owning it, investing in it, and making good money. there's always a bull market somewhere, i promise to try to find it for you here on "mad money." i'm jim cramer and hey, larry, what do you have for us? >> jimmy, i wish they wouldn't, but the federal reserve is going to launch qe 3 tomorrow. good evening, everyone. i'm larry kudlow. this is "the kudlow report." our top story tonight, breaking news, the u.s. is sending war ships to libya and is now investigating whether the heinous murder of the u.s. ambassador to libya, the first killing of an america ambassador in 30 years was actually a terrorist attack planned in advance to coincide with 9/11 and reports are that these thugs are the terrorists who worked with al qaeda in iraq. take a listen. >> the president takes responsibility not just for the words that come from his mouth and also from the words that come from his ambassadors and his administration and from his embassies and from his state

department. they clearly sent mixed messages to the world and the statement that came from the administration was a statement which is akin to an apology and i think was a severe miscalculation. >> all right. the bungled obama administration in response to this possible terrorist act has now become a political football with president obama saying this to cbs. please take a listen. >> governor romney seems to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later and as president, one of the things i've learn side you can't do that, that it's important for you to make sure that the statements you make are backed up by the facts and that you've thought through the ramifications before you make them. >> shoot first, mr. president? what are you talking about? your cairo embassy first shot was a misfire. it was an apology and, frankly, i think if it weren't for hillary clinton, cia director general david petraeus and defense secretary leon panetta,

you, sir, would not have known what to say to those muslim terrorists even tonight right now. also this evening, market's flat, but there are two big developments coming out of europe. the german supreme court okayed $190 billion contribution to a bailout fund in the netherlands' elections and then there's tomorrow when fed head ben bernanke is expected to pump in even more money into our economy. plus former federal reserve governor frederick mishkin will join me and he says the government will buy mortgage-backed securities and i say probably so, but it's a futile waste of money that's not going to work and it's not a great idea, but we'll have that discussion in a few moments and later on the show, day three of the hostage situation in the chicago schools continues. now support coming from the national leftist american federation of teachers. the teachers are asking their patron saint, president obama to weigh in and now the school

janitors union says it might join the strike. who is going to stand up to this extortion threat from these public worker unions? we begin this evening with breaking news. officials tell nbc news that the u.s. navy is positioning two guided missile destroyers off the coast of libya to provide additional military options. the question tonight, was al qaeda involved in the attack in libya? demonstrations now in tunisia and the desecration of the american flag at the american embassy in cairo and you're now looking at live pictures of violent demonstrations breaking out in front of the u.s. embassy in cairo. let's go to nbc chief foreign correspondent richard engle in cairo. >> reporter: there's more violence tonight in egypt and there are clashes ongoing between a relatively small number of demonstrators and egyptian security forces right in front of the u.s. embassy here in downtown cairo. the clashes began as egyptian

forces tried to push back the demonstrators, clear them away trt from the embassy and they sent in armored paddy wagons to arrest the demonstrators who refused to disperse. this was nothing compared to what happened yesterday in libya at the consulate in the city of benghazi. we are now learning that there was a five-hour gun battle as the consulate there was under attack by a militant group that used military-style tactics, used mortars and used rpgs and ultimately killed four americans including the u.s. ambassador. richard engel, nbc news, cairo. >> many thanks to nbc's richard engel reporting in cairo. let's get right to our distinguished panel, indiana republican senator dan coates and peter brooks who worked in the bush administration and

larry core who worked in the reagan administration. you know, senator coates, the president of egypt has still not apologized, best i understand, president obama who was trying to always carry favor with the middle east and wants to forgive $1 billion of debt to egypt, a country that hasn't even apologized for what's gone on, and i will tell you, sir, i'd like to hear what you have to say, watching president obama twice bungle this from the state department. if it weren't for hillary and if it weren't for -- if it weren't for petraeus and if it weren't for the defense department, i don't believe even now president obama would know how to handle this or what to say. if it weren't for those guys you wouldn't know what to say. that's my take, senator. how do you see it? >> that statement was botched badly by the embassy there in cairo. even the president, and romneya,

