Joblessness Soars In The Week Since President Obama's Re-Election

The Labor Department has announced a surge in jobless claims in the week between President Obama's re-election and last Saturday. In the shadow of Mr. Obama's victory, 78,000 new Americans filed for unemployment benefits, bringing the figure to 439,000, the highest since April 2011.  

Jim Puzzanghera of the Los Angeles Times blames the new joblessness on the aftermath of "Superstorm Sandy" which pummeled the northeast a few weeks ago, an almost believable excuse except for the fact that the highest unemplyment filings were made in Pennsylvania and Ohio - beyond the wrath of the hurricane! The latest filings from New York and New Jersey may not be complete yet, as widespread power outages have made it impossible to process all claims. 

Buried halfway into Puzzanghera's article  emblazoned with the title New jobless claims surged last week after Superstorm Sandy is a more insightful explanation for the new joblessness:

There also have been job losses recently unconnected to Sandy that could reflect the growing concerns by companies about the large tax increases and government spending cuts coming next year in what is known as the fiscal cliff.

Source:http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-jobless-claims-unemployment-sandy-20121115%2c0%2c4830000.story

The business community has long been worried about the higher taxes on individuals with money to invest, and the crushing obligations Obamacare will put on them now that President Obama will remain in office long enough to see his major healthcare reform become the law of the land.

Here are some of those new taxes the job creators are to pay:

• a $123 billion surtax on investment income
• a $20 billion medical device tax

Just have a look at the Obamacare tax hikes, beginning in 2013 from http://blog.heritage.org/2012/09/30/chart-of-the-week-obamacares-barrage-of-tax-hikes-coming-in-2013/

Obamacare's Barrage of Tax Hikes

Obamacare imposes numerous tax hikes which total more than $500 billion over 10 years. Obamacare's higher tax rates on income and investment will slow economic growth, leaving hardworking American families and businesses worse off. A particularly harmful new payroll tax on investment income goes into effect in January 2013.

BILLIONS OF NOMINAL DOLLARS

Source: Joint Committee on Taxation.

The following large companies have announced they will lay-off large swaths of their workforce in the next several years:

Welch Allen
Stryker
Boston Scientific
Medtronic
Lockheed
Pratt & Whitney 
Texas Instruments 

Another curse of Obamacare is that employers will now transition from a full-time to a part-time workforce to reduce insurance costs. This is the ominous change the American electorate foisted upon its society with the advent of the Obama presidency. It is an era that will go down with infamy in the history books. Children will ask their parents, "Do you remember what life was like before the Obama catastrophe?"

Jason A.