A lot of time and creativity will go into explaining what happened tonight, but the most important question to answer is what are our elected leaders - both outgoing and incoming - are prepared to do right now to help America get past this economic crisis.
Tomorrow, one in four kids will wake up hungry. Nearly 27 million Americans will be looking for work. Hard-hit families will still be using credit cards to pay for basics like food and utility bills, and every minute, two more families will be foreclosed on.
From the Pharmacy Tech outside Philadelphia fighting to stop the corporation he works for from eliminating 1,000 good jobs to the janitor in Chicago who took in her brother's family when the bank refused to help save their home to the child care provider in Los Angeles fighting to save her business and child care for tens of thousands of children, Americans are looking to their leaders to work together on solutions.
The campaign is now over and our nation must turn its focus to immediate issues that impact struggling families. The American people are looking to the current Congress to come back to Washington and extend unemployment insurance so millions more families don't fall through the cracks.
We are looking to Congress to pass a permanent middle class tax cut and eliminate Bush-era giveaways to the rich.
And we are looking to the new leaders elected tonight to show up in January ready to work for the American people -- not for the agenda of the nameless, faceless corporations who poured hundreds of millions of dollars into our political process.
The next Congress has an enormous task ahead and will have to work together to deliver what America's families desperately need – good jobs on which you can raise a family, send your kids to college and retire with dignity. The job of Congress is to work for the American people and nothing is more important than finding commonsense solutions that will bring fairness to our economy and keep us moving forward.
And to newly elected Governors, we need you to stand with the workers who care for our children and elderly, keep our communities healthy, and protect our streets.
We must all begin tonight, because as workers all over this country can tell you - when break time is over, it is time to get back to work.
Mary Kay Henry
President, Service Employees International Union
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