dressed that and the president addressed that and later had to revise that statement. i mean, it was a terrible statement typical of the president of the united states. he deflects it and he attacks romney admitting this is a botched statement, holding the egypt government responsible for something like this is absolutely something they need to do if they want to have continued cooperation from the united states. >> and i want to ask peter brooks, old friend, so hillary says today in her comment that we reject these acts, quote, unquote, we reject these actions, but the president says later we will bring to justice. how he's going do that, i don't know. we will bring them to justice, peter brooks. what the hell does that mean? would you please tell me because to me, he is more interested in promoting these muslim states running through the art than he is promoting american influence and leadership in that region.

that's what's got me really bugged, peter. how is he going to bring them to justice? >> i certainly can't channel president obama. i'm not the right person to do that. what i hope he means here is that the government of libya does not bring these guys to justice that we're going to take action including military action to bring them to justice. if they're not going track them down and bring them in, we're going have to do it and that's why i'm glad to see we have u.s. war ships off the coast of libya, if we find training camps and other things and we can identify people who were involved in this, i think we may have to take action if the libyans won't do it themselves. >> and larry, let me go to you on this because there's another angle here. the u.s. defense budget is being raped and pillaged if we go through this fiscal cliff and it's another 500 billion and we've already taken out another 500 billion and president obama said we should take out more from the defense budget. larry, do we have the resources to cover all these places around the globe, really?

do we have the ammunition? do we have the fuel? do we have the gasoline and whatever it takes to go after guys like that who are actually mocking us on the day we commemorate 9/11? >> more than enough. don't forget that president obama has killed more leaders of al qaeda than the previous administration. he's gotten bin laden and he's got the number two guy of al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. so to say he doesn't use military force is nonsense. remember, it was a year ago when we had the budget control act passed in order to raise the deficit. that was forced on them. i mean, this idea that he's cutting it, he is spending more now on average than we spent when you and i were in government in reagan and under the administration of the first president obama. we're back, if you will, in real terms to 2010 levels. so even after the budget control act which was forced on them.

this was not part of the deal he made with boehner. this was the attempt -- he had to go along with it. >> senator dan coates, i want to go back to another money issue because the fact that this muslim brotherhood president of egypt has not apologized to the united states for ripping in the embassy, climbing up the flag, take the flag and ripping it down. i find that outrageous and i find it particularly outrageous that president obama suddenly wants to forgive $1 billion of egyptian debt. why are we redistributing our income to countries who dislike us, maybe even hate us in the middle east? why don't we look out for ourselves and why haven't we demanded an apology from this character in cairo who is the president of egypt? >> i can guarantee you that the congress is going to demand we have some cooperation in this effort to take these people to justice or there's going to be a

real debate and discussion about whether or not we will continue to send taxpayers' money to egypt. we have to have a reliable government that supports us if they want us support. you see live pictures of the demonstrations there and they need to take a strong stand. they need to stand with us, otherwise, we have to look at how we're cooperating with egypt. >> senator coats, do we understand that there is a strong likelihood that these thugs who kidnapped our ambassador in libya and benghazi -- do we understand that these were guys that worked for al qaeda and europe that that's who this crowd always was in the eastern part of libya? do we get that? >> listen, i serve on the intelligence committee in the senate. we are pursuing this and it's premature to judge just exactly who these people are and who they're affiliated with and they're part of this jihad against america and they're part of the drive out of the middle

east and they'll take the symbols down like the flag and they'll take ambassadors down and they want to cause our country harm and i think we ought to recognize this is the stark re-affirmation fact that we're at war with the terrorists and it's 11 years going and more years ahead and we can't dismiss this as saying this president is doing better than before. we're still confident. >> i just want to note, these are live pictures outside the embassy in cairo that we're looking at right here. peter brooks, i want to give you the last word. instead of an arab spring, peter, will this be an arab winter and one weir not going to like in terms of american interest interess and one whoses door has been opened by president obama? >> we're in the crosshairs and if we don't teach these people a lesson we'll pay this price again. we have to do something that shows resolve. we have to show strength. we can't show weakness and there's something that has to be

