Democratic Chatter 3-12-2009

George Wenschhof Bio

Today, President Barack Obama will meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi - joining him will be Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Obama will also address a Business roundtable at the St. Regis Hotel and will answer questions as well. ThePage.Time.com has the full day schedule for the President here.

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New unemployment claims rise to record levels - the Labor Department released more bad news showing 654,000 new claims filed. Unemployment levels have almost doubled from one year ago when 2.8 million Americans were out of work. Today 5.3 million are being reported as unemployed, the highest since 1983. The NY Times has more here.

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Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to address Senate Budget Committee today - he will be discussing the Obama budget for 2010. Questions are expected concerning the increase of taxes and record deficits projected. The last time the Treasury Secretary addressed members of Congress, he flopped. Let's see how he does this time. While, he may indeed know his field, his ability to communicate solutions and confidence in solving the dire economic situation has been troublesome for the Obama administration. Margaret Colson of Bloomberg.com has a good read here.

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Margaret Hamburg expected to be named FDA Director - she is a former NY City Health Commissioner. She will also be another former Clinton administration official to be named by President Obama. Politico.com has more here.

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Congressional approval rating doubles since Obama was sworn in as President - the 8 point increase so far this month along with the 12 point increase in February now has the approval rating for Congress at 39%. This is the highest rating since February 2005. Gallup.com has more here.

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