of gun walking in its phoenix office? >> no. i didn't become aware of gun walking at all until the beginning of 2011. >> mr. attorney general, if every attempt at coordination -- and, remember, mr. hernandez was never arrested, those authorities were never, no one was ever taken into custody -- but if every attempt at coordination, coordinating fails, do you think the agents should have stopped authorizing further attempts to coordinate between mexico and the united states and allow the gun walking to proceed? ..

>> the notion that you would let guns walk is simply not something that i think is a sound law enforcement technique. >> when does it become gunwalking, mr. attorney general? >> when you had the ability to arrest somebody for some firearm transaction that they have engaged in, and you don't make, make a determination not to make the arrest, and then they

proceed from that site, and you don't survey of them, you don't take any kind of affirmative action, and you allow that person who has committed a firearms offense to simply walk away with the firearm. that from my perspective is gunwalking, and conceptually, is not a good thing to do. that should've stopped even before this administration was involved? >> sure, i think so. >> i thank the gentleman be. i would know for the record that the attorney general has testified as to fast and furious on november 8 before the senate, on december 8 before the house. the other previous testimonies were not on the subject of fast and furious and he was not briefed and able to answer properly during those times. just want to make sure, this is also the first time before our committee. so judiciary quite frankly come and particularly in the house has not taken the lead the way this committee has on both sides of the aisle in it if i could

correct the record. >> of course. >> i certainly did speak and a number of five or six if, in fact, directed at the times your but not the time you're brought to ask to answer questions or were prepared. >> whether it was such senate -- senate appropriations, i was asked and answered those questions. >> okay. with that, the next gentlemen will be the gentlemen from michigan, mr. walberg, for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you, mr. attorney general, for being here today. i'm tempted to ask your opinion on former penn state coach joe paterno. might be an interesting conversation but we don't have time for that in the question, but i would state that joe paterno reported allegations of child molestation to his superiors but did nothing else. because he didn't want to jeopardize university procedure. jason weinstein, a senior official in the criminal

division, knew about gunwalking as early as april 2010. after a single meeting with atf about it, he then failed to follow up or take action. joe paterno, a legend in his sport, and yet he was unceremoniously fired. weinstein continues on in his current position, even the fast and furious has held deadly consequences, most importantly the agent brian terry, a proud son of michigan, my state. my question for you is, what's the difference between the case of joe paterno a penn state and the justice department under your leadership? >> well, i'm not going to get into paterno but i will talk about jason weinstein. he knew about why, and he told

mr. burr about it. he met with atf. he has indicated he did not know about the tactics, the inappropriate tactics the gunwalking tactics involved in fast and furious until later on. and didn't connect those tactics were the ones that were used in wide receiver and has admitted that what he did was a mistake. and has indicated that he failed in not making that connection. >> and so he continues on, as do other senior officials, moved around as chess men on a board with the consequences of significant nature at this point in time. no admission other than now in brought into the carpet and brought into the public light that this thing was gone wrong, was set up to go wrong, and, frankly, i believe it was set up to go wrong in order to do with second amendment liberties of

law-abiding citizens and pushing into a perception that it was the problem of second amendment as opposed to law enforcement. and more importantly, mr. attorney general, your oversight of agency of a department of individual leaders in that department that have not been held accountable. >> well, with all do respect, and i mean this was a great, the notion that this was an operation set up to do something to impinge upon the second amendment rights of my fellow citizens is absurd. the operation that was put together here was an attempt to stop the flow of guns from the united states into mexico, something i think we should all agree upon. >> and it wasn't effective, wasn't? >> it was not. it was flawed, fundamentally flawed. i have said that from day one. by the notion that somehow or another this was a setup to come up with measures that would impinge upon second amendment

rights is simply not substantiated by facts, and i think it's numbers again with all due respect, i think is almost a responsible. >> with all due respect, i would incur that your mention today of the necessity for and pinching upon second amendment liberties of law-abiding citizens still for the brought that question. let me move on you. an article yesterday by former state director michael hayden noted that you quote, launched a reckoning of cia renditions, detentions and interrogations of terrorists by directing the justice department to reopen investigations closed years before i career prosecutors. this decision was opposed by leon panetta and his seven predecessors. the article notes that she reportedly made the decision without reading detailed memos, prepared by those career prosecutors, declined to pursue further proceedings. and further, mr. attorney general, your well-known in this town for not reading memos. you admit you failed to read memos addressed to you in fast

and furious. ifill to read memos before marc rich pardon. he failed to read memos or even the law related to the arizona immigration law. what does that say about your leadership and management that you consistently failed to read extremely important papers placed on your desk? >> the gentleman will suspend as i previously said, although use early to talk about your management style, this hearing is limited to fast and furious so i would ask that you limit your answers to the management style as it may relate to fast and furious and not to any other case is unrelated to our investigation. the gentleman may continue. >> well, i disagree with that. given almost the decision to most engaging character assassination i'm going to respond to release some of that. i'm the attorney general of the united states. okay? when it comes to deciding what i'm going to investigate somehow going to investigate, i take into account a wide variety of

things. the decision i made to open up those cia matters, and i was aware that this is something that was opposed by a great many people. i read a great deal before i made that determination. i had access to a true that other people who criticize that decision have never had access to do. now, i have great respect for the people, men and women who put their lives on the line and protect this nation in a way that many of you don't because i see a briefing every day about the great work that they do. but there were things done, things that were done during the course of those interrogations that were antithetical to american values that resulted in the deaths of certain people, and that justified my decision to order an investigation. that investigation has run its course. we are at a point where we are about to close those investigations but it would've been irresponsible for me given the new information i had a chance to review not to order that investigation.

with regard to your more general point about me reading or not reading memos, i read those things that are brought to my attention or things that i think i need to read in order to make appropriate decisions. i'm confident that the management style that i have, the involvement that i have is adequate to allow me to make it full decision based on facts, based on interpretations of the law. and i have a good staff that brings to my attention those things that i need to read. >> the gentleman's time has expired. before i go to mr. tierney, i would like to make, it is worth sort of speaking to your stuff to a certain extent, the staff aware of the crs report that on numerous occasions congress has interviewed attorneys, including in the rocky flats investigation, the early 1990s under obviously republican administration. so i would ask that your staff review that so you may correct your statement, that it never happens. with that we go to the gentleman

from massachusetts next, mr. tierney. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. attorney general, and tells me if you will on this for a second. this committee's obligation is to the family of indices, to the other law-enforcement officers involved, citizens in this country. and this committee is charged with first figure out what happened and then once we determine that, making sure we can work and practices will never happens again in a situation like this. both members, both parties, and our staff did a great deal for a determine the facts and i think the ranking member has gone on a great deal about the number of interviews that, doctors have reviewed, with honor and also laid out a number of actions that were recommended for the future. and i know that you've taken some action and and the atf directors set out some actions as well. so at this stage it seems to me we have a couple of alternatives but we can further explore have a program of gunwalking began

back in 2006, and repeated itself in 2007, repeated itself again 2008 in 2009, repeated itself again in fast and furious, but to do that we would need to talk to mr. mckay see i should think and the majority isn't going to bring mr. casey for. as far as i know he is the only attorney general that a document in front of him to even mention the programs, some of those programs, although it doesn't indicate he authorizes or even condoned. but certainly if that element, trying to find out about more facts would he be someone i would think it would be worth talking to and we've not been given an opportunity. we could explore reforms and mr. bond is as you implemented in the atf directors and become what statutory changes about an traffic and things might be involved, but the committee doesn't seem the least mature doesn't seem interested in doing that. we seem intent, we continue to chase what seems to be a political agenda, trying to find out that somebody in the administration, you in particular, somehow acknowledge or authorized or condoned this

operation. if that were the case it would seem to be a good witness for us to talk to be mr. mehlman. mr. nelson i should say who was then acting atf director. mr. cummings has asked the chairman to bring in as a witness. mr. nelson indicate he is willing to come as a witness but, in fact, he even testified, or talk and was interviewed in the close interview with staff from both parties. they asked him if he ever approves gunwalking. he said he had not. they asked if it had been briefed about gunwalking. he said no. they asked if he was aware if the senior justice department officials have never been authorized and gunwalking, he said no. surely, if the details of operation passengers were approved at the highest level of the department of justice, as has been accused, then mr. nelson, the driver of the atf presumably would have known about it. this is however what he said in the interview and i quote, i don't believe i acknowledge of

the specific tactics used in fast and furious into the facts begin to be disclosed in the media. so mr. nelson to the coming he never authorize gunwalking. the justice department or authorized a. he wasn't aware of it. in fast and furious operation. and he never briefed the attorney general or anyone else a department of justice about. i think is pretty vital information. if the focus is going to be who know who knew what, when, and where. this interview took place seven months ago. chairman issa has refused to let me ask those questions in public before our members. we can go out, draw some conclusions wh by the tesla correctly contradicts the assertion that the operation was approved at the highest levels of justice department. so that leaves us with only i guess i know whether or not there were any bad action by people at higher levels so asking you yet again, mr. attorney general, did mr. mills, the drug of atf ever raise any issue to your attention about gunwalking or the conduct of operation passengers? >> no, he didn't. >> do rely on proponent heads to

bring information to your attention? >> that is one of the response does they have. i hope you have the kind of relationship with him so feel free to bring to my attention to issues like that. >> are you disappointed neither mr. nelson nor anyone else in atf raise concerns about fast and furious to your attention or to anyone else at the department headquarters? >> i'm disappointed not only nestor melson but other people within the department who sees with his knowledge and did not bring it to my attention, and have admitted that they made mistakes i in the bring to my attention by the deputy attorney general's attention the fact that gunwalking existed in some of these operation. >> has anyone held mr. nelson accountable for not bring those to your attention? >> mr. nelson be the determination we agreed it would be better for him to leave atf, i bought a kit to get it fresh start. >> at this time of asking and this consent to enter into the record the transcript of the

interview by republican and the democratic -- >> i object. you know that's grossly inappropriate. >> well, i think, mr. chairman, why do is grow so inappropriate to a pertinent witness who is not allowed to come before this committee and testified that and i thought since you don't seem willing to do that and made we go to the next best thing. where both parties have an opportunity to interview mr. melson and issues that seem to be right at the core of what you're alleging over and over again. >> the gentleman's unanimous consent -- okay, i will be kinder. i reserve. now, speaking on my reservation, does the gentleman what he believed that that is the right thing to do, to make public an ongoing investigation that includes a number of officials, including situation in which an official has taken the fifth and left the justice department, to make any of those documents publicly of able at this time when, in fact, it is pursuant to our investigation? does the gentleman believe this?

