Gov. Rendell: More than 35,000 Pennsylvanians Could Benefit from Up to 20 Additional Weeks of Unemployment Payments

The unemployment rate in the U.S. rose to 10.2 percent today despite guarantees by Barack Obama when he signed the $787 billion "stimulus" bill in February that unemployment would never rise above 8 percent. Of all of Obama's lies, this one is the biggest.

More than 16 million Americans are out of work, while Obama continues to insist that his "stimulus" package has "saved or created" 1 million jobs.

The Obama Administration has offered no proof of those 1 million jobs and has been caught several times "cooking" the numbers. The Associated Press continues to report on massive fraud involving the so-called "stimulus" jobs, whereby agencies receiving government money are counting jobs more than once or counting minimal raises given to workers as "saved" jobs to please their Washington masters.

On the same day the Labor Department released the new unemployment figures, Obama signed a 20-week extension of unemployment benefits for 1 million out-of-work Americans whose benefits had run out.

But there are another 6 million Americans who are out of work and have exhausted all unemployment benefits including extensions. Those 6 million will have to put "hope and change" on the table to feed their families as the Obama Recession continues to get worse. (A record 23 million Americans are now collecting food stamps.)

U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts, who represents Pennsylvania's 16th Congressional District, wants to set the record straight about the latest bogus announcement by the Obama Administration that it has "created or saved" 650,000 jobs.

Earlier this week, The Associated Press reported that the official count of "created or saved" jobs from the $787 billion stimulus was 25,000. It's amazing what you can do with numbers.

Obama released figures from his economic team stating that more than 40,000 jobs have been "created or saved" in Pennsylvania by passage of the stimulus bill, according to Pitts.

Nationwide 650,000 jobs have been "created or saved" at the cost of approximately $1.2 million each, Pitts says. Economists agree that the figure of jobs "saved" is misleading and is not a legitimate economic measure, Pitts says.

Pennsylvania has lost nearly 200,000 jobs in just the past year alone. Nationwide, more than 15 million Americans are out of work. The unemployment rate in the U.S. stands at a 27-year high.

Rep. Pitts' statement follows:

"Once again the administration is claiming that the wasteful $787 billion stimulus bill has 'saved' a distinct number of jobs. The White House has produced a number that is meaningless. There is no way to count jobs that weren't lost. I could just as easily come up with a formula to count the jobs that have been lost due this Administration’s policies on energy, health, and taxation.

"The truth is, unemployment is nearly two percent higher than the President projected. The administration’s website right now shows only one job saved in the entire 16th Congressional District. I understand that these numbers may be updated later today but they certainly won’t change very much. Right now this website shows that one job was created at the cost of $277,000 in government contracts.

"The government cannot create jobs, but it can make is easier or harder for employers to increase their payroll. With job-killing tax hikes in health care reform and the energy legislation being considered in Congress right now, how can we expect employers to invest in their business with confidence?"

News Item: 23 states report higher unemployment in September.

The Obama Recession continues ... and the state-run media is working overtime attempting to cover up the failing presidency of Barack Obama.

While the president and his loyal minions are wasting their time attacking FOX News for daring to criticize Obama's mounting failures, millions of Americans are losing their jobs while millions more have given up looking for work.

From The Associated Press:

Forty-three states reported job losses in September, while only seven gained jobs, the Labor Department said Wednesday.

Wednesday's report underscores the uneven nature of the recovery. The unemployment rate dropped in some Midwestern states as the manufacturing sector improved. But Florida and Nevada, two of the states hit hardest by the housing slump, reported record-high jobless rates.

Some of the states that lost jobs still saw their unemployment rates improve, as discouraged workers gave up looking for work. People who are out of work but no longer looking for jobs aren't counted as officially unemployed.

That trend was evident nationwide in September, as nearly 600,000 people dropped out of the work force, the department reported earlier this month.

