The right-wing journal Human Events recently wrote that “Obama is a shadow puppet for the Institute for Policy Studies.” Flattering and a bit of a stretch. Yet IPS is at the center of the key policy debates taking place in and around the Obama administration on the economic meltdown, on responsible exits from Iraq and Afghanistan, on the environment and many other issues of national consequence.

John Cavanagh and Sarah Anderson have led the Institute in its work to make the economic stimulus bigger and greener, cap CEO pay, fund the arts, address extreme wealth concentration, cut the military budget, and start a larger debate about non-military solutions in Afghanistan. Both are also key liaisons with the 77-member Congressional Progressive Caucus.

As cable talking heads fixate on the partisan posturing in Washington, IPS is seizing this unprecedented opportunity for progressives to forge inside strategies with the Obama administration and the new Congress. At the same time, IPS leaders know organizing from the outside will be indispensable to victories on health care, worker rights, tax justice, foreign policy and many other issues. IPS is helping progressives understand and coalesce around bold strategies for this new time. It is a time ripe with opportunity, a moment in history when fundamental societal shifts can be realized.

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