Some Stimulus Progress Friday While Unemployment Rises

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Democratic leader says lawmakers have made progress on an economic recovery package and the Senate could vote as early as Friday afternoon.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said on the Senate floor: "I think we're going to be able to work something out."

Reid said the country and the world will suffer if Congress fails to act on President Barack Obama's plan.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky criticized the bill as "a trillion-dollar mistake," saying it has "become a Trojan horse for pet projects and expanded government."

Employers cut 598,000 jobs in January, most since '74

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government says employers slashed payrolls by 598,000 in January, the most since the end of 1974, catapulting the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent.

The Labor Department's report is grim proof the nation's job climate is deteriorating at an alarming clip with no end in sight.

Job losses were far worse than the 525,000 economists expected. So was the rise in the unemployment rate, now at the highest since September 1992.

Obama says latest economic news demands action

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama says the latest jobless numbers demand action and it's "inexcusable and irresponsible" for Congress to delay on his economic recovery package.

In prepared remarks for a White House appearance, the president pointed to the unemployment report for January. Employers slashed payrolls by 598,000, the most since the end of 1974, catapulting
the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent.

He said that's 3.6 million Americans who wake up wondering how they are going to pay their bills, Americans who need help.

Obama said he is certain members of the Senate are reading the same numbers. He said he hopes they share his urgency to act and pass his recovery package.

Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) made the following statement on the jobless numbers:

“Americans are beginning to realize that government control of our economy isn't working. Every new ad hoc spending adventure, every new bailout, and every new special interest handout only deepens the recession and delays any hope of recovery. Today's heartbreaking unemployment report is a lesson to all of us that until we free our economy from the uncertainty of government manipulation, we will continue to suffer lost jobs, shuttered businesses, and shattered hopes.

“Some want to continue the big government policies that have failed to create jobs over the past year and throughout history. They believe tax cuts are the problem, but giving Americans the freedom to keep more of their own money and make more of their own decisions is the only thing that has ever worked.”

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)