The U.S. jobless rate rose to 9.8 percent in September, a 26-year high, from 9.7 percent. Some economists estimate it would have topped 10 percent if there had been no change in the labor force.

Pennsylvania employers shed another 10,300 jobs in September, according to new employment figures released today by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry.

The Rendell Administration is attempting to put the best possible spin on the continuing bad news by pointing out that Pennsylvania's 8.8% unemployment rate "remained below the United States' unemployment rate, which rose one-tenth of a point to 9.8 percent."

Doesn't that make you feel better, especially if your unemployment benefits are about to run out?

The bottom line is that Ed Rendell, Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats have done a terrible job dealing with economic issues, resulting in record unemployment.

From the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry:

Pennsylvania's seasonally adjusted civilian labor force -- the number of people working or looking for work -- rose by 9,000 in September to 6,368,000.

Employment was unchanged in September, while resident unemployment rose by 9,000.

The Pennsylvania labor force was down 55,000 from September 2008.

Pennsylvania's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was up one-tenth of a percentage point to 8.8 percent in September.

The state rate remained below the United States' unemployment rate, which rose one-tenth of a point to 9.8 percent.

Pennsylvania's rate was up 3.2 percentage points from September 2008, while the U.S. rate was up 3.6 percentage points in the 12-month period.

Pennsylvania's seasonally adjusted total nonfarm jobs count dropped by 10,300 jobs in September.

The majority of the job losses were among service providing industries, however, the Professional and Business Services sector added 2,700 jobs.

Pennsylvania job count was down 198,100, or 3.4 percent, since September 2008. Nationally, jobs were down 4.2 percent over the same time period.

The Obama recession continues as the U.S. unemployment reached 9.8 percent in September.

It's the highest unemployment rate since June 1983, according to The Associated Press.

The Obama/Pelosi "stimulus" package, approved in February, has been a bust, with more than 15.1 million Americans out of work - 3 million more than when Obama took office.

From The Associated Press:

The Labor Department said Friday that the economy lost a net total of 263,000 jobs last month, from a downwardly revised 201,000 in August. That's worse than Wall Street economists' expectations of 180,000 job losses, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.

The unemployment rate rose from 9.7 percent in August, matching expectations.

If laid-off workers who have settled for part-time work or have given up looking for new jobs are included, the unemployment rate rose to 17 percent, the highest on records dating from 1994.

All told, 15.1 million Americans are now out of work, the department said. And 7.2 million jobs have been eliminated since the recession began in December 2007.

The department said 571,000 of the unemployed dropped out of the work force last month, presumably out of frustration over the lack of jobs. That sent the participation rate, or the percentage of the population either working or looking for work, to a 23-year low.

The unemployment rate would have topped 10 percent if the labor force hadn't shrank.

Older, laid-off workers are dropping out and requesting Social Security at a faster-than-expected pace, according to government officials. The Social Security Administration said earlier this week that applications for retirement benefits are 23 percent higher than last year, while disability claims have risen by about 20 percent.

Originally posted at TONY PHYRILLAS

Barack Obama and his media allies are jumping on the slightest bit of positive economic news to tell the American people that the recession is over.

Just tell that to the 15 million Americans who are out of work. Millions of those jobs have been lost during the Obama administration and most of them will never come back.

Today's headline: 42 states lose jobs in August, up from 29 in July

From The Associated Press:

WASHINGTON — Forty-two states lost jobs last month, up from 29 in July, with the biggest net payroll cuts coming in Texas, Michigan, Georgia and Ohio.

The Labor Department also reported Friday that 27 states saw their unemployment rates increase in August, and 14 states and Washington D.C., reported unemployment rates of 10 percent or above.

The report shows jobs remain scarce even as most analysts believe the economy is pulling out of the worst recession since the 1930s. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said earlier this week that the recovery isn't likely to be rapid enough to reduce unemployment for some time.

