September 3rd, 2010, Washington, DC–From ALG News’ Capitol Hill Correspondent Derek Baker: 
In the Senate, in the Florida Senate race, Rep. Kendrick Meek was handed some bad news this week when Florida Senate Democrat leader Al Lawson endorsed Gov. Crist’s independent bid over Meek. With GOP candidate Marco Rubio leading slightly in the polls, this development bodes well for him, since it underscores that Meek and Crist will more likely split the Democrat vote and Rubio will take the spoils.
In another closely watched Senate race, retiring Sen. Jim Bunning yesterday predicted that Republican nominee Rand Paul would win his seat, stating “The intensity on the Republican or conservative side in this election is unbelievable.” Bunning also alluded to Paul’s campaign as being less than effective, by adding “It means Rand Paul can succeed me and not do a great job. In other words, he can succeed me in spite of himself.”
Bottom Line: Bunning gave a blunt back-handed comment to Paul, but he may be right, at least as far as the results go. With two months to go, Paul, Rubio, and other once dark-horse candidates now are well poised to gain a Senate seat, if they can maintain momentum and avoid gaffes.
In the House, Democrats are beyond nervous about the mid-term elections at this point, but are aggressively trying to stem the likely tide against them in November. DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen stated in a recent MSNBC appearance that “We’ve got to get around the country. And the president has got to get turbocharged. He’s got to go out and make it very clear what the stakes in this election will be.”
The political rancor has become biting and bitter from some high-ranking Democrats. Rep. Barney Frank, the House Financial Services chairman, stated at a Democrat event in California recently, “Here is what apparently happened on January 21, 2009, if you listen to the Republicans: It was, after Pearl Harbor Day or 9/11 of 2001, the worst day in American history… all of a sudden unemployment appeared… the deficit appeared… all of these bad things according to them happened the day Barack Obama took office.”
Bottom Line: To Barney: yep, that pretty much sums it up. Certainly not comparing Obama’s election to national disasters, but Republicans and conservatives do largely view Obama’s election as a sizable step toward socialism in America. And it’s hard to argue with the numbers. The unemployment rate is more than 4 percent higher now than when Obama took office, and the deficit has grown by billions since Obama was sworn in. Facts are stubborn things.
At the other end of the Avenue, Obama is proposing another stimulus package before the November elections, which may include one or more of the following proposals: business tax breaks, a temporary payroll tax holiday, infrastructure spending, or a permanent extension of the research and development tax credit. Republicans, including Rep. Mike Pence, have recently proposed an across the board tax reduction, while some have also suggested a second round of rebate checks to spur consumer spending.
Meanwhile, the latest economic numbers were released this morning showing the private sector added a modest but lower than expected 67,000 jobs, though total non-farm payroll employment fell by 54,000 in August. As a result, the unemployment rate increased to 9.6 percent after remaining steady at 9.5 percent for the previous two months. There were 14.9 million unemployed Americans in August.
The White House had previously announced that Obama would name a replacement to outgoing Council of Economic Advisors chair Christina Romer by September 3rd. Thus far, no choice or announcement has been made to fill the pivotal post.
Bottom Line: Before the package has even been crafted, Obama advisor David Axelrod is already downplaying expectations. Axelrod said in a WaPo interview “We’ll continue to do everything we can, understanding that recovery will require persistent effort. There are no silver bullets.” Thus, Obama and Co. are hoping to create the “appearance” of bold action on the economy to Americans before November 2nd while not actually believing it will “actually” help.
Corporations Fail in America
If done effectively, a restructuring of the corporate tax laws in the U.S. would bring growth, sustainability, investment and jobs.
Obama’s Labor Board Targets Dana Corp. Ruling that Allows for Secret Ballot
Craig Becker warned everyone that the NLRB would overturn the secret ballot for unionization elections. Now it looks it may actually happen.
Out of Context, Out of Line
Nevada Democrat Congresswoman Dina Titus levels false charges against her opponent, challenger Joe Heck.
Las Vegas Review Journal: Reid and the jobless
“Is Angle really so ‘extreme’?”
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