done to deter others from taking similar acts. >> let's not forget that the egyptian government is trying to stop these things. they're not encouraging them -- >> why hasn't he apologized then? the president of libya has arc apologized, larry. why hasn't the president of egypt? they tore down and ripped our flag apart on the day we were commemorating 9/11. where's the apology for the muslim brotherhood president of egypt? >> he stopped the violence. they had an election. we supported an election. he won the election. >> these pictures show the violence outside our embassy is continuing. i beg your pardon, my friend. >> but he's trying to stop it, okay? that's the key thing. i don't care what he says. i want him to stop it to protect america. >> he's got -- >> it's military policy. >> and it can't just be one or the other. >> i think it's more important to keep the people alive there. that's the key thing.

>> it's the declare a tore policy. we promoted the free election and we're all for democrat see. it was a free and open and fair election. >> i am not promouth the climbing of our embassy walls and the ripping down and the ripping down of our flag on 9/11 and i will guarantee you quarters to pennies, larry, it is the egyptian military which was trained mostly by the united states that is trying to keep the peace in the streets and that this muslim brotherhood president is not lifting a pinky finger. i guarantee that he is not lifting a pinky finger and the problem is you and others should not have the trust in him that the obama team apparently has. >> if only to secure the security of our embassy and our personnel. >> and he is securing it. nobody's been hurt. he's been securing it.

>> they were climbing the walls and inside the compound. >> he got them out and he tore down the flag and they could have stopped it and it was protecting our budgets overseas. >> we have marines there. >> end of story! >> we have marines there to do that! >> outside of the embassy they did and it's the police and the security forces that's responsible and they didn't do that. >> i have to get more. i have to get more. senator dan coats, thank you. peter brooks, thank you. larry, thank you. >> you are looking at pictures outside of the u.s. embassy in cairo and police have launched tear gas and we'll keep the box up for a while so you can look at that now. let me bring in senior romney foreign policy adviser dan seenor. after the information flows in and the bungling flows in and the $billion dollar debt forgiveness flows in and the fact that the egyptian president won't arc apologize and if it weren't for hillary clinton or

david petraeus we wouldn't have the weak statement we got, why shouldn't mitt romney have a tough statement? america hasn't heard a tough statement for a long time. what's wrong with the tough statement from rock me? >> i agree with you, larry. it was a tough day in losing ambassador chris stevens and the other names we're learning about was extremely tough for most americans. however, you're right. the middle east is up in flames. the arab spring looks like an islamist winter. it looks like they're getting nuclear weapons capability, and syria, tens of thousands of people dead and to your point, when leaders of these countries that are going through this great transition that would rely disproportionately on u.s. taxpayer funding don't actually share our outrage for the chaos that's been told throughout the region in part because of the obama administration's policies, you can understand why governor romney wants to speak out. >> the president ultimately disavowed the statement that

came from his own administration. it took them nine or ten hours to do it, but for them to criticize governor romney when they ems thises had to distance themselves from a statement that came from their embassy and their own administration. >> it was hillary clinton, if you ask me who took the 3:00 a.m. phone call this time around, and not the president, but i want to cask you this. i want to ask you this. if the united states does not respond to these terrorist actions and go back to a recent history. you remember the 1933, the 1993 attack on the world trade center. it was unanswered. do you remember khobar towers? it was unanswered. do you remember the "uss cole?" it was unanswered and not so long ago 9/11 commemorated yesterday? do you remember what happened there? my point is a simple one. if we don't take action and if we don't show american strength then we are opening the door to more terrorist craziness that will do us and the rest of the world no good at all. >> well, what it means in the

