Daily Kos

Website: http://commonsense.ourfuture.org
Email: bscher@ourfuture.org

Bill Scher blogs for Campaign for America's Future

Kids Warn Conservatives, "No More Photo Ops"

Thu Oct 04, 2007 at 07:36:56 PM PDT

Conservatives are on notice! As the House prepares to vote on whether to override Bush’s veto of children’s health insurance, America’s kids are sending a message to conservatives: No health care for us? Then, no photo ops for you! Check out the new video from Campaign for America’s Future below, then click here to send your own message to your Representative.

House conservatives are really nervous about this vote. Most voters in both parties want kids to have health insurance. Unlike Bush, House members are up for re-election next year, and sustaining the veto is indefensible. But they don’t have to defend it unless we keep the issue alive and the pressure on.

Caught on Tape! - The Plot to Bury Progress

Fri Aug 03, 2007 at 11:30:42 AM PDT

The following was emailed to Campaign for America's Future supporters by our Director of Online Communications Ian Mishalove.

No progress on ending the war. No progress on new energy. No progress on health care costs. Why is the new Congress gridlocked?

Conservatives are working hard to spin this as the fault of a "do nothing Congress." But that’s like someone mugging the postman and then complaining that the mail isn’t delivered. The fact is it’s the conservative minority’s own filibusters and vetoes that are systematically killing progress.

But now, our cameras have exposed the force orchestrating this obstruction.

Expose The Obstructionists

Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 01:50:55 PM PDT

The following is from Campaign for America's Future Co-Director Robert Borosage

Americans elected a new Congress to get things done. But the conservative minority has chosen a strategy of obstruction in the Senate. They have used the threat of a filibuster to delay or block virtually every major initiative.

Bills with majority support--raising the minimum wage, ethics reform, a date to remove troops from Iraq, revoking oil subsidies and putting the money into renewable energy, fulfilling the 9/11 commission recommendations on homeland security--get blocked because they can't garner 60 votes to overcome a filibuster.

America's Progressive Majority

Wed Jun 13, 2007 at 08:16:44 AM PDT

The following was penned by my colleague Eric Lotke, about the new Campaign for America's Future/Media Matters for America report he co-authored, "The Progressive Majority: Why a Conservative America is a Myth." With thousands of Americans coming to Washington, DC next week for the Take Back America conference, hosted by Campaign for America's Future, this report will help guide conference participants as they collaborate on how to transform last year's historic election victories into concrete and lasting change for the common good. -- Bill

The facade of conservative political dominance is crumbling. The disintegration runs deeper than public disaffection with the Bush administration's catastrophic failures and is more fundamental than the political realignment of the 2006 election. The notion of America as a "conservative nation" was always more fiction than fact, but the nation's rejection of President Bush's brand of "you're-on-your-own" conservatism and wedge-issue divisiveness is so broad that today the facade is simply unsustainable.

Obama Campaign Elaborates on Health Care Plan

Sat Jun 02, 2007 at 04:21:02 AM PDT

After Sen. Barack Obama released his highly anticipated health care plan on Tuesday, there was a flurry of blog reaction, led by The American Prospect’s Ezra Klein and The New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn – both whom argue that Obama’s plan falls a step short of achieving universal coverage.

But the Obama campaign is further elaborating on the plan, and stating otherwise. Over at the Campaign for America’s Future blog, Obama ’08 health care adviser and Harvard economics professor David Cutler posts that, "All Americans will be covered automatically under this plan. And the resources are set aside in the plan to do whatever is necessary to guarantee affordable coverage for every American."

The Failure of Compromise

Thu May 24, 2007 at 05:57:22 AM PDT

In one of Sen. Harry Reid's first radio addresses after the Democratic victories in November 2006, he said the new majority's first guiding legislative principle was "bipartisanship"; Democrats "intend to reach out to President Bush and our Republican colleagues in Congress." The Democrats' last guiding principle would be "results," because "it's time Democrats and Republicans worked together to achieve results."

Four months into the new Congress, how's that game plan working out?

There's not a lot of results. And you can blame all that attempted bipartisanship.

Time and time again, Democratic leaders have sought to accommodate the conservative Republican minority and craft compromise legislation. And in almost every case, it has led to bad or no results.

Prescription Drug Battle Hits Senate - Your Voice Needed

Mon Apr 16, 2007 at 08:23:22 AM PDT

According to CQ Today, a Senate vote is expected Wednesday to try to break a planned filibuster against a bill empowering Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices. And Senate leaders are hunting "for a final few votes" to get to the needed 60.

With the pharmaceutical companies flooding Washington with dishonest ads and an army of lobbyists, if we are to beat back the filibuster, your Senators need to hear your voice now.

Campaign for America's Future has an action page where you can easily write your Senators and tell them, "Side with the people, not the big drug companies."

Fighting the Pharma Goliath

Thu Apr 05, 2007 at 11:02:45 AM PDT

If you watch a lot of CNN or MSNBC, you've probably seen the pharmaceutical lobby's ads warning about "changes" to Medicare prescription drug program, because the program is "working." (Then again, you might have heard a few notes of the off-the-shelf Muzak-folk music not good enough to be used in ads for Nexium or Lipitor, and tuned the ads out.)

Nevertheless, these ads are part of a massive lobbying campaign to kill legislation empowering Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices, repealing the current prohibition. Such a bill has already passed the House, and the Senate is expected to take up the issue later this month. This past Sunday, Center for Public Integrity found that Big Pharma has flooded Washington with $155 million and an "army" of lobbyists more than 1,000 strong.


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