Off The Job.

From the New York Times:

The United States lost almost 600,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate rose to 7.6 percent, its highest level in more than 16 years, the Labor Department said Friday.

It was the biggest monthly job loss since the economy tipped into a recession more than a year ago, and it was even worse than most forecasters had been predicting.

In addition, the government revised the estimates for previous months to include another 400,000 job losses. For December, the government revised the job loss to 577,000 compared with an initial reading of 524,000. Overall, it said, the nation has lost 3.6 million jobs since it slipped into a recession in December 2007.

“Businesses are panicked and fighting for survival and slashing their payrolls,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “I think we’re trapped in a very adverse, self-reinforcing cycle. The downturn is intensifying, and likely to intensify further unless policy makers respond aggressively.”

As in previous months, employers in January slashed their payrolls in almost every industry except health care Manufacturers eliminated 207,000 jobs, more than in any year since 1982. The construction industry eliminated 111,000 jobs. And retailers, who were wrapping up their worst holiday shopping season in years, eliminated 45,000 jobs.

Meanwhile, the Obama Administration changed tactics yesterday and came out swinging at the no-new-ideas GOP leadership, who offer nothing constructive in the economic stimulus negotiations. The Reagan cult continues to worship false gods at the tax cut altar, dismissing the stimulus package as a "spending" plan. Obama had to remind them that the whole point of "stimulus" is spending.

Republicans just don't get it. This is the same crowd who oppose the Obama plan to limit the pay of Wall Street executives, with Oklahoma global-warming denier Sen. James Inhofe wondering aloud, "Is this still America?"

Yes, Senator, it still is, no matter how bad your side fucked things up. Now we have to fix it.

Postscript: Favorite FOX News gargoyle Newt Gingrich--less than three weeks into an administration trying to clean up the shit left over from the disaster caused by policies espoused by Gingrich himself--was quoted in TIME magazine: "I think (Obama's) in real danger of becoming Jimmy Carter instead of Ronald Reagan. He's zig-zagging..."

Earth to Newt: we didn't vote for Reagan redux. It was his philosophy that started us down the road to ruin to begin with.