Senator McCain has borrowed from the Bush Administration’s playbook of supporting trade agreements that have devastated the economy and sent good, middle class jobs overseas.  He has consistently voted for unfair trade agreements, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), and supported China’s entry into the World Trade Organization despite its ongoing history of human rights and workers’ rights violations.  To add insult to injury, he also voted against measures intended to help stem the flow of jobs lost due to these agreements.

These unfair trade agreements have resulted in the loss of high-wage jobs across the manufacturing sector and damaged our country’s long-standing reputation for technical innovation.  NAFTA has contributed to the loss of approximately three million high-wage manufacturing jobs in the United States since 1994, and the loss of high-wage manufacturing jobs to China has forced many Americans to work for substandard wages and benefits—further endangering our country’s economic stability and security.
America’s workers cannot afford four more years of a leader who favors corporate interests over the well being of America’s middle class.  The 2008 election provides us with an opportunity to elect a leader who will be tougher in demanding a fair trade system that puts America’s workers first.  The UFCW will continue to fight for trade reform by mobilizing its 1.3 million members to ensure that Senator Barack Obama becomes the next president of the United States.

McCain-omics recycles the failed economic policies of President Bush and builds on the president’s seven-year record of fiscal incompetence and mismanagement.  Over the course of the Bush Administration, America’s debt has increased to over $9 trillion, gas prices have climbed to over $4 a gallon, and the share of mortgages entering foreclosure is at the highest level on record since 1979.  In addition, the number of uninsured Americans, including children, has increased to 47 million, and the cost of health care has risen three times faster than inflation and wages.

While Senator McCain tries to portray himself as a maverick who cares about America’s workers, McCain-omics marches in lockstep with corporate America and ignores the needs of  working men and women who are struggling to cope with the high cost of health care, housing, food, fuel and education.  In fact, McCain-omics adds to the economic burden of America’s workers by creating a new tax on working families by making employer-paid health care premiums part of taxable income.

The 2008 election presents us with an opportunity to elect a leader who will bring positive economic change and put the needs of America’s workers above corporate interests.  The UFCW is fighting for the type of change that is needed to restore the American Dream—including good jobs, affordable health care, retirement security, worker safety and the right to choose a union—by mobilizing its 1.3 million members to ensure that Senator Barack Obama becomes the next president of the United States.

At this point in the election season, it is hard to take in all of the information about the candidates. But if one thing grabs your attention let it be this: McCain’s plan to tax health insurance benefits is fundamentally flawed, scary, SCARY change.

If you’ve got good health insurance from your employer, under his plan, you’d be taxed on the dollar value of your coverage. To make this sound better, McCain offers a $5,000 tax break that sounds pretty good at first until you start to realize most plans are way more than $5,000. Plus, who is to say they won’t just get rid of that tax break a few years down the road once the employer-provided insurance system has been dismantled?

Above: Check out the new video from Health Care for America Now

If you don’t have insurance, good luck getting any if you’ve got any pre-existing conditions. It’s already bad enough trying to get care. Do we really need to make it worse?

Barack Obama has made health care reform a priority. He’s got a real plan for making sure American’s receive the care they need– and it doesn’t involve you paying hundreds more in taxes or trying to negotiate on your own with your insurance company.

Currently, companies don’t have to pay taxes on the money they spend on employee health care plans. McCain wants to change that. Basically, he wants to take away the tax breaks given to employers and offer much smaller breaks to individuals.

This might sound good at first. After all, your employer has more money than you do, right? So why do they need a break?

But health care costs have already gone up so much that many companies are scaling back their health benefits as it is. Without the tax breaks they currently receive, many companies are going to start dropping plans altogether.

The McCain camp has spun the plan to sound like you’ve now got the right to choose your own coverage. That his plan will fix our nation’s health care crisis by putting it in the hands of American families.

What American families will really have in their hands is a stack of bills they may not be able to pay and plans, like HSAs, that don’t offer real coverage. The $2,500-$5,000 tax break McCain is offering just isn’t going to pay for the over $12,000 that the average family plan actually costs.

You’d think with the U.S. market a state of crisis and families losing their homes because they can’t pay their mortgages, McCain would have learned a thing or two about what happens when you deregulate and leave the well-being of the country up to the whims of the free market.

The health insurance industry is already one of the least regulated businesses in America today. What other service do you pay for when you don’t need it, and then get denied the service when you do? At least personal savings accounts at the banks are insured by the FDIC, but where do you go when your insurance company denies care due to a pre-existing condition?

Today, Senator Barack Obama announced his support for Health Care for America Now, a coalition the UFCW joined to fight for quality, affordable health care for everyone. He’s pledged to fight on the side of the American people–not big business.

Tomorrow, we need your help. We’ve got Obama’s support, but we need to know where the rest of Congress stands. Are they with the American people or are they going to leave us on our own until the health care crisis explodes into a catastrophe?

We mobilize tomorrow. If you read this, we need you to be a part of the solution and make the call to hold Congress accountable. So tell your friends and tell your family. Call your representatives and ask them: which side are you on?

Learn more at www.healthcareforamericanow.org