Why Are Republicans WRONG about EVERYTHING?

Many people covered under President Barack Obama's health care law will face higher premiums next year, the administration acknowledged Thursday. While the average increases are modest, it's more fodder for the nation's political battles over health care.

What is clear is that today’s Southern Democrats are no match for today’s racial and political polarization. Last month, strong Democratic Senate candidates — with recognizable political family names, the benefits of incumbency and, in some cases, flawed opponents — lost across the region. They struggled to run more than a couple of points ahead of Mr. Obama.

U.S. Payrolls in November Grew 321,000; Jobless Rate 5.8%
Economy on Track to Record Strongest Year of Job Creation in 15 Years
By BEN LEUBSDORF And ERIC MORATH
WASHINGTON—U.S. employers ramped up hiring last month, continuing a stretch of robust payroll gains and keeping the economy on track to record its strongest year of job creation in 15 years.

President Obama is 'keeping more troops temporarily... in Afghanistan next year too.

By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ DEC. 5, 2014 After more than five years of elusive gains, ordinary Americans may finally be about to see the benefits of the recovery where it really counts: in their pocketbooks and wallets.

The Labor Department reported Friday that employers added 321,000 jobs in November — a much stronger number than expected — but perhaps even more significant was the biggest gain in average hourly earnings since June 2013.

Hourly earnings rose by 0.4 percent in November, double what economists had been expecting. That gain in hourly pay was significantly above the measly 0.1 percent increase in October, let alone the unchanged number in September. At the same time, the number of hours worked ticked up by one-tenth, adding to pay envelopes. The pairing of strong hiring and wage gains is a really strong indicator of the health of the economy,” said Tara Sinclair, chief economist at Indeed.com, a leading job search website. “Now, we want to see people coming back into the work force and also finding the right jobs for them in terms of wages, skills, and hours.”[

“In one line: Spectacular and, more to the point, believable,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. “The key thing if you look at the run over the last few months is that this was a number waiting to happen. We’ve had strong hiring indicators in a number of surveys, and lower jobless claims, so sooner or later, we were going to get a blockbuster number.”

Mr. Shepherdson cautioned that while he was pleased by the stronger hourly wage gain in November, he wanted to see it continue for several months before he would be convinced higher wages were here to stay. “I’ve had my fingers burned before, but the timing of this uptick is consistent with other evidence of economic growth.”

The unemployment rate remained unchanged from last month at 5.8 percent, the Labor Department said Friday.

Government statisticians also revised upward the number of jobs added in September and October by 44,000, another good sign