>> i will withdraw my request at this point in time but i hope i made the point is that what is important is for you to change your mind and mr. melson to come and testify in public. and answer the questions that have been core, and allegations that you continue to make apparently erroneously but refuse to acknowledge. i appreciate the gentleman's comment. i would note for the record i have not called for the attorney general's resignation. i have not said the attorney general new. i certainly have an ethic many of us are making the point that people didn't know that should have known things that, in fact, we are trying to find out where the failures were made, other than the local level which we have begun describing, in the case of the acting, and it's in his testimony obvious, which will not be in its entirety made available today, but that acting director in fact is culpable for not knowing more of what a director should know or ensure

that people know that next stoppage. so i joined with the gentleman in saying that, in fact, it does concern me that someone who is both direct over 1800 individuals did not know that this in fact involved gunwalki gunwalking. but remember, on february 4, well after many of these events, the attorney general's office prepared a document, gave it to us which they would never let jones walked. that is a concern, to come and the committee is not shy about having additional hearings at the attorney general make himself available at this date, pursuant to a request. we did not and are not saying this is a culmination or we're taking him in little of less significant -- >> mr. melson's interview with some seven months ago to a direct quote from you, mr. chairman, on a show, a radio factor, you said and i quote, atf people and justice people are telling us this goes all the way to the very top.

it goes all the way to the atf office and the drug and goes to the office of the attorney general. this is the approved a plan. to that unit is basically at the highest levels of the obama appointees, closed quote. those are allegations you're going to make, and to be important mr. melson coming year and testified as part of that instead of blocking his testimony and continue to make those assertions which now apparently are obviously not correct. >> i appreciate the gentleman giving roger hitchcock a plug. the fact is that those allegations were made, with a number of other false allegations, i might note for the record that we were given statements, allegations that atf director was viewing on closed-circuit internet connection the actual purchases being made after receiving testimony and multiple, we discovered that although he inquired about the capability of viewing these surveillance tapes

or surveillance as they occur, that no such event occurred. this often happens in investigation. well, mr. chairman, i'm glad you recommend those comments you are amplifying at the very least our fault. now maybe we can move on to business in determining what we can do as a government -- >> look forward to find out what was false. [talking over each other] >> to follow up on what you just said. i know you are reserving, mr. chairman, -- >> i have withdrawn. >> the gentleman has withdrawn be i which is one if it was a way we could have a portion of that document the ghost of mr. melson's testimony when he testimony weekly states that he never totally -- told the attorney general about these actions of fast and furious. that he did not come himself did not know. >> the gentleman from massachusetts has been a very good job of making that available, and -- >> i just want to make sure the record is complete.

the attorney general has been accused of some, there's some very unkind things that have been said about him, his reputation is hanging in the balance and i think we have got mr. melson, former atf director, who clearly stated that he never said anything about these actions to the attorney general dick even said he didn't know about them and sell. and i just wonder if we could just have that portion of the transcript as a part of the record, not trying -- >> i will work with the ranking member to find appropriate portions that seek your concern that can be made available. i might note that my side has quoted repeatedly, and this is what i want to make sure we are fair on those such quotes. my side has quoted what he said he was sick to his stomach when he read the wiretaps and discovered what he didn't know. so although i think it is inappropriate to release the

entire transcript, i will work with the gentleman. we will hold the record open to make appropriate statements that you believe are necessary to make the record complete, and i will be glad to do that. >> thirty seconds. >> of course. >> what you just said is one of the reasons why i want to make sure it's on the record. when mr. melson said iac, sat at his kitchen table and i read it 50 million times, and he said his stomach got a nice we found out about, basically his point was that he did know about it before them. so if he did know about it, was a possible when did he tell the attorney general about it, and that's all. >> well, i'm not going to allow, and i apologize, mr. attorney general, i'm not going to allow this attorney to a sequence of us because i think both sides could get into various testimonies but i will work with the gentleman. he has a valid point. we now return to regular order. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> you're welcome you can i say one thing?

>> the gentleman is recognized in when mr. melson indicated he became sick to his stomach, he did not, it was not when he was reading wiretap application. ustream reports of investigation i think that's an important distinction. >> i appreciate that. we now go to the gentle ladies who has been waiting patiently from new york for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you mr. holder, for being here this one. i just want to make a couple of comments to start out because we heard it from the other side of the aisle, and even yourself with regards to this being a democratic or republican issue, whether this is, then, political game, if this is an election year charade. i think it's very important to recognize that you as the attorney general, with all due respect, need to be held accountable, or someone does, as to what happened. now, i'm amazed that of all the

issues that face this country, this is the issue that i hear from my district so frequently about, and, in fact, today, and i will enter them into the record, i have no fewer than 30 questions from folks in my district who want to know what happened, why it happened and who's going to be held accountable to its. and i was taken aback just a little bit with your response to my colleague, mr. walberg, when you sort of declared that i am the attorney general. well, with all due respect, yes, you are, but you're also accountable to not only the folks in my district but the american people. and i just want, if you would indulge me, just play a recording because most importantly, and as you're well aware of, we had a hearing here in june with brian terri's family, and in that hearing i specifically asked his mother, and will play that hearing, if

you would, please. been of course you would like us to ask. >> i think we would want to know if the dragnet that is set to find everyone involved in brian's murder will be set deep enough and light enough to encompass anyone involved in operation fast and furious. if the guns used in brian's murder were part of this operation, then we would want to know will everyone in that operation that had to deal with those specific weapons be brought up on charges of facilitating the murder of brian terri. >> thank you. will ask that question on your behalf. >> and so, mr. attorney general, on behalf of mr. haier, he was

brian terry's cousin and actually the spokesperson for his mother and his sister, i would ask you, to what links under investigation into operation fast and furious gone? and will everyone in that operation that have to do with the specific weapon to be brought up on charges of facilitating the murder of brian terri? >> well, we are certainly working now, i mean, this is an ongoing investigation but it's a pretty sensitive time to go much i can talk an awful lot about where the investigation is. i think we're pretty close to making some announcements. and we will hold accountable, seek to hold accountable those people who were responsible for agent terry's death. with regard to people who were involved in operation fast and furious. we are endeavoring to find out who made the determination to allow guns to walk.

i'm not really at liberty to talk about the weapons we use in the actual incident that goes to ballistic reports and i don't think i can comment on your. that will come out during the course of the trial. but we will hold accountable people who were involved, as i describe, this flawed investigation and one other thing, i did not mean to flood the comments i made. that i should not be held accountable, but i also think that in certain areas component to this as well. and i ought to be held accountable for those things that are within my area of responsibility. i should be held accountable for things that are factually correct as opposed to those things that are loosely desired. and i'm more than willing to admit mistakes when i have made them, but i also think that if we're going to really get ahead here, make some progress, we need to put aside the political

gotcha games in an election year, and focus on matters that are extremely serious. when one looks at the death toll in mexico, when we look at -- >> excuse me, my time is ticking away. i just have one more question. unlike the chairman, i was one of the members of congress who called for your resignation. i feel that the department of justice, that you're responsible for all of the activities that fall under your umbrella. and i think that you have denied knowledge to the program and accordingly you should not be held accountable. my question to you today is, what more could have possibly gone wrong that you would've been held accountable? and before you answer that i would suggest that the president has been usually quiet about coming to your defense. to let me ask you it this way. how many more border patrol agents would have had to die as a part of operation fast and furious for you to take

responsibility? >> the gentle ladies time has expired. the gentleman me answer. or not. >> you know, you know, that's the kind of thing, you, you wonder why you're getting those calls. unit, people focus on quite as much as an answer. and you know, as a member of congress, yeah, i mean really, is that the way in which you want to be seen, you want to be known? you know, i should be held accountable for certainly my roll in whatever i did or didn't do in connection with the supervision of fast and furious. but i'm attorney general of the united states and i should also be held account will perhaps even given some credit, imagine that, given credit for the things that this justice department has been under my leadership, whether it is with national security, revitalize antitrust, revitalized civil rights speed in just a moment

left in the sink agency in its entirety on our website, c-span.org. going live to the joint economic committee this week ago looking at the genoa jobs report. the numbers released this one were to unemployment at a .3%. that is down .2%. >> i want to make a couple of overall comments about the economic recovery before diving into this month's employment numbers. the second half of 2011, economic momentum picked up. the labor market continued to strengthen, adding 100,000 or more jobs before straight months. additionally, we learned last week that the gdp grew at a to point a% annual rate in the fourth quarter, an improvement over the previous three quarters of 2011. though inventory building

counted for much of that growth. there are other encouraging signs. the manufacturing sector continued to show strength. the ism, manufacturing index reading 50.1% in january marks the 30th consecutive month of expansion in the manufacturing sector. and the unemployment rate has been moving in the right direction during 2011 national unemployment rate fell from 9.4% to 8.5%. however, workers have been out of work for long periods continued to struggle to find new jobs. more than 42% of the unemployed have been jobless for six months or more. we need to help workers regain their footing and bolster the recovery by extending the payroll tax cut for the remaining of the year, and continuing unemployment insurance for workers who are

counting on these benefits to make ends meet. both of these policies put money in people's pockets, creating jobs, strengthening our economy. as the january jobs boost report, jobs report shows, we are making progress as mark zandi said just this morning, this report was unambiguously positive. but we must continue to invest in education, infrastructure and our workers. as i said before we must also take on the housing crisis. without a smart, sensible passport in housing we simply cannot sustain this economic recovery. today's unemployment report from bls shows that jobs gains of economy added private sector jobs for the 23rd straight month. the economy gained 257,000 private sector jobs.

due to the loss of government jobs over all the economy added 243,000 jobs during the month. the manufacturing sector which added 237,000 jobs in 2011 gained 50,000 jobs in january. and that's always good news. in addition professional and business services sector added 70,000 jobs and hasn't lost jobs since march 2010. employment in state and local government was basically unchanged in january. in 2011, state and local governments share to 235,000 jobs and continue to face budget challenges their present a head when for the economy. the overall unemployment rate was 8.3%. the lowest since february 2009. even with this progress, more than 12.7 million people are

looking for work, simply can't find it. the unemployment rate in the african-american community was 13.6%. among hispanic workers the unemployment rate was pin point 5% your body unemployment, overall unemployment rate for veterans was 7.5% in the cold war era, unemployment rate of 9.1%. today's employment rate shows the labor market continues to recover. the job gains in january continues the momentum from fourth quarter of 2011. however, unemployment remains too high, unacceptably too high and we need to stay focused on creating jobs. acting commissioner, i look forward to your testimony. and now it gives me the pleasure to yield to mr. brady. >> thank you, chairman, commissioner, we welcome you in your new capacity to the joint

economic committee hearing on employment never stick of course we know you well from your appearance at prior employment hearings and as a dedicated bls employed for many years. we appreciate your service can look forward to your testimony. we also welcome members of your staff. now, these new job numbers are encouraging, long overdue, but encouraging, the unemployment rate is going down side is as well but i have to caution you, it masks an underlying weakness in our economy. few americans are actually participating in workforce in an almost 20 years. the labor force participation rate is 53.7%, hasn't been this low since march of 1983. labor markets and is a recovering fast enough, considering especially how depressed it has been. by comparison, at this .31 months since the reagan recovery

we did have added 8.7 my new payroll jobs. today, however the u.s. economy at best is uncertain, stopping and starts. we're still 6 million jobs short of what we were before the recession began. labor force participation as i said is the lowest in decades. and yet unemployment workers to account for more than 8% of the shrunken workforce. i think whatever claims the president has made of how much worse recession has been, his policies have not stimulate the economy. we now have a huge federal debt, contending large deficit and again, stop and start uncertain job growth. more than two and a half years since the recession for me ended yet real gdp growth is now expected to decline this year from a less than stellar to 20% over the quarter of last year. contrast can be averaged over 6% economic growth during the first 10 quarters of the reagan recovery. business in america is still

holding cash, still holds investments below what it was before the recession began. and is still not materially stepping up hiring despite what the new payroll jobs numbers say. consider the chart behind me. the top line, the green line shows hires and the bottom line layoffs. they huge turn and his chart is striking. over 4 million hires and 1.7 main layoffs, and image quite different from that of simply looking at net job changes. the key observation here is that the hires to remain when it was during the middle of the recession. with all the money the white house and members of congress have spent to stimulate employment, the hires are still down about one and a half million per month before the recession, from before the recession began that light, that jobs again today just are not that impressive.

