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Federal stimulus programs are sustaining as many as 1.6 million jobs this year, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says in a new report.

Congress’s economists say the number of jobs created could span anywhere from 600,000, at the lower end, to the 1.6 million high-end figure

Republicans say the stimulus is not living up to expectations, however, noting that the jobless rate today is higher than the White House or other forecasters expected in February when the ARRA was passed. They say Obama policies are destroying jobs rather than creating them, and adding to the national debt in the process.

Cuba's communist government currently controls almost all aspects of the country's economy and employs about 85% of the official workforce, which is put at 5.1 million people. As many as one-in-five of all workers could lose their jobs.

To create jobs for the redundant workers, strict rules limiting private enterprise will be relaxed and many more licenses will be issued for people to become self-employed. Private businesses will be allowed to employ staff for the first time.

They will also have to pay tax on their profits and for each person they employ, something which could dramatically boost the government's income.

A closely watched barometer of America’s job market – the number of weekly unemployment claims – fell to its lowest level since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, whose failure deepened the financial crisis more than a year ago. New jobless claims declined to 432,000, the Labor Department said. The news was better than economists had predicted, and confirms a trend of improvement in recent weeks that suggests that recession-related job losses are winding down. But many forecasters still see weakness ahead for several months before the economy starts adding jobs. During good times, weekly jobless claims typically run at a pace of about 300,000. During the early part of this year, the initial-claims pace was running above 600,000.

On Wednesday in Washington, the House passed a $154 billion jobs bill. It includes $46 billion in aid to states, which would mostly go to help them in 2011. Half of the money is an extension of the increase in the federal share of the Medicaid program. The rest of the money is designated for jobs in education.

On Wednesday in Washington, the House passed a $154 billion jobs bill. It includes $46 billion in aid to states, which would mostly go to help them in 2011. Half of the money is an extension of the increase in the federal share of the Medicaid program. The rest of the money is designated for jobs in education. However, it won’t be enough for many states. According to the CBPP, 30 states have already enacted tax increases, raised tuition at state universities, or found other revenue methods. For example, only this week, the Missouri Department of Revenue told yoga studios to begin to collect a 4 percent recreation sales tax on class fees.At the same time, many states are looking at service cuts. According to the CBPP analysis, 28 states have enacted or implemented cuts to reduce the eligibility of low-income families for health coverage. Some 42 states and the District of Columbia have proposed or implemented cuts to the state workforce.

Whether Democrats can keep control of the House in the 2010 election hinges on three things: the direction of job growth, Democrats' ability to convince independent voters that the country’s finances are not out of control, and the direction of Barack Obama’s approval ratings.

Podesta argued that no one unemployment figure will be a “magic number” for Democrats' political success. Instead, if by the summer of 2010 the number of jobs in the economy is growing consistently, then Democrats in Congress can hold the loss of seats “to a relative minimum,” he said. One question, he added, is “do people smell we are on the right path or do they feel still bogged down?”

For Democrats to demonstrate that control, Podesta argued in favor of a timetable to put the federal budget back in balance. “Once the economy is fully recovered, deficit reduction will be critical to growth and broadly shared prosperity,” he said. The Center for American Progress proposes establishing a mechanism to ensure that government income and spending for all items -- except debt service -- move into balance by 2014. The next goal would be to have all government spending – including debt service – be covered by income in 2020.

Some 11,000 jobs were lost in November, the smallest total since the recession began late in 2007. And despite the continued job losses, the overall unemployment rate fell from 10.2% to 10.0%.

None of this means that the troubles are all over, however. The unemployment rate had once before declined in 2009, from June to July, before proceeding to rise for the next three months. A steady decline now will be hard to achieve: one estimate suggests that the American economy needs to add around 150,000 jobs each month just to keep up with population growth.

U.S. manufacturing firms spend almost three times as much per worker per hour for healthcare as our most important foreign competitors--$2.38 versus $0.96. Healthcare costs drive employers to move jobs overseas, grow jobs outside of the United States, and limit the ability of firms to invest to improve productivity [and] compete more effectively in the future.

Analysis also shows that the U.S. economy loses as much as $207 billion annually because of the lost productivity stemming from the poor health and shorter lifespan of the uninsured. Employers notice the workplace productivity loss, which for a full-time worker equals four days a month in lost work time.

On the budget front, the House bill would reduce deficits by $138 billion over the next decade and the Senate measure would reduce deficits by $130 billion over that period, says the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which predicts the two measures would continue to reduce deficits for at least a decade thereafter. The bills would achieve this goal through a combination of spending cuts (largely in Medicare) and tax increases that, together, exceed the costs of bringing health insurance coverage to about 95 percent of all legal residents. The House and Senate bills deserve much more credit for cost control than they have received. They [address] almost all areas that experts have identified as promising areas for reducing the growth of healthcare spending. Most important, both would create a health insurance exchange to promote competition among private health insurance plans based on price and quality, reduce administrative costs, and provide a platform for systemic change across the healthcare system.

