49 of 50 States Have Lost Jobs Since Democrats' Stimulus
Every time Barack Obama, Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi say that the "stimulus" is working, they insult your intelligence.
From a post by Rep. Dave Camp, ranking Republican on the House Ways & Means Committee:
While the President recently claimed his February 2009 stimulus bill will "save or create 1.5 million jobs in 2010 after saving or creating as many as 2 million jobs thus far,” the table below compares the White House's original projections of state-by-state job creation with the actual change in state payroll employment through February 2010, using the latest data from the U.S. Department of Labor. The data show that only Alaska and the District of Columbia have seen net job creation since the enactment of stimulus, and even those levels fall far short of what the White House originally forecast.
To see a state-by-state breakdown of job loses, click here.
Thirteen months later, the Obama/Pelosi "stimulus" package isn't doing much stimulating.
From the Philadelphia Business Journal:
Unemployment climbed to 11.4 percent in Philadelphia in January and to 8.9 percent across the state in February, levels not seen in more than 25 years, City Controller Alan Butkovitz said Thursday in his monthly economic snapshot.
Pennsylvania's unemployment rate was last at 8.9 percent in September 1984 and Philadelphia's unemployment rate was last at 11.4 percent in May 1983. The city's January unemployment rate, which is the most recent data available, increased nearly a full percentage point from December.
Can't wait to see the job loses once Obamacare gets roling.
On March 25, 1894, Jacob S. Coxey began leading an "army" of unemployed from Massillon, Ohio, to Washington D.C., to demand help from the federal government.
It's time for another march on Washington.
The Obama Recession is in its 13th month and Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have given nothing but lip service to the 17 million Americans out of work.
The unemployment rates rose in 30 states in January, according to the U.S. Labor Department, as the Obama Recession enters its second full year.
Five states reported record-high joblessness in January: California, at 12.5 percent; South Carolina, 12.6 percent; Florida, 11.9 percent; North Carolina, 11.1 percent; and Georgia, 10.4 percent, according to The Associated Press.
Michigan's unemployment rate is still the nation's highest, at 14.3 percent, followed by Nevada, with 13 percent and Rhode Island at 12.7 percent. South Carolina and California round out the top five, according to AP.
For a state-by-state look at unemployment rates, click here.
Top Senate Democrat Harry Reid says it was "really good" news that 36,000 Americans lost their jobs in February. The person who should lose his job is Harry Reid.
Nebraska, with a population of under 2 million and an annual budget of $18 billion somehow found enough money to lure a Pennsylvania manufacturer(and up to 90 jobs) to the Cornhusker State, yet Pennsylvania, with 12.6 million people and a General Fund budget of $28 billion, couldn't come up with financial incentives to keep the jobs in the Keystone State.
What's wrong with this picture?
Can one of you Ed Rendell lovers out there shed some light on the subject? "Fast Eddie" is always bragging that he's pouring billions of dollars into economic development. How could he allow Nebraska to steal away a manufacturing firm that traces its Pennsylvania roots to the 1920s?
From an article in today's edition of The Mercury about NEAPCO Components moving to Nebraska:
Neapco Components announced Friday it will be phasing out manufacturing at its Pottstown facility over the next 18 to 24 months, eliminating 70 to 90 jobs.
The manufacturing operations from Pottstown will be moving to Beatrice, Neb., said Neapco Executive Vice President and General Manager Keith Sanford.
"Why Nebraska versus Pottstown?" Sanford said. There were "financial incentives (offered) by the state of Nebraska."
Sanford said the move to Nebraska was an obvious business decision.
The Obama Administration is working overtime to put a positive spin on the dismal February employment numbers. The official government unemployment rate is 9.7% but that only counts people who are still actively looking for work. Millions more have given up looking for non-existent jobs as the Obama recession continues.
The Associated Press calculates that the real U.S. unemployment rate is closer to 17 percent!!!
From an "Unemployment by the Numbers" feature compiled by AP Economics Writer Christopher S. Rugaber:
UNDEREMPLOYED
8.8 million: Number of part-time workers who would have preferred full-time work last month
2.5 million: People without jobs who want to work but have stopped looking
16.8 percent: "Underemployment" rate in February if you include the above two categories
17.4 percent: Underemployment rate in October, the highest on records dating to 1994
From a new editorial at Investor's Business Daily:
Is the president right when he says the stimulus kept the U.S. from falling into a depression? No. In fact, too much government tinkering and spending, not too little, has given us the jobless recovery we have now.