the magnitude of annual benchmark revisions, the most recent of which bls has introduced in today's report only underscores this problem. the low hires help to explain why labor force participation is down. if hiring is not risen in well over three years by the huge pool of unemployed competing for jobs, then why stay in the labor force? the are simply dropping up at the unemployment rate and payroll jobs north our import statistics but they don't reveal the full extent of the problem that america faces. the president's current actions proposals in my you our feeble attempts to lift a $15 trillion economy, and with the equivalent with masks at the same time it is tightening regulations, avalanche of new regulation, according to the biggest shovel ready products and the keystone pipeline threatens to raise taxes all the while adding to our national debt with continued and disciplined deficit

spending. strong private investment and job creation requires a balance of regulatory environment that actually encourages operation a free market economy. and a taxi driver that engenders expansion, not retrenchment. the president is working against us free market economy with his policy, undermining it with subsidies and special favors in some areas, and harshly constraining and punishing it in others. that will cause anemic growth in this labor chart shows but according to the cbo, slowing economic growth caused the unemployment rate to rise this year and expect the congressional budget office projects the an opponent really a point i was in the fourth quarter of this year, andover 9% next. americans are eager for work, willing to work hard and economic policy our president has said. we need to change the course. hard-working taxpayers deserve better. the federal government needs to get out of the way so private

job creation and hiring can accelerate. mr. galvin, look forward to in your test when. yield back? thank you very much. now, i yield to ms. maloney. >> first of all, i will, congratulations on your term of appointment, mr. galvin, and thank you for your many years of hard work for the joint economic committee in testimony, and also for the bls and also doctor eric and and others, we welcome you. and, finally, we have continuing good news. for the fifth month there's been a drop in the unemployment rate to 8.3%, and for the 23rd month we have been gaining jobs to 243,000 jobs. so i fail to understand the doomsday testimony of my good friend, mr. brady come with unemployment numbers falling and the number of jobs gaining. that shows that we are making

steady progress in recovering from the great recession. still, we have much more work to do, including extending the payroll tax cut through all of 2012, which is a priority of president obama and democrats. and i'm hopeful that house will approve that before the current extension expires at the end of the month. i look forward to your testimony, and i hope it contains even more good news and these very encouraging numbers in unemployment and job growth. i yield back. >> i yield to mr. burgess. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and mr. galvin, welcome to our committee and your staff. we welcome you here. those i think it goes without saying we ought will all miss dr. hall. at a great deal of candor. i tried several times to date

him but i was never successful. certainly look forward to your service here. our numbers, the job numbers today, good news, always to me like i'm in a charles dickens novel. it's the best of time, it's the worst of times. the american economy is hard to keep down, no matter what the congress does to it. no matter what and administration does too. the american economy has a unique and remarkable ability to recover. i know this having seen what happened to the economy when i was in the private sector during the savings and loan crash in texas, in the late 1980s. certainly no government action seemed to be responsible for the recovery that eventually occurred there, but it was a fairly strong recovery. it lasted for the next 20, 25 years, and the period of unparalleled prosperity in our state. our state continues to enjoy significant prosperity. people moved to texas because of

the lower regulation environment, the low litigation if i become the lack of state income tax, right to work state, and other, texas has added four new congressional districts, essentially a population the size of arkansas which is moved to texas in the last 10 years. so it goes without saying that it is possible for the american public to do the right thing as far as john grisham is concerned. it's not always possible if the government has the right thing. and, in fact, i think i would argue, i align myself with mr. brady's comments then chairman maloney's comments. but it's the private sector, the real economy, the real folks out there who decided they're going to create something of their own and make it their own. that's what drives our economy did i really don't have a lot of faith in the administration's ability to i think the things they have done, watching this committee for the last three years, hitting various people from the administration come in and testify, i cannot say the number of times that we were

told by christina romer, rover, that the green shoots were starting and the economy was recovery only to find that those were leaves in the parking lot because no one was showing up for work because there were no jobs. now, as far as the administration is concerned we have examples of where they have had the ability to make decisions and made the wrong decisions. chairman brady reference keystone pipeline. thousands of new jobs, no government spending required at all, just simply an international boundary that was crossed and, therefore, the president's office was involved and he made the wrong decision. the president, even as this become a barnstorming around the country talk about how he's creating jobs. ihere with something at a syndicate that would have created thousands of jobs, no government spending involved can put people back to work and giving them jobs where they could have restored some self dignity as himself were. and he turned his back on the web other examples. the maximum achievable control technology that is now affecting the rules, the border macros,

utility macros. cross state air pollution were texas was included with a group of northeastern states that there was no inclination prior to the issuance of the rule that epa was even considering texas and now we may be faced with having to close coal-fired power plants and roll out ground blackouts. let's face it, domestic energy production is going to be part of this economic recovery whether this administration likes it or not. it's high time they stop interfering with it. the affordable care act, i could go on and on just about the. it should affect that i i hear every week when i go home. employer after a forces i don't know what said, i don't know what you're going to do to next. which the court going to do? what's the election going to do? people are so uncertain about what is going to have to be provided in terms of employee benefits, but they are genuinely frightened to add that employ. the president goes around the country talk about his job proposal but they all involve

more government. let's let the private sector do what it does best. we are americans. we have a history of doing this over and over again. we need to decrease government regulation taxes and let the economy grew. i have the utmost faith in the american people. i think when you left to the own devices they can create jobs. whatever congress does is an impediment and i know what ever the administration does is certainly counterproductive. let's have faith, let's continue to grow. i look for to your testimony today and i'm certain we will learn a great deal. i yield back the balance of my time in thank you very much. i want to let mr. burgess not just a half an hour ago on msnbc mark zandi, mr. mccains, one of his main advisers said that the business community is definitely starting to engage, and again, he simply looked at this report it was unambiguously positive. mr. sanchez? >> weight. will the gentleman youth? >> go ahead. i which is going to make a point

that mark zandi with 3 million jobs off in the first year in estimations and has been consistently off. mr. burgess because i would just point out the presence own jobs and economic council has besieged the president to remove some of these revelations and allow things, the air pollution law was something they distinctly referenced in their reports have become before this committee. >> thank you. the fact is we're going in the right direction. you think this was some doomsday report. the fact is that we are going in the right direction. thank god. >> will yield? >> very briefly. [inaudible] >> remember that when president obama took office, this country was losing 700,000 jobs a month. the first four months before president obama took office, this country lost 4 million jobs. the president has put in the recovery package that is moving us in the right direction. can't we at least agree that it

is good news? that for five months the unemployment has fallen and that for 23 months we have been gaining jobs in this country. we should be pleased with this news tonight if i may, my only point, i think ours is we do think these number are encouraging. our concern is the unemployment rate is going down because people are giving up, because they're not getting jobs. and we think that's the wrong reason in the unemployment rate is 8.3%. last month it was 8.5%. this sanchez. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i don't have a statement, and i wouldn't be putting one in the record. but i came this morning to try to figure out where we really are, and to get some ideas from people of all how we continue the good trend that we've seen in his last five months, with respect to unemployment going

down. i really didn't come here to hear a lot of political posturing and gavel in everything. i'm really, i am really struck why the fact that this committee job i think is to really contemplate and think about and suggest and move forward. others legislative writing committee to implement. and you know come back and forth and this really degrading obviously, you guys on this committee, is really a frustrating thing for somebody who understands that when we see good numbers and that when people say economists, all the economists this point that i saw on television and in writing were saying hey, this is good,

let's just stop it. this is good, and what can we get to make it better. mr. chairman, that's what this committee is charged with. and i'm really looking forward to hearing from the gentleman before is to try to figure out where to go from here. how do we go from here. not i make this a positive thing for the american people, so i'm hoping to hear, and my friends on the other side, so -- >> if i may, i think you are right. i do apologize. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and let's work together on this, guys. >> mr. campbell? mr. garvin, thank you very much for being here. and we welcome you. >> mr. chairman, and members of the committee, thank you for the warm welcome this point and for

the opportunity to discuss the employment and unemployment data we released this morning. the unemployment rate decreased -- >> a little out of, please. >> the green light should come on. >> it is on. the unemployment rate decreased to 8.3% in january, and nonfarm payroll employment rose by 243,000. in 2011, nonfarm employment increased by an average of 152000 per month. job growth was widespread in the private sector in january, with the largest gains occurring in professional and business services, leisure and hospitality and manufacturing. professional and business services added 70,000 jobs over the month, compared with an average monthly gain of 48,000 in 2011. nearly half of the january

increase occurred in employment services as temporary help employment continued to trend a. also within professional and business services, employment rose in accounting and bookkeeping and architectural and engineering services your employment and leisure and hospitality increased by 44,000, mostly in food services. health care employment rose by 31,000. both wholesale and retail trades trended up over the month. they could producing sector, manufacturing employment increased by 50,000 in january, nearly all in durable goods manufacturing, fabricated metal products, machinery and motor vehicles each added jobs. over the past two months construction employment rose by 52000, mainly among nonresidential specialty trade

contractors. mining employment continued to expand in january since the recent low port that the low point combining has added 170,000 jobs. government employment was little changed in january. over the last 12 months, employment in the sector has decreased by 276,000, with declines in local government, state government excluding education, and the u.s. postal service. average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 4 cents in january. over the past 12 months average hourly earnings have risen by 1.9%. from december 2010 to december 2011, the consumer price index for all of the consumers increased by three points 0%. in accordance with annual practice, the establishment survey data released today reflecting corporations the benchmark provisions each year be a less we anchors the

sample-based survey estimates to for universal counts of employer primary derive from administered records of the unemployment insurance tax system. a level of nonfarm payroll employment in march 21 was revised up by 162000, or about 0.1%. this compares to average benchmark provision over the past 10 years of plus or minus about 0.3%. before discussing the data from our survey of households, i would note that as is our annual practice we have incorporated new population controls into the january estimate. they did begin in january 2012 like popular controls based on 70,010, updated information on net international migration and some not a logical a justice to the estimation process. official estimates for december 2011 and earlier months will not be revised.

the impact of the new controls on the unemployment rate is negligible. however, to important household survey measures the employment population ratio and labor force participation rate, are lowered by the change in the composition of the population has seen in these new controls. the new controls raise the population of persons 55 years and older and a lesser extent, persons 16-24 years of age, and both of these groups are less likely to be in the labor force than the general population. now returning to the data for january, the unemployment rate continued to decline over the months since august 2011, the jobless rate has fallen from 9.1 to 8.3%, and the number of unemployed persons has declined by about 1.2 million. in january, the number of persons unemployed for 27 weeks or more was little changed at

5.5 million. and made up 42.9% of the total. the employment population ratio increase over the months and the labor force participation rate was unchanged after account for the impact of the 2010 population controls. to summarize, january's labor market developments nonfarm payroll employment increased by 243,000, and the unemployment rate decreased to 8.3%. my colleagues and i now would be glad to answer your questions. >> thank you very much. i want you to clarify, mr. garvin, one point. how much of the drop in the unemployment rate in january was due to people finding jobs and how much was due to people dropping out of the labor force? >> well, the unemployment, level of unemployment was down about

