The nation’s largest private employer is seeing troubling times:

Wal-Mart’s core shoppers are running out of money much faster than a year ago due to rising gasoline prices, and the retail giant is worried, CEO Mike Duke said Wednesday.

“We’re seeing core consumers under a lot of pressure,” Duke said at an event in New York. “There’s no doubt that rising fuel prices are having an impact.”

If this goes on, Wal-Mart could be faced with either cutting hours and laying off employees. That too will add to our economic doom and gloom. It’s just a shame that our leaders in Washington, on both sides of the aisle, are to worried about petty crap and not focused on jobs or rising costs.