News Release

As the White House prepares to convene its summit on health care on Thursday, Campaign for America’s Future Co-Director Roger Hickey, who will attend the White House meeting, is stressing the importance of a public insurance plan as a crucial tool to address the rising cost of health care, which, as President Obama declared at last week’s fiscal summit, “is the single most pressing fiscal challenge we face by far.”

Campaign for America’s Future co-director Roger Hickey congratulated President Obama today on his choice of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, D-Kansas, to be secretary of health and human services and Nancy Ann DeParle to be director of the White House Office for health Reform. Hickey praised the president’s plan to make a choice of public health insurance the cornerstone of his reforms, noting that it is critical for the economic recovery of the country and the health and financial security of every one in America.

Campaign for America’s Future co-directors Robert Borosage and Roger Hickey today announced that their organization’s annual conference, formerly known as “Take Back America,” will be held from Monday, June 1 to Wednesday, June 3 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington. Celebrating the progressive movement’s successes in the 2008 elections, organizers have a new name for the conference -- “America’s Future Now!.”

Campaign for America’s Future co-director Roger Hickey, Economic Policy Institute president Lawrence Mishel and Center for Economic and Policy Research co-director Dean Baker released the following joint statement after participating in President Obama’s summit today on the nation's future financial health.

WASHINGTON – Economists and progressive leaders argued today that Monday’s White House “fiscal responsibility summit” should focus on continuing strategies to grow the economy through public investment and on health care reform, not on cutting Social Security or Medicare – and not on budget austerity plans that could worsen the current serious recession.

WASHINGTON – With President Obama poised to sign a $787 billion plan to resuscitate the economy in Denver, Colo. today despite a wall of Republican opposition, Campaign for America's Future co-director Robert Borosage praised President Obama for pushing Congress to act quickly.

WASHINGTON – The Institute for America’s Future, the research arm of Campaign for America’s Future, today released the report, “Beyond Recovery: America’s Public Investment Deficit,” highlighting the need for a dramatic change of national priorities to bolster long-term public investment. As the report states,

President Obama’s American Economic Recovery & Reinvestment Plan won cloture in the Senate today, but with the support of only three of 41 Republican senators. Clearly, this is a case of naked partisanship. The right spurned the president’s call to come together in the face of the economic crisis. Campaign for America’s Future co-director Robert Borosage denounced right wing Republicans who have made no secret of their unwillingness to compromise on economic stimulus.

WASHINGTON – While the Senate finally moves towards a vote on an economic recovery package, Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, called on lawmakers to do the right thing for the American economy and pass a much-needed stimulus package.

WASHINGTON – National health care reform legislation must provide consumers the option to join a new public health insurance plan that would directly compete with private health insurance plans, according to a new report, “A Public Health Insurance Plan: Reducing Costs and Improving Quality” released today by the Institute for America’s Future. The report compares the long and successful track record of Medicare, which would partly serve as a model for a new public health insurance plan, against the record of private plans, and argues that such a model is the best way to drive down costs and improve health care quality.