The jobless rate nationwide is expected to peak above 10 percent next year, from its current 9.7 percent.


Employers have eliminated 6.9 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007.

Texas lost 62,200 jobs as its unemployment rate rose to 8 percent in August for the first time in 22 years. The state's leisure, construction and manufacturing industries were hardest hit, losing 35,500 jobs.

Michigan saw 42,900 jobs disappear, including 15,000 in manufacturing, as the state continued to suffer along with its struggling auto industry.

Michigan's unemployment rate rose to 15.2 percent, the highest in the nation. When its jobless rate topped 15 percent in June it was the first time any state surpassed that mark since 1984.

Nevada has the second-highest rate at 13.2 percent, followed by Rhode Island at 12.8 percent and California and Oregon at 12.2 percent each.

The jobless rates in California, Nevada and Rhode Island were the highest on records dating to 1976. California and Nevada have been slammed by the housing bust, while Rhode Island has lost thousands of manufacturing and government jobs in the past year.

Georgia and Ohio reported the third and fourth-highest job losses, respectively, but their unemployment rates both fell as many of the unemployed dropped out of the work force.

Pennsylvania lost another 8,800 jobs in August, according to new numbers released today by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry.

State officials tried to put the best possible spin on the bad news by pointing out that Pennsylvania's 8.6% unemployment rate "remained below the United States' unemployment rate, which rose three-tenths of a point to 9.7 percent in August."

Doesn't that make you feel better?

Pennsylvania's unemployment rate was up 3.1 percentage points from August 2008, compared to an increase of 3.5 percentage points since August 2008 for the nation.

Since August 2008, Pennsylvania has shed 191,500 jobs!

Just a reminder that the governor of Pennsylvania is Ed Rendell, a Democrat, who has increased spending by $8 billion since 2003. Much of that spending went for various economic revitalization projects that Rendell claimed would bring more jobs to the state.

And in case you forgot, the Democrats also control both houses of Congress and the White House. If you're one of the 15 million Americans out of work, be sure to thank a Democrat in Harrisburg or Washington, D.C.

For a detailed breakdown of the employment numbers, follow the link below:

Pennsylvania's Employment Situation: August 2009

As we approach Labor Day, the government reports that the U.S. lost another 216,000 jobs in August, bringing the unemployment rate to a 26-year-high of 9.7 percent. There are now nearly 15 million Americans looking for work. The Obama recession continues.

Statement of U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis on August Employment Numbers

Today's number is 71,500.

That's the minimum number of Pennsylvania jobs that would be lost if the Waxman-Markey bill, better known as Cap-and-Trade, is passed by the Senate. The House already approved the bill and President Obama said he would sign it if passes both chambers of Congress.

The 71,500 estimate comes from the National Association of Manufacturers, which commissioned a study to look at the impact of the Waxman-Markey bill in each state. The job loss number could go as high as 97,500 in Pennsylvania.

More from the study:

Higher energy prices would have ripple impacts on prices throughout the economy and would impose a financial cost on households. Pennsylvania would see disposable household income reduced by $148 to $285 per year by 2020 and $926 to $1,507 by 2030.

The study concluded that bill would cots 2.4 million jobs across the United States.

To review the complete study, visit the National Association of Manufacturers Web site, http://www.nam.org/

First Joe Biden, then Barack Obama and now Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke are fessing up they don't know what they're doing when it comes to the U.S. economy.

The Federal Reserve predicted today that unemployment will top 10 percent, despite earlier assurances from Obama that it would not go higher than 8 percent if his stimulus package was approved.

With more than 15 million Americans out of work and an additional 500,000 losing their jobs every week, there's no end in sight for the Obama recession.

Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Mort Zuckerman, chairman and editor in chief of U.S. News & World Report, says the unemployment picture is much worse than the government is letting on.

From his column:

Job losses may last well into 2010 to hit an unemployment peak close to 11%. That unemployment rate may be sustained for an extended period.

