Daily Political Wire 4-7-2010

George Wenschhof

Later today, President Barack Obama will fly to Prague to sign the new START Treaty with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev - the treaty has been met with mixed results from members in Congress, but President Obama hopes it points to a world without nuclear weapons. Reuters.com has more here.

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Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to visit China tomorrow - realizing it is a global economy, Geithner has hit the trail, first traveling to India and now off to China. Both countries are huge emerging economies which have direct impact on the U.S. economy.

In China, Geithner will meet with Vice Premier Wang Qisham. They will be discussing Chinese policy on their currency and how it effects U.S. trade. The NY Times has more here.

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Vice President Joe Biden calls for more reporting on the use of Stimulus Funds - the watchdog placed in this position by the president says many government agencies are not receiving reports from recipients on how they are spending the grants. Biden even threatened the loss of grants to those who were in non compliance with reporting. So far, it is estimated 300 of the 787 billion has been spent to date. TheHill.com has more here.

Stay tuned.... already a mid term election issue, this could escalate even further as members of Congress weigh in.

I still call for much of the remaining Stimulus funds be used to fund "public service employment" jobs which will put the unemployed to work immediately and help off set the job cuts being made by state, county and municipalities as they struggle to balance their budgets. Why this is not being done, with a 9.7% unemployment rate, amazes me.

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Outrageous "Burn Rate" continues by Republican National Committee - the RNC raised 11 million in March, but were only able to save 2 million. In political campaigns, "burn rate" refers to how fast you are spending the money you are raising. Politico.com has more here. Meanwhile, the Democrats won the health care reform month sweepstakes by raising 13 million. The ridiculous spending by Republicans will continue to be a problem for their chair; Michael Steele.

These totals are for one month and by only one arm of both political parties - Does anyone wonder about a need for Real campaign finance reform?

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