Politics | 02/24/2009 11:10 am
Obama to Brief Congress Tonight on Domestic Plan
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President Obama will appear before Congress tonight to brief lawmakers on his administration’s forthcoming plans.
During Obama’s 9 p.m. ET address, which will be televised, before a joint session of Congress, the president will try to be upbeat when talking about the country’s economic doldrums, but don’t expect him to be too cheery. On the contrary, the president is going to issue a "sober" assessment of the economy and will hopefully lay out more details of how exactly money from the nearly $1 trillion economic stimulus package will be used. And, complicating matters for Mr. Obama, Fed chief Ben Bernanke warned today that the nation’s recession could seep into 2010 if government efforts to stop the bleeding don’t help soon. "It is essential that we continue to complement fiscal stimulus with strong government action to stabilize financial institutions and financial markets," he testified before the Senate.
Meanwhile, more data also came out today showing U.S. home prices are still in free-fall.
Despite all the problems, Obama is still enjoying phenomenal levels of confidence from Americans on his leadership, which, ultimately, will help him sell his ideas for fixing things and aids his battle against congressional Republicans opposing him and his plans.
The latest New York Times/CBS News poll shows that Obama is enjoying a 63 percent approval rating. While a Washington Post/ABC News poll shows similar support, it also notes that the political division Obama wants to overcome is far from in-reach.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said today that Obama is going to be "honest" with the American people tonight about the challenges we face and what is being done to get the economy back on track. "You’ll hear the president tell Americans," said Gibbs to "Good Morning America" today, "[that] better days are ahead."
"It won’t be enough just to look presidential," Stephen Wayne, a political scientist at Georgetown University, told Reuters. "What he needs to be is explainer-in-chief."
Read more about: Bailout, Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke, congress, Economic Stimulus, Economy, Home Prices, News, Obama Administration, President Obama, Recession, U.S., Unemployment
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419 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment
Carmel~ I couldn’t agree more! The speech was perfect. Isn’t is wonderful to have a President who is so excellent at explaining what he plans on doing and why he plans on doing it?!
Mr. Conservative, David Brooks, was blown away by the speech. And as positive as he was about the president’s speech he was THAT negative about the GOP response… he was shocked and appalled that THAT is the way they chose to respond. "Just old platitudes and straw men". He kept shaking his head like he couldn’t believe how much they just do not get it.
DeBurca, I hadn’t thought of it that way. Now YOU have made MY day! I hope V.P. Biden had the seat fumigated!Gee, I sound so mean..OH WELL!!lol Thanks for the insight.
But am I right by saying Biden is an idoit? Yes I am right……… Senator Obama’s running mate, Senator Joe Biden, has for years shown the same easy-way-out mindset. Senator Biden has for decades opposed strengthening our military forces. In 1991, Biden urged relying on sanctions to get Saddam Hussein’s troops out of Kuwait, instead of military force, despite the demonstrated futility of sanctions as a means of undoing an invasion.
Joe Biden is much more of the kind of politician the mainstream media like. Not only is he a liberal’s liberal, he answers questions far more glibly than Governor Palin — grossly inaccurately in many cases, but glibly.
Moreover, this is a long-standing pattern with Biden. When he was running for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination back in 1987, someone in the audience asked him what law school he attended and how well he did.
Flashing his special phony smile, Biden said, "I think I have a much higher IQ than you do." He added, "I went to law school on a full academic scholarship" and "ended up in the top half" of the class.
But Biden did not have a full academic scholarship. Newsweek reported: "He went on a half scholarship based on need. He didn’t finish in the ‘top half’ of his class. He was 76th out of 85."
But you and Carmel thinks he’s a better replacement than Cheney?
What two idiots you are!
Ms. Dee….graceful language, doll…graceful wordsmith…"couple candor with…" Lovely…..polish, polish, shiny………Just tryin’ to pay attention……Just tryin’…….
Oh, you are such a sweet heart, Ms. fatwood. You seem to be tuned in more than most, from where I sit.
Did you the speech? It made me very happy. And I can’t believe the Republican response was one big whine about a bill that’s already been signed into law. Good grief.
Ms. Dee…Yes..made me happy, too.I just love listening to the grownups talk.It’s just that I value gifted wordsmiths…and I don’t understand why anyone would fault anybody/him/you/me ANYBODY for being literate…..Sorry that I’m not so hot about punctuation (but neither was e.e. cummings)
I’ve just gotten out of Delete Jail…..Actually, federal prison for food stamp fraud is not looking so bad to me these days except that I hate baloney for lunch….but it is warm there and there’s one in my neighborhood which means that my grandchildren could visit easily……..
I’m so happy to hear from a chum from the old days……..Thank you so much …..
OK….I wanted to be Rachel Maddow in a previous or future life….Have you ever heard/watched her? Civil, brilliant,polite, concilliatory, giving, questioning, curious, engaged,tolerant,…….and Fullbright scholar or something……..oh, gosh….was that Full Bright or what?
Hill staffer Tom Jones is going through the omnibus spending bill with a fine-tooth comb, and Twittering his earmark findings, including:
* $200,000 for “Tattoo Removal Violence Prevention Outreach Program,” pg. 283;
*Maine lobster earmark in the omnibus, pg. 173;
*$5.8 million earmark for the “Ted Kennedy Institute for the Senate…for the planning and design of a building & an endowment,” pg. 232;
*and National Council of La Raza, $473,000 earmark from Sens. Bingaman and Menendez, pg. 212. (MM)