CAF In The News

nytimes.com — Robert Borosage was quoted by New York Times reporter Jackie Calmes on July 30, 2011.

Calmes wrote, "However the debt limit showdown ends, one thing is clear: under pressure from Congressional Republicans, President Obama has moved rightward on budget policy, deepening a rift within his party heading into the next election. Entering a campaign that is shaping up as an epic clash over the parties’ divergent views on the size and role of the federal government, Republicans have changed the terms of the national debate. Mr. Obama, seeking to appeal to the broad swath of independent voters, has adopted the Republicans’ language and in some cases their policies, while signaling a willingness to break with liberals on some issues.
That has some progressive members of Congress and liberal groups arguing that by not fighting for more stimulus spending, Mr. Obama could be left with an economy still producing so few jobs by Election Day that his re-election could be threatened. Besides turning off independents, Mr. Obama risks alienating Democratic voters already disappointed by his escalation of the war in Afghanistan and his failure to close the Guantánamo Bay prison, end the Bush-era tax cuts and enact a government-run health insurance system.
“The activist liberal base will support Obama because they’re terrified of the right wing,” said Robert L. Borosage, co-director of the liberal group Campaign for America’s Future.
But he said, “I believe that the voting base of the Democratic Party — young people, single women, African-Americans, Latinos — are going to be so discouraged by this economy and so dismayed unless the president starts to champion a jobs program and take on the Republican Congress that the ability of labor to turn out its vote, the ability of activists to mobilize that vote, is going to be dramatically reduced.”

To read the rest of the New York Times story, visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/us/politics/31dems.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

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Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Rep. Keith Ellison and Campaign for America's Future co-director Robert Borosage discuss the need to change the political debate in Washington to one that addresses the need for jobs in an interview on National Public Radio's "Tell Me More" on June 15.

The interview previewed the Speakout For Good Jobs Now tour, which was scheduled to make its first stop at the Netroots Nation conference of bloggers and activists in Minneapolis on June 18.

washingtonpost.com — The Washington Post's Ylan Q. Mui reported on the Campaign for America's Future's efforts to urge for a recess appointment of Elizabeth Warren to head the CFPB: "Liberal groups rallied around Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday and renewed calls for her to lead the fledgling consumer watchdog agency, a day after she was accused of lying in a contentious congressional hearing.

"An online petition circulated by the Campaign for America’s Future asking the White House to appoint her while the Senate is in recess garnered 20,000 signatures by Wednesday afternoon."

Read the rest of the story here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/liberal-groups-call-for-warren-recess-appointment/2011/05/25/AGRV8XBH_story.html

nationaljournal.com — Robert Borosage was interviewed by Susan Davis of the National Journal magazine. Davis wrote, "Progressive Democrats haven’t enjoyed the breadth of policy or political victories that they anticipated when President Obama took office in 2009, but they are finding new reasons to rally as a fresh crop of Republican lawmakers embarks on a policy agenda that is anathema to liberals."
Borosage said, "while we are restive about the limits of the White House’s agenda, Republicans are going to do a good job with their extremism of organizing the Left for the president."
Read the interview here: http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/robert-borosage-the-view-from-the-left-20110512

npr.org — Robert Borosage is quoted by David Welna of National Public Radio in a story about the politics around the building movement to draw down U.S. troops in Afghanistan after the death of Osama Bin Laden.

"WELNA: Many posing that question are on the political left. Robert Borosage co-directs the liberal advocacy group Campaign for America's Future. Bin Laden's death, he says, is the political opportunity for President Obama to end the war.

"Mr. ROBERT BOROSAGE (Co-director, Campaign for America's Future): I think that people inside the administration and outside the administration realize that at this point, this policy has no clothes and it's going to change."

boston.com — Robert Borosage is quoted in the Boston Globe in an article about the changing public perception of the war in Afghanistan after the death of Osama Bin Laden. Borosage said, “You’ll see everybody from the libertarians like Rand and Ron Paul to even the old gray beards like Lugar beginning to express that we’ve done this for 10 years, it’s a bottomless pit, we can’t afford to keep doing it, and this is a good occasion to start to withdraw,’’ said Robert L. Borosage, codirector of Campaign for America’s Future, a Washington group that promotes liberal causes.

thehill.com — The Hill published a story on Campaign for America's Future's co-director Robert Borosage urging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to hold a vote on the House Republican budget, which includes Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) plan to replace Medicare with subsidies to buy private insurance.

Julian Pecquet of The HIll wrote, "The House passed the Ryan budget along party lines, 235-193, just before the spring recess. Democrats have spent the past two weeks hammering away at it, especially its Medicare proposal, which the Congressional Budget Office says would raise healthcare costs on seniors.

"`This Republican budget plan is an outrage. The more Americans learn about it, the angrier they get," CAF co-director Robert Borosage said in a statement. "Bring it to a vote. Force a debate on it. Let Americans know exactly where their senators stand.'"

washingtonpost.com — Public-sector unions are on the defensive in this historic stronghold of organized labor. With the city mired in fiscal distress for years, workers have been asked to give and give again.

Roger Hickey, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, a progressive activist group, pointed out that there were major differences between political leaders seeking concessions and those seeking to weaken unions. Still, he added, “Democratic leaders shouldn’t be using the threat of laws put there by Republicans to intimidate workers.”

washingtonpost.com — Washington Post Reporters Lori Montgomery and Zachary A. Goldfarb quoted Campaign for America's Future's co-director Roger Hickey in a story on President Obama's speech on the 2012 budget. They wrote:
"One liberal group, the Campaign for America’s Future, began mobilizing Monday to ramp up pressure on the White House in advance of Obama’s speech.
"The group sent an e-mail alert asking its members to contact the White House and warn against cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
"Roger Hickey, co-director of group, said many on the left “fear” that Obama will try to find a middle ground with Ryan — eliminating the Democrats’ ability to present themselves as the saviors of Social Security."

thehill.com — In an article in The Hill,
Reporter Alexander Bolton quoted Robert Borosage,
"Until the Gang of Six plan comes out, liberal groups have decided to focus their firepower on Ryan’s plan.
MoveOn.org is planning to hold rallies outside corporate headquarters around the nation to highlight the GOP plan to lower the corporate rate when social programs for the needy are on the chopping block. The group will hold other events in congressional districts over the April recess.
"The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights plans to mobilize thousands of constituents to call Congress on Wednesday and Thursday to protest Ryan’s budget plan.
“`This will be a major mobilization,” said Robert Borosage, of the Campaign for America’s Future. “Ryan ends Medicare and Medicaid as we know it and does further damage to education programs.'”