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Robert L. Borosage is the president of the Institute for America's Future and co-director of its sister organization, the Campaign for America's Future. The organizations were launched by 100 prominent Americans to challenge the rightward drift in U.S. politics, and to develop the policies, message and issue campaigns to help forge an enduring majority for progressive change in America. Most recently, Borosage spearheaded the Campaign's 2006 issues book, StraightTalk 2006, providing activists and candidates with distilled messages on kitchen table concerns, from jobs to affordable health care. Borosage also helped to found and chairs the Progressive Majority Political Action Committee, developing a national base of small donors and skilled activists. Progressive Majority recruits, staffs, and funds progressive candidates for political office.
Mr. Borosage writes widely on political, economic and national security issues for a range of publications including The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is a Contributing Editor at The Nation magazine, and a regular contributor to The American Prospect magazine. He is a frequent commentator on television and radio, including Fox Morning News, RadioNation, National Public Radio, C-SPAN and Pacifica Radio. He teaches on presidential power and national security as an adjunct professor at American University's Washington School of Law.
A graduate of Yale Law School, with a graduate degree in International Affairs from George Washington University, Borosage left the practice of law to found the Center for National Security Studies in 1974. The Center focused on the tension between civil rights and the national security powers and prerogatives of the executive branch. It played a leading role in the efforts to investigate the intelligence agencies in the 1970s, curb their abuses, and hold them accountable in the future. At the Center, he helped to write and edit two books, The CIA File and The Lawless State.
In 1979, Borosage became Director of the Institute for Policy Studies, a research institute that drew its inspiration and fellowship from the major democratic movements of our time -- anti-war, women's, environmental and civil rights movements. Borosage helped to found and guide Countdown 88, which succeeded in winning the congressional ban on covert action against Nicaragua. Under Borosage's direction, the Institute expanded its fellowship, launched a successful publications program, and developed a new Washington School for congressional aides and public interest advocates.
In 1988, Borosage left the Institute to serve as senior issues advisor to the presidential campaign of the Reverend Jesse Jackson. He traveled the country with Jackson, writing speeches, framing policy responses, and providing debate preparation and assistance. He went on to advise a range of progressive political campaigns, including those of Senator Carol Moseley-Braun, Barbara Boxer and Paul Wellstone. "
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, December 4, 2017 It's Time To Change More Than Trump
The extreme Republican Party is cutting away at the very sinews of our economy, the comity of our politics, and the quality of our most basic public services. Trump may sound different, but he's just the barker outside their big top. The grisly deed is being done on the inside.
(5 comments) SHARE Friday, November 17, 2017 Republicans in Congress Think You're an Idiot
The trees are ugly, but the forest is even worse. At a time when we desperately need to rebuild America, Republicans have ignored real, pressing unmet public needs to shovel more money to the rich and corporations. If this bill becomes law, it will force immediate cuts across the board, including a $25 billion cut to Medicare.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 15, 2017 Democrats Will Need More Than Resistance to Govern
Resistance alone won't suffice to consolidate a governing majority, much less a mandate for the reforms this country desperately needs. That coalition can only be built if Democrats work to enlist working people across lines of race, reflect their anger at an economy rigged against them, challenge business as usual, and build a mandate for real change.
(8 comments) SHARE Tuesday, November 7, 2017 The GOP Tax Bill Is an Attempt to Destroy Government
Once the tax cuts are passed, Republicans will return to hectoring about deficits and debt. Their budget documents already call for brutal cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, education, and the entire range of public services. As crippling as America's public investment is today, passage of the Republican tax plan virtually insures that it will get far worse.
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, October 30, 2017 The Great American Tax Heist
Repatriation and territoriality, those muscular terms resonating flag and country, are central to that, a wet kiss to the largest corporations, rewarding them for clever tax-avoidance bookkeeping. And that's what Trump and Republicans are using to sell the tax cuts. We can only imagine what is hidden in the small print that no one has seen yet.
SHARE Wednesday, October 25, 2017 Dems Need To Ignore Wall Street's Advice for the Party
Can populist candidates raise enough money to compete in America's billion-dollar presidential races and million-dollar Senate and House races? Even though he started late, Sanders raised about $220 million, mostly in small donations. Elizabeth Warren, the scourge of Wall Street, has been notably successful in funding her campaigns.
(8 comments) SHARE Monday, October 9, 2017 The Republican Plan to Rob America
By a 41-28 margin, Americans know the rich will end up paying less, rather than more. Yet a plurality, 44 percent, thinks the tax cuts will have a "positive impact on the US economy," while only 24 percent think the tax cuts will have a negative impact. The big lie still works.
