Daily Democratic Wire 8-22-2009

George Wenschhof

Today, the President and his family is visiting the Presidential retreat Camp David. Tomorrow, they will head to Martha's Vineyard for a full week family vacation.

Yesterday, President Obama spoke of the importance of the Afghanistan election and how the country was moving forward.

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Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke says U.S. beginning to emerge from Recession - yesterday, his remarks including the U.S. is near a return to growth led a surge on the stock market on Friday. Bernanke did caution the recovery will take time as unemployment is expected to remain high. CNN.com has more here.

However, keep an eye on the Chines stock market which just dropped 20% from their most recent peak. The Chinese are also holders of a large chunk of U.S. debt. Reuters.com has more here.

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Existing Home Sales Jump - in July to the highest rate since August 2007. Declining sales prices, aid to first time home buyers, and continued low interest rates are fueling the recent sales. Bloomberg.com has more here.

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Senate Finance Committee continues to massage health care bill - rising concerns pertaining to the projected cost of 1 Trillion over the next ten years has led to some cost saving efforts aimed at reducing the overall cost by 100 Billion. However, don't expect consensus to be that easy on this controversial proposal. You can read more here.

Further compounding the effort for health care reform is projected overall U.S. budget deficit of 9 trillion over the ten year period from 2010 - 2019. The budget deficit of the current fiscal year ending September 30, while 250 Billion lower than expected, will be 1.6 trillion. The current budget is mostly a carry-over from the George W. Bush administration. The Obama administration's goal is to cut the budget deficit to 512 Billion by 2013. You can read more here.

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