Author: Bill Scher

While there is a constant drumbeat in the media about how President Obama’s big spending agenda is turning off the electorate, the media generally fails to report that the signature items of his reform agenda — health care, clean energy and financial reform — have

Today, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said “The unemployment rate is still terribly high and it’s going to stay unacceptably high for a long period of time.” As my colleague Richard Eskow remarked last fall when White House economic adviser Larry Summers said something similar, if it’s unacceptable, then don’t accept it! Do something about it! […]

Forgive me if my Outrage-O-Meter registers low today despite the President’s coastal drilling announcement. Candidate Obama announced his willingness to compromise on coastal drilling quite dramatically during the campaign. And the Senate climate bill talks have been premised on expanded coastal drilling ever since last year’s New York Times oped from Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) […]

The NY Times reports today that insurance companies are prepared to interpret the new health care law so they can deny coverage to children with pre-existing conditions between now and 2014. Insurers are daring to do so even though congressional leaders have made clear such a loophole was not their intent, and the White House […]

President Barack Obama has just signed into law comprehensive health care reform, expanding coverage to 32 million Americans, cutting the deficit by over $1 trillion, and codifying the principle that every American has the right to affordable health insurance. The only thing left to do on health care is for the Senate to pass additional […]

Yesterday on The Bill Dwight Show, airing on WHMP-AM in Western MA I faced off with local GOP operative Isaac Mass about the pending health care. And I was able to put some persistent right-wing myths to rest about “government takeover,” the “Cornhusker Kickback” and the supposed “$1 trillion price tag.” If you’ve been paying […]

Several traditional media outlets are regurgitating the conservative spin that if the House uses the parliamentary procedure known as a “self-executing rule” or “deem and pass,” it will be

Many armchair pundits have taken whacks at the President and his communications team for having “lost control of the message behind his drive for health care.” This critique is based on the faulty logic that the President can control everything. It ignores the fundamental obstacle to strong messaging that a “big tent” party like the […]

The Washington Post today published an op-ed by Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen, who defined themselves as “pollsters to the past two Democratic presidents, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton” who are heroically telling the current President that the polls say