immediate days of these crises is having our president speak out on the side of people who are risking their lives on the streets to build democracies and fight for freedom and throw over autocrats and fight sectarian violence in this part of the world and the president hasn't done that. that's the first thing you do to show american strength is lock arms and stand with people who are on the front lines of these fights and whether or not american military might, the first thing we need to do is stand with those fighting for our values and trying to advance our values. in the last couple of days and particularly what happened last night the president was silent as the people who are trying to destroy rights, destroy freedom and advance terrorist agendas in these countries were aking against diplomatic posts and a bad statement, and he finally disavowed it which was good, but to your point, it's symptomatic to a sense of chaos throughout the region right now. >> we'll leave it there.

dan seenoir, the romney campaign. we'll monitor the situation in cairo all evening. there's news back here. get ready, qe-3 to unveil tomorrow by the fed. at least that's what folks think, okay? i happen to think it's a fool's errand. we'll ask rick from michigan. he's much smarter than i am. free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity. i wish we could get some here. i wish we could get some in the middle east as well. i'm larry kudlow. we'll be coming right back.

>> today kicks off the smart of the two-day fomc meeting and the big question remains to qe or not to qe? we might know the answer tomorrow. here now is frederick michigan, former federal reserve board governor and current economics professor. good to see you. >> good to see you. >> i reckon the fed will ask for quantitative easing tomorrow, and i happen to think it is a futile waste of money. >> i don't think so in that sense. i think there are problems and costs to doing this, but a quantitative easing has been able to have an impact on

markets and actually in terms of helping to lower interest rates and raise the stock market and actually help increase spending. so it has been able to have had some effect and unfortunately, there's no other crap game in town. the federal reserve doesn't have the ability to lower interest rates and the policy of extending the commitment to keep interest rates low is less and less effective as we get close to the end of ben bernanke's term. >> but, rick, let me just ask you again. you know more about this and you're an ex-federal reserve governor. i was a lonely federal reserve staffer at the new york fed many, many years ago. honest to god, let me just ask you this, the fed has created roughly $2 trillion in new bank reserves in recent years. it turns out this is the worst economic recovery in modern times going back to 1947. rick, my point with monetary policy and i would add, fiscal, if this stuff was going work it

would have already worked, but the problem is as the economy slumps again, it ain't working. it ain't working, rick. >> see, here's the problem which is that the problems with the economy are due to factors that the fed had no control over so the question you really want to ask is how much worse would it have been if, in fact, the fed had not done what it did? particularly if the fed had not taken the actions in 2008 and 2009 we would have been in deep doo-doo. the question is how do we get things to work? the fed that can't do it by itself and we're in complete agreement and the irresponsibility of the u.s. congress and the politicians has been such that's created huge uncertainty and we're not dealing with the problems that we need to deal with. >> right. >> and that's one of the reasons why businesses are reluctant to invest. >> and this is what troubles me.

you throw in qe3 and 500 billion or maybe they'll leave it open and you'll sink king dollar and the real problem is you are hinting men and women in businesses large and small are worried about tax burdens and regulatory burdens and deficit burdens. they're worried about fiscal policy and they don't need liquidity from the fed and that's why i mean it's futile and unfortunately we went long with this situation overseas. many thanks to the former governor of the federal reserve. cnbc will have live coverage of ben bernanke's news conference at 2:15 tomorrow. this union is bucking genuine reform efforts from our president. they're bucking performance reform for our president and it's a travesty for our kids.

lamar alexander will sound off next. you may be surprised. i have something good to say about obama on this particular one. [ female announcer ] want to spend less and retire with more? then don't get nickle and dimed by high cost investments and annoying account fees. at e-trade, our free easy-to-use online tools and experienced retirement specialists can help you build a personalized plan. and with our no annual fee iras and a wide range of low cost investments, you can execute the plan you want at a low cost. so meet with us, or go to etrade.com