Can we find comfort in the fact that employment has long been considered a lagging indicator? It is conventionally seen as having limited predictive power since employment reflects decisions taken earlier in the business cycle. But today is different. Unemployment has doubled to 9.5% from 4.8% in only 16 months, a rate so fast it may influence future economic behavior and outlook.

How could this happen when Washington has thrown trillions of dollars into the pot, including the famous $787 billion in stimulus spending that was supposed to yield $1.50 in growth for every dollar spent? For a start, too much of the money went to transfer payments such as Medicaid, jobless benefits and the like that do nothing for jobs and growth. The spending that creates new jobs is new spending, particularly on infrastructure. It amounts to less than 10% of the stimulus package today.

Read the full column, "The Economy Is Even Worse Than You Think," at the newspaper's Web site.

How's that trillion-dollar "stimulus" package Nancy Pelosi pushed through Congress and Barack Obama signed in February working out for you?

If you're one of the nearly 3 million Americans who have lost their job since Obama took office, not so well.

Now Obama is talking about a second "stimulus" plan, one that would even more to the national debt, with no guarantee it would create a significant number of jobs.

A new Rasmussen poll says 60% of U.S. voters now oppose the passage of a second economic stimulus plan this year, a five-point increase in opposition since the issue was first raised in March.

Just 27% of voters favor a new stimulus plan, unchanged from the earlier findings. Thirteen percent (13%) are not sure, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

More from Rasmussen Reports:

Eighty-one percent (81%) of Republicans and two-thirds of voters not affiliated with either major political party (66%) are against passage of a second stimulus plan. Democrats are much more evenly divided, but a plurality of those in Barack Obama’s party (45%) like the idea.

Similarly, a sizable majority of conservatives (82%) oppose a second plan, but a plurality of liberals (45%) favor it.

From a recent editorial in Investor's Business Daily:

At this point in a normal downturn lasting 11 months, the economy should be booming — with big jumps in GDP and 300,000 new jobs each month coming mostly from the private sector.

But 18 months into this downturn, we're still losing jobs — with 2.7 million gone in the private sector just since January, when the Democrats took full control of the government.

Shrinking GDP has crushed investment. First quarter gross private domestic investment — a proxy for business investment — plunged 20%, or nearly $450 billion, annually. The outlook is grim.

Worse, the June jobs data mark a milestone of sorts: Our unemployment rate equals that of the no-growth Eurozone nations.

Why is this job decline happening? The private sector — the real engine of economic and job growth — won't hire because it's scared of what it sees coming out of Washington.

On the horizon, as far as the eye can see, are higher taxes, uncontrolled spending and layers upon layers of new regulations.

Who would hire new workers faced with that?

Read the full editorial at the newspaper's Web site.

U.S. unemployment reached 9.5 percent in June, a 26-year high, according to the Labor Department, and Barack Obama is "deeply concerned."

He should be. He promised unemployment would top at 8 percent and start to decline if Congress agreed to his massive spending proposals. Just another in a string of broken promise by Obama.

Employers slashed 467,000 jobs in June, obviously not getting the memo from Obama and his sycophants in the media that things are turning around.

From The Associated Press:

Many economists predict the jobless rate will hit 10 percent this year, and keep rising into next year, before falling back.

All told, 14.7 million people were unemployed in June.

If laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have settled for part-time work are included, the unemployment rate would have been 16.5 percent in June, the highest on records dating to 1994.

Since the recession began in December 2007, the economy has lost a net total of 6.5 million jobs.

Some 3 million jobs have been lost since Obama took office.

The $1 trillion "stimulus" bill he signed in February to put Americans back to work has been a total failure.

His nationalization of banks, insurance companies and auto manufacturers has done little to restore faith in the U.S. economy.

His $1.9 trillion energy tax (cap and trade) will kill tens of thousands more U.S. jobs.

And then you have Obamacare, the government-run health system that will add trillions of dollars in debt.

