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Robert Weiner,
NATIONAL PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND ISSUES STRATEGIST
Bob Weiner, a national issues and public affairs strategist, has been spokesman for and directed the public affairs offices of White House Drug Czar and Four Star General Barry McCaffrey, the House Government Operations Committee and Chairman John Conyers (D-MI), Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY) and the House Narcotics Committee, and was Chief of Staff for the House Aging Committee and Chairman Claude Pepper (D-FL). He also was Legislative Assistant to Ed Koch of New York and a political aide to Ted Kennedy (D-MA) for his Presidential and Senate races. Bob worked at the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate as youth voter registration director in 1971-1972 when the constitution was amended to allow 18-year olds the vote.
Since he left the White House in 2001, Bob heads up a public affairs and issue strategies company, Robert Weiner Associates. He is a regular political analyst on Radio America and has appeared on Bill Maher, CNN Crossfire, Today, Good Morning America, and the CBS, NBC, and ABC evening news. He is widely published in columns he writes on national issues in major papers throughout the country including recently the Washington Post, Denver Post, Miami Herald, Christian Science Monitor, New York Daily News, Baltimore Sun, Boston Globe, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Atlanta Constitution, New York Post, Washington Times, Sacramento Bee, Palm Beach Post, Salt Lake Tribune, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and Adweek. He is also regularly quoted in key media coast-to-coast, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, AP and Reuters, concerning the presidential campaign and national issues.
Saturday, January 28, 2012 Why Do Conservatives Vote Against Their Own Interest? (56 comments)
Robert Weiner, a former Clinton White House spokesman, and Jaime Ravenet, Senior Analyst at Robert Weiner Associates, respond to Michigan Congressman/Congressional Black Caucus Dean John Conyers' "compelling question to us in a conversation, "Why do conservatives vote against their own interests?' "If we can answer this," Weiner and Ravenet say, "we might reach the common ground to solve the country's economic, debt and grow.
Monday, January 23, 2012 "ANY PRESIDENT WOULD HAVE DONE" THE SAME AS OBAMA? Not Quite, Mr. Romney--ask Bush about Tora Bora (3 comments)
Robert Weiner, a former Clinton White House spokesman and former Chief of Staff of the House Aging Committee and Health Subcommittee under Chairman Claude Pepper (D-FL), and Senior Analyst at Robert Weiner Associates Richard Mann take presidential hopeful Mitt Romney to task for saying "any president" would have given the order that would have launched the raid that killed Osama bin Laden last year.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011 Our View: Cutting Medicare benefits will cost the nation (1 comments)
CUTTING MEDICARE BENEFITS WILL COST NATION MORE IN FOOD STAMPS, WELFARE, OVERALL POVERTY, EMERGENCY HOSPITALIZATION, SAY BOB WEINER (FMR HOUSE AGING COM. CHIEF) AND JOHN HORTON;
"MEDICARE IS NOT A FOR-PROFIT VENTURE--IS WHAT OUR NATION DOES TO PROVIDE HEALTH TO SENIORS"
Saturday, July 9, 2011 End Herbert Hoover-style "trickle-down economics' to pay off nation's debt (2 comments)
Trickle-down economics has not worked since Herbert Hoover tried it. It is a myth that adding money to the wealthy through tax cuts stimulates jobs and grows the economy. End Herbert Hoover-style "trickle-down economics' to pay off nation's debt
Monday, February 21, 2011 Youth vote helped elect Obama; Will it be as important in 2012?
According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, 24 million people ages 18 to 24 voted in the 2008 presidential election, 51 percent of the group. More than 16 million (68 percent) of the 24 million voted for Obama, which made the difference in many close states.
Sunday, February 20, 2011 Keep Federal Dollars Coming for Cancer Research
As the government continues to fund two wars and ongoing tax breaks, curing diseases such as cancer is threatened. In the State of the Union speech, President Obama promised investment in biomedical research. However, House Appropriations chairman Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) just announced the committee draft budget has a $1 billion cut in National Institutes of Health funding.
Friday, February 18, 2011 BUDGET CUTS THREATEN CANCER BREAKTHROUGHS
As the government keeps funding two wars and ongoing tax breaks, curing diseases like cancer is being threatened in the budget debates underway. In both the State of the Union and Budget Message, President Obama promised investment in biomedical research. However, House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers (R-KY) just announced the draft House budget has a $1 Billion cut in NIH funding.