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>> in day three of the chicago teachers union strike 350,000 kids still out of class while teachers rallying on the streets show no sign of backing down. is it time for president obama to intervene? let's talk to senator lamar alexander, republican from

tennessee and a former u.s. secretary of education. senator alexander, thank you, sir. you know, sir, looking at the unbelievably bad performance record of the kids coming out of chicago school system, it is astonishing to me that they are opposing performance reforms which is the heart of the issue. it is astonishing to me. >> it shouldn't surprise you, though. i went through a two-year battle with the national education association 25 years ago to do it in tennessee, but president obama has been strong on teacher evaluation. he's been strong on charter schools in the chicago teachers union should listen to the proz that. >> you know, i am so glad you said that, that was my next line. we've had arne duncan, the education secretary on this show. i know that president obama's talked about performance in his reform package and here are these far left, far left, some of them are socialist teachers unions that will not be judged and the data is so clear how

they screwed up. so obama's got the story right republican senator alexander, is that correct? >> well, that's right. that's right. this is the holy grail of k through 12 education. finding a fair way to relate teacher pay to student performance. these teachers are already making $75,000 a year on average, that's nearly $20,000 above the national average. if you pay the best teachers more, pay them $100,000, and $125,000 and send them into the toughest schools to where they need the most help is what they should be doing and the teachers don't want to do it even though the illinois legislature passed almost unanimously a law saying they should do it. >> they should do it. they should not do it. >> no, the illinois legislature passed a law as 30 states have done, to say we ought to be relating teacher pay to student performance. >> why didn't they do it? what happened? why didn't they do it? >> because they're on strike which they should never be

anyway. teachers shouldn't be striking period. the president can say that. >> public officials -- they are now in illegal territory, are they not? they could be fired. >> i don't know what the illinois law is, but in tennessee they would be violating the law and they would be fired and in tennessee where i'm from the teacher -- student performance is 50% of the teacher's pay. it's not easy to do. teacher evaluations are hard to do, but it's what we have to do if we want to help our kids succeed. >> thank you, sir. senator lamar alexander, former education secretary, we appreciate it. >> thank you, larry. with the teachers median salaries now at $76,000 are these unions bankrupting our kids? yea. they're bankrupting the whole city. we have richard allenberg, senior fellow of the foundation and michael petrilli from the thomas b. institute.

you're my liberal. barack obama is my liberal tonight. he wants performance reform, so does arne duncan, why are all your left wing teacher union friends in chicago bucking their guy from chicago, obama, who actually, and i'm going say it, got this story right? >> well, i think they're reacting because obama's been spending a little too much time with the hedge fund managers and not with the teachers who are in the classroom every day. teachers want to have accountability. that's not the question. the question is are we going to have a fair system accountability? in places like montgomery county maryland, they have a great system where they go into the classroom and evaluate their peers and they recommend a lot of their peers get fired if they're not up to the job. why shouldn't they get fired? if i'm not up to my job i'm going get fired. if you're not up to your job you're going get fired. if teachers are not up to their job with statistical performance

and testing why shouldn't they get fired? >> you're not listening to me. i said they should get fired if they're not up to the task and teachers know better than anyone else who is doing a good job and if you go to any teacher's lounge throughout the country, everybody knows who the weak teachers are and who the good teachers are. >> i don't think the teachers can self-police. i don't think they'd have credibility about self-regulating. i think you have to have standardized performance -- standardized performance testing going on. by the way, we've done a lot of that in new york under bloomberg and joel klein and by the way, president obama wants to do the same thing nationwide and i presume chicago. what's wrong with that? you don't really believe what i just heard from mr. callenberg that teachers can self-police on this? >> no, look, larry, they keep moving the goalpost. with all due respect to my friend rick, before, they didn't want teachers to have the authority to decide which once were good and which ones were

