By LILLIAN ROBERTS
Executive Director
District Council 37, AFSCME, AFL-CIO

THE PRESIDENTIAL election is just around the corner, and I wish to reflect upon how crucial this race is to public employees and working families.

The election has turned into a referendum on inequality and the role of government.

President Obama cares deeply about improving the standard of living of workingclass and poor Americans, who are struggling to make ends meet during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. He understands government is vital for addressing human needs and stimulating the economy.

Obama's detractors complain that we still face high unemployment, which the president doesn't deny, but the Republican presidential ticket team has an economic agenda - deregulation, tax cuts, austerity-that would drive the economy into the ground.

The president has major accomplishments:

• Our president inherited an economy from Republican President George W. Bush in which 800,000 workers were losing their jobs each month and the financial sector was threatening to drive the economy into a second Great Depression. President Obama's pro-worker government policies have helped create more than 4 million jobs in the private sector.
• The economy is now growing. President Obama has reformed the banking sector, helped homeowners facing foreclosure, and created a bureau to protect consumers.
• Obama's first stimulus package of $787 billion saved and created 1.3 million jobs. It prevented a jobs bloodletting in the public sector by providing $210 billion for state and local governments. Unfortunately, over the past couple of years, states and municipalities have been forced to lay off about 700,000 employees, but that was because governments were hurt by falling revenue and the Republicans blocked Obama's plan for a second stimulus.
• The automobile bailout was a great success. It saved a million mostly union jobs, and General Motors is now once again the world's largest car company.

Romney's elitism

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, of course, opposed the bailout. Romney aims to roll back government programs, except for military spending, and his proposed deep tax cuts would cripple services while providing huge gains in income and wealth to his 1 percent benefactors - and himself.

As revealed by the apparently secretly taped infamous video at a fundraiser in May, Romney has disdainfully written off 47 percent of the electorate, whom he callously suggests are government-dependent leeches suffering from victimhood.

Romney and his running mate, U.S. Representative Paul Ryan, vow to repeal the president's health-care reform, which provides coverage to more than 30 million people, allows children to remain on their parents' plan to age 26, and guarantees 47 million women preventive health services. Ryan's budget plan, which Romney backs, would destroy the traditional Medicare system by imposing vouchers, which would cost seniors more than $6,000 annually for health care.

When he headed Bain Capital, Romney promoted the export of jobs overseas, forced troubled companies into bankruptcies, laid off thousands of workers, and destroyed pensions. Meanwhile, he deposits his millions offshore. That shows his commitment to the economy!

Romney is in favor of privatization, and, taking from the playbook of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and other Republican governors, he has said he believes public employees shouldn't have the right to collective bargaining. He's bad news for public employees.

We urge you to talk up the elections with your family, friends and co-workers, and encourage you to sign up for DC 37's get-out-the vote effort on Election Day. Join us at our pre-debate rallies. And in case you're not registered to vote, you have until Oct. 12 to do so.

On Nov. 6, our choice is clear. By voting to re-elect President Obama, we will be supporting someone in touch with working families who is committed to protecting government services and programs, including Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. The other candidate would put us on the road to serfdom.

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.