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Jobless Rate Soars to Highest Level in Five Years; GOP Has Nothing to Say

You didn't hear a peep from  the Republican convention about unemployment, even though Senator's McCain's speech came on the very day that the government announced the worst jobless rate in five years – 6.1 percent for August, when businesses cut 84,000 net jobs.

The rate jumped from 5.7 percent in July. As a Wells Fargo economist told The Washington Post, "These are really ugly numbers."

Senator Barack Obama said the jobs report "is a reminder of what's at stake in this election. John McCain may believe that the fundamentals of our economy are 'strong,' but the working men and women I meet every day are working harder for less, the typical working age family's income is down $2,000 since George Bush took office, and their purchasing power is as low as it's been in a decade.

John McCain's answer is more of the same: $200 billion in tax cuts to big corporations and oil companies, and not one dime of tax relief to more than 100 million middle-class families.