Today in Washington D. C. - July 20, 2009 - Obama's Popularity Falling - time for another press conference

The Senate reconvene at 1PM today and resume consideration of the fiscal 2010 Defense authorization bill, S. 1390. The bill would authorize $679.8 billion in military funding. Although the hate Crimes Bill amendment was past last week, Republicans hope to reintroduce discussions on this issue. Therefore, additional amendments to the bill concerning hate crimes, the death penalty, and firearms may be taken up today. Among them are amendments from Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) to make members of the armed services protected under hate crimes laws and Sen. John Thune (R-SD) to make state concealed carry permits valid in other states that issue them. A series of votes on these amendments is expected at 3 PM today. Later in the week, an amendment to strike $1.75 billion in F-22 funding is expected to be taken up again.

Tomorrow, the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a vote on the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, though the vote could be held over for a week.

Obama's Popularity: A new poll from The Washington Post and ABC News shows President Obama’s popularity slipping and public confidence in his handling on a number of issues, especially health care, eroding. ABC writes, “Rising doubts about the economic stimulus program, broad concern about the federal deficit and tepid support for President Obama's health care efforts are softening his popularity . . .” and The Washington Post notes that “public approval of President Obama's stewardship on [health-care reform] has dropped below the 50 percent threshold for the first time . . . .”

Indeed, the president’s job approval (59%-37%) is down 10 points from April; disapproval is up 11 points in the same period and this is the first Post/ABC poll this year showing support under 60%. For the first time, less than 50% approve of Obama’s handling of health care (49%-44%). A third of respondents “strongly disapprove” while only a quarter “strongly approve.” There was a 15-point jump in disapproval since April when his approval on the issue was 57%-29%. Meanwhile, a plurality (49%-43%) disapprove of his handling of the federal budget deficit, with 38 percent strongly disapproving. Obama was at 48-48 last month and a majority (51%-43%) approved of his handling of the deficit in April. For the first time this year, a majority (55%-40%) believe it’s more important to avoid deficits “even if it means not increasing federal spending to try to improve the economy.”

The public’s unease with President Obama’s health care proposals is apparently shared by many of the nations’ governors, according to The New York Times. They “voiced deep concern Sunday about the shape of the health care plan emerging from Congress, fearing that Washington was about to hand them expensive new Medicaid obligations without money to pay for them.” GOP Governor Jim Douglas of Vermont told The Times, “I think the governors would all agree that what we don’t want from the federal government is unfunded mandates. . . We can’t have the Congress impose requirements that we are forced to absorb beyond our capacity to do so.” Further, the NYT writes, “Gov. Phil Bredesen of Tennessee, a Democrat, said he feared Congress was about to bestow ‘the mother of all unfunded mandates.’” Other Democrat governors agree: “‘As a governor, my concern is that if we try to cost-shift to the states we’re not going to be in a position to pick up the tab,’ said Gov. Christine Gregoire of Washington, also a Democrat. ‘I’m personally very concerned about the cost issue, particularly the $1 trillion figures being batted around,’ said Gov. Bill Richardson, the New Mexico Democrat who served in the Clinton cabinet and ran for president against Mr. Obama.”

It’s clear that someone is going to have to pay for the expensive plans being championed by the administration and Democrats in Congress, but with an unprecedented $1.8 trillion deficit this year and a budget that would double the federal debt in five years, it’s little wonder that Americans are expressing their disapproval of more ill-conceived spending programs. That might explain why the administration has announced that it hasn’t finished its budget homework yet. The AP reports, “The administration's annual midsummer budget update is sure to show higher deficits and unemployment and slower growth than projected in President Barack Obama's budget in February and update in May, and that could complicate his efforts to get his signature health care and global-warming proposals through Congress. The release of the update - usually scheduled for mid-July - has been put off until the middle of next month, giving rise to speculation the White House is delaying the bad news at least until Congress leaves town on its August 7 summer recess.”

As has happened several times in the past few months when President Obama face bad news or rough sailing on his policies, the White House has announced another primetime press conference for Wednesday. There certainly won’t be any shortage of things for reporters to ask about.

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