Democratic Chatter 3-6-2009

George Wenschhof Bio

Today, President Barack Obama will be in Columbus, Ohio - He will speak at a police graduating ceremony where recruits will be able to keep their jobs due to the Stimulus bill. The Washington Post has more here.

At the conclusion of the Health Care Summit yesterday at the White House, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) spoke of the time is now. Kennedy has long been a supporter of health care reform. ThePage.time.com has a video of his remarks here.

--------------------

Sanjay Gupta withdraws from consideration for U.S. Surgeon General - He informed the President he will be staying on as CNN commentator and as a practicing neurosurgeon. He is a very good communicator for those who have watched his reporting on CNN and would have excelled in this area as Surgeon General. The stated reason he gave was a standard line of being able to stay closer to family, etc. Politico.com has more and a video here.

--------------------

Two candidates for high level Treasury department positions withdraw from consideration - This can not help Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner whose roll out on how the remaining TARP funds would be spent was less than spectacular. Annette Nazareth was under consideration for deputy Treasury Secretary and Caroline Atkinson for International Affairs undersecretary. Both had been vetted but had not yet been nominated. Reuters.com has more here

--------------------

Yesterday, the Dow dropped again - the Dow dropped 281.40 to close at 6544.44. To put all of this into perspective, the Dow high was reached on October 9, 2007 and was 14,164.53. So, in less than 18 months, the losses have exceeded 50%. This shows the seriousness of the current global economic crisis. MSNBC.com has more here.

--------------------

Unemployment hits 8.1% - further illustrating the tough times Americans are experiencing, the Labor Department released figures today that unemployment has risen to the highest level in 25 years. 4.4 million jobs have been lost since December 2007. Bloomberg.com has more here.

--------------------

410 Billion spending bill stopped in Senate - the house had voted earlier on this bill to not only continue, but also increase the funding of government agencies through the end of this fiscal year which is September 30, 2009. Democratic Senators Russ Feingold (Wisc.) and Evan Bayh (IN) both were against the bill and wanted time to review the many amendments. In what has now become a routine practice, the house will have to submit a continuing resolution bill to the Senate and have them agree prior to midnight tonight in order to keep funding government agencies. TheHill.com has more here.

--------------------

To receive "Daily Email Updates" from Air-it-out with George Wenschhof, click on "Subscribe to this feed" below.