Sunday, February 6, 2011 WE SHOULD KNOW WHOM WE OWE: Disclose Saudi Loans to US (1 comments)
The White House just held meetings with China's Hu Jintao where U.S. debt to them (now $896 billion) and our economic relationship were top issues. The Treasury Department discloses what we owe China, Japan ($877 billion), Britain ($512 billion), Brazil ($184 billion), and most countries but refuses to disclose how much we owe Saudi Arabia and other oil nations.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011 Judging the Judges Needed-- The Lesson of the Impeachment of Porteous (4 comments)
For those who believe federal corruption is only among congressmen with Bahamian villas, voracious sexual appetites, or trips to airport bathrooms, guess again" it occurs all over our courtrooms, where we think we receive justice. It is also the most difficult branch to correct, because federal judges are appointed for life. What we need is a way to judge the judges.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011 HOW FREE IS BURMA'S SUU KYI?
How free is Suu Kyi? Is she free to run for office in non-rigged elections and assume the prime minister role she was denied? Free to call for a civilian government, a legal product-based economy, and a halt to the drug trade funding the junta and killing thousands in Burma and around the globe?
Thursday, December 30, 2010 Expect Illegal Drugs at 2012 Olympics (1 comments)
The 2002 Salt Lake City Games, the first Winter Games after formation of the World Anti-Doping Agency in 1999, was dramatically impacted by drug testing and the busts that occurred. To stop athletes from doping during the London Games in 2012, start the drug testing now. Testing the athletes before the Games, and not just on-site during the Games, is the lesson of the Salt Lake City Olympics.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010 Iran: Nuclear Weapons or Peaceful Energy?
With the ratification of START, a new nuclear alliance is shaping - one dedicated to the effort to prevent rogue nations from developing nuclear weapons.
Saturday, December 25, 2010 Osama bin Laden is dead -- Maybe CIA can get confirmation from 'SNL' (2 comments)
Last week, al Qaeda issued its annual Christmas threat to the United States promising suicide bombings during the holidays. Here's a better idea for a Christmas present from al Qaeda: a video showing Osama bin Laden - or his grave.
Friday, December 24, 2010 Social Security's Future at Risk With New Tax Deal (2 comments)
Under the radar screen, the new tax deal is threatening the livelihood of America's present and future seniors - to line the pockets of millionaires.
Friday, November 5, 2010 TAX CUT DEBATE MYTHS AND FACTS
A lot of rhetoric is flying in the November election but perhaps the most substantive debate is over whether to continue tax breaks for the rich. President Obama and most congressional Democrats want to extend the Bush tax cuts for 98% of Americans, everyone making under $250,000. Republicans want to extend the tax cuts for everybody despite Bush's tax bill enacted in June 2001 to suspend the tax cuts at the end of 2010.
Thursday, October 21, 2010 PRISON DRUG TREATMENT WOULD REVERSE OVERCROWDING AND REDUCE CRIME, RECIDIVISM, BUDGETS
PRISON DRUG TREATMENT WOULD REDUCE OVERCROWDING, CRIME, BUDGETS SAY ROBERT WEINER, EX-WHITE HOUSE DRUG SPOKESMAN & CHICAGO EXPERT DAPHNE BAILLE;
Deficit Commission Should Heed Savings; Chicago Sun-Times Op-ed
(Washington, DC and Chicago, IL) -" Prison drug treatment would reduce overcrowding, crime, and budgets, say Robert Weiner, ex-White House Drug Spokesman, and Chicago expert Daphne Baille.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010 Prison Drug Treatment Would Reverse Overcrowding and Reduce Crime, Recidivism, Budget
PRISON DRUG TREATMENT WOULD REDUCE OVERCROWDING, CRIME, BUDGETS SAY ROBERT WEINER, EX-WHITE HOUSE DRUG SPOKESMAN & CHICAGO EXPERT DAPHNE BAILLE;
Deficit Commission Should Heed Savings; Chicago Sun-Times Op-ed
(Washington, DC and Chicago, IL) -" Prison drug treatment would reduce overcrowding, crime, and budgets, say Robert Weiner, ex-White House Drug Spokesman, and Chicago expert Daphne Baille
Tuesday, September 14, 2010 Drive to Win Trumps Good Governance (1 comments)
Drive to Win Trumps Good Governance
By Robert Weiner, Jonathan Battaglia and Noah Merksamer
Special to Roll Call
In today's politics, bipartisanship seems like a distant memory. Instead of getting a sizable chunk of opposition votes in both chambers on major legislation, the party in power has to rely on cloture in the Senate and essentially only its own votes in the House.
