The unemployment rate hit a 4-year high this month, reaching up to 5.7 percent. About 50,000 jobs were shed over the course of July. Not good. Also, not in our heads. The Obama campaign is responding with an "emergency economic stimulus plan" consisting of two parts: The first are rebate checks, $1,000 for a family and $500 for an individual, to be paid for by a windfall profits tax on oil companies. That funding mechanism seems a bit sketchy to me, but I guess it's good politics. The second part is $50 billion in direct investment, half going to infrastructure and half going to ease the pressures on state governments. For their part, the McCain campaign responded to the jobs report with a 91-word statement, of which 44 words were about Barack Obama.
