Recession: The Democrats' politicized housing and mortgage policies pushed our economy into its worst downturn since the Great Depression. So, of course, it's a perfect time for the biggest tax increase in history.

Why is the economy still paralyzed after the president's much-touted "Recovery Summer"? It may be that private investment, too, has been immobilized.

With unemployment now up to 9.6%, Americans fear that the economy won't get moving again anytime soon. As a new report from Americans for Tax Reform shows, that fear is completely rational. The report outlines the impact of the largest-ever tax hike that's coming in just 120 days as the Bush tax cuts expire.

On New Year's Day, "The top income tax rate will rise from 35% to 39.6% (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed). The lowest rate will rise from 10% to 15%. All the rates in between will also rise. Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates."

Of crucial importance to entrepreneurship and job creation, the top capital gains tax rate rises from 15% to 20% next year, while the top rate for taxation of dividends rises from 15% to 39.6%.

And, "These rates will rise another 3.8% in 2013," ATR points out.

Then there are the 20 new or increased taxes dictated by the ObamaCare government takeover of the health care system. All told, Americans' taxes will go up by $3.1 trillion, as Heartland Institute economist John Nothdurft noted in IBD last week.

With all that on the horizon for an already-crippled U.S. economy, the Obama administration has saturated the Internet with WhiteHouse.gov propaganda — like an interactive map in which you can "Roll over states to learn how many estimated jobs have been created and saved due to Recovery Act funding."

Maybe playing with that map of fictional jobs on their computer can give unemployed breadwinners something to do.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce in July sent an open letter to the president, Congress and the American people, warning: "Through their legislative and regulatory proposals — some passed, some pending, and others simply talked about — the congressional majority and the administration have injected tremendous uncertainty into economic decision making and business planning."

"This is why banks are reluctant to lend and why American corporations are sitting on well over a trillion dollars," the Chamber wrote. "It is why America's small businesses and entrepreneurs, the engines of innovation and job creation, are starving for capital and are either struggling to survive or unable to expand."

Amid all this, the president is reportedly mulling "emergency" infrastructure spending — another stimulus to throw tens of billions more in good taxpayer money after bad.

If there's a ray of hope, it may be for change in Washington.

Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., says extending the Bush tax cuts would be the first order of business if voters give Republicans a majority in the House of Representatives this November.

That may be the only way this listless, limping economy has any chance of walking tall again.