Audio

Campaign for America’s Future’s Dave Johnson is interviewed by host Rick Smith of The Rick Smith Show, in Wheeling, W. Va., one of stops on the "Keep It Made In America Tour" by the Alliance for American Manufacturing.

In this interview the two discuss the causes of U.S. manufacturing’s decline in the last few decades. Dave notes that the crowds gathering at the town hall meetings all recognize the importance of American manufacturing and want to see its revival. He explains that the struggles experienced by Flint, Mich., one of the first stops on the tour, in the 1980s are no longer isolated to Flint, as an estimated 40,000 factories have closed during the Bush administration. Dave and Rick discussed how deregulation, outsourcing and the devaluation of Chinese currency have allowed the American manufacturing industry to decline, leading America into the worst recession since the 1930s.

With two weeks to go until the elections, a new 60-second Get Out the Vote radio ad attacks the GOP strategy and reminds voters of the horrors of eight years under Republican rule. In an election where base turnout will be key, the ad, by the Campaign for America’s Future, warns that voting Republican in November will only bring our country back.

The ad highlights the extensive damage Republicans made when they ran the country, and reminds voters it’s going to take the Democratic Party more than two years to fix the mess Republicans created in eight. The ad also highlights the Republicans plan to trash the future of popular programs like Social Security and Medicare if they were to regain control in November.

The ad, released October 18, was scheduled to air in Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio; Milwaukee and Madison, Wis.; and Philadelphia, Allegheny and Erie, Pa.

“Voters have no reason to believe that the GOP's intentions have changed in the last two years. If we give them power again, they'll still side with corporate interests, ship American jobs overseas, and push to dismantle programs that working Americans depend on, like Social Security and Medicare,” said Roger Hickey, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future. “If American's don’t vote Democratic this November, we're handing power back to the very same people who got us into this mess in the first place.”

Ad script:

Think about what Republicans did when they ran our country.
They brought us to the brink of financial disaster.
Republican policies resulted in millions of lost jobs.
They allowed Wall Street and the banks to get out of control.
They let credit card companies charge us abusive interest rates and hidden late fees.
They protected health insurance companies as our premiums went up and our coverage went down.
They squandered a budget surplus and left us with a deficit.
Now Republicans are getting ready to trash Social Security and Medicare,
As if eight years of damage weren’t enough, they want to trash our future.
The huge mess they created over eight years can’t be fixed in two.
Protect our American values. Don’t let Republicans take us back.
Don’t forget what they did to us.
Vote on November 2 or by absentee.
America’s future depends on it.
Paid for by the Campaign for America’s Future.

Authors and key endorsers of a statement warning political leaders of “a grave danger” that the still-fragile economic recovery will be undercut by conservative "austerity economics" give their views at a news conference call hosted by the Institute for America's Future.

Participating in the conference call were Robert Borosage, Co-Director, Institute for America’s Future; Dean Baker, Center for Economic and Policy Research and author, "Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy"; Teresa Ghilarducci, Schwartz Chair of Economic Policy, New School for Social Research and author, "When I'm 64, the Plot Against Pensions and the Plan to Save Them"; Robert Kuttner of The American Prospect and Dēmos, and author, "A Presidency in Peril: The Inside Story of Obama's Promise, Wall Street's Power, and the Struggle to Control our Economic Future"; and Robert Reich, Professor, University of California Berkeley and author, "Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future."

The statement and related content can be viewed at dontkilljobs.org.

I debate the conservative push to continue the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy with the left-right radio duo of Patrick O'Heffernan and Chuck Morse on their radio program, "The Fairness Doctrine." We challenge the assertion that continuing the Bush tax cuts would lead to job creation in the United States and discuss the more targeted progressive alternative. The program aired September 2, 2010.

Pollster Stan Greenberg, Nita Chaudhary of MoveOn.org and Campaign for America's Future co-director Robert Borosage discuss a new poll that reveals public support for federal spending to revive the economy and broad rejection of plans to reduce Social Security and Medicare benefits to help reduce the budget deficit.

As Congress returns from its Fourth of July recess, it must face the consequences of inaction on a bold jobs agenda. Three of the nation's 6.8 million long-term unemployed tell their stories to OurFuture.org: Ed Zibrida of Indiana, Jyl Forsyth of Michigan and Jeff Sumner of Kentucky. They talk about their jobs searches and how they have been affected by a Senate Republican-led filibuster against extended unemployment benefits. They share a common message to Congress: Make the jobless your top priority by passing extended unemployment benefits and then enact programs that put people back to work.

This plenary session of the 2010 America's Future Now conference features Scott Wallace, Co-Chair of the Wallace Global Fund, a private charitable foundation; Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md.; Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill.; and the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.

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The third part of the "Great Debate: Progressives In The Obama Era" features Ilyse Hogue, Director of Political Advocacy and Communications for MoveOn.org and Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos, discussing how progressives drive reform and overcome conservative opposition in the current political climate.

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The second part of the "Great Debate: Progressive Strategy in the Obama Era" featured this exchange between conference participants moderated by Gloria A. Totten of Progressive Majority.

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This session of the 2010 America's Future NOW! conference explores how progressives should relate to the Obama administration and Congress. Speakers are Darcy Burner, executive director of the Progressive Caucus Policy Foundation and Deepak Bhargava, executive director of Center for Community Change.

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