As I keep saying on here but too many people are brainwashed by the right wing media, the main causes of the ballooning national debt are the Bush tax cuts, the Obama tax cuts, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Funny how no right winger EVER mentions the debacle of Iraq as being a major contributor to the economic mess.

As I keep repeating on here, we cannot fight wars and cut taxes. It is a recipe for economic disaster. Wars do not pay for themselves and neither do tax cuts.

Herb, once again, you make no sense. "Underemployed" does not mean "unemployed." You need to learn the difference between the two. For example, an laid-off engineer who is working construction is considered underemployed because they may not be making as much money and not utilizing their skills as they did in their previous job. Even if they are making more money than the average worker, they are considered underemployed if they are making less money than their previous job.

There can be an unemployment/underemployment rate, but underemployment cannot factor into the unemployment since employment and unemployment are not the same things.