Obama economy worsens, Highest poverty rate, Unemployment claims rise, Unemployment rate 9.1 percent, Gas prices high, Obama wants to raise taxes on business

Obama, et al are ruining this country and it’s economy. Today we learn from the US Labor Department.

“UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

          SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending September 10, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 428,000, an increase of 11,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 417,000. The 4-week moving average was 419,500, an increase of 4,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 415,500.”

http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/ui/eta20111330.htm

The US Census Bureau just reported.
“Another 2.6 million people slipped into poverty in the United States last year, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, and the number of Americans living below the official poverty line, 46.2 million people, was the highest number in the 52 years the bureau has been publishing figures on it.

And in new signs of distress among the middle class, median household incomes fell last year to levels last seen in 1996.

Economists pointed to a telling statistic: It was the first time since the Great Depression that median household income, adjusted for inflation, had not risen over such a long period, said Lawrence Katz, an economics professor at Harvard.

“This is truly a lost decade,” Mr. Katz said. “We think of America as a place where every generation is doing better, but we’re looking at a period when the median family is in worse shape than it was in the late 1990s.”

The bureau’s findings were worse than many economists expected, and brought into sharp relief the toll the past decade — including the painful declines of the financial crisis and recession —had taken on Americans at the middle and lower parts of the income ladder. It is also fresh evidence that the disappointing economic recovery has done nothing for the country’s poorest citizens.

The report said the percentage of Americans living below the poverty line last year, 15.1 percent, was the highest level since 1993. (The poverty line in 2010 for a family of four was $22,314.)”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/us/14census.html

The reported unemployment rate remains at 9.1 %.

“THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION — AUGUST 2011
Nonfarm payroll employment was unchanged (0) in August, and the unemployment rate held at 9.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
Employment in most major industries changed little over the month.”

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

The tax and spend policies of Obama and his cronies are a huge part of why this economy is tanking. Obama is more concerned about getting reelected than he is  the lives of ordinary struggling Americans. He speaks of creating jobs (with the worst past performance on record) and raising taxes on businesses to do so. The next part is important. Pay Attention!

Businesses do not pay taxes. Consumers do!

Taxes are part of the cost of doing business. When taxes are raised, some combination of the following will occur:

1. Prices will be raised.

2. Employees will be let go or have reduced hours.

3. Hiring will be diminished.

We have enough revenue. Cut spending!

Gasoline Prices

One of the biggest, if not biggest drains on the economy, one exacerbated by Obama and his cronies, is gasoline prices. This affects the cost of everything and is killing our economy. The left are so  concerned about theoretical environmental damage and emulating Europeans that they disregard the plight of average Americans. Below is a chart showing the rise in fuel prices during the Obama reign.

I am all for alternative energy initiatives that make sense and are not in place to enrich Obama supporters. In fact, I have done so myself with my own limited funds. However, gasoline prices are hurting this economy and the poor and middle class citizens who the Democrats pretend to represent.

Drill baby drill!