by Isaiah J. Poole | Oct 11, 2007 | Blog
If you are a Wall Street investment banker, there's new evidence that you've got the best Supreme Court money can buy. Conservative Supreme Court justices did little to hide their disdain for the need to protect the interests of investors earlier this week as they...
by Bill Scher | Oct 11, 2007 | Blog
Wow. ThinkProgress breaks the story that Don Stewart, communications director for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, contacted traditional media reporters and encouraged them to write stories criticizing the Frost family. He oh-so-innocently wrote: "Seen the...
by Bill Scher | Oct 11, 2007 | Blog
Last night on the Alan Colmes radio show, I debated conservative blogger Dan Riehl about the State Children's Health Insurance Program and the attacks on the Frost family, though I didn't have to do too much because Colmes picked Riehl apart quite nicely. Riehl has...
by Bill Scher | Oct 10, 2007 | Blog
Headzup puts the SCHIP choice facing House conservatives in its proper political context.
by Bill Scher | Oct 10, 2007 | Blog
After liberal bloggers called out the conservative smear job on the Frost family, the New York Times, USA Today and Baltimore Sun picked up the story. And all conservatives have accomplished is to shine a brighter light on the struggles of working class...
by Bill Scher | Oct 9, 2007 | Blog
Last month, I noted that the coordinated attack against SCHIP had failed miserably, leaving conservatives desperate. Who knew how desperate they would get? Conservative bloggers have begun an intimidation and harassment campaign against 12-year old Graeme Frost and...
by Bill Scher | Oct 8, 2007 | Blog
In both SCHIP debates held on ABC's This Week and CBS' Face The Nation, hosts passively allowed Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt and Rep. Adam Putnam to spread misinformation without correcting the record. On ABC, Leavitt repeated the $83,000 lie:...
by Bill Scher | Oct 5, 2007 | Blog
Every Friday in our Weekend Watchdog feature, we post suggested questions for scheduled Sunday guests. You can add your own questions in the comment thread. We'll also include contact information for the shows, so we can let them know what their viewers want asked....
by Bill Scher | Oct 4, 2007 | Blog
In These Times and ThinkProgress had already taken the White House to task for pushing the lie that the SCHIP bill would raise the income eligibility limit to families earning $83,000 a year. Of course, Bush is still saying it: "this program expands coverage, federal...
by Bill Scher | Oct 4, 2007 | Blog
As noted here before, House conservatives are sweating the upcoming vote to override Bush's veto of SCHIP expansion. Unlike Bush, everyone in the House is up for re-election in 2008. Support for covering 4 million more children with health insurance, and paying for...
by Bill Scher | Oct 3, 2007 | Blog
In These Times and ThinkProgress had already taken the White House to task for pushing the lie that the SCHIP bill would raise the income eligibility limit to families earning $83,000 a year. Of course, Bush is still saying it: "this program expands coverage, federal...
by Bill Scher | Oct 3, 2007 | Blog
Perhaps the only thing going for conservatives in the SCHIP debate is complete journalistic incompetence from the Washington media. Chris Matthews on MSNBC's Hardball just asserted that the SCHIP bill isn't paid for and doesn't include a raise in tobacco taxes. He...
by Robert Borosage | Oct 3, 2007 | Blog
President Bush's veto today of the State Children's Health Insurance Program bill marks the first round in a national fight about health care. The president chose the special interests of big insurance companies over the needs of millions of children who need...
by Bill Scher | Oct 3, 2007 | Blog
This morning, President Bush stood for bad government, insurance companies and cheaper tobacco and vetoed expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program to cover 10 million kids. In the words of the White House, the plan was to "veto it quietly," so not to...
by Bill Scher | Oct 2, 2007 | Blog
Public pressure continues to build on House members that voted against expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Today, Tulsa World reports that conservative "Bush Dog" Democrat Rep. Dan Boren (Okla.) will drop his opposition and support an override of...
by Bill Scher | Oct 1, 2007 | Blog
Kudos to Rebecca from Saint Paul! She submitted one of our proposed State Children's Health Insurance Program questions to "Ask The White House:" SCHIP has succeeded in cutting the rate of uninsured children, while the rate of uninsured adults has gone up. But we...
by Bill Scher | Oct 1, 2007 | Blog
The Sunday shows have a record day, going 0-for-4 for the Watchdog. On Fox News Sunday, Sen. Trent Lott was not asked how he could criticize SCHIP expansion for making "Uncle Sam will run the program," when he wants the federal government to take away state...
by Bill Scher | Sep 29, 2007 | Blog
Watch my interview below from the LiberalOasis Radio Show, about how healthcare is shaping the presidential race in 2008. Part 1: Part 2:
by Bill Scher | Sep 29, 2007 | Blog
Every Friday in our Weekend Watchdog feature, we post suggested questions for scheduled Sunday guests. You can add your own questions in the comment thread. We'll also include contact information for the shows, so we can let them know what their viewers want asked....
by Bill Scher | Sep 27, 2007 | Blog
The White House home page announces the following: Discuss State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) Reauthorization Join Acting Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services at HHS, Mr. Kerry Weems, Friday, Sept. 28 at 2 pm EDT to discuss...
