As Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke goes before Congress today to testify on the economy, we will all be listening closely to see how he characterizes the current economic slide.

The Fed last week predicted that unemployment would get over 8.5% later this year and that the U.S. economy would not grow, but would rather shrink from 0.5-1.3%.

Those aren't great numbers to be blabbing about hours before the President gives a speech to the Congress that will focus a bunch on the economy.

The problem right now for Bernanke is that he's already done almost all he can do in terms of cutting interest rates.

The Fed has outlined a series of other fiscal maneuvers to help the credit markets and more, but those plans are taking a long time to be designed and implemented.

And in the meantime, things aren't getting better in the view of many economists.

And just under the surface of the stimulus fight is the fact that Democrats aren't going to stick with Obama in lock step on some other issues like health care reform and the home foreclosure remedy he offered last week.

I'm getting a kick these days out of the disconnect between Wall Street and Capitol Hill.  Neither really understands the other, and that's especially evident when watching CNBC.

I sense that disconnect - with a Populist tinge to it - is only going to grow more as the economy slows further.

We'll see what Mr. Bernanke has to say on Tuesday morning.