(5 comments) SHARE Wednesday, October 4, 2017 Bernie Sanders opens a new foreign-policy debate
Sanders's speech opened a new debate. It doesn't close it. It is an invitation for others to join in elaborating alternative vision and policy. The most popular politician in America has now taken on the failed establishment consensus on national security as well as establishment domestic policy. It is vital that activists, policy analysts, and political leaders join in building that challenge.
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, September 22, 2017 Hillary Clinton Tries to Explain "What Happened"
Clinton accepts responsibility for her loss, and allows that she might have "missed a lot of chances." Most of the book, however, is about casting blame and settling scores: Putin did it, Comey did it, and so did Bernie, the media, Fox News, sexism, Clinton fatigue, Electoral College, partisan loyalty, voter suppression, and many other factors.
SHARE Thursday, September 14, 2017 Donald Trump Is Just the Latest Republican to Stoke Racial Division
Trump's racism is particularly outlandish and malignant. As president, his actions are destructive. He is stoking hatred and fears that he should be calming. But he isn't "radically different" than the Republican party of the past years.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, September 6, 2017 When the Parades Are Over, Who Stands With Unions?
Trump is systematically reversing any Obama rule that aided workers. He signed legislation scrapping the rule that required federal contractors to disclose violations of workplace safety and employment and anti-discrimination laws. His Labor Secretary has announced his intention to strip millions of workers of the overtime pay they would have received under Obama DOL regulations.
(4 comments) SHARE Friday, September 1, 2017 Trump's Tax Plan Is a Confidence Scam
In a time of obscene inequality, tax reform should raise rates on the wealthy. It should make the corporations pay their fair share. It should tax activities we want to discourage -- like financial speculation and fossil fuels. It should tax the income of investors at the same rates as the income of workers. It should crack down on tax dodges, close loopholes and tax havens.
SHARE Thursday, August 24, 2017 Bannon's Exit Leaves Only His Worst Ideas Behind
The right-wing Republican Congress will dominate domestic and budget policy. Trump will continue to waste lives and resources in endless wars without victory across the greater Middle East. He will continue to rack up massive trade deficits, undermining wages and security at home. And he'll likely continue to go full Bannon on issues of race and immigration.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 17, 2017 Movements Are Driving Democratic Party Debate
Democrats are having a big debate about what the party stands for. Defining issues -- Medicare for All, $15 minimum wage, curbing Wall Street, money and politics, balanced trade etc. -- are central to that debate. All this garment rending and hand wringing is excessive. Democrats need a major debate about values and policy. A bit of common sense is in order.
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, July 12, 2017 The Big Fix: Will the GOP Turn to Dems to Fix Obamacare?
Democrats have remained remarkably unified in opposition to the GOP's obscene bills to "repeal and replace" Obamacare. This will be harder to sustain once bipartisan negotiations open up. Democrats must demand clear, popular amendments that demonstrate they are committed to extend the right to affordable health care, not reduce it.
(4 comments) SHARE Monday, July 10, 2017 There's Only One Way to End the War in Afghanistan
We've spent $11 billion in equipping the Afghanistan National Army, which is still unable to defend itself. The United States has had as many as 63,500 "boots on the ground" in Afghanistan; about 8,800 remain today. Afghani casualties are estimated at over 225,000, with a staggering 2.6 million Afghani refugees abroad, and another 1 million displaced internally.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, June 23, 2017 The Lessons We Learned From Jon Ossoff's Defeat
Ossoff's win would have spread fears among Republicans worried about Trump's mad-hatter antics, corruption, and incompetence. Instead, Republicans sought to use the victory to forge new unity around their substantive agenda: Trumpcare, tax cuts, deregulation, and budget cuts.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, June 17, 2017 Infighting Is Good for the Democratic Party
The populist revolt that is roiling politics here and abroad isn't going away. The Sanders-Warren wing of the party has energy and passion. They are armed with a narrative of what went wrong, a bold agenda for change, and a growing grassroots organizing and funding capacity. The debate within the party isn't a diversion or a liability. It is a necessary step to recovery.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, May 19, 2017 For Democrats, Resistance Trumps Ideas
Democratic Party luminaries and 2020 presidential mentionables gathered this week for an "ideas conference" organized by the Center for American Progress, the Democratic establishment's premier think tank.
Its stated purpose was to focus not on "what could have been," said CAP Vice President Winnie Stachelberg introducing the day, but on "new, fresh, bold, provocative ideas that can move us forward."