It was not always like this.
Thursday, August 26, 2010 TNSOLS in Tinseltown Show Need to Help Homeless
TNSOLS IN TINSELTOWN--HOLLYWOOD MUST STEP UP FOR HOMELESS SAY EX-WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN BOB WEINER AND ANALYST JONATHAN BATTAGLIA
(Washington, D.C.) --" A former White House and U.S. House Government Operations Committee spokesman, Robert Weiner, and policy analyst Jonathan Battaglia have called for Hollywood stars to end Los Angeles' reputation as the nation's "meanest" toward their homeless.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010 Waive Entrance Fees At National Parks (2 comments)
From the grasslands of Petrified Forest to the stratified depths of the Grand Canyon, our national parks are blessed with some of the most beautiful stretches of land in the world. However, attendance has been on the decline.
In 1995, over 68 million people visited the parks. By 2009, the number was down to 63 million -- a 9 percent decrease amid a 26 percent increase in U.S. population.
Saturday, June 26, 2010 Hands off Social Security - Better Ways to Cut the National Debt (3 comments)
The Social Security Trustees' Annual Report on the program's finances comes out Wednesday, delayed from March by the health bill. It will be turned into a marketing tool by advocates of cutting Social Security to reduce the national debt.
Friday, June 25, 2010 Fix court's trashing of anti-age discrimination act
The late Congressman Claude Pepper, a Miami Democrat who chaired the House Aging Committee, said: ''Ageism is as odious as racism and sexism.'' He led the passage of the anti-mandatory retirement acts of 1978 and 1986. However, the increasingly pro-big business U.S. Supreme Court is taking away seniors' power against employment discrimination and giving it to business.
Thursday, June 10, 2010 Afghanistan's troubles far from over
Former White House Drug Policy Spokesman Robert Weiner and Jonathan Battaglia, Policy Analyst at Robert Weiner Associates, assert that drug production in Afghanistan, ignored by both the U.S. and Afghan governments, is funding al Qaeda. They say that we "have forgotten the elephant in the room." In an oped in Tuesday's Washington Times, they call on the US military to step up opium and heroin eradication efforts in Afghanistan
Sunday, June 6, 2010 Make Meth Ingredients Prescription-only (1 comments)
Former White House Drug Policy Spokesman Robert Weiner and Jonathan Battaglia, a Policy Analyst at Robert Weiner Associates, say that Congress and state legislatures should make methamphetamine's main ingredient, pseudoephedrine, prescription-only. In an op-ed in The State (Columbia, SC) Weiner and Battaglia say Oregon has taken the step and in three years since 2006 enactment, cut the crisis in half.
Thursday, May 27, 2010 All Athletes Should Face the Same Tough Drug Testing (1 comments)
Former White House Drug Policy Spokesman Robert Weiner and Yusuf Hassan, a Senior Policy Analyst at Robert Weiner Associates, have called for professional golf superstar Tiger Woods to be tested for drugs in an op-ed in the Charlotte Observer.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010 'Failure' is Wrong Diagnosis in War Against Cancer
Weiner and Berg, in an oped in Monday's Washington Times, "Failure is the Wrong Diagnosis," contend that "progress [in cancer research] is incontrovertible. The researchers who inhabit the benches of our laboratories seeking causes, cures, inhibitors, and diagnostic tools have in fact made enormous strides against the nation's second leading killer."
Thursday, January 14, 2010 New York Observer: The Epidemic Continues (6 comments)
Confronting the ongoing AIDS pandemic for his upcoming first national HIV/AIDS Strategy is President Obama's newest dilemma, say former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, former White House Drug Policy spokesman Robert Weiner, and Dartmouth College Coalition for Progress president Jordan Osserman in a guest column in today's New York Observer entitled "The Epidemic Continues."