381,000 in january, and over these five months since august, while it's been declined and put rate has been declining, the level of unemployment is down about 1.2 million. so over that same period, employment measured by the household survey is accurate up about 1.7 million. so, you know, the numbers add up to a story of the unemployed finding jobs over this five month period. the labor force has risen a little bit. >> the economic momentum then that has occurred over the past few months seems to have carried into the labor market come in addition to the 100,000 plus jobs being created each month. weekly applications for initial unemployment benefits fell last week to 367,000 remains low, 400,000, for 10 of the last 12 2 weeks. furthermore, the unemployment rate last month fell to 8.3%, the lowest since february 2009. however, some observers have

raised concerns that the improved numbers are a glib, reflection on increase in hiring, that always occurs during the winter holidays, or in the case of the unemployment rate, it is a reflection of reduced labor force. commissioner, what in your perspective regarding the positive job creation numbers to the extent to which they are attributable to the winter, how are they shopping season, or other factors? >> well, i'm confident in the accuracy of the numbers. we adjusted to remove gum we adjust the numbers to remove normal recurring seasonal variation from things like winter, christmastime hiring. >> now, the overall unemployment rate has fallen. are all demographic groups facing lower unemployment rates, and in particular how are

african-americans, teenagers doing, hispanic teenagers and african-american and hispanic adults? >> well, i have easily accessible the overall african-american unemployment rate. it dropped to point to month down to 1326%. >> is that significant? >> that is significant. what do you attribute that to? t. have any idea from what you can see? >> well, again, the numbers add up to african-americans leading unemployment and finding jobs. >> okay. what about hispanics? >> hispanic rate was 10.% in january, down about half a point, not a significant difference. >> now, one of the most persistent challenges since 2007, economic collapse is the issue of long-term unemployment but as i mentioned in my opening remarks more than 40% of the

people who are unemployed have been jobless for six months or more and 7% of the long-term unemployed have been out of work for a year or longer. .. by new jobs numbers. when we see the unemployment rate going down again we want it to go down because people are getting jobs, not just getting out of the work force. when the recession began, the

labour participation rate, people who were actively in this work force, was 66%. today, it is now, according to the latest report, 63.7%. that's the lowest since 1983. far fewer workers in the workforce indicative of a healthy economy? >> well, i mean honestly is that the sign of a healthy economy that fewer people are working in the work force? some of the decline in the labor force since the recession is due to demographic reasons. overall, the productive capacity of the economy is higher the more participation of workers in

the labor force. >> cbo this week indicated that unemployment will rise this year and next and that at this pace of job growth that we won't -- america won't get back to its level of unemployment before the recession until 2015. do you have any reason to disagree with those projections? >> well, we avoid forecasting like that, sort of an exercise the requires a lot of the functions and the judgments and we try to stick to the facts of describing the current labor market. >> in the -- taking a look at the numbers this month -- in the jobs report numbers you report each month it's a net number, isn't it, that can go of that business is layoff fewer workers than before or even though they may not be hiring more new ones.

i don't know if that fact is widely recognized coming and can you comment on the term job creation in this context? it doesn't necessarily mean everyone keeps their jobs or more jobs are filled as it? >> correct. there's lots of turning in the economy each month. this number we report in the payroll survey is a net number reflecting the difference between the additions to payroll or hiring and the subtraction from the rolls of the separation. >> in the chart behind me we are still, again, looking at the bigger picture. what does it take to have a healthy recovery. here we are coming years after the recession officially ended. we are still in the stop and start mode, and fairly on certain. clearly the new high years -- new hires continue to be where they were in the middle of the recession. we get these reports i guess

they are called the jolt report but not as frequent as the unemployment situation reports. how can we get more insight into the critical numbers like this before the next report comes out? how can we look more quickly at important indicators like this? >> you're right. the jolt numbers are a month and a half behind the payroll survey numbers. we don't have any data that's more timely than jolt's to, you know, tell you about what's going on in this net change in palin plant from the payroll survey. >> let me turnage with this, again, going back. we're looking for indicators of a healthy economy. new jobs numbers are good, people are working is a key indicator. my numbers show that if we actually had accounted those who had given up or are not in the workforce today that this month

their unemployment rate would have actually gone up from 11.6% to 11.7%. do you figure those numbers as you do your reports? >> no, we don't. >> i yield back, mr. chairman. >> thank you very much. ms. maloney. >> well thank you for this report. it's good news. especially in the number of unemployed men rate dropping for five straight months. that's very good news. and we are trending in the right direction with 23 months of job gains, triggered 43,000 for this month alone. can you point out other bright spots in this report and any other good news the uzi that the country is trending in the right direction? >> well, the payroll employment this month is to and 40,000 is a sizable one compared to the payroll employment last year which averaged the monthly gain

of 152,000. some of the gains this month in the private sector are widespread, notably we saw the large business services and the leisure and hospitality and health care employment and manufacturing which gained 50,000 jobs. and in construction which has been flat since 2008 but is now recorded a couple of increases totaling 52,000 in the nonresidential specialty trade contractors. >> often the january numbers don't show this kind of game. is this unusual for the january numbers? >> know how we adjust the numbers for the normal recurring. we try to take the normal

variation out of there so what we're looking at is just the underlying trend in the labor market. >> i'm interested in making sure the economy improves for all sectors. can you tell me whether the unemployment rate has been dropping for women or just man seeing this unemployment rate dropped. >> we will get right with you on that. we've seen the unemployment rate for the man has dropped more than women. it went up much more than the recession in the rate also both went up, they're both lower than we were. they are not as low as they were at the start of the recession obviously. >> we know that many state and local governments have been laying off workers and the women

predominantly work in the state and local governments. do you think that is part of the cause that the unemployment rate >> the fact of the rate has come down more than the women's is the reflection of the fact men were more affected in the industries that were very hard hit cyclical the like the manufacturing and construction. >> when you were talking about the long-term unemployed coming and you said earlier the long-term unemployed was continuing, do you have a break down and age of the people that are saying and the people that are giving up is a predominantly 55 and older and you have a breakdown in age and the long-term unemployed? is there a trend in that sector?

>> one second, we do have that. >> let's move on and we will find that curious to our also do you break down regions, are there certain regions that are booming were doing better with the employment and the dropping of the unemployed rate? do you see the south, east of the west or any areas that our urban areas are they more hard hit than others? do you have any trend in geography and how the workers of our country are sharing? >> will love to get back to you on the breakdown of the long-term unemployed. it's not something that we brought to you day. and the differentials on the job of the unemployment rate.

>> thank you for your hard work my time is expired. >> mr. campbell. sometimes we get these statistics as well and the field on the ground is different than what the statistics are and certainly recently they're kind of love is the things people buying is going about a faster rate and i come from one of the highest unemployment states from california. the field on the ground is as much as these statistics and the main statistic here is good. the deal on the ground isn't quite as good at list where i come from and one of the things i want to ask about is, and correct me if i'm wrong on this, but where is the unemployment that we talk about the percentage dropped to 8.3. the widest measure of the unemployment which includes discouraged marginally attached

and part-time people who would prefer to be full-time actually increase slightly but to 23.8% if i have my numbers correct. so what does that mean or how does that happen, so the sort of headline number went down, but the broad number went up? >> the widest measure that bls produces we refer to as u6 does include the marginally attached and the part time for economic reasons and that is at 15.1% in january as compared to 8.3% for the basic unemployment rate. that was unchanged over the widest measure. >> so that was unchanged but the other went down. so, maybe some of these people who became employed became employed as part time, is that

what that means? and by the way, was marginally attached mean? >> that means workers who want and are available for work they looked in the last year for jobs but they haven't looked in the last month. >> they've looked in the last year but haven't looked in the last month. >> they need to look in the last month to be counted as unemployed. >> so they are employed but you don't count them in the number that includes the 8.3. okay. so, on the broad number of -- on the broadest number, and i read the wrong number, 15.1% of the population is a broad number that is unemployed or underemployed with the part time and that did change. >> correct. it has declined pretty much in step with the decline of the

regular unemployment rate over the last five months. >> and then the total work force, civilian labor force was actually up, was it? and so the total labor force was up as well is the right? i'm trying to understand. you do on this sometimes as we know the numerator and denominator of unemployment drops when people drop out of the work force and it makes it look like we are doing better, but we're not employing more people. >> over these five months where the unemployment rate has come down eight tenths of a percent. the level of unemployed are

1.2 million the same time will allow unemployed from the other household survey is up 1.7 million. so some of those is the labor force so the unemployment is a rise in the labor force without half a million over this time period. >> thank you very much, ms. sanchez? >> thank you, gentlemen for being before us today. i want to go along the discussion points that my colleagues from orange county on the other side were talking about. i'm interested in first of all you mentioned population in your report or population groups. so i'm trying to understand what does that mean, and in particular, when you look at the overall numbers, there is this thing is called the baby boomers and a lot of them are getting to

retirement age, and supposedly the was the largest group of people in a particular time frame that the united states had seen. so my question to you is are we seeing the baby boomers retire and therefore ask the work force and is that having some impact to that, and are we graduating or are we seeing enough young people entering into the work force that they are making up those numbers or what is the relationship between those two ends of the employment line and then my next question is what you in some way characterize what is going on with the u.s. in particular, so is that a college degree and maybe those with a college degree because it does seem that on -- that in the weeds where we are when we go home that kids aren't getting employment despite getting an

education. >> i will have my colleague handle that >> in terms of looking at one thing that would be useful to look at participation rates and taking a somewhat longer view. one thing that has been happening is the labor force participation rates for people aged 55 and over which would include that baby boomer group is actually been going up a little bit. over time. the labor force participation rates for younger people over a longer period have been trending down. partly there's also been an increase in the school enrollment among those young people, too. young people who are in school can be in the labor force obviously. they can have a part-time job they can be looking for work, but in general, people who are in school are less likely to be in the labor force than those that are not. >> so what you're basically telling me is -- you think that might be attributed to the fact

that maybe people who thought they had a retirement for the loss their retirement or don't feel less comfortable about having enough money maybe they are living longer and going back and doing the whether it is a mcdonald's job or part-time consultant or what have you and take up those places we might have seen the young people before, could that be what is going on? >> we don't know the exact reason. one thing we do know is the increase in the labor force participation rate for people 55 and over actually predated the recession. they had been going on since the 1990's. >> okay. i know that mrs. maloney i think asked about this. this is about geography. it seems to me can we tell where these jobs are being created? because it seems to me like a

lot of these jobs that are being treated me be moving south or southwest in the country. do we have numbers on that or would you be able to get us numbers so that we could take a look at where the jobs are being created and where we are really losing them? >> why do have some numbers, but the today. our state numbers are glad to see we reported the number for january today but our state numbers are only available through december. but looking at the december numbers, the state's with largest gain since the national employment trough in early 2010 job bases in texas, california, florida come simply the largest states on a percentage basis, the percentage growth basis the states with the largest change, north dakota, utah, texas, oklahoma, wyoming. >> thank you. my last question real fast.

