| By Bob Weaver
Unemployment in America has reached a 20 year high, the worst since Ronald Regan's presidency.
Calhoun County led the state in unemployment with 21.5 percent in March.
The nation's unemployment rate swelled to 6 percent in April, returning to an eight-year high as employers slashed payrolls.
The faltering economy has lost a half million jobs in the past three months. Pink slips, not job offers.
"For those who are out of work, finding a job is getting tougher," said David Rosenberg, chief economist at Merrill Lynch.
April's job losses for three months in a row indicate an actual recession.
Rarely mentioned is the loss of jobs through NAFTA, GATT and the "free trade" laws. Many West Virginia jobs have gone to foreign soil - permanently.
In April, the number of unemployed workers surged to 8.8 million, with almost 2 million without jobs for 27 weeks or more.
The average duration of unemployment shot up to 19.6 weeks â a 20-year high.
The President's plan to help the economy is to pass a multi-billion dollar tax cut.
In West Virginia the number of counties reporting double-digit unemployment fell during the period, from 17 to ten.
Other counties reporting double-digit unemployment were Wirt, Grant, Roane, Braxton, Mason, Clay, Jackson, Ritchie and Lewis - mostly in the west central region of the state.
At the same time, the state Bureau of Employment Programs is reporting that unemployment fell in all but two West Virginia counties in March.
Unemployment stats are based on workers who are receiving unemployment benefits, and do not reflect the actual elimination of jobs in a community or the state.
Jefferson County had the lowest unemployment with a 3.5 percent jobless rate.
WADING THROUGH THE TAX BREAKS
The information now varies, depending on which cut Congress passes.
President Bush's huge tax cuts will mostly help the rich, which opponents say will continue to plunge America back into
trillion dollar debt, while slashing programs that would help the unemployed and low-income workers.
Bush himself, if his plan passes, would get a $44,500 tax break and his Vice-President Dick Cheney would see his tax bill drop over
$325,000.
Rather than tax cuts, some politicians want to extend unemployment to bolster the economy.
The New York Times said Bush's "misguided domestic agenda" is "a disaster, a national train wreck that must be headed off
for the country's well-being."
The White House claim that large tax breaks to the wealthy will stimulate America's economy is a smoke screen. The
nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concluded that such cuts would have little or no effect.
Bush, who is currently one of America's most popular presidents, with his party controlling both chambers of Congress, is
likely to have his way, although several in his own party are opposed to his plan.
The tax cut plan renews the old saw - there are damn lies - and then there are statistics.
The Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center data indicate the following about the tax cuts the Administration's plan would
provide in 2003:
The average tax cut for tax filers in the middle fifth of the population â those filers right in the middle of the income spectrum
â would be $256, only one-fourth the $1,083 figure the Administration is citing for the average taxpayer.
Almost half of all tax filers â 49 percent â would receive tax cuts of less than $100.
The average tax cut for the bottom 80 percent of tax filers would be $226. Even the next-to-top fifth of tax filers would get
an average tax cut of only $574.
By contrast, the top one percent of tax filers would receive an average tax cut of $24,100. Those with incomes of more than
$1 million would get tax cuts averaging a whopping $90,200.
Overall, 80 percent of tax filers would get less than the average tax cut of $1,083 the Bush administration is touting.
The Administration also is promoting other highly stylized "facts" about how much in tax cuts would go to specific groups.
These figures are similarly distorted. For example, the White House claims "13 million elderly taxpayers would receive an
average tax cut of $1,384." The Tax Policy Center data indicate that only 3.1 million elderly tax filers actually would get tax
cuts of this size or greater. Some 79 percent of elderly tax filers â nearly four of every five â would get less than the
amount the White House is advertising.
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