Scott Horsley

Scott Horsley is a White House correspondent for NPR News. He reports on the policy and politics of the Obama Administration, with a special emphasis on economic issues.

The 2012 campaign is the third presidential contest Horsley has covered for NPR. He previously reported on Senator John McCain's White House bid in 2008 and Senator John Kerry's campaign in 2004. Thanks to this experience, Horsley has become an expert in the motel shampoo offerings of various battleground states.

Horsley took up the White House beat after serving as a San Diego-based business correspondent for NPR where he covered fast food, gasoline prices, and the California electricity crunch of 2000. He reported from the Pentagon during the early phases of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Before joining NPR in 2001, Horsley was a reporter for member station KPBS-FM, where he received numerous honors, including a Public Radio News Directors' award for coverage of the California energy crisis.

Earlier in his career, Horsley worked as a reporter for WUSF-FM in Tampa, Florida, and as a news writer and reporter for commercial radio stations in Boston and Concord, New Hampshire. Horsley began his professional career as a production assistant for NPR's Morning Edition.

Horsley earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University and an MBA from San Diego State University.

Pages

5:01pm

Wed September 14, 2011
Barack Obama

On The Road, Obama Faces Mixed Reaction Over Jobs

Originally published on Thu September 15, 2011 4:12 am

Credit Gerry Broome / AP

For the second time in less than a week, President Obama on Wednesday visited a college campus, touting his new jobs plan. He told supporters at North Carolina State University that if Congress goes along with his proposal for tax cuts and new government spending, it will help to restore middle-class jobs.

A new CNN poll shows more Americans support the president's jobs plan than oppose it.

But that survey and others also find widespread disappointment with the U.S. economy — and Obama's handling of it.

Read more

5:20am

Sat September 10, 2011
Politics

Obama Launches Aggressive Push For Jobs Plan

Credit Jim Watson / AFP/Getty Images

President Obama is selling his jobs plan as a much-needed shot in the arm for a still struggling economy. It includes new public works projects, help for local school districts, training opportunities for those who have been out of work a long time, and more than $200 billion in tax cuts for workers and the companies that hire them.

Read more

12:01am

Thu September 8, 2011
It's All Politics

Amid Skepticism, Obama Prepares For Jobs Speech

President Obama will attempt a Hail Mary pass when he speaks to a joint session of Congress tonight. He'll be asking for immediate help to boost job growth, after a month in which U.S. hiring came to a virtual standstill.

"The time for action is now," Obama told supporters in Detroit earlier this week. "Now is not the time for the people you sent to Washington to worry about their jobs. Now is the time for them to worry about your jobs."

Read more

5:20pm

Thu September 1, 2011
Jon Huntsman

Can Jon Huntsman Break Away From The Pack?

As Jon Huntsman and his wife walked down Main Street in Concord, N.H., on Thursday, trailed by news cameras, a passerby asked, "Who's that?"

The question is not surprising for a candidate who's run no TV ads in New Hampshire so far, and who's polling at just 3 percent in the state. But Huntsman was undaunted Thursday morning as he addressed a "Politics and Eggs" breakfast at St. Anselm College.

Read more

12:01am

Wed August 31, 2011
Politics

Perry Revives Social Security 'Ponzi Scheme' Rhetoric

When Texas Gov. Rick Perry was asked about Social Security during a campaign stop in Ottumwa, Iowa, last weekend, he didn't mince words. He suggested that younger workers who are required to pay into the retirement system are the victims of a government swindle.

"We need to have a conversation with America, just like we're having right here today, and admit that is a Ponzi scheme for these young people," Perry said. "The idea that they're working and paying into Social Security today, the current program, that it's going to be there for them, is a lie."

Read more

Pages