Marathon Pundit: Financially ailing AFL-CIO funding push for Obama's health care plan

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Financially ailing AFL-CIO funding push for Obama's health care plan

Last week I posted about the "creative accounting" problems facing the AFL-CIO.

But the labor group apparently has cash to fund an effort promoting the Democrats' push for universal health care.

A coalition of progressive groups today announced that they would spend $82 million this year in support of President Obama's health care reform effort.

Speaking at the "America's Future Now" conference, backers of the effort suggested it was the ideal time to push a government-run national health care option.

"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," said former presidential candidate, Vermont governor and Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean. "As the health care reform debate makes clear, America needs a strong progressive movement, now is not the time to become complacent."

Behind the campaign are a laundry list of powerful left-leaning groups, among them the AFL-CIO, Change To Win, MoveOn.org, Democracy for America and the other members of the Health Care for America Now coalition, which claims 30 million members overall.