CALIFORNIA YANKEE

Unemployment falls to 10.0% - true unemployment falls to 17.2%

The Labor Department reports the unemployment rate rose to 10.0 percent in November, from 10.2 percent in October.

According to Market Watch, an alternative gauge of unemployment, which includes discouraged workers and those forced to work part-time, fell to 17.2%.

Nonfarm payrolls fell by just 11,000 in October,  the best showing since December 2007.

The Department of Labor report is not all good news. 

• The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) rose by 293,000 to 5.9 million.
• The percentage of unemployed persons jobless for 27 weeks or more increased by 2.7 percentage points to 38.3 percent.
• About 2.3 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in November, an increase of 376,000 from a year earlier (not seasonally adjusted). These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.
• Among the marginally attached, there were 861,000 discouraged workers in November, up from 608,000 a year earlier (not seasonally adjusted). Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. s preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.
• Construction employment declined by 27,000 manufacturing employment fell by 41,000 in November.

Still, the decrease in the general unemployment rate is welcome news.

National debt now over $12 trillion - continues to soar under Congressional Democrats

When the Pelosi/Reid left-wing Democrats took control of Congress on January 4, 2007, the national debt was $8,670,596,242,973.04 -- that's $8.67 trillion.

Today, the national debt is 12,039,319,107,488.80 -- more than $12 trillion.

That is a 38% increase in the national debt in the less than three year period that Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats have controlled the federal government's purse strings.

Maybe President Obama finally sees the light. After spending and borrowing more than anyone can imagine, Obama warns that too much debt could fuel a double-dip recession. Unfortunately, Obama's epiphany is probably just a temporary result of spending time in China -- the biggest critic of Obama's massive spending.

Unemployment breaks 10% - true unemployment at 17.5%

The Labor Department reports the unemployment rate rose to 10.2 percent in October, from 9.8 percent in September.

According to Market Watch, an alternative gauge of unemployment, which includes discouraged workers and those forced to work part-time, rose to 17.5%, the highest on record dating to 1995.

The jobless recovery is an indication that President Obama's boondoggle stimulus bill was not properly targeted.

Obama's Stimulus creates or saves 30,383 jobs

The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, the government watchdog which oversees how the stimulus monies are spent reports contractors who received money from President Obama's failed $787 billion stimulus program created or saved 30,383 jobs by the beginning of October.

According to the Wall Street Journal, this report covers only spending on infrastructure and social programs being carried out by private companies, which were awarded about $16 billion in stimulus funds. That amounts to $526,610 per job created or saved.

Obama's Council of Economic Advisers claims the stimulus and "other policy actions caused employment in August to be slightly more than one million jobs higher than it otherwise would have been."

I can't wait to hear the CEA's Obama-speak explanation as to how the contractors' measly 30,383 jobs supports the council's million plus estimate.

True unemployment at 17% - employers cut more jobs than expected

The Labor Department reports the unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent in September, from 9.7 percent in August.

Employers cut 263,000 jobs in September, more than expected. The job losses were widespread -- 64,000 in construction, 51,000 in manufacturing and 53,000 in government.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a more comprehensive measure of joblessness that includes people who have given up looking for a job out of frustration and who are working part time but want a full-time job, hit 17% in September. That is up from 16.8 percent in August.

Market Watch reports more than a half a million people dropped out of the labor force, and the employment participation rate fell to 65.2%, the lowest in 23 years. The average duration of unemployment rose to 26.2 weeks, a record high.

The jobless recovery is an indication that President Obama's boondoggle stimulus bill was not properly targeted.

Senate Democrats: cap and trade should be delayed

Democrat Senators Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Ben Nelson of Nebraska say the Senate should abandon efforts to pass cap-and-trade this year.

Cap-and-trade legislation will require 60 votes to pass the Senate. According to Bloomberg, at least 15 of the Senate's 60 Democrats have said the House-passed version -- the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade tax climate change legislation -- would hurt the economy and must be changed before they can support it. Most Republican Senators oppose the cap-and-trade measure.

The resistance by Senate Democrats Lincoln undercuts President Obama’s plan to cap carbon dioxide emissions and establish a market for trading pollution allowances. A plan that presidential candidate Obama said will cause electricity rates to "necessarily skyrocket" and will bankrupt anyone who builds a coal-powered plant.

Does Obama's cap-and-trade tax, face the same fate as President Clinton's BTU energy tax, which died in the Senate?

Democrats are starting to feel the American people's real disgust about Obamacare

Indiana Republican Congressman Dan Burton on Cap and Trade Tax, Obamacare and those Town hall meetings:

Cap and Trade Tax

• Spain has tried this already. And for every job, a new job created that would help the environment they lost two and a half jobs.

• Because of the new programs its gonna cost American jobs, American people jobs. It's gonna drive jobs overseas.

• Its gonna cost the American consumer about $3000 a year in additional expenses because when they turn on their lights it'll cost more because the producer of the electricity is gonna have to pay more taxes. Its gonna cost more for gasoline and anything that's an energy source that pollutes in any possible way.

• I don't think the Senate ultimately will pass it because constituents across the country are becoming very interested in this and the health care issue.

• We don't need more taxes. We don't need more spending. We don't need to have jobs driven overseas when we need to create more jobs here at home.

Obamacare

• Its gonna take money, billions of dollars, out of Medicare.

• Its gonna do away with Medicare Advantage.

• Its gonna cause the rationing of health care.

• This is a bad, bad bill and its socialistic.

• We need to make some improvements in health care, but this ain't the way.

• The Democrats are starting to feel what the American people want them to feel -- real disgust about this bill [Obamacare].

Town Hall Meetings

• I've had town meetings now for a long, long time. And I can tell when there's a put up job and when there's real concern among constituents. These people are angry. They're not being sent there by anybody.

Watch the following video of Congressman Burton's interview with Jamie Colby.

More Obama say one thing do another - stimulus edition

The House Republican Conference takes President Obama to task for failing to stimulate jobs and the economy as quickly as he promised:

Where are the jobs?

Under pressure for the failure failure of his stimulus to work as quickly as he promised, Obama tried to move the goal posts. Congress should remember this as the Democrats continue with the Obama rush and spend approach to Cap and trade tax and so-called health care reform.

Obama administration to make mortgage payments for borrowers who can't?

Not satisfied with owning General Government Motors, controlling the financial industry, and pushing for cap and tax and to remake the health care industry in a redistributionist's image, the Obama administration considers having the government making mortgage payments for borrowers who can't.

When I wrote about Obama being the darling of the Communist Party USA, sounding like a Marxist or  a redistributionist, I never imagined that he would take America this far down the socialist road.

Cantor on Obama's failed stimulus

"They promised jobs created. Now they scramble to find a way to play games with government numbers by claiming jobs saved." - Eric Cantor

In today's weekly Republican address, House Republican Whip Eric Cantor took on President Obama's failed stimulus and out of control spending:

The President, in tandem with Democrats in Congress, have pushed through a $787 billion dollar bill full of pork barrel spending, government waste and massive borrowing cleverly called "stimulus."

There is no doubt that our nation faces many challenges, but the plain truth is that President Obama’s economic decisions have not produced jobs, have not produced prosperity and have not worked.

President Obama has already asked you to borrow trillions, and so far nearly 3 million jobs have been lost this year alone.

Remember the promises? They promised you if you paid for their stimulus, jobs would be created immediately. In fact, they said that unemployment would stay under eight percent.

Yet just months later, they are telling us to brace for unemployment to climb over ten percent. They promised jobs created. Now they scramble to find a way to play games with government numbers by claiming jobs saved.