when we talk about giving back to this whole may be a underemployed or still searching for the real job you want. do we have -- i know you gave us a particular cost or average per wage of $23, $24. does that include benefits and are we seeing any changes in the type of jobs we are getting and is there a smaller benefit package going with those jobs? are there any numbers available in that in the aggregate? >> those numbers i gave you our wages only. we issued an employment cost index report earlier this week i believe it was which showed the continuation of the cost of benefits to employers and growing faster than the cost of wages. i don't have any information about the nature of the benefit packages of jobs that are being created right now. >> so let me just rephrase that. you are saying if i man average

employer and i'm getting an average person on the payroll for the first time i'm paying them about $24, but the benefit package to them is actually costing me more than it used to per employee? >> correct. >> thank you mr. sherman. i appreciate that. >> mr. galvin i'm going to run down the list and make sure i'm reading it correctly. the labor force participation rate dropped last month from 64% to 63 kysa 7% to read a number of discouraged workers was up from roughly 945,000 to 1.05 million people; is that correct cracks >> correct. >> the number of other marginally attached orders from 9.5 million to 1.75 million last month? >> i have to do the math.

that looks right. the number of folks who are employed to part-time for economic reasons grow from 8.09 to 8.23 last month. >> correct. >> that is the unemployed by the widest measure grew from 23.7 to 23.8 million people last month. is that correct? >> i have a date for that level. >> the rate went from 15.2 to 15.1? >> correct. >> the percentage of the total long-term unemployed -- as a percentage of unemployment rose from 16.7 to 43.3%. that's defined by folks out of work more than six months. 27 weeks. >> it rose to 42.9%. >> and then the graph that the german offer does appear.

the number of the total hires is roughly the same on a monthly basis as it was in late 2008. would you agree with that? >> if those numbers are correct, yes, i would. i have some data from the survey which showed that the high years have increased since the end of the recession, and it doesn't appear that it's going up. >> that's the end of the recession there? i think mine is as well as you go back to late 2008 which is the blue vertical line the current high years or below that level. >> exactly. >> if we add the discouraged workers are marginally attached workers and folks who are employed part-time for economic reasons, then the unemployment rate in this country is 15.1%

this month? >> thank you petraeus de nicu engender leer the labor force has grown slightly and it looks like it has from 153.9 million, 153.4. given the population growth over the same period of time is that the growth in the size of the labor force that you would expect to see? >> that depends on the degree to which the growth in the population participates in the labor force. but generally, you expect an increase of somewhere from 100 to 150 per month to keep up with the population in the rate of participation. >> i'm sorry. say that again. you would expect the number of jobs to grow $150,000, to 150,000 jobs per month? >> we expect the labor force uni about 150 to 150,000 jobs per month to keep up with the growth and labor force.

spurring if we had 150,000 jobs per month all other things being equal league and played on employment will not come down? >> correct all of their things the participation rate will stay the same and go to the new folks coming in the labor force. >> the rate of job creation last month all other things being equal how long will it take to get employment down to say 6.5%? >> that requires a lot of speculation to avoid because i can't predict the rate at which people will enter the labor force. i can tell you that the job growth we have seen since employment turnaround is measured by the payroll survey is still about 5.6 million below. there's still about a 5.6 million drop or loss from

still 5.6 million jobs to be gained in order for us to regain all of the jobs lost in the downturn. >> last, on page three of the report coming to indicate that government jobs are down considerably since over the course of the last 12 months, to enter the 76,000 jobs lost in the decline in the local government, state government, excluding education and the u.s. postal service. if you add education back into those numbers, what does the job loss in the government sector look like? that's the total over the year that you just gave me. to under 76,000 jobs were lost in the government over 2011. and that is the total federal, state, both the education and

the non-education components the education and on education components. >> on page three it specifically says the state government excluding education. that means any gains in education were excluded from that number is that correct? >> that is a way of breaking down the state government total because some people are interested in that. the education sector and then on education sectors of the state government. >> i will choose from when a little long. my question is where are the education jobs contained on the list on page three? if we added one education job it looks like we have added education jobs we've added education jobs in from november to december. so on the list on page three if we hire a teacher what category does it go into? >> i think just in terms of the government deutsch occasion, looking over the year currently

there are 7.8 million local education that stand from 7.9 million a year ago. state government education it's essentially flat about 2.4 million. private education i think may have gone up. -- of education is roughly flat over the course of the last year. >> if you are looking at -- if you are looking at government education, state and local it's down mainly in local areas. the state government education is flat. >> gentlemen, thank you very much. mr. burgess. stocks before mr. chairman. mr. galvin, the current state of the economy will get this recession and compare it to the previous recessions in the recovery, and i apologize for not having the graphics here, but everyone understands that the recovery has been slower and

much more prolonged and certainly incurred during my lifetime in the years just preceding that. can you give us some reasons why the recovery has been so painfully slow in occurring? >> i don't know that i have the reason, but i certainly can confirm that as compared say to the recession's in 1975 and in '82, job recovery in this recession is much slower as compared to the recessions of 1991 and in 2003 or that ended in 1991 and in 2003. job recovery just after this recession is somewhat slower. >> i took the liberty of preparing some economic data and i realize that is not my forte and at the risk of relating to things that are not related, i decided to plot the unemployment rate for the last ten years. and i put on the graph also, since it's been the subject of

some national discussion, the minimum wage increases that have recently occurred. you can see they're not the does appear to be a parallel. i realize there the risk in relating figures that may not be related but you have a comment on those associations on the rough? >> we don't engage in that sort of policy analysis. we don't want to do anything to undermine or trust in our objectivity and fairness. >> the reality is that the change in the unemployment rate -- in my opening statement there some things the administration has done but there's other things the congress has done. there's some things the congress did in the last administration when speaker policy took over as the speaker of the house. and this is one of those things. now, it's relevant because it also -- people are discussing maybe we should just index the minimum wage to inflation, and what i see looking at this is a period of the foot of stability with minimum wage of 550 cents

an hour -- $5.50 an hour. at the other end of the graph it to index the minimum wage inflation, will likely have this disruptive effect that perhaps occurred during that 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. >> i really can't comment on the policy questions like that. >> let me ask you this, did the size of the labor force change in this past month? >> did. >> the civilian labor force? >> yes. well, after adjusting for the population control it was up to hundred 50,000. that is a small change. >> but another way of looking at it, those not in the labor force increased from 86.7 million to 87.9 million. is that an accurate reflection? >> there is an issue in this month's numbers as was mentioned

in the testimony. we incorporated the new population estimates that are based on the census of 2010 which makes the difference between december and january not strictly comparable. essentially the new population controls showed that there were more people who were over the age of 55 and more people who were between the ages of 16 to 24, groups the less likely to be in the forest and the general population. so you have what looks like a big bump up in the number of people not in the labor force. if you adjust for that artificial -- that population control, it's actually down a 75,000, the size of the population that's not in the labor force. >> this may fall into that a broad category of the statistics but still, 1.2 million people lost from the labor force. that is a big chunk of folks. okay, we massage the numbers and

make it look not so bad, when you just have to worry if we are losing people from the labor force at that rate, yeah, you make your numbers look better as far as the unemployment rate if you are -- your goal post is november, 2012. but what people are feeling in the country, what people are experiencing in the country, and this is what i encounter when i go home, people say don't talk to me about the economic recovery because even in texas we are not feeling it. and i rather suspect by was visiting california or ohio or michigan, i would hear those same sentiments, perhaps even a little more strongly. let me -- let me just ask you in the time i have remaining the fact that there are fewer payroll jobs than there were three to the capri recession and this month he gained commesso coming back at the rate of the 200,000 a month. say this month is the normal, this is the new benchmark.

every month is going to be just like this month going forward. when do we get back to the pre-recession level? beneteau wondered 43,000 per month to regain all those jobs. >> and of the number drifted down from that obviously the length of time is going to extend the. what do you look to the -- let me ask you this you referenced in your figures the mining. is that the oil and gas development that occurs? you do see some positive reflection there is that correct? >> correct. >> even with the price of natural gas being fairly low, the price of oil has maintained that a high level. but, the overall outlook on that sector is that something is positive or negative? >> we avoid forecasting, but

mining has been growing recently due to oil, support at this for oil and gas mining. >> i would reemphasize the administration could go a long way toward the economic recovery of this country, producing american jobs and american energy, and i think that your data to the supports that. mr. chairman, i cannot see the clock so i have no idea whether i am not time or five runover putative five run over -- >> you gone to in its over. >> i appreciate your indulgence. we might in the future to have the clock where -- >> i agree. just one last question. let me pick up on something that mr. moreni was talking about. the public sector jobs lost a lot of jobs in the public sector would you say to wondered 76,000? >> over the year. well, there was lost -- that's correct, to wonder devotee 6,000 government jobs lost over the

year. >> dca trend with regard to the loss of those jobs? in other words is that a steady trend going down? we have a lot of complaints about public service workers and making the government smaller and we are talking about and use it state, local and federal, is the right? >> correct. the government has been losing since, well, pretty steadily since near the end of 2010. >> the question that i always ask is if somebody is watching this today, and they were trying to find employment based upon what you see, what are the areas, the fields that you would tell them our -- what you would be giving advice to you would be telling them what seems to be

growing, the fields that seem to be growing and the geographic areas, somebody who is really desperate for a job and trying to get something out of this hearing as to where they might go to get a job. >> well, bls just published our unemployment projections for the period in 2020. so they provide sort of a job outlook for occupations. just to summarize these projections show the largest number of jobs are in three sort of class's of occupations. one is called office and administrative support occupations and these are things like customer service representatives and bookkeeping clerks to read the second big category of the projected growth is in health care practitioners and technical occupations. jobs like registered nurses, which we project to grow by 700,000 jobs by 2020.

and physicians and surgeons are in that group, too. speed the group with the third largest of increase of the projected growth is the sales and related occupations, jobs like sales representatives and cashier's. >> and what about geographic areas? if somebody wants to move from a state that has a very high unemployment rate i think you mentioned a little bit earlier a few states the were doing pretty good with regard to jobs. what states would you tell them they might want to look at? >> we don't do the -- >> i know texas would be one of them. >> we don't do these projections by state, but regarding unemployment rates, states with the lowest unemployment rates in our most recent release, december, 2011, were not dakota, nebraska, south dakota, new

hampshire, vermont, iowa, minnesota. >> all right. mr. with mulvaney for three minutes. >> i won't need that much time. to fall on a question, the to wonder the 76,000 government jobs that were lost in 2011, approximately what percentage of the overall government work force does that number present? >> we will have to dig that out. >> i thought i had seen a number of roughly 22 million governor -- government jobs as of last month. >> is the state, local and federal? >> yes, sir. i believe it to be. >> that would be decline of --

or 1.2% of the level in january, 2011. >> so, so for all of 2011, the size of the government work force, federal, state and local, shrank by 1.2%? >> i believe that's correct. mr. galvin said earlier in his testimony that we are still 5.6 million jobs short in the overall economy from the beginning of the recession. what percentage does that represent of the overall work force? >> it's about 4% of the current work force. i don't really have what it was in the decline from the start. >> would be a little bit higher with about the same. >> thank you, gentlemen, that's all i have. >> let me just -- one last

question. we are grappling with the unemployment insurance extension here on the floor this week. next week -- and typically in your experience, just purely from a statistical perspective and not from a policy perspective, not asking you to speculate -- but when unemployment benefit rates run out what happens to the unemployment rate? >> welcome that is a policy question. >> no, i'm asking you from the statistical analysis you looked at it from previous years. is there -- is there a trend or is this non-secular? >> no, we haven't looked at the relationship between the rise in the unemployment rate and the rise in unemployment insurance. >> would you be good enough to look at that for me and respond to me between this month and next month? that's something that i know holds a lot of interest for some of us. >> it's not something bls does, but we can certainly look around at what other studies are out there and bring it to your attention. >> i would appreciate that.

