Daily Democratic Wire 1-26-2010

George Wenschhof

President Barack Obama intends to propose a spending freeze on domestic programs - he is expected to offer details in his State of the Union address tomorrow night. Indications are it would affect 477 billion of the overall budget and be for a three year period. it would not impact defense spending. Time.com has more here.

This proposal will look like what it is, an offer to appeal to Republican voters and Tea Bag activists in advance of the mid term election. Similar action taken by President Hoover during the Great Depression further exacerbated an already bad situation. Hardly the leadership many expected from Obama when they voted for him.

The estimated deficit for this year from the Congressional Budget Office is 1.35 Trillion with expectations this would drop to 480 billion in 2015. This shows clearly the problem facing the Obama administration as we enter the mid term elections year. MSNBC.com has more here.

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President to answer Questions from you pertaining to his State of the Union address - after his speech tomorrow night, you can submit questions via YouTube and one day next week President Obama will answer them live from the White House. WhiteHouse.gov has more details here.

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DSCC out raises NRSC in 2009 - the Senate Campaign Committees were close in total cash raised with the Democrats raising 43.6 million and the Republicans 41.2 million. Democrats reported 12.5 million cash on hand compared to 8.3 million for Republicans. CQ Politics has more here.

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Senate considers 80 billion Jobs bill - TheHill.com has more here. Differs somewhat from House bill, but neither bill contains any funding for temporary public service employment programs which I feel is necessary at this time. The House bill does include 30 billion for aid to states and local government to avoid layoffs. Presently, the idea is to use unspent money from the 700 billion bail out bill. The bill would have a better chance of passage if they instead diverted money from the cumbersome 787 billion Stimulus bill. The unspent bailout bill money could then be returned to the Treasury to pay down the debt.

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White House and Democratic Congressional Leaders look for ways to diminish last weeks Supreme Court ruling on Campaign financing - being discussed is requiring shareholders of corporations to vote to approve any money spent on elections. Another idea is to prohibit corporations who have contracts with government from spending money on elections. This is a hot topic and there will surely be more to this story so stay tuned... Politico.com has more here.

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