CAF In The News

tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com — “If they throw out major portions of the reform the most important thing for Dems to talk about right now is how Republicans and the Court are leaving us to the mercy of the private insurance companies,” said Roger Hickey, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, in a phone interview. “And that’s not just the Supreme Court decision, but it’s the Ryan budget. … Republicans are trying to impose austerity because they say that Medicare is bankrupting the country, and Dems should point out that Republicans want to dismantle the one functioning part of our health care system — Medicare — that actually works for people, that actually controls cost. And what they’re proposing is incredibly unpopular with the voters.”

washingtonpost.com — In the Washington Post, Reporter Ezra Klein weighs in on the conservative and liberal views on Austerity in the United States. Ezra Klein quotes the liberal side with Robert Borosage, director of Campaign for America’s Future, where Robert warns of what could happen in the United States, “Take a good look at Europe — bloody riots in Athens and Madrid, rising unemployment, spreading poverty and suicide, and a deepening recession — because the current American elite consensus bizarrely wants to drive America down that same path.”

npr.org — In the NPR article reporter Mark Memmott talks about Representative Paul Ryan's new Budget plan. Campagin for America's Future's Roger Hickey states that it is a "suicide pact... that ignores the clear views of the majority of Americans."

thehill.com — Reporter Peter Schroeder quoted Campagin for America's Future's Roger Hickey in the Hill about the on going investigations on the 2008 recession and Wall Street, "There's a little bit of mystification ... about just when and if the administration is going to do what it has said about the prosecutions," said Roger Hickey, co-director of the liberal Campaign for America's Future. "Many groups that are based in the Democratic Party just feel like they're getting the runaround." In January it was announced that Obama was putting a "a team within the Department of Justice devoted specifically to rooting out wrongdoing in the housing market that precipitated the financial meltdown."

politico.com — In the Politico, Camaign for America's Future's Robert Borsage writes the rejection of austerity is "a recipe for recession — or worse. We’re heading into a bitter, negative and expensive presidential race. Yet the elite consensus is focused not on the election but on the lame-duck session that comes after the votes are tallied. In those few weeks, the debt ceiling has to be raised, even as the automatic sequester from the last debt-limit showdown is set to force a 10 percent cut from the military, as well as domestic discretionary spending. The Bush tax cuts, payroll tax cut and extended unemployment insurance all are due to expire."

nbcpolitics.msnbc.msn.com — Roger Hickey was quoted in by Tom Curry of NBC.com in an article about the austerity debate:

“The concern about austerity is that we are still in a very, very weak economic recovery and this slashing of spending at the state level and to some extent at the federal level – we’re under a wage freeze on federal employees… that is hampering the recovery and hampering the robust creation of jobs,” said Roger Hickey, co-director of the progressive group Campaign for America's Future.

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On "The Young Turks" with Cenk Uygur on Current TV, Cenk asks his Power Panel — Michael Shure, Richard Eskow and Robert Borosage — whether President Obama’s strong State of the Union showing is a sign he can win re-election in November.

“The guy I saw last night — I thought, that guy may be able to fight back and make his case and actually beat Mitt or Newt,” Cenk says.

Eskow praises Obama’s “fighting speech” but says it’s time for him to think a couple steps ahead — otherwise the GOP line will be, “Nice guy, doesn’t deliver on his promises.”

current.com — Isaiah J. Poole appeared on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" December 13 to discuss the Restore the American Dream for the 99% Act, legislation designed to create 5 million jobs over the next two years.

video.kcts9.org —

Watch Institute for America's Future founder Robert Borosage on PBS. See more from Tavis Smiley.

Institute for America's Future co-director Robert Borosage appeared on the Tavis Smiley Show on October 31 to discuss the tax and economic policies advanced by Republican presidential candidates and their impact on middle- and low-income people.

He calls the flat-tax proposals of candidates Rick Perry and Herman Cain, as well as the regressive tax changes offered by candidate Mitt Romney, "reverse Robin Hood plans" that take from the poor in terms of reduced government services and higher taxes, and give to the rich in the form of a lower overall tax burden. These plans come "at a time in which we're seeing extreme inequality and concentrated wealth we haven't seen since before the Great Depression."

The flat tax plans are particularly egregious, Borosage tells Smiley. In the case of Perry, his plan "eliminates taxes on wealth" and slashes government revenues by $5 trillion over 10 years, a deficit that has to be made up by a 25 percent cut in government spending, including "deep cuts in the basic promises we make to working Americans about their retirement."

Cain's plan "is the worst," Borosage says, because it would among other things impose a 9 percent national sales tax on top of the state and local taxes people pay on consumer goods. Because the lower the income a person makes the higher the percentage of that income is devoted to spending on consumer items, that means the Cain plan would fall the hardest on low-income and middle-income people.

Borosage also raises concerns about "a financialization of our economy that is having really disastrous effects on ... our ability to ensure that the strength of our democracy, which is a strong middle class, is sustained." Smiley responds, "It's not just that our economy is challenged by those kinds of numbers, but it's democracy as we know it. Some people might call that hyperbolic, but I don't. ... I don't think the democracy can sustain itself long term with the kind of numbers you just laid out."

wc-spanvideo.org —

In this 45-minute exchange on C-Span with Robb Harleston and with viewers, Robert Borosage of the Campaign for America's Future discusses the nation's jobs crisis, the Obama administration's American Jobs Act, and the effort to build an independent progressive movement.