Another 18,000 Pennsylvania residents lost their jobs in May, bringing the state's unemployment rate to 8.2 percent, up from 7.8 percent the previous month, according to the latest numbers released by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry.

Pennsylvania has lost 185,000 jobs since May 2008. The 8.2% unemployment rate is the highest the state has seen since 1985.

Despite the continuing recession, Gov. Ed Rendell wants to raise taxes on working Pennsylvanians and small business owners.

A coalition of business and industry groups predicts the loss of an additional 24,000 jobs if Gov. Rendell is successful in persuading the Pennsylvania Legislature to increase the state's income tax by 16 percent to help make up for the $3.2 billion budget deficit Rendell has run up in the past year.

For more labor statistics, click on the link below:

Pennsylvania's Employment Situation: May 2009

Somebody should tell Gov. Ed Rendell there's a recession going on.

With tens of thousands of Pennsylvania residents out of work and businesses closing their doors every day, the last thing the state needs to do is raise taxes on workers and small business owners.

That's the message a group of business leaders want to send to Gov. Rendell and the Pennsylvania Legislature as state officials get closer to the state's annual budget deadline.

The National Federation of Independent Business/Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Business Council, the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, and the Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Association issued a joint statement warning that a 16-percent increase in the state's personal income tax would result in the loss of 24,000 jobs.

And that's the short-term consequences, warn business leaders. Higher taxes will worsen the Commonwealth's budget and financial problems, and extend them deeper into the future, the business coalition says.

Gov. Rendell's tax hike also would reduce Pennsylvanians' disposable income by an estimated $1 billion, the group estimates.

Along with the personal income tax increase, Rendell also wants to impose new taxes on tobacco and the fledgling natural gas industry, the business leaders said. There is also a movement in the Legislature to allow counties to raise the state sales tax.

"When you tax something, you get less of it," NFIB state director Kevin Shivers said in a written statement. "The decline in sales tax revenues and income tax collections are a stark reminder that consumers are afraid to spend because they are worried about their jobs and economic uncertainty. Proposing new taxes now would have a chilling effect on Pennsylvania's economy."

More from Shivers:

"Pennsylvania businesses already are being asked to pay $400 million in new payroll taxes to help pay down the $1 billion deficit in the state's unemployment fund. Raising the state income tax -- which is THE business tax for most small businesses -- would be especially harmful in the current climate and impede our ability to recover. Business will be forced to adapt to such dramatic losses in revenue by postponing new hiring, equipment purchases and upgrades; reducing work hours for current employees; and unfortunately cutting jobs."

It's becoming clear that the "stimulus" bill signed by Barack Obama in February has failed to deliver the promised jobs. The propaganda machine in the White House and Obama's media allies have now turned to something "saved jobs" to continue the farce.

"More than 1.6 million jobs have disappeared since the stimulus package was signed in February," says Investor's Business Daily. "Government can't create jobs, only dependency. Make-work jobs will not turn the economy around."

From a new IBD editorial:

The Obama administration, totally unfamiliar with the first rule of holes, has announced it's about to really, really ramp up stimulus spending to create 600,000 jobs this summer. That's on top of the 150,000 jobs it has "saved," though there's no way to identify or measure such jobs.

The unemployment rate, which was never supposed to rise above 8% because of the stimulus, is now approaching 10%. The excuse given is that not enough of the stimulus money has been dispersed.

Monday's announcement of a new and improved stimulus is just old wine in new bottles. In the first 100 days of the stimulus, some $44 billion was spent as jobs continued to hemorrhage. Now we're asked to do more of the same and expect different results.

Obama's 600,000 figure includes 125,000 temporary summer youth jobs and is based on economic projections, not an actual count. The only thing you can accurately count is the number of Americans working — and that's going down fast.

The administration is playing a shell game with its "saved or created" job claims. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said as much to the tax-challenged Timothy Geithner at a March hearing.

