Free Republic

The Obama Administration is trying to regulate Americans’ livelihoods away. Will Congress do anything to stop it? The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is pushing regulation of “greenhouse gases”—something even its own officials have admitted would have no noticeable impact on the climate. New Heritage research shows the devastating impact it would have, however, on American manufacturing jobs.

WASHINGTON -- Initial jobless claims fell sharply last week to their lowest level in three months, the Labor Department said Thursday, as a private report showed layoffs eased in February. About 323,000 people filed for first-time unemployment benefits in the week ending Saturday, down from 349,000, the previous week, the Labor Department said. The falloff was steeper than that expected by analysts, who had forecast 338,000 first-time claims. Last week's figure was the lowest since the end of November. Also on Thursday, outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said the pace of business downsizing decreased last month. U.S....

It isn't just spoons to mouths being lifted at Jaxson's Ice Cream Parlour and Restaurant. The minimum wage at the local favorite in Dania Beach recently saw a boost too. "We felt that by changing the minimum wage to $10.10 we would really make a difference in their lives," co-owner Linda Zakheim says. Her father Monroe Udell opened up the restaurant 58 years ago. The joint decision came following President Barack Obama's State of the Union address..... "Last week, I read about Jaxson’s, it’s an ice cream parlor in Florida," the president said to an audience in New Britain, Connecticut....

Our Demander-in-Chief has once again put together a budget so mind boggling stupid, so bereft of credibility that it will spontaneously abort somewhere between the White House and the desk of Senator Harry Reid (D-Who Me?). You can think of Obama’s newest budget as the “legitimate rape” of America. All you really need to know about the budget is this headline from the Washington Post’s Wonk Blog: “Obama budget seeks new spending, new taxes to boost economy, tame debt”. Ha, ha, ha. Stop me if you heard that one before. If we gave the government a buck for every time...

Private employers added only 139,000 jobs to their payrolls in February and job growth in January was even less than previously thought, according to the latest ADP National Employment Report. The news is a sign that Friday's much-anticipated employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics also may show that job growth hasn't been strong in recent months. Ahead of that report, Reuters writes, economists say they're expecting to hear that as few as 95,000 jobs were added to public and private payrolls last month. The nation's unemployment rate is thought to have stayed at 6.6 percent. Wednesday's report, which...

Now that it is election season, the direction of the state economy is put under more public scrutiny. One of the common criticisms of Michigan's performance has been its stubbornly high unemployment rate, which remains above national averages and is 4th highest in the nation. There were 45 straight months when Michigan had the highest unemployment rate in the country, so even the state's current ranking is an improvement. The unemployment rate is calculated by dividing the number of people looking for work by the number of people in the labor force. While generally improving economic health means it is...

Companies added fewer workers than projected in February, a sign that U.S. employers were waiting for a pickup in demand before boosting headcount, a private report based on payrolls showed today.

RadioShack said Tuesday it would close about 1,100 of its stores in the United States, as weak holiday results prompted significant losses. RadioShack has been struggling to revive its fortunes in recent years, in the face of a changed consumer electronics environment. In February 2013, it hired a new chief executive, Joseph C. Magnacca, from Walgreen, to help turn things around. But so far a turnaround has been elusive and its financial results have been deteriorating.

"..................What discourages Democrats is that men’s attitudes shaped over generations — through debates over civil rights, anti-Communism, Vietnam, feminism, gun control and dislocations from lost manufacturing jobs and stagnant wages in a global economy — are not easily altered. “Democrats are for a bunch of freeloaders in this world as far as I’m concerned,” said Gari Day, 63, an Avis bus driver from suburban Detroit. “Republicans make you work for your money, and try to let you keep it.” Michael Bunce, 48, buying parts at a Lowe’s in Southfield, Mich., first ascribed his Republican bias to fiscal matters, but quickly...