by Bill Scher | Sep 27, 2007 | Blog
Today, the Senate passed the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program with a veto-proof 69 votes, including 18 Republicans. Meanwhile, the fallout from the House vote is beginning to ripple across the country. The Montgomery (AL) Advertiser leads its...
by Eric Lotke | Sep 27, 2007 | Blog
What a difference a year makes. The Republican-controlled 109th Congress doubled student interest rates and cut $12 billion out of student aid. The new Democratic 110th Congress has cut the student interest rates and put $20 billion into aid programs. The money comes...
by Bill Scher | Sep 26, 2007 | Blog
Conservatives are continuing to sweat. They clearly realize that they have failed to sell their misinformation about the proposed expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Now, panicked that voters will remember on Election Day who stood for kids and...
by Bill Scher | Sep 26, 2007 | Blog
The morning after 159 congresspeople voted against the people's will, and sought to deny more health insurance for kids, might they be feeling any regrets? Time Magazine blogger Karen Tumulty writes: Democrats have been handed what could be a powerful issue going into...
by Bill Scher | Sep 26, 2007 | Blog
The House passed the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program last night, 265-159. 40 Republicans and four Democrats -- who last month voted against healthy kids -- now felt the pressure, recognized that the conservative misinformation campaign was a...
by Bill Scher | Sep 25, 2007 | Blog
The House floor debate over the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program is underway. (All the live action is on C-Span.) And conservatives looking to block the expansion don't seem to have any actual arguments against the program. Instead, they're...
by Bill Scher | Sep 25, 2007 | Blog
With the House vote on expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program expected later today, bloggers are rising up and putting heat on wavering congresspeople. FireDogLake: Having worked with at risk children in abuse and neglect cases, I can tell you first...
by Bill Scher | Sep 24, 2007 | Blog
The battle over the State Children's Health Insurance Program is heating up. This week, Congress is set to pass legislation to cover millions more kids. President Bush plans to veto the bill. There is bipartisan support for expansion in both houses, but at the moment,...
by Bill Scher | Sep 24, 2007 | Blog
With Sen. Hillary Clinton on all four major network Sunday shows, chances were better than usual that our Watchdog question would get asked. And it was. Both ABC's This Week and CBS' Face The Nation essentially asked if she expects to leave troops in Iraq...
by Bill Scher | Sep 21, 2007 | Blog
Every Friday in our Weekend Watchdog feature, we post suggested questions for scheduled Sunday guests. You can add your own questions in the comment thread. We'll also include contact information for the shows, so we can let them know what their viewers want asked....
by Roger Hickey | Sep 21, 2007 | Blog
The big news from Sen. Hillary Clinton’s Monday health care speech in Iowa is that she is going to make a campaign for health care for all — not just small changes but fundamental reform — a central element of her campaign for the White House. Before the...
by Bill Scher | Sep 20, 2007 | Blog
MoveOn.org runs an ad exposing an effort to give the public misleading information about the effectiveness of our strategy in Iraq, making it impossible for individuals to make informed decisions about the direction of our foreign policy. Seventy-two members of the...
by Robert Borosage | Sep 20, 2007 | Blog
The Republican obstruction campaign continues. Yesterday, the Republican minority in the Senate filibustered and blocked two measures that had majority support in the House, and bipartisan majority support in the Senate. Republicans continue to filibuster at a pace...
by Bill Scher | Sep 20, 2007 | Blog
MSNBC just previewed President George W. Bush's news conference scheduled for 10:45 AM ET today. The network's White House correspondent said he'll be addressing the State Children's Health Insurance Program, and that Bush wants "more" health insurance for children....
by Bill Scher | Sep 19, 2007 | Blog
The announcement of Sen. Hillary Clinton's health insurance plan is notable for two reasons. First, Clinton joins the other leading Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards in embracing the core element from Jacob Hacker's...
by Bill Scher | Sep 19, 2007 | Blog
This week, one million petition signatures supporting the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program -- thousands of which were collected by Campaign for America's Future -- were delivered to Congress by MoveOn.org and SEIU. While this massive...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Sep 19, 2007 | Blog
Once again, a minority of Senate Republicans led by Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell blocked the ability of a bipartisan majority to move a piece a legislation, this time a bill that would allow the District’s representative in the House to have a full vote on the House...
by Bill Scher | Sep 17, 2007 | Blog
The State Children's Health Insurance Program battle — soon to heat up once Bush vetoes a bipartisan compromise and attention turns to the politically tenuous House Republicans — is about two things. One, of course, is the children themselves: 6 million...
by Bill Scher | Sep 17, 2007 | Blog
Today's New York Times reports that a House-Senate agreement is near on a final State Children's Health Insurance Program bill. (Congressional leaders apparently were able to circumvent the obstructionist attempt to prevent a formal House-Senate conference from...
by Bill Scher | Sep 17, 2007 | Blog
For the second week in a row, the Sunday shows go 0-for-3 for the Watchdog. Neither ABC's This Week or Fox News Sunday asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to explain his support for the president's Iraq strategy, when nothing has changed since he said in December...