bad and we'll create these elaborate systems to decide and now we'll move to having the teachers self-police. teacher unions are there to protect their members and they do not want accountability and that's the bottom line and that's what the strike is about. it's about power. the unions have had a lot of power for many years and they don't want to give it up and the teacher union is there to protect it. it's just like corporations are there to make profits and unions are there to protect the members. >> mike, that's just not true. we know in montgomery county, maryland, where they do self-police they actually increased because if you're a fourth-grade teacher and you have a terrible third grade colleague you want that teacher out of there, but in any profession, a true profession, you police yourself and that's what -- >> there are so many laws about true professions, doctors, lawyers. i have a true profession that doesn't work. how about the football and the center and the guards and the tackles and they're going to be in charge of all holding calls

or face mask calls or clipping calls. do you think that would work or do you think we need referees, dick allenberg? >> of course, we need referees in football and the analogy is completely inappropriate. in lots of counties, we see teachers who are able to police themselves and fire the bad ones. that's what we want to have. that's the sort of system that we need. if you want to attract really great teachers and you want to elevate the profession you don't want to have a system where teachers are being graded simply based on test scores and act as if they need to be com -- are in complete control. if a student is e fikted have their apartment and they're homeless, do you think that's the teacher's fault that the test scores go down? >> i don't know. i'd like to know more on that, but i don't think anybody would trust this teachers union when you look at their history. we've got to get out of here, but here's what's got to happen

here, he has to bring his men to barack obama and obama's got to settle this strike and he should settle it along the lines of his own performance reform which has to be good. the question is does mr. obama have the political guts and courage to do it. thank you, richard callenberg, thank you, michael petrilli. it's here, at last, the first look at apple iphone 5, does it live up to all of the hype? that's our next issue.

stocks eke out small gains today. the dow and the s&p 500 touched fresh multi-year highs earlier in the session before the afternoon pullback. investors remain on their toes ahead of tomorrow's fed announcement. here now, stephen weiss of short hills capital author of "the big win." can we do this apple story iphone 5? i'm dying to buy one because i hate my samsung. do you think it's a good product? >> too many people are now worried about what's next? they didn't do much for the ipad 3 or the ipad, i've got one right here, actually and there were many upgrades. i think there were very sound

upgrades for iphone 5. for apple it's a penetration story and i would buy the stock. i do own the stock. i'm also short puts. it's 13 times earnings. >> what kind of margins do they make on these things? >> yea, but you really got to look at them as they outsource all of their management and manufacturing so it's eye high-margin company. >> barack obama wouldn't like them at all. >> barack probably hates them. >> and he may have an apple. >> he's keeping it under the covers and showing the blackberry. the apple is not approved by the white house and secret service. >> fed ease tomorrow if they do. the market's up 30 points since last october. jimmy rogers was on the show last night saying it was all fed. what do you think? are you buying because the fed's coming in or is this drama or is it disdowned by the market? i'm longer than i've been and i still believe it's a hard landing and we've talked about that for the past year and i don't think europe solved their issues? i'm not looking for bernanke to come in with the bazooka

tomorrow and it's best to keep talking about it and incrementally call in and tantalizing. >> i call it the lingerie market. >> it's not -- it's the expectation of more and more. so the dollar lingeries itself lower and gold and silver are lingerieing themselves higher and commodities and maybe grains and the whole market. is that what you're saying? i stay away from commodities. china is a disaster and iron ore prices have collapsed to 80 and may go to 50. stay with consumer growth companies in the u.s. and away from materials. oil is okay. >> while we're talking about underwear and lingerie, let's go over to europe where they know how to do it. they have the same deal. one way or the other they'll get bailed out. >> they'll never let greece leave the european union.