President Obama is pushing for a permanent middle-class tax cut, but only if Bush-era cuts for top earners are eliminated. Republicans, in turn, want permanent tax relief for all income levels. The divide is rapidly becoming the marquee issue of the midterm election.

Given the lackluster recovery — with crucial housing and job markets still ailing — an expiration of tax cuts worth about $300 billion a year would be a huge hit to the economy, equivalent to 2% of the nation's total output. The potential economic fallout is far less clear if tax rates rose only for high earners.

The chances are small that Congress might address the issue before the November election. But there are ample opportunities for both parties to use their economic messages during the campaign.

With conditions deteriorating on the ground and the Taliban gaining strength across the country, coalition forces will be in an even worse position next year than they are now. The situation around the major cities of Jalalabad and Kabul is seriously deteriorating, and the state structure in the north is disappearing. In the southern city of Kandahar, a sustained U.S.-led effort has proved unable to dislodge the Taliban from their traditional stronghold; the Taliban have also launched a systematic campaign targeting anyone ready to work with the coalition, killing hundreds since last spring. Instead of being able to start pulling out troops next summer, as Obama has pledged, the United States will be forced to send additional troops just to hold ground. And the longer Washington waits, the harder it will be to negotiate. As the Taliban solidify their power, they will be less and less likely to talk. It's time to negotiate -- this is the only way forward.

the longer Washington waits, the harder it will be to negotiate. As the Taliban solidify their power, they will be less and less likely to talk.

With conditions deteriorating on the ground and the Taliban gaining strength across the country, coalition forces will be in an even worse position next year than they are now.

The Obama administration established new federal greenhouse gas pollution limits. An October executive order requires federal government agencies to set greenhouse gas emission reduction targets that must be met by 2020. All of these actions, along with additional steps forward, will help enhance American economic competitiveness. And on December 7, Environmental Protection Agency Adminstrator Lisa Jackson announced the "endangerment finding" under the Clean Air Act. This enables EPA to finalize limits on global warming pollution from motor vehicles and large industrial sources. President Obama would prefer that Congress, rather than EPA, establish these pollution limits, but the endangerment finding means that EPA will act if Congress fails to do so.

China announced a carbon reduction target. The Obama administration’s hard work with China and India is starting to pay off. China announced on Thanksgiving Day a target of reducing carbon pollution per unit of gross domestic product by 40 to 45 percent from 2005 levels by 2020. This is the first time China has committed to specific carbon reductions. The November joint statement by Presidents Obama and Hu Jintao on the creation of a greenhouse gas inventory between the U.S. EPA and China will make it possible to measure and verify these reductions.

India announced a carbon reduction target. India announced on December 2, soon after the U.S.-India summit in Washington, that it intends to offer a target for decreasing its carbon intensity 24 percent from 2005 levels by 2020. This is the first time India has proposed its own specific carbon reduction target, which adds to its already established commitment to set the largest solar power generation target in the world.

The pace of US home sales surged 7.4 percent in November, helping to bring down the inventory of for-sale homes to pre-recession levels. November's robust performance was fueled, however, by an extraordinary factor – the anticipated expiration of a tax break for first-time home buyers. First-time buyers accounted for 51 percent of purchases tracked in the report on previously owned homes, released by the National Association of Realtors Tuesday.

A case for optimism rests on several factors: Mortgage interest rates are low, Congress has extended the home buyers' tax credit through the first half of next year (it was set to expire at the end of November), and an improving job market next year could offset a continued high rate of mortgage defaults by households in financial trouble. While not auguring for a new housing boom, those forces could help keep the market on a path toward recovery.But other factors suggest that the housing market still faces significant headwinds. The biggest question mark is interest rates. The Federal Reserve has become a big investor in the mortgage market this year, creating demand for mortgage-backed bonds and thus pulling down the cost of loans for people buying homes. A 30-year fixed-rate loan averaged just 4.88 percent interest in November. But this month the Fed reaffirmed that it expects to complete its mortgage buying by the end of the first quarter of 2010.

Also weighing down the housing market is a large "shadow inventory," including homes in various stages of foreclosure. The record volume of foreclosures, highlighted in another report this week, shows no sign of stopping soon. In fact, "shadow inventory" continues to rise, according to a recent analysis by First American CoreLogic, which tracks the housing market.

• Mortgage problems rose during the third quarter, with 6.2 percent of all loans seriously delinquent (60 days or more past due) and an additional 3.2 percent of all loans in the process of foreclosure. Delinquency among prime mortgages – the largest and highest-quality category – rose significantly.

Policymakers hope to stabilize the housing market using several strategies. First, the Federal Reserve has been helping to keep interest rates low, but it's possible that rates could rise as the Fed backs off from its program of buying mortgage securities next year.Second, the Obama administration is encouraging lenders to reduce defaults through loan modifications. "Loan mods" that offer sizable cuts in monthly payments perform much better than less-generous modifications. But the re-default rate remains high for all modifications, possibly because of the tough economy (borrowers losing jobs) as well as because of under-water borrowers who choose to walk away from their mortgage.