>> the bureau clearly tracks the length of the pergola of time that folks are on unemployment. is their data available but what or could show us when folks on the average come off of unemployment and go back to the work force, whether working week two or eight or 27? >> we don't track when people are on unemployment insurance. we have statistics for people who are unemployed, how long they are unemployed before they even find employment or go out. we developed that over the past year and we could provide an article that we wrote about that to you. >> thank you, gentlemen. i appreciate that. >> i want to thank you very much, and welcome, again. it does appear that we are moving in the right direction. not moving as fast as all of us would like because there are so many people unemployed, no

particularly in my district i see it everyday and i live among the high rate of unemployment. but the fact is we are moving in the right direction. and i want to thank you very much. [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] as this hearing wraps up the share of the council of economic advisers, alan krueger, issued a statement this morning on the current unemployment situation. today's employment report provides further evidence. it's critical that we continue the economic policies that are helping us dig our way of of the deep hole that was caused by the recession that started at the end of 2007. most importantly we need to

extend the payroll tax cut and continue to provide emergency unemployment benefits from the end of this year and take the additional steps that president obama proposed in his state of the union address to create an economy built to last. that's his statement in part. you can read it in its entirety on the web site, c-span.org. we expect president obama to talk about the new jobless numbers this morning during a five-year house meet in arlington virginia. we are planning live coverage of that here on c-span2 starting at about 11:25 eastern.

[inaudible conversations] this weekend, book tv and american history to be explore the history of literary culture of beaumont but the texas oil industry got its start. saturday, beginning at noon eastern on booktv on c-span2, but the azar owner john roberts on the beaumont letter culture and the challenges of running an independent bookstore. also, beaumont author thompson on teddy roosevelt's yearlong post presidential expedition to africa and europe and american history tv on c-span freak. sunday at 5 p.m. eastern. january 11th, 1901, the lucas gusher at the top kill changed the economy of texas and helped usher the petroleum age and with the oil can the roughnecks and with the roughnecks, vice. toward infamous hotel, decades of gambling, prostitution and crime until the 1960 james commission crackdown. beaumont, texas, this weekend on

c-span2 and c-span3. president obama will talk about the economy in the latest jobs numbers had a five-year house in arlington virginia. we will have that life for you shortly about 11:25 eastern. until then, your phone calls from this morning's washington journal. >> host: to show the headlines from ben bernanke's testimony yesterday before the house here is a symbol of them. in the "the washington times" this morning, bernanke gop critics face-off on interest rates stable prices and steady dollars. and in business section of "the new york times," republicans sharply questioned bernanke's focus on the job market and here the latest opportunity for republicans to express their concern about inflation. and finally come here is the washington post. there had line, bernanke wants congress not to hamper growth, dollar instead reduction with economic recovery.

let's listen to him in his own words on that. >> i want to be very clear. i don't want anyone to enter would be saying anything other than this congress has a very difficult and important job to address the long-term fiscal of our federal budget. that's a critical thing. i think that even more aggressive strategies than have been pursued recently are warranted over the longer term. but i also think that that can be done in a way which is persuasive to markets and achieves those objectives but doesn't quite a jolt the recovery and it doesn't do it all all at once. i think that as long as there is a credible and a strong plan over a period of time and we've given to that plan we will achieve most of the objectives

and the fiscal sustainability. but we need to at least avoid doing harm. here's an important piece of advice that i would offer you. >> host: she expressed his concern about the debt situation and you can hear his message to congress and addressing it he says through no harm. let me show "the new york times" story connecting the economy and the electorate. this is there a piece on tomorrows's now that the caucuses. a downturn and upstarts transform the gop caucuses. here's a little bit of what they are writing about. when mitt romney won the caucuses in nevada for years ago this was a different state in the republican party was a different party.

howarth things doing? are you experiencing some positive signs or are you still feeling like your community is in a deeper part of the recession with not much change? tell us what's going on and talk a lot york thinking that means for the fall. >> here is a viewer from facebook who writes i live in texas, the economy has always been isolated in the very local. never really good what follows no national trend. our economy is basically good with residual reflections in relation to the national trend or housing as never overheated so it didn't burst.

we experienced slow growth over the term and wages are traditionally low and 30% of our population is over the age 65. what's happening in your area? we are going to begin with a call from detroit. this is mark a republican. you are on the air. >> caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i would say that the economy here in the detroit area has definitely improved. but i wouldn't say that its improved fast enough considering how low the interest rates are with a 0% bonds and no place to go to improve the economy. you would think that things would be exploding right now, but the housing i would say the foreclosure rate is definitely leveled out and with the domestic auto industry and somewhat of a recovery things have stabilized, but even jolie interest rates have to go up. and i'm afraid that when they do, we are going to see the

bottom falls out of the real-estate market again and we are going to be back in the same situation we were two years ago. >> host: can you move this to what this might mean for the fall? >> i think that people kind of have been involved in some sense of complacency that yet the system is working again or we can get by with status quo, up but this is the typical election economics and politics where the interest rates are super low right now to try to spur a quick growth, but in the long term i think we are going to be right back in the same boat that we were a couple of years ago when this started. >> host: thanks. republican calling from detroit. next up is a democrat named denise in lincoln town georgia. what part of the state is this, denise? >> caller: we are the east part of augusta georgia. >> host: how are things doing economically? >> caller: economically we are

kind of like the people in waco to read we are a small community, not really affected, but we have had our share of problems naturally. we have a high unemployment rate, but we have also had people taking advantage of the lower interest rates who are first-time homeowners or the first time in generations. so we have seen some positive along with the negatives and we support 100% with our president is trying to do. unfortunately we have our share of problems, but these problems have been for a long time and we can't just blame it on our current administration, which we see that a lot of people are trying to do. but the war certainly has hurt us economically with the credit card of war. as of this is something that's happened and it's going to take all of us working together to recover and i would like to see our congressional people in

washington working for us as people come as human beings, and get rid of the rhetoric of my issue is bigger than your shoe or my issue is more expensive than yours and realize that some of us are having to make decisions whether to buy a new pair of shoes. i would like to see them working harder for the people and less harder for their political parties. >> host: thanks, denise from lincolnton, georgia. we are expecting the job numbers later on this morning about 8:30 eastern but here's a map of the united states with the last monthly numbers which are december, 2011. the darker the color the more joblessness. that's what the country looks like. nevada is the one that we've been talking about around here. that indicates 12 to 13.9% unemployment. the story in the "the washington times" this morning about the unemployment rate come and let me take a call and then i will show it to you suggesting that

its young people who have abandoned or look for jobs is really affecting the numbers coming down. that's the point of their story. let's listen to elders byrd maryland. this is a call from george was an independent. >> caller: yeah, this is the most republican county in the state of maryland, the highest percentage of republicans. the poverty among the 20- 20-30-something men and women who have no chance of getting a steady job and of being able to save up for a home is just tremendous. >> host: where my 20-year-olds might have been employed in that part of maryland say six or seven years ago? >> there's a bunch of stamping process with the auto industry that went away. they finally opened up another assembly plant out here and there's a prospect of around 400 jobs. but the homeless problem is just

tremendous. on help provide meals with other church members and we had 120 people last monday. no children because schools were open. but the level of poverty is just astronomical. it's like there's a growing underclass. these people were taking jobs at minimum wage when they can get them, tossing signs in the air as human advertisement, doing anything they can. but it's paul will be because the six palpable the loss of hope on the part of young people. >> host: you have any sense about whether or not they are being involved in politics? is their situation stirring them on to be activists or have they turned out to the political system? >> caller: well, they are at the age -- when i was young in the 60's when i was vitally involved, but they are lacking

so much mobility and they have no income and they are not really tune in to the political process. they are just desperate. our local newspaper, the carroll county times, has done a recent series of specials on the people who are living under bridges, and they live under bridges will people in the lexuses and mercedes drive by them as a private country clubs are still playing golf, but the lack of compassion is almost romneyesque and robotic among a lot of people. it's just a very, very tough situation. >> host: george, thanks. i'm going to interrupt because we have a lot of people to tell their stories. thank you for calling. maryland, where george's reporting from. a part of or twitter community rights how attractive is it to have homes on the block with warning signs for banks on the front door report?

on the jobless number mengin come here's the business section of "the new york times" anticipating today's report stagnant job growth is expected in report. and i mentioned that washington times' front-page story. jobless rate down because of dropouts, they write, obama benefits from uncounted to get here is story of the drop in the unemployment rates in recent months from the double-digit rates during the recession came at an unfortunate time for president obama but economists say as much because of young people dropping out of the labor market as much as business is adding jobs. we ask you to tell about your local economy and if you have a sense of what might affect politics in the fall ronald is a democrat in texas. good morning, ronald. tell us your story. >> caller: before i do, i want to compliment you. you are one of my favorite hostesses. to me you were still the best. >> host: thank you.

but they are not nipping at my heels. we are colleagues. but back to texas. what's the economy like? >> caller: like the unfortunate story that we just heard about in maryland, texas has seen its share of the federal funds at least back to the days of lyndon baines johnson, in addition to the president's we have had some powerful speakers of the house from texas. and so, long story short is that my area, which i live in the 14th congressional district doing fantastically well, and i just have to attribute that to our getting more than our share of federal funds, because this construction price -- these vast construction projects of roads, bridges, hospitals that has taken place in this area,

galveston texas and mostly on to what we call the mainland, which the area that i'm talking about extends towards houston about half way most flexible the university of texas medical branch has an absolutely fantastic facility that i called the taj mahal about halfway in between that where i live, texas city and houston. we've used the facility because i'm tending to my mother. she's 89. i'm 69. so we are getting the grand tour of all these facilities. the new memorial, the what has always been in galveston. the roads, bridges, it's just unbelievable. texas always had good roads and bridges, what i would put our section of texas against any part of texas and of course any other place in the country.

