WASHINGTON – Progressive groups are poised to spend more than $82 million to support President Barack Obama's healthcare reform plan, according to leaders gathered Monday at the "America’s Future Now" conference in Washington.
Participants include the Healthcare for America Now campaign; the two main labor federations, the AFL-CIO and Change To Win; and MoveOn.org, Democracy for America and mobilization groups representing people of color, women and young people. The various organizations serve different functions, with the bulk of the spending financing advertising and grassroots organizing on- and off-line across the country.
The effort involves the more than 1,000 organizations that are part of Healthcare for America Now, representing more than 30 million members committed to reforming healthcare this year. It's the largest national progressive issue campaign in history, according to officials, and one that was lacking when President Bill Clinton’s healthcare proposals were defeated by the healthcare industry and conservative groups more than a decade ago.
Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who recently became chairman of the board of the Progressive Book Club, joined organizers to announce details at a Monday news conference sponsored by the Campaign for America’s Future. Dean said the progress made over the last several years and the election of President Obama are just the beginning.
"Over the past few years, we have worked together to build a progressive infrastructure and a movement that helped to elect President Obama and begin to undo the damage of the last eight years. But it was just the beginning," Dean said. "As the healthcare reform debate makes clear, America needs a strong progressive movement. Now is not the time to become complacent."
Campaign for America’s Future Co-director Robert Borosage said progressive groups are coordinating their efforts and mobilizing to fight special interests standing in the way of President Obama’s agenda.
"While the conservative coalition has collapsed, progressives have continued to build and expand," Borosage said. "We are both more unified and better mobilized than ever."
Richard Kirsch, Healthcare for America Now's national campaign manager, said his coalition launched last summer across the country with the notion that 2009 would be the year duing which the nation could achieve quality, affordable healthcare for all.
"We knew we couldn't win healthcare reform in 2008, but we knew we could lose it if we didn't lay the groundwork for the very moment we're in right now," Kirsch said. "We have the momentum for real change, and with the commitment of the president and Democratic leadership in Congress, we know we can be stronger and louder than the special interests who make money off the status quo and would have any reform continue to put their profits before people's health."
A survey conducted by Lake Research Partners for Change to Win found the majority of Americans support change. According to researcher Celinda Lake, a majority of some 800 working Americans surveyed want the government to lead the change.
Americans blame corporate greed and its stranglehold on government for the decline of the American dream, said Anna Burger, of Change to Win. She said working Americans reject the right-wing view and want positive government action on renewing the American dream.
"Comprehensive healthcare reform lies at the heart of the American dream, and without it the dream is unobtainable. We're organizing on all fronts to make this a dream a reality for all of America's workers," Burger said.
