Divided We Fail

As a general rule, I'm weary of grand coalitions of diverse organizations, because often times it is unclear who will exert the most influence on the policy and politics of the broad group. Given big business's dominance over our political system, the following is definitely piquing my interest, both in good and bad ways:

Three powerful organizations plan to launch a joint campaign Monday to shape the debate in early primary states, including New Hampshire.

AARP, the Business Roundtable and the Service Employees International Union plan to spend more than $60 million in their 10-state effort, branded Divided We Fail. Leaders plan to meet with presidential campaigns to share polling results from its members. They also plan to dispatch volunteers and members to campaign events to ask questions.

"What we learned in 2004 with Americans for Health Care is that by merely showing up to these events we were able to make all presidential candidates talk about health care as a major issue," said SEIU President Andy Stern. "We aim to do the same thing working with these other groups. The most remarkable thing about Divided We Fail is the fact that these three very different groups are together and that shows how serious these issues have become."

On the one hand, I look to the Medicare Part D debate; both labor and the AARP, along with insurance and pharma companies, were lobbying hard for that to become a reality. And while it's great that seniors now have prescription plans, no one benefits from those more than the insurance and pharma companies... and AARP, who opened their own for-profit prescription plan. Now labor and the Dems are left scrambling to re-write some of the laws, including government negotiating with pharma companies for lower prices, as well as looking to cut subsidies to the Medicare Plus plans, which are overpriced and underperform.

Then again, big business knows better than anyone else what a drain providing employee and retiree healthcare is. Look at the big automakers. So there is a common interest in providing relief there, financed heavily by the government (single-payer would be best). So long as the pirate insurance CEO's don't get their claws too deep into the innerworkings of this coalition, perhaps this can illustrate just how big the problem is, and that people from all over the political spectrum want real solutions. So, stick to a certain few issues, and this could prove very effective.