WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Senator John Thune (R-S.D.), Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, today issued the following statement regarding the national unemployment rate for November:

"With the unemployment rate at an unacceptably high 7.7 percent and another 350,000 Americans simply dropping out of the workforce altogether in November, the president and Senate Democrats shouldn't be insisting on a destructive tax hike that would hit nearly one million small businesses employing almost a quarter of the nation's workforce. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation have both stated that increasing taxes has a negative impact on job creation and economic growth. In addition, Ernst and Young has said the president's small business tax hike would slash 700,000 jobs, cost 1.3 percent of economic growth, and cut wages by nearly 2 percent. America's middle class and small businesses cannot afford the president's tax hike.

"Rather than threatening to take the country over the brink if taxes aren't raised on small businesses that employ 25 percent of our workforce, the president ought to be working with Congress to find solutions to avert the fiscal cliff through pro-growth tax reform, entitlement reform that saves and protects programs for future generations, and measured spending cuts."