American workers don’t need economists to tell them the country is deep in recession. They got another bleak reminder today with the latest unemployment report from the Labor Department, showing that employers slashed another 80,000 jobs in March. The unemployment rate jumped to 5.1 percent.

Our economy is on the brink with 200,000 jobs lost so far this year, and George W. Bush is recklessly pushing another job-killing trade agreement — this one with Colombia.

Workers are getting the shaft, thanks to the irresponsible trade policies of the Bush administration. Bush touts free trade, but he’s really protecting greedy corporations in their tireless search for cheaper labor.

With unemployment rolls surging to levels not seen since the Hurricane Katrina disaster and gas prices rising to a new record today with prices expected to continue to skyrocket, it’s time for drastic change in this country. Let’s start with Congress’ defeat of the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, which Bush is expected to introduce next week.

Next, let’s have a real discussion about turning around our country and rescuing it from the last eight years of the Bush disaster. I’m hitting the road next week in Pennsylvania for what we’re calling the “Working Class Convoy For Change.” Few states have been as hard hit as Pennsylvania, which has lost more than 44,000 jobs due to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

I’ll be meeting with Teamster members to talk about our crumbling economy, falling wages, rising gas prices and closing factories, and how real working men and women are affected. American workers are fed up with the calamity of the Bush administration. They’ll be heard at the ballot box in November. If only we didn’t have to continue to suffer for another six months.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 6th, 2008 at 12:15 pm and is filed under Politics, Economy/Budget .