Down the Tubes

The last week of Shrub's reign sure didn't bode well for a lot of American workers:

The number of workers lining up for jobless benefits surged last week, while new housing starts and permits hit record lows in December, pointing at an acceleration in the economy's downward spiral.

First time applications for state unemployment insurance benefits increased to a seasonally adjusted 589,000 in the week ended January 17 from a revised 527,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

It was the highest level of initial claims since a matching reading in the week of December 20 and beat analysts' forecasts for a rise to 540,000 new claims versus a previously reported count of 524,000 the week before.

The last time claims were higher was in 1982, when they notched a weekly rise of 612,000.

The headline this morning in the AJC is that the unemployment rate in Georgia hit 8.1% which is the highest its been since the early 80's. That woeful number doesn't even include those like me who haven't applied for unemployment yet as we got a little severance or vacation pay when we were made redundant.

Now, watch the same Republicans on Capitol Hill who helped Bush destroy the economy try to block Obama's efforts at fixing the mess they've made.