for the american universities and the executive director of the coalition for health funding and neil bradley is the executive vice president at the u.s. chamber of commerce. we are happy to take your questions. a little bit of background, the convergence project. the diverse group should be able to get behind him is a two and a half years we started making phone calls not quite sure who would respond when we picked up the phone. we talked to many of the suspects and on the hill with budget experience and a number of academics some of whom you will hear in the next panel that the group we wanted to hear, was a lobbyist and government affairs officials who work on the frontline for the battle every day. slowly we started collecting their stories and add 20 we thought we were doing pretty good that we were up to 40, 60 and by the end we topped out at 100 individuals that we talked about the budget process with. our initial conversations usually started like this, don't know much about the budget process or wha by which we havek about it come on in and see where it ends up. usually the conversat

motatt owens, emily halubiwich d neil bradley. then when they're finished we're happy to take your questions. so to give you a little background, the idea behind the convergence project was to bring together unexpected and often unheard voices in the budget process conversation. to see whether there was a place to find agreement on a new structure for the process that ideologically diverse group might be able to get behind. so two and a half years ago we started making phone calls not quite sure who would respond when they picked up the phone. we talked to many of the usual suspects. former directors of cbo and omb, former staffers on the hill with budget experience, and a number of academics, some of whom you'll hear in the next panel. but the group we really wanted to hear from were the lobbyists and government affairs officials who work on the front lines of the budget battles every day. slowly we started collecting their stories. at 20 interviews, we thought we were doing pretty good, but then we were up to 40, then 60, and by

neil gorsuch. it's also about the millions of dollars that the koch brothers and the bradley foundation, two organizations devoted to cutting government services for americans and weakening evenons spent to fund the janus case. and today, now that the bought and paid for court has heard the case that will deliver a blow, we hope it doesn't but likely it will, deliver a blow to the public service workers and the unions that represent them, their investment appears to be paying off. here's the thing. millionaires, billionaires who fund these anti-worker, anti-union attacks are petrified about the labor movement. they're absolutely afraid of it, and that's why they've been working to attack it. that's because the labor movement is premised on the simple idea that when workers come together, they can fight for their fair share of the wealth that they helped create. and because the labor movement is about equality and a fair economy that works for everyone, not just a few. that's why wealthy donors have worked to eliminate and cut union representation. that's why they engage in union busting. it's why they fun