>> they're probably cheap. >> there are some you can buy there. it's amazing. the ecb comes in and lowers the cost by 80 basis points and spain says i think we're okay now. you've got a deep-pocketed savior that they don't have something that they'll have to be accountable for. >> so it's great, so i think you can buy some stuff there and you can't buy the gold and industrial companies because their currency won't save it. >> how about their banks? >> you have to do a lot of work. bailed out, whatever. our banks have had a tremendous run here. >> huge. >> it isn't because they're making all these great loans because they figure europe will not collapse. >> absolutely. the risk is not there anymore because they have the backstop. i think our bank is still cheap and they're picking up a tremendous share in europe and they've never been in europe before and j.p. morgan and goldman sachs. it's no accident those stocks -- >> the idea is to buy sexy

underwear from europe and the usa. >> isn't that always the idea? >> that's always the idea. okeydokey. stephen weiss, thank you very much, as always. coming up on kudlow, a national disgrace. not lingerie, but 46 million people in poverty. household income falling, new numbers out today from the census bureau paint an ugly picture of what's going on in america. you know, in a great country like ours it isn't easy to make all these people poor. it takes a lot of very bad policy. that's just what this administration is doing and we'll show you the lousy results in just a moment. hey! did you know that honey nut cheerios

has oats that can help lower cholesterol? and it tastes good? sure does! wow. it's the honey, it makes it taste so... well, would you look at the time... what's the rush? be happy. be healthy. i don't have to use gas. i am probably going to the gas station about once a month. drive around town all the time doing errands and never ever have to fill up gas in the city. i very rarely put gas in my chevy volt. last time i was at a gas station was about...i would say... two months ago. the last time i went to the gas station must have been about three months ago. i go to the gas station such a small amount

that i forget how to put gas in my car. ♪ >> you know, folks, you're supposed to grow the economic pie larger, that's the idea, but new census bureau numbers out today say millions of folks are actually getting poorer and that's not an easy thing to do in a great freemarket system like ours unless, of course, you have terrible policies coming out of washington which seems to be the reason for some of these startling facts and figures. let's go right up here. median household income, adjusted for inflation is heading lower and lower and lower. this is one of the worst patches and what i want to say here is

this started during the recession and continues during the recovery. in fact, this measure has dropped 4.5% during the recovery which is more than a drop 2.5% during the recession. so that is not a good thing. this, by the way, is a very good political leading indicator. now, a margin in poverty, a very bad number. 46.2 million. a very bad number for a great country like ours and let me show you the picture. you can see the tremendous rise. look how stable which was throughout the 2000s and then here we go, maybe it's leveling off at about 46, 47 million, but i hope it is because it was 36 million not so long ago. all right. finally, americans on food stamps. you may have seen this one before, 46.5 million people on food stamps. this is an outrage. this is an insult to the great economy of this country. it is an absolute outrage and

let me show you the picture of this thing. look at how this is moved. look at how this is moved. this is just awful. americans receiving food stamps, low through the recovery, sure, but during the recession up, up, up, up. maybe it's leveling off. they're trying to get all kinds of benefits and they're trying to pull you in and trying to give you incentives and the whole problem here is this administration in washington, d.c., wants to pay too many people not to work and they want too much government dependency and that means we have too few workers, too few entrepreneurs and too little wealth to grow this capitalist economy to its absolute max. it is absolutely a disgrace to have this kind of poverty in a great country like ours. coming up, so president obama has completely bungled the terrorist attacks in cairo and libya. also right under his nose is a

left-wing teachers union strike from his own home city of chicago that has become a front-page story nationwide. there's 55 days left before this election. the question, can president obama handle the heat when his convention bounce has already evaporated and it is now dead even with him and romney and we have cairo. we have libya and chicago teachers and next up, we have our political pros facing off. i'm larry kudlow. please stay with us.

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the senseless violence that the american consulate in libya has thrust itself front and center right smack into the middle in the usa and both candidates are going to use this tragedy to criticize each other. let's get an update from our pal nbc steve handelsman and joins us with much more. >> they're still doing it. these murders are a new example of the intensity of the clash between the rivals in the race for the white house. the u.s. consulate was still burning when president obama ordered in u.s. marines to protect american officials remaining in libya. he learned this morning four diplomats were dead. >> the united states condemns in the strongest terms this outrageous and shocking attack. >> as flags were lowered in what washington, the tragedy went political.