Read the full editorial at the newspaper's Web site.

If the majority of Pennsylvania residents (55 percent according to the latest Susquehanna Polling and Research Inc. poll) oppose Card Check, why are Arlen Specter and Bob Casey planning to vote in favor of the job-killing bill?

Do they know better than their constituents? Hasn't Pennsylvania lost enough jobs? Who do they represent anyway? Big Labor?

If Specter and Casey won't stand up for Pennsylvania workers and vote against the Employee Free Choice Act, it's time for Pennsylvania voters to elect new U.S. Senators.

The Obama Recession continues.

Five months into his failed presidency, the U.S. has registered the worst unemployment numbers in more than 25 years. And we're not even counting the tens of thousands of jobs that will be lost after Obama restructures the auto industry.

Statement of U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis on May 2009 employment numbers

Tony Fratto of CNBC has a problem with Barack Obama's bogus "jobs saved" claim:

"After nearly twenty years in Washington I thought I've seen every trick ever conceived, but the White House claims of "jobs saved" attributed to the stimulus bill is unrivaled. What causes the jaw to drop is not just the breathtaking deception of the claim, but the gullibility of the Washington press corps to continue reporting it."

If I -- or even my predecessors in the Clinton Administration -- had tried to pull off this ridiculous gimmick we would have been run out of town. I don't even believe it's possible to look back and accurately measure the "job-saving" impact of Bush or Clinton Administration policies, let alone to measure in real time, or project into the future.

On Friday the BLS will release its estimate of May job losses. They will also report their revisions for March and April. And White House officials will once again gear up the spin machine on how many jobs have been "saved".

A self-respecting press corps would vigorously question the White House on their claims. We'll see if we have one.

Read 'The White House 'Jobs-Saved' Deception' at the CNBC Web site.

More bad economic news the Obama media may not get around to telling you about:

U.S. Unemployment Rate Jumps to 8.9 Percent (the highest since late 1983).

U.S. employers shed 539,000 jobs in April.

2.6 million Americans have lost their jobs since Obama became president.

Here's a month-by-month look at job losses under President Obama:

January: 741,000

February: 681,000

March: 699,000

April: 539,000

How's that stimulus spending working out so far? Even if Obama's prediction of creating 3 million new jobs is real, that just brings us back to square one. What about the millions of others who lost their jobs during the current recession?

Check out this post at NewsBusters about how the Obama media is manipulating economic news to cover Obama's incompetence.

More than 6 million Americans have lost their jobs since Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the Democrats took control of Congress after the 2006 elections. The worst recession in U.S. history would begin one year into the Democrats' reign ... and continues today under the Obama Administration.

Small firms created all of the net new jobs in Pennsylvania from 2004 to 2005, the most recent data available, according to new Department of Commerce figures. By comparison, firms with more than 500 employees in the state reported 40,994 jobs lost during that same period, according to the report.

So how come Gov. Ed Rendell travels around the state presenting corporate welfare checks to big companies when they don't create jobs?

Ask the hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania residents on the unemployment line if they agree with Rendell's policy of rewarding corporate fat-cats and campaign contributors with taxpayer dollars.

Small Firms Create All Net New Jobs in Pennsylvania, Study Shows

The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace is pleased with Sen. Arlen Specter's decision to oppose the job-killing EFCA (aka Card Check) bill.

"CDW appreciates Sen. Specter's principled decision to protect worker privacy and secret ballot elections," said Brian Worth of the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace.

Without Specter's support, the Democrats don't have the 60 votes needed in the Senate to pass the bill.

Coalition for a Democratic Workplace Applauds Senator Specter for Opposing Anti-Worker Card Check Bill

Rep. Joe Pitts is an original cosponsor of The Secret Ballot Protection Act (H.R. 1176), which would protect the rights of workers to have secret ballot elections when determining whether to form a union. It prevents unionization based solely on "card check," a process that requires only a simple majority of worker signatures on cards without any privacy in order to unionize a workplace. The Secret Ballot Protection Act also bars recognition of a union that was formed without a secret ballot election.