Democrats in charge of both the White House and Congress are firing all their guns at once to tout the benefits of the $862 billion stimulus package passed a year ago this week. They've even planned a 35-city tour to support it. Their message?
"One year later, it is largely thanks to the recovery act that a second depression is no longer a possibility," President Obama said Wednesday. The stimulus act has created 2 million jobs, he claimed, predicting 1.5 million more this year from the program.
Is it just a coincidence that the 3.5 million jobs he is claiming is exactly what the White House predicted early last year? We doubt it. But whatever the case, Obama's claims are false.
Start with this: Stimulus didn't save us from an economic cataclysm. Obama himself said so back in March, noting that the economy was "not as bad as we think," and that he was "highly optimistic." It's clear he didn't think we were on the brink of a Depression.
Pat Meehan, a Republican seeking Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District seat, posted this commentary at his blog on the one-year anniversary of Barack Obama signing the so-called "stimulus" bill into law:
Today marks the one year anniversary of enactment of the federal stimulus bill, which Democrats promised would help reverse rising unemployment rates. Are you and your family better off today than you were a year ago?
According to the latest information from the Department of Labor, unemployment has only increased locally. As of December 2009, in Delaware County, unemployment has risen to 7.9 percent – a 39 percent increase in 12 months. Chester County has seen unemployment rise 32 percent over levels from a year ago while Montgomery County has seen unemployment rolls grow by 31 percent.
Where are the jobs we were promised as a result of the $1 trillion stimulus bill? With 30 to 40 percent more people unemployed this year compared to last, it is clear that the stimulus bill is not having the desired impact.
Instead we have witnessed what I call crony capitalism. Favored pet industries of legislators, questionable government programs, and numerous wasteful projects have been the beneficiary of the stimulus funding.
In December CBS News reported on various examples of some $7 billion in wasteful stimulus projects. Included in the report was stimulus money to fund a new martini bar, stimulus dollars to study rat sex on hard drugs, and taxpayer dollars funding a $9 million footbridge in Massachusetts that benefits a private developer, among many other projects. Is this realty the best use of taxpayer dollars? And how is this helping local small businesses that are struggling to make payroll or workers locally looking for jobs?
This type of waste and abuse is clearly not the best use of taxpayer dollars. We need to do more to stimulate consumer spending and encourage new business creation.
You can read more about my specific job creation ideas here.
The Obama Ministry of Propaganda is working overtime today, the one-year anniversary of failed "stimulus" bill, to convince Americans that their jobs were "saved" by massive government spending.
Ed Rendell, loyal Obama minion that he is, claims that 84,000 jobs in Pennsylvania were "saved" by the Obama debt package. Why stop at 84,000? Why not 840,000? It's just a number Democrats pluck from thin air.
Unemployment remains at a 30-year high in the United States with more than 17 million Americans looking for work. That's the Obama legacy.
Investor's Business Daily is still waiting for those "stimulus" jobs Obama promised to materialize.
From a new editorial:
How many jobs will the recovery bring? Not enough, if the latest forecast from the president's top economists is to be believed. So it doesn't go without notice, this is an admission that the stimulus has failed.
The Obama Recession continues -- 12 consecutive months of futility by the best and brightest the Democratic Party has to offer.
From The Associated Press:
Unemployment rates rose in 43 states last month, the government said Friday, painting a bleak picture of the job market that illustrated nationwide data released two weeks ago. The rise in joblessness was a sharp change from November, when 36 states said their unemployment rates fell. Four states — South Carolina, Delaware, Florida and North Carolina — reported record-high jobless rates in December. New Jersey's rate, meanwhile, rose to a 33-year high of 10.1 percent while New York's reached a 26-year high of 9 percent. Analysts said the report showed the economy is recovering at too weak a pace to generate consistent job creation.
Remember all the hoopla by Gov. Ed Rendell when the Pennsylvania unemployment rate dropped a little last month?
Don't expect Rendell to be found today as the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry announces that unemployment in Pennsylvania has risen to 8.9 percent in December. That's the state's highest unemployment level in 25 years.
