Sunday shows: November’s creeping up

The midterm election and the economy will dominate the Sunday morning news shows as election officials make the rounds on many of the programs.

“Face the Nation” on CBS will tackle the upcoming election with Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) pairing off against Republican strategist Ed Rollins and former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie.

{mosads}A likely flashpoint in the conversation will be the economy, as recent indicators have suggested that the recovery is faltering.

It was announced this week that the U.S. trade gap widened unexpectedly in June, hitting the highest level since October 2008 and sending the Dow tumbling 256 points on Wednesday. Other world markets also devalued in response to the news. In addition, the Federal Reserve this week readjusted its expectations for a more modest recovery than previously anticipated.

The fate of the so-called Bush tax cuts that are set to expire in December will be another hot-button issue, as the parties hold opposing views on how the breaks should be handled.

Democratic leaders have long vowed to renew the breaks benefiting the middle class. But Republicans contend that all the tax cuts should continue, at least through next year, to keep the country from backsliding into another recession.

Republicans might have a hard time defending their position, based on recent findings from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation that extending all of the tax cuts puts, on average, roughly $103,000 in the pockets of millionaires next year.

A similar battle will likely occur on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman, is scheduled to debate House Chief Deputy Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) over which party will control the House after the midterm elections.

Polls are trending in Republicans’ favor. But several surveys show that approximately three-quarters of voters disapprove of the job Congress is doing, which includes the role that Republicans play on Capitol Hill.

The upcoming election and the economy will also take center stage on “Fox News Sunday,” where Bret Baier from the Fox News Channel will substitute for Chris Wallace.

Baier’s guests will be Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.). Economist Mark Zandi will also be on the program.

Christiane Amanpour will host ABC’s “This Week” and tackle the question of injecting confidence back into the economy, with Banking Committee member Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Martin Regalia facing off against President Obama’s Economic Advisory Board member Laura D’Andrea Tyson and former New Jersey Gov. and onetime Goldman Sachs chief Jon Corzine.

Amanpour will also deliver the latest news on the massive humanitarian crisis caused by the floods in Pakistan.

“Meet the Press” host David Gregory travels to Afghanistan for an exclusive interview with Gen. David Petraeus.

The sit-down will be the general’s first since taking over as commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan after relieving Gen. Stanley McChrystal in the wake of a scathing Rolling Stone article showed the general and his aides being disrespectful to the Obama administration.

The war in Afghanistan has dragged on for roughly nine years. Gregory will likely grill the general on just how realistic it is for the United States to pull out of the country in less than one year, as originally promised by Obama.