Among the most worrisome parts of the report: Private-sector payrolls declined 13,000, the first decrease since July 2003

The December job gains figure was the weakest one-month gain in jobs since a loss was reported in August 2003. It capped a 2007 that was the weakest for job growth since 2004.

The 5 percent unemployment rate was the highest reading since November 2005, when job losses from Hurricane Katrina were still being felt. The unemployment rate had been 4.7 percent in November, and economists had expected it to creep higher to just 4.8 percent.

"This administration continues to exalt its economy despite the fact that under its watch, poverty has risen, 7 million more Americans have lost health care, family incomes are down, and more than 3 million manufacturing jobs have been lost," said presidential candidate, Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Even before this report, most economists were forecasting further sharp declines in employment gains in 2008, with an increase of close to 1 million in the full-year average, and many months when there is a net decline in U.S. payrolls.

We've watched our U.S. dollar decline in value because of the national deficit Bush has created.

We've experienced the huge rise in gasoline prices, also resulting from the weakened dollar due to Bush's high national debt.

We have had to endure being witness to indecent and record breaking profits reaped by the oil companies while we lose our health care coverage and get high interest second mortgages just to pay for our children's tuition.

We've lost our jobs because of the tax incentives Bush has offered to multinational corporations as they move their operations overseas.

The most pervasive problem in America is this: The middle class is being steadily pushed downward.

Even for all the middle class Americans who are still employed, the economy is harming them tremendously. Their own wages are either stagnant, not keeping up with inflation or actually dropping. On top of loss of wages, working Americans are paying over 100% more for transportation, more for food and struggling to afford healthcare that has become too costly - particularly as more and more of their employers are dropping their health care insurances or raising the premiums.

As jobs are lost and new ones gained, the median income drops.

The costs of everyday essentials are rising rapidly.

Now, President Bush wants us to pay for a "stimulus package" that he wants us to believe would aim to ward off a recession, the fear of which has grown stronger in the wake of discouraging data on jobs, rising energy prices and a slowing housing market.

He wants to give more tax cuts to the wealthy and to corporations, despite the fact that Bush's tax cuts to the wealthy have increased our national deficit and essentially created our recession in the first place.

He wants to relieve corporations from having to pay taxes, despite the fact that 20 years ago corporations paid for 27% of the national government and nowadays profitable companies only pony up 7% of the national revenues - leaving ordinary Americans with the regressive taxes of paying for Bush's extravagances overseas.

President Bush has done enormous damage to our economy. We've all known it for years.

President Bush thinks that we are ignorant enough to believe that if he gives even more money away to multinational corporations that this will somehow help us find jobs, health care or food for our tables?

Bush needs to step aside and allow Congress to begin trying to repair all the damage he's caused.

He needs to defer to the majority of lawmakers that we voted into the House and Senate last November.

It's going to take years to undo Bush's damage, but the last thing we need today is for Bush to get in the middle of it. It's just time he stopped damaging our economy.

So, let's demand that politicians and candidates talk specifically about health care, the economy, outsourcing of jobs and our mortgage crisis.

Facebook took these polls last night. Look at the tens of thousands of Americans (like you and me) that believe that the debates are not focusing enough on the economy. Overwhelmingly, both Democrats and Republicans wish that the candidates of both parties would focus more on the economy:

Let's not forget the importance of next November's election. This is a crisis.

All legislators that have supported George Bush's destruction of our economy should be removed from office in November 2008.

The future of our country depends upon it.