A smaller and smaller percentage of adults are working to support the entire state population. Why does this matter? Because a booming economy provides the benefits of opportunity and upward mobility. But not only that. Growing the number of taxpayers is essential for funding core government services and pension bills. The only other tools legislators have are tax hikes, which have done more to chase away taxpayers than to fund the government. The percentage of the working-age population that is employed fell by 5.6 percentage points, from 65 percent in January 2008 to 59.4 percent in December 2013. This percentage,...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VRzFBM6mUY&feature=youtu.be

Less than half the public support a sharp boost in the minimum wage when told that it could cost the economy half a million jobs, according to the latest IBD/TIPP Poll out Thursday. That comes amid reports that some Senate Democrats are backing away from President Obama´s push to boost the minimum wage by 39% over the next two years, to $10.10 an hour, after the Congressional Budget Office found that it would kill 500,000 jobs. Unlike other surveys, the IBD/TIPP Poll asked two questions about the minimum wage.

For much of Barack Obama’s presidency, he has sought to avoid being defined by his race or gender, often emphasizing that he is the leader of all Americans. On Thursday, Mr. Obama will use the power of his office to focus on helping young black men succeed. Stymied by Congress on many of the economic policies he considers central to the lives of blacks, Mr. Obama is seeking to prod nonprofit foundations, business groups and civic leaders to provide more opportunities for a struggling part of the American family. His new “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative is aimed at finding ways...

Democrats believe they've hit on the perfect issue to distract from the horror of Obamacare in the 2014 elections: the minimum wage. Apparently, increasing the minimum wage was not important for American workers during the first five years of Obama's presidency -- least of all his first two years, when Democrats controlled Congress and could have passed anything. (And did!) No. The minimum wage did not become a pressing concern until an election year in which the public's hatred of Obamacare is expected to be the central issue. As The New York Times explained, Democrats see the minimum wage as...

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, but the underlying trend suggested no shift in labor market conditions. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 348,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims for the prior week were revised to show 2,000 fewer applications received than previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast first-time applications for jobless benefits slipping to 335,000 in the week ended February 22, which included the Presidents Day holiday. While last week's increase pushed them to the upper end of their range so...

The U.S. unemployment rate has fallen sharply since the darkest days of the great recession.Much of this decline is due to the drop in the labor force participation rate (LFPR).Some people have attributed the change to discouraged workers. Others have pointed to young people going back to school. Many have recognized that many baby boomers are retiring.Earlier this week, Business Insider's Matthew Boesler brought light to some underappreciated stats from the Census that actually quantify this.  "The monthly Current Population Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (from which labor force participation data are...

A key feature of America’s ongoing oil and gas production renaissance is that the vast majority of the jobs created have not come from the “Big Oil” companies, but from small businesses. Manhattan Institute senior fellow Mark Mills shows the dramatic effect of small businesses on oil and gas production and vice versa in his new report, “Where the Jobs Are: Small Businesses Unleash Energy Employment Boom.” The five large oil companies operating in the United States (Exxon, BP, Chevron, Shell, Conoco) account for only ten percent of direct oil and gas jobs. The vast majority of jobs come from...

Remember: We actually pay people to report on stuff like this. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), while not exactly non-partisan, doesn’t always see eye to eye with either party in D.C. Yes, sometimes the effects of proposed Democrat economic policies are so obvious that even the CBO is forced to agree with Republicans. The CBO just reported that the Democrats plan to raise the minimum wage would cost between 500,00 to a million jobs. Initially. No. Duh. At least that many jobs; really, probably more. “The CBO analysts said their estimate of employment losses was approximate,” says Fox News. “They...

Local governments, community colleges and other public employers are cutting work hours among part-time employees to prepare for coming mandates under Obamacare, according to the New York Times. President Obama twice has delayed the law’s “employer mandate,” which will require large employers to provide health insurance or pay fines. It starts in 2016 for midsize employers and will phase in starting in 2015 for employers of 100 workers or more. But public sector employers are trimming back work hours now, because their obligations will be based on data from this year, the Times reported.

Catball wrote:Can anybody out there tell me the difference between the tea party and the taliban. No this is not a joke. Seriously, the tea party wants to destroy the american government. The t-party crew walked into a church and killed a doctor because they like what he was doing. That was in Wichita,KS. The t-party does want to dismantle our government. They don't want women to have any rights. M. Bachmann said you should be submissive and do whatever they want you to do. They want rich white men & women to take over the country. They don't care...