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Following President Barack Obama [7]'s first address to Congress [8], which highlighted policy goals "ranging from expanding health-care coverage to cutting farm subsidies to cutting wasteful defense projects," corporate front groups [9] are fighting back. The former head of the largest for-profit hospital chain, HCA [10], announced "a $20 million campaign to pressure Democrats to enact health-care legislation based on free-market principles," under the name "Conservatives for Patients Rights [11]." Joe Lucas of the coal and utility industry front group American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity [12] said his organization "will spend as much as $40 million to make sure Congress approved a global-warming [13] plan" that includes funding for developing "carbon capture and storage [14]" technology at coal-fired electric plants. The Aerospace Industries Association [15] of America has already spent $2 million on ads arguing that military spending "shouldn't be slashed to offset shortfalls in other areas." Boeing [16] recently added a new top lobbyist, David Morrison from the Podesta Group [17] firm, and Lockheed [18] is still trying to associate its F-22 Raptor fighter jet with stimulus efforts, via its PreserveRaptorJobs.com astroturf website [19].
Links:
[1] http://dev.prwatch.org/users/6/diane-farsetta
[2] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/public-relations/front-groups
[3] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/environment/global-warming
[4] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/health
[5] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/war-peace
[6] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fdev.prwatch.org%2Fspin%2F2009%2F02%2F8242%2Fchange-meets-front-groups-status-quo&linkname=%22Change%22%20Meets%20Front%20Groups%20for%20the%20Status%20Quo
[7] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Barack_Obama
[8] http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-of-President-Barack-Obama-Address-to-Joint-Session-of-Congress/
[9] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/front_groups
[10] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/HCA
[11] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Conservatives_for_Patients_Rights
[12] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Coalition_for_Clean_Coal_Electricity
[13] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Portal:Climate_Change
[14] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/carbon_capture_and_storage
[15] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Aerospace_Industries_Association
[16] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Boeing
[17] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Podesta_Group
[18] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Lockheed
[19] http://www.prwatch.org/node/8191
[20] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123561083268377547.html