Free Republic

The latest numbers show the unemployment rate stands at 9.1 percent, with the pace of job growth slowing. When it comes to new jobs, 70 percent of those are coming from small businesses, but many of them are struggling just to hang on. Small businesses are often responsible for filling the summer job needs of America's teenagers. CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker reports that many 16- to 19-year-olds are finding the going rough when it comes to finding work once school is out. Nearly 14 million Americans are looking for work The Labor Department says the unemployment rate for those...

With Wednesday's vote to extend eligibility for unemployment insurance benefits to 125 weeks, the Senate has just added $34 billion to the national debt. That's more than $500 million per senator who voted for the bill. You can call it cover-up money, because these are many of the same Democratic senators who voted into law policies that threaten to destroy Americans' jobs to begin with, such as mandatory employer-provided health insurance. Now they're voting to send to President Obama, after the House of Representatives votes today, a small remedial package to assist workers who have been out of work for...

REVIEW & OUTLOOKTax-Happy TaftMay 4, 2004; Page A20 President Bush is scheduled to campaign in Ohio today, where he'll talk to families and small business owners who are benefiting from federal tax relief. Maybe some of what Mr. Bush says will rub off on the state's GOP establishment, which has lost its fiscal bearings of late. Start with Governor Bob Taft, a Republican who is now making common cause with public employee unions in an attempt to block the repeal of his tax increases. Last summer the Governor and Republican-controlled Legislature broke repeated pledges not to raise taxes without permission from voters. Citing the...