Friday, October 9, 2009 On Pelosi Power: Public Option Still Viable
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's record of passing all the bills she has brought forward – despite opponents' caricature of her as inept—mean that the health public option remains viable in the House and the House-Senate conference, say ex-White House staffer and former House Aging Committee and Health Subcommittee Chief of Staff Robert Weiner and Rebecca Vander Linde.
Sunday, August 23, 2009 NATIONWIDE TUITION FREEZE COULD RESTORE U.S. TO #1
"We were number one in 1992. Now the United States ranks fourth in the world for college completion, with only 39 percent of Americans holding degrees, and a shocking 11th in the world for recent graduates 25-34,"- say former Clinton White House and congressional senior staff member Bob Weiner and Policy Analyst Zoe Pagonis. "Other nations are rapidly passing us by because our students can't afford college."-
Thursday, August 13, 2009 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE STIFFENING HEALTH CARE OPPOSITION: FOLLOW THE MONEY (6 comments)
"The opposition to health reform is a web of vested interests with major financial stakes in the status quo,"- say former Chief of Staff to the House Aging Committee/former White House Drug Policy spokesman Bob Weiner and Analyst Jordan Osserman in a column in today's South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "30 key lawmakers involved in health legislation total $11 million personal investments in the healthcare sector."
Saturday, August 8, 2009 The Prognosis for Health Reform (7 comments)
Ex-House Aging Committee Chief of Staff Bob Weiner warns of insurance control over health bill outcome, praises House Version, “Disappointed” by Senate; Weiner and Policy Analyst Jordan Osserman offer bill’s “Prognosis”
Tuesday, July 7, 2009 RENTERS ACROSS AMERICA NEED MORE HELP FROM CONGRESS (7 comments)
While the new federal anti-foreclosure bill signed by President Obama helps homeowners affected by the economic crisis, the bill and its $13.6 billion housing recovery money ignore the one-third of American households who rent, say former Mayor of New York and Congressman Ed Koch and ex-White House spokesman Bob Weiner, former Chief of Staff of the House Aging Committee and Koch's former legislative aide in the NY Daily News.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009 NASA's Weak Dream
As the July 20 40th anniversary of man's first moon landing approaches, former White House Spokesman Bob Weiner and Policy Analyst Zoe Pagonis urge NASA, "Focus on the dream of traveling to other planets and reverse NASA's satisfaction with the mundane." In an op-ed in today's Orlando Sentinel, Weiner and Pagonis assert, "The news for NASA now is a pale comparison to 1969, when two Americans first stepped on the moon."
Friday, March 13, 2009 BANKING: STOP FLOW OF FUNDS THAT UNDERWRITE TERRORISM
President Obama's promised Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy to be delivered to the April 3-4 NATO summit should track the dirty money, both from drug production and from neighboring countries, say former White House drug policy spokesman Robert Weiner and former CIA intelligence analyst Paulette Garthoff. They urge, "Follow the Money."
Monday, August 4, 2008 McCAIN MAVERICK NO MORE
End Widespread Myth, including by McCain, that Social Security is Faltering, But Fix Medicare
Urges Ex-Hill Committee on Aging Chief/National Democratic Strategist Robert Weiner and Former Senior Hill Aide John Larmett in Palm Beach Post Op-Ed
Saturday, April 19, 2008 REDUCED FUNDS FOR CANCER IS COST OF IRAQ
REDUCED FUNDS FOR CANCER IS COST OF IRAQ, SAY EX WHITE HOUSE AIDE, CANCER RESEARCHERS An ex-White House aide, Robert Weiner, and Dr. Patricia Berg, director of a GWU Medical Center breast cancer lab, are reporting that many scientists believe that "the cost of the Iraq war is largely responsible for a drop in real dollars for cancer research, and private organizations, though critical, are a pale substitute for the power of
Monday, April 7, 2008 RELOCATE OLYMPIC GAMES, DON'T BOYCOTT (6 comments)
RELOCATE OLYMPIC GAMES, DON'T BOYCOTT--
MESSAGE TO CHINA THAT TIBET MURDERS UNACCEPTABLE, BUT WORLD'S ATHLETES MUST NOT PAY
By Robert Weiner and John Larmett