Warren Buffett, one of Barack Obama's top economic advisers, opposes the Card Check bill pushed by Big Labor and Congressional Democrats.

Also check out a new Web site launched by Citizens To Protect PA Jobs, http://protectpajobs.com/

The Employee Freedom Action Committee says the deceptively named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) backed by Big Labor will take away workers' rights to a secret ballot and drive more American companies overseas, costing hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Democrats support the bill because they are owned by Big Labor, but can the U.S. afford to lose more jobs?

It's time to force your member of Congress to stand up for you instead of special interests. Urge them to vote no on the EFCA.

Union Watchdog Group Criticizes Backers of the Employee Forced Choice Act

Green Jobs Are Not Always Good Jobs: New Report Finds Wide Variation in Quality of Jobs in Climate-Friendly Sectors

Governor Rendell Highlights First 'State Of The Industry' Report For Manufacturing

If you're still not sure what Barack Obama meant when he told Joe the Plumber he plans to "spread the wealth" when he's elected president, Americans for Tax Reform has the answer.

From a news release issued by the non-partisan watchdog group:

According to the IRS Statistics of Income Division (http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/06in14ar.xls), there were about 28 million small business owners in 2006. Almost 3 million of these earned at least the Obama tax hike -- triggering $200,000 per year.

Altogether, these business owners reported $700 billion in profits. And two-thirds of these profits -- $470 billion -- were earned in the Obama tax hike households.

You can't tax "the rich" without raising taxes on the lion's share of small business profits. Their marginal tax rate could easily exceed 50 percent.

ATR: Obama's 'Spread the Wealth' Plan Raises Taxes on Two-thirds of Small Business Profits

Conservative icon Richard Viguerie says Barack Obama's comment to Joe the Plumber about the reason he wants to increase taxes on Ameicans is to "share the wealth."

"On taxes, on spending, on regulation, on redistribution of wealth, the Obama economic policy can be summed up in two words: Marxism/Socialism," Viguerie says.

Read more of his comments at the link below:

Richard Viguerie: Obama's 'Spread the Wealth' Blunder Reveals His Real Goal for America - Socialism

Do you like your job? Would you like to keep your job?

As we head into what many experts predict will be a painful and prolonged recession, many people are worried about their jobs.

If you'd like to increase your chances of bringing home a paycheck, then you should vote for John McCain for president.

That what 80 percent of chief executive officers surveyed by Chief Executive magazine say. That's right. Eight out of 10 support McCain's economic plans.

The CEOs believe McCain would do a better job of handling the economy and preserving jobs. The business executives perceive Barack Obama as anti-growth.

Obama's tax policies would sink the fragile economy deeper into recession and cut jobs, the CEOs believe.

From Chief Executive magazine:

It is clear jobcreating Business leaders chose McCain over Obama largely because his policies are seen as pro-growth, whereas Obama's policies are viewed as redistributive and anti-growth.

For some months during this Presidential election year, Chief Executive has conducted specialized polling of CEOs' attitudes on issues affecting national policy and the economy. In CE's most recent poll in September, 751 respondents, more than double the usual number of business leaders, made their voices heard on their Presidential choice. By a four-to-one margin CEOs support Senator John McCain over his rival, Senator Barack Obama. More to the point, a thundering 74 percent majority say they fear the consequences of an Obama presidency, compared to only 19 percent who fear a McCain presidency.

During this period CE also asked the people who create jobs what it will take to get our engine of job creation going strong. We first asked CEOs what policies and approaches would work best for business, energy policy and job creation. Subsequently, we asked CEOs which Presidential candidate's policies were best aligned with these prescriptions for growth.

Read the full story and review more polling results at the magazine's Web site.