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The Labor Department announced an unexpected jump in first-time claims for jobless benefits at the end of January. Initial unemployment claims increased by 35,000, the highest level in 26 years. The total number of people collecting jobless benefits has climbed to a record 4.79 million. According to veteran journalist and frequent Uprising guest, Chris Hedges, “the daily bleeding of thousands of jobs will soon turn our economic crisis into a political crisis.” Companies are laying workers off faster than expected, in an attempt to survive the recession. But the growing controversy over excessive CEO pay and incentives, particularly those receiving government bailout money, has angered Americans. In response, President Barack Obama announced a salary cap for those companies yesterday as he struggles to make the case for his economic stimulus package. But, says Hedges, “There is nothing President Obama can do to stop” the downward economic decline as “it has been decades in the making.”

GUEST: Chris Hedges, Pulitzer prize winning reporter, Senior Fellow at the Nation Institute, author of several books including War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning, I Don’t Believe in Atheists, and his latest, Collateral Damage: America’s War Against Iraqi Civilians

Read his article, “It’s Not Going to Be Okay,” online at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090202_its_not_going_to_be_ok/