-SEIU Members Ask McCain to Address Need for Affordable Healthcare for All and Economic Solutions Rather than Attacks-

Washington, D.C.--At tonight's debate, SEIU members say that John McCain needs to stop the attacks and finally address the need for affordable healthcare for all and an economy that puts working people first. Throughout the campaign, SEIU members have been out front asking McCain to address these issues and offering their own advice to help working families get by.

SEIU members have invited McCain and his running mate Governor Palin to experience firsthand what it's like to work and raise a family by walking a day in their shoes, sent a series of Dear John" letters offering their advice to McCain as he develops his ideas for the economy, repeatedly invited McCain to sit down and discuss the issues at stake this election, released reports detailing the harmful effects of our healthcare crisis, and held events asking McCain to support affordable healthcare for all and an economic solution that helps Main Street. McCain has ignored all of these efforts.

Specifically, SEIU members are still waiting to hear why John McCain:

* Wants to tax workers' healthcare benefits by up to $2,800 a year and leave millions of Americans without coverage.
* Refuses to protect workers' freedom to join unions.
* Supports Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and big corporations.
* Wants to keep spending $10 billion a month in Iraq instead of investing that money in new schools, new jobs, and fixing our crumbling infrastructure.
* Refuses to invest in renewable energies to end our reliance on foreign oil and create millions of new jobs.
* Continues to take the advice of corporate lobbyists while ignoring the needs of working families.

"I feel like I'm invisible to John McCain," said Cheryl Reaves, a counselor who works with disabled people outside Philadelphia. "I was planning on retiring this year but I have to keep working because I can't afford to pay for healthcare on my own."

"All I hear from McCain are attacks," added Reaves. "And attacks aren't going to help me afford my retirement."

Reaves is one of more than 3,000 SEIU members, leaders, and staff taking time off and another 100,000 nurses, janitors, child care providers, and other workers volunteering after work and on weekends to elect Barack Obama and a pro-working family Congress on November 4th. Members have committed more than $85 million to election efforts around the country.

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