In Final Debate, Obama Leads on Working Family Issues

by Seth Michaels, Oct 16, 2008

In their final debate last night, Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain clashed on a variety of issues, from health care to trade to education, and left working families with no doubt that Obama is the candidate who has the record, the policy plans and the vision to turn around America.

Speaking frequently to viewers at home, Obama reiterated his strong economic message, making clear he understands strengthening the economy requires leadership to rebuild our middle class, provide jobs and invest in long-term solutions in energy, health care and education. The contrast between Obama’s focus on these critical issues and McCain’s scattered attacks was obvious. Whenever McCain tried to pull the debate away to misleading character attacks or superficial issues, Obama pulled it back to the central issues that voters care about.

There is nothing wrong with us having a vigorous debate like we’re having tonight about health care, about energy policy, about tax policy. That’s the stuff that campaigns should be made of.

What the American people can’t afford, though, is four more years of failed economic policies. And what they deserve over the next four weeks is that we talk about what’s most pressing to them: the economic crisis…I would love to see the next three weeks devoted to talking about the economy, devoted to talking about health care, devoted to talking about energy, and figuring out how the American people can send their kids to college.

Obama noted the differences between his agenda and McCain’s that are most relevant to the millions of working families who have struggled over the past eight years.

• Obama’s health care plan would give families more options and expand access to high-quality, affordable coverage. McCain would create a new health care tax that could lead to millions losing the coverage they already have.

• Obama’s plan would provide tax cuts for 95 percent of families. McCain would, instead, push $200 billion in tax cuts aimed directly at corporations.

• Obama’s campaign is focused on the economic crisis and the struggles of working families, while McCain’s campaign staff have said that the election “isn’t about issues” and that they want to “turn the page” from discussing the economy.

While these proposals are at the heart of Obama’s agenda, it’s also worth examining a few other issues where McCain and Obama differ on issues that affect workers’ lives.

Obama, answering a question about the U.S. Supreme Court, talked about the Lilly Ledbetter case and the importance of fair pay. He said he’d look for presidential appointees who “have a sense of what real-world folks are going through,” and noted that while he voted for a bill to protect the right of women like Ledbetter to fight for fair pay, McCain opposed it. McCain dismissed the bill as unnecessary, showing how out of touch he is with the real-world impact of pay discrimination.

Trade policy also stood out as a difference between the candidates. McCain brought up the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, which he supports, but which the union movement opposes because of Colombia’s failure to protect workers trying to form unions from violence. Obama said that our nation must stand for human rights and ensure workers’ freedom to form unions is protected. (McCain responded to the discussion of violence against trade unionists with an undisguised, dismissive eye roll.)

Obama also drew a sharp contrast between himself and McCain when it comes to including labor standards in trade agreements, to protect jobs here and workers around the world.

I believe in free trade. But I also believe that for far too long, certainly during the course of the Bush administration with the support of Sen. McCain, the attitude has been that any trade agreement is a good trade agreement. And NAFTA did not have enforceable labor agreements and environmental agreements.

And what I said was we should include those and make them enforceable….We’ve got to have a president who is going to be advocating on behalf of American businesses and American workers and I make no apology for that.

While McCain thinks $200 billion in tax cuts to corporations is an important budget priority, he also repeated his insistence on an “across-the-board” spending freeze. Obama said that while some spending can be cut—like the $15 billion in subsidies to insurance companies that are undermining Medicare—McCain’s proposal was short-sighted and blunt. Obama pointed out that such a spending freeze is at odds with the need to make the investments we need now to strengthen our economy long term.

On the subject of education, Obama offered three specific areas where we need to invest to improve our long-term economic progress and expand opportunities: early childhood education to prepare all children for school, better salaries and professional development opportunities to recruit and reward teachers, and tuition credits to make college affordable.

In contrast, McCain was short on details, speaking about “spending cuts” and “reform” without offering substance. As AFL-CIO President John Sweeney noted, McCain claimed to offer change, but he couldn’t convincingly say what he’d do differently than Bush.

While McCain disingenuously tried to distance himself from George Bush, working people wanting answers from McCain on how he could continue to support the Bush Administration’s devastating economic agenda were simply left with more questions about his unsteady leadership and his lack of a coherent economic plan.

In polls and focus groups taken after the debate, Obama held the clear advantage: A CNN poll of viewers said Obama won the debate 58–31 over McCain, while respondents said Obama won the debate 53–22. A Media Curves poll of independent voters, a Fox News focus group and a Democracy Corps focus group all showed Obama as the winner. Obama is speaking to voters about the issues that matter to them, and he’s doing it effectively.

With only 19 days to go before the election, it’s clear that Obama has listened to workers and thought hard about how the next president can turn the country around. Obama has the right answers on how to govern the country in the 21st century and how to make the economy work again for working families.

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Paid for by the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education Political Contributions Committee, www.aflcio.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

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