What's at stake for working families in the November elections? Try health care, retirement security and jobs, to name a few. Just ask Travis Turner's mom, who is so grateful for the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act made it possible for her son Travis, who has a rare form of liver cancer, to get back on his father's health insurance after he was kicked off for exceeding a lifetime limit. Mitt Romney plans to overturn the health care law, which helped the Turner family and millions of others receive health care. 

Watch the video, "AFL-CIO: What's at Stake in the November 2012 Elections?" and click here to share on Facebook. 

Join the AFL-CIO on Tuesday, Oct. 16, from 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. EDT, on the AFL-CIO Now blog for a live policy discussion and reactions to the presidential debate. Topics will include foreign and domestic policy.  

Sign up for an email reminder in the box below. Visit www.aflcio.org/debatechat the night of the debate to tune in. 

Text DEBATE to AFLCIO (235246) to join our text action team. (Standard messaging and data rates may apply.)

This new video from the United Steelworkers (USW) exposes how Mitt Romney and Bain Capital are profiting by selling out America's workers and shipping U.S. jobs to China.

In 2010, the Bain Capital-controlled Sensata Technologies bought Honeywell’s automotive onboard sensor business, including a Freeport, Ill., plant, where 170 workers were making a middle-class living. Says Tom Gaulrapp:

They came in and introduced the transition team, and the next bullet in the meeting was, “By the way, by the end of 2012 all the jobs in this plant will be moved to China.” 

Last night, we learned vice presidential contender Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and running mate Mitt Romney envision a pretty bleak future for working people. The Romney-Ryan future is one where seniors (part of the 47%) toil until age 70 when they can collect on a woefully inadequate privatized Social Security account—where people must wait until age 67 to receive a coupon (a.k.a. Medicare voucher) for health care. A future where millionaires and billionaires, the richest 2%, continue to receive massive tax cut giveaways at the expense of working people. 

This is a cross-post from the Communications Workers of America (CWA).

The presidential campaigns continue to duel over Mitt Romney’s pledge to gut the funding future of public broadcasting. Today, Mitt Romney responded to the Obama campaign’s new “Big Bird” ad by once again missing the point regarding public broadcasting’s economic benefits to the nation. Says CWA Senior Director George Kohl:

Well, Mr. Romney, federal funding of public broadcasting directly supports 21,000 good American jobs.

Many of us have fumed at the gate or sweated while stuck on the tarmac as our flights have been delayed. Things would get even worse in the aviation world, especially for workers, under a Romney administration, as the new website Permanently Delayed illustrates.

The site, from the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD), shows the stark contrast between President Obama and Mitt Romney on issues that matter to aviation workers.

Did watching Mitt Romney in last night’s presidential debate seem familiar? Haven’t we heard it all somewhere before? Yes. Mitt Romney wants to repeat the policies that caused the economic crisis that we are now recovering from because of President Obama's leadership. 

What is it we’ve heard before? Tax cuts for the wealthy. Deregulate Wall Street. Dismantle Medicare. Turn health care over to private insurance companies. Privatize education.

Watch this video for more.  

We did hear one thing new last night. Romney wants to fire Big Bird.

We learned a lot of things about Mitt Romney during last night's debate. Not only does he want to continue the failed economic policies that brought on the recession in the first place, but he also wants to hand our feathered friend Big Bird the pink slip to continue tax breaks for the wealthiest people (the math doesn't add up). The candidates talked a lot about taxes, education and social insurance programs, but what we really enjoyed about the debates last night was listening to working people on Twitter and on our AFL-CIO Now blog's live chat. 

Read the entire live chat thread below and check out some of the top comments and insights from our readers:

Why does Romney keep saying what his plan isn't? 5 weeks out, we deserve specifics #LetsDebate

— Liz McElroy (@lizmcelroy) October 4, 2012

Click on the image below to join the presidential debate chat:

Temo Fuentes is one of the public employees Mitt Romney says we have "too many" of and that “it’s time for us to cut back." Fuentes repairs the fire trucks that would be on the scene immediately if Romney’s exclusive $12 million oceanfront La Jolla, Calif., mansion—or any other in the posh neighborhood—caught fire.

In this third AFSCME video spotlighting the public service workers and the 47% Romney says he doesn’t care about, Fuentes—whose mother once cleaned houses in Romney’s upscale enclave—worries about how he will provide for his family if his job disappears.