Jobs 

Real Underemployment Reaches 26 Million:  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of Americans who are either unemployed, underemployed, or not searching because they have been discouraged by the job market reached 26 million. In October, nearly 14 million workers were unemployed with an additional 8.9 million working part time because they could not find full time work.  There were also 2.5 million workers who were available for work but had stopped actively searching because of the economic conditions.  All told, over 16 percent of the U.S. workforce is now unemployed or underemployed.

Spending

U.S. Debt to Hit Record $15 Trillion:  As of November 14, 2011, the U.S. national debt is $14.973 trillion according to the Department of Treasury.  With pending security auctions in the month of November, it is inevitable that the national debt will reach the unprecedented level of $15 trillion in the coming weeks.   When the national debt reaches $15 trillion it means the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio will reach 99.7 percent and our debt will equal $47,900 for every living American.  Since President Obama took office in 2009, the debt has gone up by $4.3 trillion.   

 Medicare

Only Competition Shows Prospect of Success:  Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), and Dr. Alice Rivlin, co-chairs of the Bipartisan Policy Center Debt Reduction Task Force, stated in testimony this month to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction “the best way to achieve efficiency in Medicare is to give beneficiaries the option of choosing among competing plans that must provide quality care at affordable cost to prosper.  This is simply allowing competition to work as it does everywhere else in the economy...There is nothing else on the table that shows any prospect of success.”