.. >> host: danny on our facebook page suggests i got the impression, talk about paul ryan at the hearing yesterday when he was questioning ben bernanke, wanted to shrink the money supply. that would drive us into a deeper recession.

this is not the time to destroy government. we are looking at some of the interactions of ben bernanke in front of the house yesterday. and talking with you about your thoughts on the economy. some polling numbers came out this week that suggested a bit of an uptick in the confidence. this is the latest "wall street journal" nbc news poll. this red bar is on the wrong track and you can see it peaked but it's beginning to come down. likewise, in the right direction which has been in a trough is now beginning to come back a. the numbers attached to that more closely are 30% are saying the country is now on the right track, about 60% on the wrong track. that is a definite uptick. also in that poll, the economic gains eight obama, and this is how, whether or not his job approval rating, and you can see it's beginning to take up your based on the economy. i have one more for you, which is the right direction, wrong

direction over all. here's again what look like a different graphic format. this is all new information on perhaps some optimism begin to creep back into the public on the state of the economy. let's take our next telephone call. it is from springfield, missouri. dale is an independent. hey, they'll, you are on the air. >> caller: good morning. the economy here in the skilled trade i do, home improvement, home makeovers is going down to almost nothing. i guess i don't understand why there's so many, overseas and manufacturers overseas, and our leaders are actually paying them to go over to these. i think that all you have to do, is -- [inaudible] >> host: how do you see the connection there? >> caller: well, why would

they let u.s. manufactures go overseas and less they have stock options? the same with people in congress that's been in the house changed the laws so now it's legal for them to do insider trading him or it was up until yesterday. >> host: baylis talk about congress, the stock act, which is insider trading legislation that was passed by the house overwhelming, 96-3. eric cantor, the majority leader in the house of representatives has already said that the house will be taking it up very soon. and interestingly a piece about this in the "washington post" this morning, miner bill is transformed into a major reform package. and that's all because of the public's view of congress right now, that what started out as a more limited piece of legislation has lots of

amendments that made it bigger. here is what paul kane writes. next is a call from new york city. this is rob who is a democrat. good morning. >> caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. you're one of my favorites, just like one of the previous dollars. >> host: thank you so much. >> caller: new york city i think is really a place for opportunity for young people, middle-aged people. there's a outlying areas of manhattan that are quite livable and pleasant, cleans and -- i'm not here just being an advocate,

i don't work on the i love new york campaign, but i get around the boroughs for work. and there's delight for neighborhoods that are more affordable than manhattan, and you don't need a car. you don't need car insurance and you can travel -- you get a monthly metro card year for $107 go anywhere you want to go for $107 bucks a month and master transmission cost drama that sounds affordable. our people in these committees finding work these days? >> caller: new york city is a real hustle and bustle environment and i want to add to quick point. i don't understand how poor and middle class poor people, republicans and democrats, can be cheerleaders for tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires. and i don't understand how anyone can be against not being able to be kicked off her health insurance company by health

insurance company. i don't understand how you can be against statewide health insurance exchanges that will prevent health insurance companies from charging excessive premiums. it seems that we've been co-opted, the middle-class and poor, to cheerlead for causes, whether you're a republican or democrat, that you become a cheerleader for causes for rich people. i see plenty of very wealthy people in the neighborhood that i live in. i'm not one of them, unfortunately, but we take on their cause as if it's our own. it makes no sense to me how people come again republicans and democrats, are not think included when it comes to what is in our own interest as middle-class people. we take on the interests of the rich, and cheerlead for them like it's the most important thing going in our lives. >> host: thank you so much, from your city. "the new york times" has a story about mayor bloomberg's budget

as fiscal clouds lives, the mayor offers a budget with tax increase or broad layoffs. city finances eight settles are unsettled. it suggests year there are other ways the city is raising revenue in addition, rather than raise taxes. what's happening in this photograph is increasing for the by the police for tickets as a way to bring in more revenue for the city. there's a budget the mayor offered without layoff, different from past years. the tale of two cities. first of all, we have the headlines from the providence journal here on the table. that city of providence is apparently near bankruptcy, according to the mayor. it's the front page story in hometown paper. by contrast, also in the same region, rochester, new york, which just saw the kodak company go into bankruptcy, here is the new york times op-ed piece. eastman kodak is bankrupt so why

is the snapshot city thriving? the answers are complex. the latest city to struggle with this economy shows a good policymaking, entrepreneurship and a lot can ensure that a city doesn't just survive, it thrives there, and the things that it says he says works are rochester include a valuable leader pool, the cause of codex investment to our people were laid off, took up the workers. it also helped devise rochester has a strong higher education sector which likewise has been supported by codec. another asset is rochester's cultural institutions. many highly skilled in the kodak workers chose to stay because of the amenities inspired by geist and philanthropy including the east was good music, the rochester philharmonic and the international museum of photography. you want to hear more about how rochester survived fiscal hits and a single, that's in the new york times today. saratoga springs new york year on the air. >> caller: good morning.

i kind of agree with the guy from new york city. that's why i'm an independent because i feel that neither party caters to the people in the middle. they cater to the elite, but as far as the situation up here, saratoga county is doing really well. there's a race track your. the housing market was never affected really. i me, they're building half a million dollars condo buildings here. they're also building a huge ship plan, global foundries in saratoga county. just like a lot of the other callers have echoed, i think the younger people are having a harder time. i see a lot of young people that are having a rough time. and i think they are the poorest year by the saratoga county in upstate new york is doing really well. if you go a little west of here, a little north of here, a whole different story. can find houses with virtually

nothing in like 10% unemployment. but where i live it's an affluent community. >> host: what do you think that means for the voting in the population around in november? >> caller: we have a mix. here we have gillibrand for the senator, and she's a democrat, and gibson is the republican. it's a mixed bag up here. new york is mostly democrats, but if you go upstate its next. there's a lot of republican communities, but saratoga county, it's kind of like half-and-half. i think it's going to go to obama up here big time because i really don't think people like romney and gingrich. >> host: thank you so much. jack young on twitter tells a similar tale of two cities but he's writing about san francisco. areas of great wealth, new construction, then homeless sleeping out in city hall and everywhere.

extreme dichotomy. we've also posted this question on a facebook page. the facebook.com/cspan and where mixing in a few of the facebook comments. hike county, kentucky, nancy is republican. tells the story of pi county transit well, we have a very aggressive leadership in the local city, the former governor is here. local newspaper syndicate that are department of energy and the pike county fiscal court is that there've been for grabs we are having to developments of coal gasification, and not too far from there, approximate 70 miles over near gilbert west virginia on may the ninth there was a $3 billion coal gasification deal. two germans were there, french

attorney, and recently, in december we had a wealthy chinese person on our acreage. rumor has it from former students at the chinese have purchased a considerable interest in what up, i think it's kentucky school. but from india, the mining over in grundy virginia a few years ago, i think it's croatian, i had former friends who used to work over there, had purchased. so it's definitely global economy. and our local -- [inaudible] if pike county were state would probably be the 10th in energy production. >> host: question. are the locals happy about the investment from outside? are they happy for the jobs that come with it? >> caller: well, we are blessed to have jobs.

>> host: thank you. thanks for your call. pike county, kentucky. it sounds like it's doing well. nancy tells the story of a number of investors from all parts of the globe in her region. jack of manhattan also writing about new york's economy. he writes as a moderate independent i think new cities economy has outperformed the nation due to mayor bloomberg's excellent leadership. the gop should run favorite sons, deadlock its conction, and draft bloomberg. next up is a call from baltimore. carol is a democrat. good morning, carol. >> caller: good morning. i was calling because where i live that, i live in baltimore county maryland and we are like 35, 30 miles away from d.c. so what funny does come through it comes like directly to maryland, even like people get hired in d.c., a lot of people don't live in d.c. they buy homes in maryland. so there's always a lot of

activity here, and have a lot of job openings. but you have a lot of people don't qualify. some don't qualify for the jobs. that's probably some of the reason why we have unemployment, but it's not as bad as you in other cities around. >> host: what does that mean for politics in the fall do you think? >> caller: they're going to vote for obama. mainly in maryland is a democratic state anyway. they're going to go for obama because you have to look at a lot of people seem like to get out of got to the situation, it was eight years of republican president and this is what he left us. and thinking melissa, how do you think it's all going to change within four years? change. to me personally i believe give this man another chance, get in and see what he can do to help improve it. i see some improvement, but i

don't, i wouldn't go for romney or either gingrich drama thank you from baltimore county mental. paul census this e-mail. we all know the state of finances in michigan, we're broke. that you see -- this will cost the state $10 million saving the gop from paying from its own pocket. is it any wonder that michigan is bankrupt. that's paulson as an e-mail. this unsigned e-mail we need to revise the tax code reflect income inequality. we did a transaction tax on wall

street and financial institutions. we need public service jobs, the new taxes could finance needed projects. greed and misinformation are a problem. we are asking about your local economy and if you think it will have an effect on the elections in november. another economist who made news this week is the head of the congressional budget office. his name is doug elmendorf. here are some points from testimony that he gave to congress. key facts from the cbo's budget and economic outlook made news this week. he told us real economic growth was projected to be just 2.2% in 2012, falling to 1% next year in 2013. he expects the unemployment rate to reach a .8% in 2012. his concerns about the budget, 20 so budget deficit is projected to equal $1 trillion. let's are some of him in his own words. >> to put the federal budget

unsustainable path, policymakers will need to allow federal revenues to increase to a much higher percentage of gdp, and average over the past 40 years. or make very large changes in social security and federal health care programs, or pursue some combination of those strategies. >> host: our next call and our conversation about your local economy is john, republican and asheville, north carolina. good morning, john. >> caller: thank you very much. i'm part of the dying breed of republicans in asheville. i shall is a very heavily democratic area, and it's also heavily concentrated with environmental nonprofits, public interest nonprofit, ratio interest nonprofits. but the one thing that is really hit aashto part is we lost several major, major industries. we lost the volvo pletcher. we lost and several textile

mills over the years become the way they been able to get other businesses to fill the places is through huge government incentive packages to several copies. with one company that they give millions of dollars to that company. there's a beer brewery that is coming in in the next county over. they got millions and millions of dollars in incentives. but in the meantime people that are out of work because of the plant closings have not been able to find anything close to what the head when they're working working at the plants. it's really, really been tough year. you had a couple of collars earlier asking how could people not, how can people not support taxing the rich more or removing all these incentives for the rich? i never got a job from a poor person. and the fact of the matter is,

if you continue to tax rich people at incredibly high rates, nobody in the country should have to pay more than half their income to the federal government. and if you continue to do that, then don't complain when you don't have a job because nobody has any money to hire you. >> host: thanks, john, from asheville north carolina. the susan komen and planned parenthood story and lots of our papers. one of our viewers, maverick is watching this whole story, and the three top officials have resigned as the backlash gains steam. that's from "huffington post." it is the off lead story in the "washington post" this point. komen funny dispute intensifies gives me reason for cutting a sinister planned parenthood. komen founded, -- noted that planned parenthood was provided only mammogram referrals.

we will have a topic, guess on this topic coming up soon. you can be part of the conversation on the. sacramento, california, up next. lisa, democrat. good morning. >> caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. >> host: sure thing. >> caller: i've been unemployed for a year now. >> host: what did you do before you lost your job? >> caller: customer service supervisor. my home was foreclosed in 2008, and it's been hard for me to find jobs. i had an interview a couple weeks ago, and they told me that i needed to speak spanish. and i thought we was in america. so that kind of, you know, upset me, disappointed me. but i just want to say that iq the extend this, under one because i really need it at the other day i was driving and i

seen someone with a sign said hungry, and i had $3 i gave them 1 dollar. i feel that millionaires should mine, giving a few bucks that does not have. i don't understand why that's a big issue. >> host: how are you making ends meet? have you moved to agent? >> caller: my home was foreclosed. i live in my car the last six months. >> host: you live in your car? >> caller: yes, i live in my car. back to school. and i found an apartment. and i found a job. >> host: and you are working? >> caller: i'm not working now. i found a job, got laid off again. the first layoff was in 2008. i was laid off. that's what i lost my home. and i knew to sacramento, and found a job and i got laid off last january, it will be a year this year. >> host: can you explain, and

i guess i apologize if this question is too personal, but for someone who had a house, how did you survive living in your car? >> caller: it was hard. i suffered from deep depression but it was really, really hard. but i didn't have nowhere else to go, so -- >> host: what you see as the path forward where you are? >> caller: i met a lot of people out of work. >> host: california has about the highest unemployed in the nation. >> caller: a lot of people is out of work. i think my -- i think my apartment manager because he is lenient, you know but if you're late on your rant, or right now i'm waiting for the extension so i can get extension. he's been working with me. so i thank god for that. >> host: lisa, thanks so much for sharing your story and good luck in your job-search. william, republican, you're on the air traffic i the business.

