The unemployment rate hit 8.5 percent in March - the largest percentage of jobless Americans in 25 years.

Another 663,000 people lost their jobs last month. That makes for nearly 2 million job losses in the first three months of this year alone, and 5.1 million pink slips since the recession started.

Our economy, in terms of employment, has fallen back by an entire generation.

Yet, amazingly, there are still governors and lawmakers in dozens of states who are proposing or imposing tax hikes on hard-working families and the businesses that provide the jobs during these hard times.

What are they thinking? Tax hikes will only make the recession worse, lead to more job losses and impede efforts by families to dig out of this economic mess. Tax hikes just dig a bigger hole.

Whether lawmakers are trying to put taxes on your bottled water, your groceries, your clothing, your income taxes, your property taxes or on employers - the potential negative impact on the economy can be devastating.

Some lawmakers think they can get away with taxing everyday products and services because "you won’t notice it." Well, who won't notice their grocery and clothing bills going up in this economy? Who won't notice their property and income taxes going up? Who won't notice that more jobs are being cut because the cost of doing business is going up and companies need to cut back?

This gets to the rub here. When times get tough and money gets tight for families and companies - they have to cut back and become more efficient. They don't have extra money to spend.

But when times get tough for government, they simply keep spending and raising taxes on you and your employer. Few in America seem to complain that government isn't big enough. So when times are tough, it's a good time for government to act like the rest of us: cut back on its excesses, become more efficient and find innovative ways to deliver necessities more effectively.

That's what the rest of the world does.

If your elected officials are trying to raise taxes, don't stand for the insanity. Stand up and fight it. Rattle some cages. As the latest jobless numbers continue to show - your job could very well be on the line.