Our Nation’s Condition

WASHINGTON, July 6, 2008 - "I think we are better off overall if you look at the entire eight-year period, when you look at the millions of jobs that have been created, the improvement in the economy, et cetera," said John McCain earlier this year, "The fundamentals of America 's economy are strong."

The truth of the matter is that inflation hit a 17-Year High. "Consumer prices rose in 2007 at the fastest pace in 17 years as motorists paid a lot more for gasoline and grocery shoppers paid higher food bills ... Workers' wages failed to keep up with the higher inflation. Average weekly earnings, after adjusting for inflation, dropped by 0.9 percent in 2007, the fourth decline in the past five years. The lagging wage gains are cited as a chief reason many workers have growing anxiety about their economic futures. Core inflation, which excludes both energy and food, rose 2.4 percent last year, slightly lower than the 2.6 percent increase of 2006. It is the performance of core inflation that the Fed closely monitors," according to the Associated Press.

According to the Energy Information Administration the Gas Price in January 2001 was $1.496 per gallon. Today it averages $4.146 per gallon.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in a statement issued just last month, under President Bush, 3.6 million Manufacturing Jobs were lost since January 2001.

"The U.S. unemployment rate posted its sharpest one-month increase in 22 years last month, suggesting U.S. consumers already facing a housing slump and soaring gasoline prices now confront even more pressure from a weakening jobs market. The data, which included a fifth-straight drop in nonfarm employment, should take financial- market expectations of Federal Reserve rate increases as soon as this autumn off the table. Nonfarm payrolls, which are calculated by a survey of establishments, declined 49,000 in May, the Labor Department said. The decline was broad-based, including manufacturing, construction, retail trade and business services. Payrolls fell 28,000 in April and 88,000 in March. Both were revised to show slightly larger drops," according to the Wall Street Journal.

One-sixth of all U.S. manufacturing jobs are gone.

"U.S. manufacturing joblessness has been worsening as some 40,000 plants closed over the past six years,” according to the AFL-CIO, labor confederation.

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