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key measure of consumer confidence fell in September, after a gain in the previous month, raising concerns about retail sales in the upcoming holiday season, a research group said Tuesday. The Conference Board, a New York-based business research group, said its Consumer Confidence Index fell to 53.1 in September from an upwardly revised 54.5 in August. Economists were expecting a reading of 57, according to a Briefing.com consensus survey.

People who have been out of work for months are lining up for jobs at places they once considered unthinkable: slaughterhouses, sewage plants, prisons. "I have to just shut my mouth because I can't do anything about it," said Nichole McRoberts of Sedalia, Mo., who pictured more for herself at age 30 than working in a poultry plant, cutting diseased or damaged flesh off chicken carcasses. Recessions and tight job marketsalways force some people to take less-desirable or lower-paying work than they are used to. But this recession has been the most punishing job destroyer in at least 60 years,...

Here is video of Dick Morris talking with Sean Hannity last night about Democrats planning to try and pass Government Health Care with only 50 votes (plus VP Joe Biden as tie-breaker) after they return from the August recess. According to Morris, Senate Dems plan to use rules in the "Reconciliation Process" that will allow them to avoid having to get the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture. Morris and Hannity urged listeners to use August to attend town hall meetings and forums on health care and let their voices be heard, in addition to writing letters to Senators and...

After trillions in taxpayer debt has been foolishly poured into the bottomless black hole of leftist wealth redistribution programs, under the guise of economic “stimulus” or “stabilization” legislation, the new “ONE World” government running Washington DC announces; Geithner, Bernanke Call for New Wind-Down Powers After AIG… and the people still sit silent as they watch Obamanation grow in unbridled power. Geithner Asks Congress for even Broader Power to Seize private Firms as the average American stumbles through their daily routine as if nothing is happening. Canada Free Press managing editor Judi McLeod writes No cheerleader for propping up greenback at...

Tax revenues post biggest drop since Depression STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer Monday, August 3, 2009 The recession is starving the government of tax revenue, just as the president and Congress are piling a major expansion of health care and other programs on the nation's plate and struggling to find money to pay the tab. The numbers could hardly be more stark: Tax receipts are on pace to drop 18 percent this year, the biggest single-year decline since the Great Depression, while the federal deficit balloons to a record $1.8 trillion. Other figures underscore the recession's impact: Individual income tax...

I think the natural tendency of the US economy to rebound from recession, coupled with the enormous inflationary forces of borrowing another $2 trillion, will result in some sort of a brief economic recovery. But almost immediately we will be hit with a number of consequences that are now rarely voiced. Likewise the new ‘reset’ button foreign policy has a similar tab to come due. What to watch for the next year: Taxes. Talking about new taxes in 2009 and paying them in 2010/11 are two quite different things. Not long ago I tried to explain to an Obama supporter...

(CNSNews.com) - Appearing on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” yesterday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner floated President Obama’s next big move: a tax increase on middle-class Americans. Geithner made it clear during the interview that the administration believes that new federal revenues are needed and he declined to rule out raising taxes on Americans earning less than $250,000 per year to get those revenues. During the interview, host George Stephanopoulos pointed out to Geithner that the “Congressional Budget Office estimates that your budget will add $9 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.” Stephanopoulos also noted that former...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The recession has delivered a disproportionate blow to blacks and Hispanics, yet minorities may be more optimistic about the economy than most Americans and many feel they have earned a place at the corporate table. Perhaps surprisingly, a survey by banking giant Citigroup Inc found minorities had a more positive view of the economy than the majority of Americans. Of 100 blacks and Hispanics surveyed earning between $25,000 and $50,000 a year, about half believed the economy will improve over the next six months, compared to 38 percent of a larger national sample of workers. Blacks and...

TOLEDO, Ohio (Reuters) - Hope and jobs are in short supply in Ohio eight months after President Barack Obama won the recession-battered state in the 2008 election with promises of a better future. "People were looking for a savior to get us out of this mess and that's why they voted for Obama," said Jeff Fravor, 55, a retired train conductor on his way to breakfast on the outskirts of Toledo. "I've nothing against Obama personally, but he's new to the job and 'hope' won't fix this mess."

The House health-care reform bill proposes to decrease hospital visits by establishing a “medical home pilot program” for elderly and disabled Americans. Such a medical home would not require a physician to be on the staff, and therefore could be run solely by nurse practitioners and physician assistants. Medical homes also would practice “evidence-based” medicine, which advocates only the use of medical treatments that are supported by effectiveness research. But physicians’ groups say the legislation could lead to restrictions on which treatments may be used for certain conditions, despite the fact that some patients might require a unique or unconventional...

