually nothing to say about American workers when he gave his acceptance speech. But Obama's record demonstrates a commitment to Americans in the workplace. In appointing Dr. David Michaels to head up the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Obama placed one of the champions of workplace safety in the driver's seat. The budget for OSHA has also been increased.

An editorial in the New York Times noted that Republicans, in an effort to deny Democrats any accomplishment, are blocking the Veterans Jobs Corps Act of 2012. "It makes sense for the 99 percent of Americans to find ways to pay their debt to the 1 percent who serve in uniform," the editorial said.

The priorities and concerns of the candidates present a clear choice for all voters, especially for the working class

—Jane LaTour

DISCLAIMER: This portion of the website was paid for by AFSCME’s Political Action Committee, PEOPLE, with voluntary contributions from AFSCME members and their families, and is not authorized by any candidate of candidate’s committee.