National Nurses United, the nation’s largest union and professional association of registered nurses, has endorsed President Barack Obama for a second term.

The 185,000 member organization’s national executive council made the endorsement at a weekend meeting.

NNU leaders cited the “most hostile platform to workers by a major political party in decades,” adopted by the national Republican Party in Tampa, as well as the agenda promoted by Gov. Mitt Romney and Congressman Paul Ryan “that would further aggravate economic inequality and a downward spiral for workers and their families.”

“The disgraceful effort to turn Medicare, one of the crown jewels of our nation and the lifeline for tens of millions of Americans, into a private insurance based voucher program, substantially erode Medicaid, and even privatize Social Security, all of which have been proposed by Congressman Ryan and embraced by Gov. Romney, are a clear and present danger,” said Jean Ross, NNU co-president.

“Nurses have a fundamentally different view of a civil society than the one expressed by Gov. Romney” in the recently exposed video from a Florida fundraiser, said Ross. “We believe quality healthcare, decent housing, and proper nutrition are basic rights for everyone. Mocking people who are helped by a caring nation as ‘victims’ and unwilling to have ‘responsibility’ for their lives is antithetical to what we should be about as a people.”

“Nurses care for the 47 percent – as well as the other 53 percent. It’s disgraceful that many of the 47 percent that Gov. Romney targeted are seniors and veterans. As a nation, we are better than that,” Ross said.

Ross said NNU agrees with the statement by President Obama that change must come from outside Washington, not inside the Beltway. “All of us need to do more to demand Washington stand up to Wall Street and the 1 percent whose actions have inflicted so much suffering in Main Street communities.”

Regardless of the outcome in November, Ross added, NNU will step up its ongoing efforts to pass a Robin Hood tax on Wall Street transactions to raise revenue for economic recovery with good jobs, quality healthcare, equal access to education and other basic needs. NNU will also continue to work to achieve guaranteed healthcare for everyone, best achieved by improving and expanding Medicare to all.

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