a statement in the u.s. embassy critizing the anti-muslim movement. an apology for america's values is never the right course. >> governor romney seems to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later. >> for 60 minutes mr. obama pointed out he repudiated the embassy condemnation of the movie in favor of this. >> we reject all efforts to denigrate the religious belief of others and there is absolutely no justification to this type of senseless violence. >> reporter: a tragedy becomes a test of leadership, seven weeks from election day. >> some republicans criticized their candidates' quick move to criticize the president. others said it showed romney has backbone. back to you. >> i think he's got some backbone. i'll tell you, that statement would never have been rewritten if it weren't for panetta, petraeus and hillary. obama was like a deer in the lights. anyway, steve handelsman, thanks

very much. >> let's do some politics. can president obama handle these new pressures on both sides as well? we have our pal from the grillo.com and jim garrity of "the national review" and author of the campaign spot blog. it comes first thing in the morning to help you out. i want to ask you about this, jim garrity. a very senior american diplomat, right? ambassador was killed and so were four others killed. they were kidnapped and they were ambushed, probably by guys working for al qaeda and iraq. i reckon, jim, that mr. obama better do something about that in the next 50-some odd days and i don't mean more dumb statements. he's got to do something. >> let's keep in mind what's really important and president obama managed to make it to his rally in las vegas tonight and the important priority at this hour. >> in that 60 minutes interview president obama managed to go on the attack about romney saying

he shoots first and aims second. fantastic he's using the shooting metaphor when people are using rpgs at the diplomatic personnel and he goes on this, he doesn't talk about there are no marines at our consulate in benghazi. he made no comment about whether we'll try to forgive $1 billion worth of aid for the egyptian government when it took $40 million to issue any enunciation, they could use that money a lot more than egyptians could. there are a whole bunch of questions about whether the entire perspective on the arab spring has been overly optimistic and they overestimate the threat their consulate faced that the hour. >> they're more worried in the arab spring rather than american interests and that's what troubles me. jim garrity makes a good point. there's obama talking about aiming first? i'm sorry, shooting first and then aiming second? of course, they shot first.

they worked for al qaeda, these thugs in benghazi. they were al qaeda guys in iraq and then they came over and now they're kidnapping and ambushing and killing our top diplomats. your man's got to do something, he's got 55 days and he has got to do something. he said today he would go for justice. where is this justice going to be because justice in libya will be a political issue? >> you know what? i've got to tell you, larry, what the president should not do is what we saw out of mitt romney which i think was, frankly, shameful. mitt romney came out and attacked embassy staff who were, in fact, the victims of this attack, of this terrorist attack and he came out and attacked them before he even had the factis and think it was undignified and it showed conduct unbecoming of someone who was president of the united states and i think it was an embarrassing moment for himself as most republicans agreed and for his campaign. that aside, i think it is difficult for republicans whose foreign policy, avatar was george w. bush for whom bluster

substituted for smart foreign policy and it's difficult for republicans to criticize the president who presided over the end of dictator ships that apparently mr. garrity and others want to restore and the idea -- >> no, you're saying we'd be better off -- >> and i want -- i can't hear anyone accusing me of supporting dictatorships. >> doesn't rambo have to bring in obama to settle the chicago school strike, jim? and oddly enough, obama has a pretty good performance reform plan that these left-wing teachers who run around with socialist and communist red flags have rebelled against obama. at the end of the day, jim, last one for you, doesn't obama have to settle this strike? >> rahm emanuel said the race to the top were bomb's proposal and obama's chief of staff are

trying to enact obama's reforms in the president's hometown and the president is silence. the chicago teachers union have demonstrated who is the real boss in this situation. >> at least he has a policy and it's not privatizing education. >> that's it for tonight's show. thanks for watching. we'll be back for much more tomorrow. oh, my gosh. what a story. [ male announcer ] for the dreamers... and those well grounded. for what's around this corner... and the next. there's cash flow options from pnc. solutions to help businesses like yours accelerate receivables, manage payments, and help ensure access to credit. because we know how important cash flow is

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