Pennsylvania employers shed more than 8,100 jobs in December. Pennsylvania has lost 150,300 jobs since December 2008.
From a Department of Labor press release:
Pennsylvania's seasonally adjusted civilian labor force -- the number of people working or looking for work -- decreased by 19,000 in December to 6,310,000. Resident employment dropped 37,000 in December, while unemployment was up 19,000. The Pennsylvania labor force was down 131,000 from December 2008.
Pennsylvania's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 8.9 percent in December, up four-tenths of a percentage point from November. The state rate remained below the national unemployment rate, which remained at 10 percent in December.
A comprehensive examination of "stimulus" spending on infrastructure has revealed "no effect" on unemployment, providing further evidence that the "stimulus" package Democrats rushed through Congress in February 2009 was nothing more than a massive pork-barrel spending spree.
From a report by Matt Apuzzo and Brett J. Blackledge of The Associated Press:
A federal spending surge of more than $20 billion for roads and bridges in President Barack Obama's first stimulus has had no effect on local unemployment rates, raising questions about his argument for billions more to address an "urgent need to accelerate job growth."
An Associated Press analysis of stimulus spending found that it didn't matter if a lot of money was spent on highways or none at all: Local unemployment rates rose and fell regardless. And the stimulus spending only barely helped the beleaguered construction industry, the analysis showed.
With the nation's unemployment rate at 10 percent and expected to rise, Obama wants a second stimulus bill from Congress including billions of additional dollars for roads and bridges — projects the president says are "at the heart of our effort to accelerate job growth."
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood defended the administration's recovery program Monday, writing on his blog that "DOT-administered stimulus spending is the only thing propping up the transportation construction industry."
Road spending would total nearly $28 billion of the Jobs for Main Street Act, a $75 billion second stimulus to help lower the unemployment rate and improve the dismal job market for construction workers. The Senate is expected to consider the House-approved bill this month.
But AP's analysis, which was reviewed by independent economists at five universities, showed the strategy of pumping transportation money into counties hasn't affected local unemployment rates so far.
"There seems to me to be very little evidence that it's making a difference," said Todd Steen, an economics professor at Hope College in Michigan who reviewed the AP analysis.
And there's concern about relying on transportation spending a second time.
"My bottom line is, I'd be skeptical about putting too much more money into a second stimulus until we've seen broader effects from the first stimulus," said Aaron Jackson, a Bentley University economist who also reviewed AP's analysis.
The head of the nation's largest business advocacy group, Tom Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has said publicly what most Americans have already figured out: Obama is bad for business.
And unless the Obama/Pelosi/Reid agenda is stopped. more Americans will be out of a job.
From POLITICO:
Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue gave a scathing assessment of the Obama administration’s business agenda on Tuesday — and delivered a clear threat to Democrats running for election in 2010.
"We are not in presidential politics," said Donohue. "But we're going to be in a lot of politics in the House and the Senate and the judicial politics in this country."
Donohue criticized proposals to reform health care, overhaul the financial system and cap the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, saying the Democratic agenda will undermine private industry and eliminate jobs.
"Congress, the administration and the states must recognize that our weak economy simply could not sustain all the new taxes, regulations and mandates now under consideration," said Donohue. "It's a sure-fire recipe for double-dip recession, or worse."
Gov. Ed Rendell has put out one of those idiotic press releases that Joe Biden has become famous for, claiming that federal stimulus money has created "more than 4,200 full-time equivalent jobs" in Pennsylvania.
What the hell is a "full-time equivalent job" and what about the 200,000 jobs Pennsylvania has lost during the Obama recession?
If you want a good laugh, read Rendell's press release below.
Pennsylvania has lost more than 105,000 jobs in the past year alone, so why is Ed Rendell in such a hurry to lay off more state workers?
Taht's what columnist Kevin Cramsey is wondering, too.
From a new column at Harrisburg Examiner.com:
The administration's head count is something like 721, but it doesn't include 60 or so who were offered up from the treasury and another 100-150 teachers, administrators and others who were cast out when Rendell ordered the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs to shutter the Scotland School for Veterans Children. There's probably more casualties out there if look hard enough.
