Daily Democratic Wire 7-26-2009

George Wenschhof

Tomorrow, President Barack Obama will address the start of meetings between U.S. and China - Secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will head the U.S. delegation and Vice premier Wang Qisham and State Councilor Dai Bingguo will head the Chinese delegation. Everything is on the table ranging from differences in currencies, trade gaps, the budget deficit, and nuclear weapon development by North Korea. You can read more here.

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Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) wants health care bill passed before recess - an ambitious goal considering the disagreement among Democrats in the House. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) indicated there is a slim chance of approval prior to the recess that begins July 31. However, I would not be surprised if the House did reach approval this week on a health care bill. Stay Tuned. TheHill.com has more here.

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Vice President pens op-ed on success of Stimulus bill - he writes about how the 800 Billion Economic Recovery Act has stopped the massive job losses the country had been experiencing, starting thousands of projects and reduced taxes for 95% of Americans. You can track the progress of the bill by going to http://www.recovery.gov/. The NY Times has his op-ed here.

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Efforts to clean up anti-trust violations hit many obstacles - pushed by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) this has received support of the Obama administration. It is the same old story of the large companies getting larger at the expense of the consumer. Almost every aspect of industry is affected ranging from airlines, trains, communications, and Agra business. Efforts to control, however, are not easy to enforce. The NY Times has a good read here.

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First debate in Virginia Governor race held last night - expect this race to receive lots of attention from the national Democratic and Republican parties. Creigh Deeds (D) will be facing Robert McDonnell (R) for the top seat in the state that turned blue in last year's presidential election. President Obama has promised to campaign next month for deeds and Michael Steele, director of the RNC has promised money and support for McDonnell.

Obviously, both political parties see this race as one that can be exploited for their advantage should they win. The Washington Post has more here.

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