Unemployment at 9.4%, deficit climbs to $1.3 trillion

From Yahoo Finance at http://finance.yahoo.com/news/US-economy-sheds-fewer-jobs-rb-2889844679.html?x=0&.v=3:

The unemployment rate eased to 9.4 percent in July from 9.5 percent the prior month, Labor Department data showed, the first time the jobless rate had fallen since April 2008.

From AFP at http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hAAhDJ_IAwKglPuq8VnzLGW4Rblg:

US deficit climbs to 1.3 trillion dollars
WASHINGTON — The US budget deficit reached 1.3 trillion dollars for the current fiscal year in July, official data showed, news set to fuel opposition to US President Barack Obama's ambitious health care and climate change proposals.
The deficit for the first 10 months of fiscal year 2009, which began October 1, reached 1.3 trillion dollars, close to 880 billion dollars greater than the deficit recorded through July 2008, said the US Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Outlays rose by almost 530 billion dollars, or 21 percent, and revenues fell by more than 350 billion dollars, or 17 percent, compared with the amounts recorded during the same period last year, the non-partisan CBO said.
The new data was likely to stoke Republican opposition to Obama's plans to remake the US health care system and enact sweeping legislation to battle climate change, as well as fuel criticism of his handling of the economy.
Republicans have charged that the nearly 800-billion-dollar economic stimulus package Obama and his Democratic allies pushed through earlier this year only swells the deficit and has not paid off in jobs recovered.
The president late Thursday declared America may be seeing the beginning of the end of its economic nightmare, and fired a blistering attack on his Republican critics.