Curiously, though the governor fusses and worries about state revenues being down due to a bad economy, he's willing to worsen the state's unemployment picture by putting even more people out of work and overtaxing the state's unemployment compensation fund.
Online applications being accepted for all state jobs
Pennsylvania residents looking for work (and we know there's plenty of you out there) can now apply for state jobs online, according to state Sen. Bob Mensch (R-24th Dist).
As of Dec. 9, paper applications are being phased out and online applications are now being accepted at www.employment.pa.gov for all non-civil service positions. On-line applications for civil service jobs are already accepted at www.scsc.state.pa.us
Non-civil service positions make up about 30 percent of the state's workforce and are typically non-technical and non-professional jobs.
"This process is quicker and more convenient for everyone involved," Mensch said. "Applicants can file from their homes or from public computers at libraries and PA CareerLink sites. They can do so at a time that best suits them and they should have easy access to all of the background information they may need to complete their applications."
More information about state jobs, including salaries and benefits, is also available at www.employment.pa.gov
Small Business League: Obama Job Summit a 'Publicity Stunt'
The following statement was issued today the American Small Business League in response to President Obama's Job Forum:
The American Small Business League (ASBL) is concerned that President Obama's jobs forum is yet another publicity stunt designed to yield positive public relations, as opposed to creating new jobs.
The summit will include, "130 liberal economists, union leaders, Fortune 500 executives, and even a few small-business owners," according to Kent Hoover, Washington bureau chief for bizjournals.
President Obama's Forum on Jobs comes just weeks after the administration held a small business-lending forum with a mere seven handpicked small business owners invited to speak.
The ASBL maintains that if President Obama really wanted to stimulate the national economy and create new jobs he would support the small business community and honor the promises he made during the 2008 presidential election.
During the 2008 election cycle, President Obama promised to, "end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants."
To date, President Obama has failed to honor that promise.
The ASBL maintains that stopping the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants alone would redirect more than $100 billion a year in federal infrastructure spending to America's chief job creators, its small businesses. Firms with 20 or fewer employees are responsible for over 97 percent of all net new jobs, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data.
On October 26, Arianna Huffington took aim at President Obama's priorities by stating, "If this 'small business lending' were really a high-priority for the administration, it could, you know, actually do something about it."
The ASBL maintains that President Obama's rhetoric is inconsistent with his actions.
"If President Obama were really serious about creating jobs he would back H.R. 2568, the Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act, which will redirect over $100 billion a year in federal infrastructure spending to the small businesses where most Americans work and where nearly all new jobs are created. H.R. 2568 is the simplest and most effective economic stimulus anyone has proposed to date," ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said. "As George S. Patton said, 'A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.' Small businesses cannot afford the luxury of waiting for President Obama to become the man we all thought he was."
Small Business Healthy, a project of The Institute for Liberty, today announced a new $1 million four-state TV ad campaign targeting Senators on the effects of the current health care legislation on small business owners and how it would ultimately cost jobs.
The ads will target Senator Lincoln (D-AR), Senator Landrieu (D-LA), Senator Nelson (D-NE), Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Senator Conrad (D-ND).
"Small businesses drive our economy. Unemployment is at a 25 year high. Yet the White House and Congress continue to ignore the devastating consequences this health care reform legislation will have on small business," said Andrew Langer, KSBH President. "I've got an idea for the jobs summit; stop proposing legislation that will devastate small business and lead to higher unemployment."
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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:
Business leaders: Rendell's $4.5B tax hike will cost 24,000 jobs
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.
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.
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.
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.
Study: Small firms create all net new jobs in Pennsylvania
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.
Coalition Applauds Specter for Opposing Card Check Bill
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.
Rep. Joe Pitts says 'Card Check' will kill more jobs
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.
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.
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.
Viguerie: Obama's 'Spread the Wealth' Blunder Reveals His Real Goal is Socialism
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.
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.
Tony Phyrillas is the city editor and political columnist for The Mercury, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning daily newspaper in Pottstown, Pa. Phyrillas has won several national and state awards for his columns. Phyrillas has been featured on National Public Radio (NPR) and in The New York Times and is a frequent commentator on radio and television programs. He co-hosted "Talking Politics with Tony Phyrillas & Mike Pincus" on WPAZ 1370 AM.
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