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration will not grant a $2 billion loan guarantee for a planned uranium-enrichment facility in Piketon, Ohio, causing the initiative to go into financial meltdown, the company and independent sources confirmed last night. The U.S. Department of Energy's decision means "we are now forced to initiate steps to demobilize the project," said Elizabeth Stuckle, a spokeswoman for USEC. That's the company that is trying to build the $3.5 billion advanced-technology plant on the same site where it ran the Cold War-era uranium-enrichment facility that has been shuttered since 2001... "Instead of creating thousands of jobs across...

The Boss today calls attention to a New York Times feature about unemployment: It’s bad enough that the unemployment rate has doubled in only a year and a half and one out of six construction workers is out of work. What truly troubles President Obama’s economic advisers is that, even adjusting for the recession, the contraction in employment seems way too high. . . . The Federal Reserve now expects unemployment to surpass 10 percent . . . The economy has shed 6.5 million jobs . . . Economists fear that even when the economy turns around, the job market...

The hope and optimism that washed over the country in the opening months of Barack Obama's presidency are giving way to harsh realities. An Associated Press-GfK Poll shows that a majority of Americans are back to thinking that the country is headed in the wrong direction after a fleeting period in which more thought it was on the right track.

Gallup, Rasmussen, Washington Post, USA Today all published polls indicating that the approval of the President and his policies are way down. Now a Public Strategies Inc./POLITICO poll, is echoing their sentiments. What makes this poll significant is that it was done completely on-line. On-line surveys tend to be filled out by younger people and people who live in more urban populations (rural areas don't have the same internet penetration nor do they use the internet as much). Younger, more urban voters is the President's breadbasket, so this loss of support may very well be amongst his more loyal voters....

Six months into his historic presidency, Americans are beginning to show the first real signs of doubt that President Barack Obama can deliver on his promise of change. A new poll out Monday suggested that amid the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, rising unemployment, and a ballooning deficit, the honeymoon could be waning for Obama. And the president's determination to push through a radical reform of the creaking US healthcare system could come to define the success or failure of his fledgling presidency. Obama has invested much personally in his high-stakes campaign, a cornerstone of...

Unemployment in June remained approximately 20 percent higher in states won by President Obama in last fall's election than in states won by Republican candidate John McCain, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday. Meanwhile national opinion polls are continuing to show Obama's approval ratings are dropping. According to the table below, the unemployment rate in June for states voting for Obama averaged 9.34 percent, compared to 7.91 percent in states that voted for the Republican candidate, Sen. John McCain of Arizona. (Graph at site) Nationwide, the unemployment rate went from 9.4 percent in May to 9.5 percent...

The stimulus program must really be succeeding in Washington, D.C. Government is hiring; people are working. In fact, if news reports are to be believed, they're working night and day. So maybe there's some sleep deprivation thrown in for good measure. And don't forget the legendary heat and humidity that made service in the nation's Capitol hazardous before the advent of air conditioning. What other explanation could there be for my friends in Congress and the administration thinking that what the country wants them to do right now is raise taxes and spend a trillion dollars to overhaul health care,...

On Page 425 of Obama’s health care bill, the Federal Government will require EVERYONE who is on Social Security to undergo a counseling session every 5 years with the objective being that they will explain to them just how to end their own life earlier. Yes...They are going to push SUICIDE to cut medicare spending!!! And no, I am NOT SH—ing YOU! So those of you who voted for Obama have now put your own parents in dire straights...Congratulations! Also, planned denial of medical care for seniors. Click the source for audio.

JULY 20, 2009 Democrats' New Worry: Their Own Rich Voters JONATHAN WEISMAN A group of Democrats elected in recent years from some of the country's richest congressional districts have emerged as a stumbling block to raising taxes on the wealthy to pay for President Barack Obama's ambitious health-care overhaul just as the plan has begun to meet increasing resistance over its cost. Friday, two freshmen representatives -- Dina Titus, from suburban Las Vegas, and Colorado's Jared Polis, representing Boulder, Vail and some of the tonier suburbs of Denver -- joined Republicans to vote against Mr. Obama's top-priority health-care overhaul when...

WASHINGTON — Unemployment topped 10 percent in 15 states and the District of Columbia last month, according to federal data released Friday. The rate in Michigan surpassed 15 percent, the first time any state hit that mark since 1984. The Federal Reserve this week projected that the national unemployment rate, currently at a 26-year high of 9.5 percent, will pass 10 percent by the end of the year. Most Fed policymakers said it could take "five or six years" for the economy and the labor market to get back on a path of long-term health. To get there, consumers must...