The larger measure of joblessness that includes marginal and part-time workers jumped 0.5% to 17.5%. And the average hours worked in a week stayed the same at 33.0, which means that millions of Americans working part-time will have to become full-time before employers start hiring new workers. [...]

If Democrats really want to create jobs and save themselves from a debacle in 2010, their best policy option is to stop creating so much investment uncertainty and additional barriers to business hiring.

Stop trying to raise business costs by making it easier to unionize via "card check." Stop trying to raise energy costs with a cap-and-tax bill. Stop adding to the deficit and future tax burden with a 12% increase in domestic spending for 2010.

Above all, stop trying to ram through Congress on a partisan vote a health-care bill that imposes a 5.4-percentage-point income tax "surcharge" on anyone making more than $500,000 a year......

The Joint Tax Committee reports that one-third of this $460.5 billion tax increase will be paid by small business job creators who file their taxes under the individual income tax code. Amid a 10.2% jobless rate, the highest in 26 years, this tax increase is the definition of insanity.

The sooner Democrats stop what they’re doing, the faster the private job market will recover on its own.

The U.S. needs to stop pouring money into a Keynesian cul-de-sac


Printed in The Wall Street Journal

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