if you have a second i would like to explain a difference between the two cities. >> host: please. >> caller: and two counts. in carrboro, the unemployment is 19%. the county is the second highest unemployment in the state. there are no millionaires to my knowledge. the other part of my business is in dallas, texas. dallas is loaded, run over with millionaires, rich people. there's an enormous industry in dallas, catering to these rich people. there's an enormous industry in dallas catering to the people who cater to the millionaires. there's an enormous industry in dallas catering to the people who are catering to the people who are catering to beginners. if you're unemployed, i strongly recommend when you say your prayers at night, thank god for rich people.

you sure aren't going to make it without them. so let's not start knocking the rich people, and start a business catering to them. they've got a lot more money than the government. it's like the old, when the fellow was in medical school, somebody asked him what he was studying. he says i'm studying the diseases of the rich, and that's exactly what you should do in business. started business, go to work, and cater to the people who have money. take it from them. honestly and legally, not dishonestly through taxation. >> host: what kind of business do you run? >> caller: i'm in farming in north carolina, and antiques in dallas. >> host: thank you for your call and a comparison. speaking of north carolina, one member of the congressional delegation has decided not to seek reelection. congressman heath shuler, a democrat served term, 11th district, announced yesterday

that he does not intend to be a career politician and would not seek reelection this fall. faced its ipo is making lots of news. and in the "washington post" they're telling us facebook also has been eating up its presence in washington. a spokesman for and because insiders, company defends itself from regulators. this is an interesting paragraph. facebook has studied the mistakes made by older rivals such as google and microsoft and is responding quickly, experts say, by strategically hiring experienced democratic and republican operatives. the company has brought on key operatives from the past three administrations. a couple more calls as we talk about economy in your part of the country. next up, saint joseph's beach florida. brett is an independent. brett, are you there? >> caller: i am here. >> host: ahead. >> caller: look, i worked 10

years for local food history. stacking money. 80 hours over time in two weeks. everybody said by real estate. my home is paid for by cash. so i just kick back and enjoy life in paradise, know what i mean? nothing wrong with that. i just want to thank people for doing the right thing. but i want to ask this keith fellow or whatever politician you got on the, why don't they do something smaller and let people like -- [inaudible] go and the warren buffett rule and let them get their money like 15% tax rate and everything will be cool? no, they want to steal and fees at all that stuff because they are a bunch of crooks. >> host: will have tumors of congress on the program. keith ellison as the caller says, and then at 8:28:00 --

8:20 eastern time. will talk with both of them to our lead off is the presence new plan for refinancing homes to get people who are underwater a break with low mortgage rates, and so we will start off with their thoughts on that and also talk about other aspects of the economy. maryland in the washington, d.c. metro area, this is field was a democrat. you were on. >> caller: hi. i've been living in the metro area for about four years. i can do right when the economy tank. it was incredible to see the difference between people working and the americans who struggle with the economy. very small percentage of people that seem to be thriving. i had a friend in 2010 bought a mercedes, on private money. that he hadn't --

[inaudible] so to some people the economy tanking has really affected a small percentage. listen to the show, it's stranger so many people saying how bad obama is doing when he is trying so hard, the civil rights issues in this country. again, it's amazing issues like the quality -- equality being discussed and debated. and the reason health care, the plan that was just passed, to ensure the people are not charged premiums, yeah, above what they can afford. and become already that health care is expensive here. like not only premiums you have to pay but the deductibles are often expensive. some are comparatively expensive

to other countries. >> host: i'm hearing a touch of an accent perhaps? >> caller: i'm from australia and untrained. we do pay a similar tax rate to what americans pay. but there's absolutely no trouble between having private and public health care. i had a private health insurance policy when i was living in australia, and i had access to my own doctor. i had choice and i paid a lot less and actually paid outside of -- myself if my put hadn't no idea. i paid the company directed i chose my company. and i had the best like health insurance that money can buy. and i still paid less what i've been. i barely my employer is paying

77% of my premium. but considering by 33% of my sure, it's still more expensive than what would be on my own. especially amazing that people are trying to, you know, i guess criticized obama for trying to do something to bring these companies into reform. >> host: thanks. what brought you to hear? comic i am a school teacher. >> host: think you forgot and this morning. our last call is from westminster maryland. john, republican. hello, john. >> caller: how are you doing? >> host: what he had to add to the discussion? >> caller: i'm 19 years old. they were to callers who called in, one from baltimore county to i was wondering, there are a lot of homeless people around you. there's a bridge that is there and a lot of people live under there. it's not as great as everyone

thinks it is. .. i want to acknowledgto outstanding members of my cabinet who are here today. secretary of veterans affairs, rick shinseki is in the house also one of our finest -- [applause] himself one of our finest veterans, and obviously an extraordinary leader when he was an hour or me.

and i also want to acknowledge interior secretary ken salazar who's in the house. [applause] and we're joined by another president, the international association of firefighters president is here. [applause] now this is a fire station that holds some special significance for the country. on september 11th, the firefighters of this house were among the first to respond to the attack on the pentagon. you guys answer to this nation's call during a time of need, and in the years that followed, as americans went to war, some of you answered that call as well. today's 9/11 generation of veterans has already earned a

special place in our history. our veterans and all the brave men and women who serve our country are the reason why america's military is the greatest in the history of the world. in the face of great odds and grave danger, they get the job done. the work as a team. they personify the very best that america has to offer. and that's true on the battlefront, but we are here today because it's also true on the home front. after a decade of war, our nation needs to do some building right here in the united states of america. now this morning we received more good news about our economy. in january american businesses added another 257,000 jobs.

the unemployment rate came down because more people found work. and altogether we've added 3.7 million new jobs over the last 23 months. now, these numbers will go up and down in the coming months, and there are still far too many americans who need a job or need a job that pays better than the one they have now. but the economy is growing stronger. the recovery is speeding up, and we've got to do everything in our power to keep it going. we can't go back to the policies that led to the recession coming and we can't let washington stand in the way of our recovery. we want washington to be helping with the recovery, not making it tougher. the most important thing congress needs to do right now is to stop taxes from going up

on 160 million americans at the end of this month. they've got to renew the payroll tax cut that the extended only for a couple of months. they needed to pass an extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance and do it without drama, without delay, without linking it to some ideological side issues. they just need to get it done. it shouldn't be that complicated. now is not the time for self-inflicted wounds to our economy. now is the time for action. so i want to send a clear message to congress, do not slowed down the recovery that we are on. don't muck it up. keep it moving in the right direction. for the tax hike we need to do a lot more to create an economy that is built to last. to restore american manufacturing we need to stop giving tax breaks to companies

that ship jobs overseas, give tax breaks to companies that are investing in plants and equipment and high gearing workers' right here in the united states of america. that makes a lot of sense. to reduce our dependence on foreign oil money to stop subsidizing oil companies that are already making record profits and double down on clean energy that creates jobs and create opportunities and new industries but also improves our security because we are not as dependent on foreign oil. to make sure our businesses don't have to move overseas to find skilled workers, we've got to invest in education and make sure that call which is affordable for every hardworking american. and the reason we are here today, we need to make sure that as our troops return from battle they can find a job when they get home. that's what i want to talk about today. [applause]

the war in iraq is over. the war in afghanistan is moving to a new phase. we are transitioning to afghan lead. over the past decade, nearly 3 million service members have transition back to civilian life, and more are joining their everyday. when these men and women come home, they bring unparalleled skills and experience. folks like jacob, they've saved lives in some of the toughest conditions imaginable. they've announced convoys and move equipment over dangerous terrain. the track millions of dollars of military assets. they've handled pieces of equipment that are worth tens of millions of dollars. they do incredible work. nobody is more skilled, more

precise and more diligent, more disciplined. our veterans are some of the most highly trained, highly educated, highly skilled workers the we've got. these are americans that every business should be competing to attract. these are americans we want to keep serving here at home as we rebuild this country. so we are going to do everything we can to make sure that when our troops come home, they come home to new jobs and new opportunities and new ways to serve their country. now this has been a top priority of mine since i came into office. already we have helped 600,000 veterans and their family members go back to school on the post 9/11 g.i. bill. we've hired over 120,000 veterans to search in the federal government. we've made it easier for veterans to ask all sorts of employment services. we have set up online tools to

connect veterans with job openings that match their skills. michelle and joe biden have worked with the private sector with businesses to secure a pledge of 135,000 jobs for veterans and their families. and with the support of democrats and republicans, we put in place to new tax credits for companies that hire veterans. so these are all important steps. we've made progress. but we've got to do more. there is more that we can do. in my state of the union address i proposed a new initiative called the veteran's job corps to put the veterans back to work protecting and rebuilding america. and today we are laying out the details of this proposal. first, we want to help communities hire more veterans as cops and firefighters.

you guys have seemed a great job jacob is doing. there's a whole bunch of folks like that who could be doing that same outstanding work all across the country. but it's not that easy these days to get a job in a firehouse. over the past few years, tight budgets have forced a lot of states, a lot of local communities to lay off a lot of first responders. now my administration when i first came into office one of the first things we did was through the recovery act make sure that states and local governments helped or got the help that the needed to prevent some of these layoffs, and thousands of jobs were saved all across the country. harold and i were talking as we came over here. thousands of firefighter jobs were saved because the actions we took, but budgets are still tight, and that's a problem we need to fix. jobs that protect our families and communities shouldn't be the first on the chopping block. they should be one of our highest priorities in the

nation. over the past three years, my administration has made it possible for us to keep thousands of first responders on the job, but today, we are announcing that communities to make it a priority to recruited veterans will be among the first in line when it comes to getting help from the federal government. and i know that is one thing that you have been doing here in arlington. as we want to prioritize of veterans and we want to help the states and local communities hire veterans, keep fire hoses and police stations all across the country. the second thing we want to do is connect up to 20,000 veterans with jobs that involve rebuilding the local communities or the national parks. that's why ken salazar here is the interior secretary. he needs some help. and our veterans are highly qualified to help.

they've all the riss to their lives. they should have the opportunity to rebuild america. we have roads and bridges in and around the parks need of repair. let's fix them. of course congress needs to fund these projects. congress should take the money that we are no longer is an award i can use half of it to pay down our debt and use the rest to the nation building here at home to improve the quality-of-life right here in the united states of america. [applause] and put a were veterans to work. so to get more cops on the need and more rangers in the parks and more firefighters on call and put more veterans back to work it's good for our communities and economy and it's good for our country and for veterans who want to do something else may be put their leadership skills to use starting a new business starting

the honorable trying to the veterans. we want service members prepared for battle and for professional success when they come home. so we should do all the weekend to support our troops and veterans and helping them start a business and helping them get a foothold in a fire station like this one and start moving up the ranks doing outstanding work the way jacob has been doing. we also need to follow the lead and held them but we should also learn from them. and we should remember from our veterans that no matter what the circumstances, those men and women in uniform a lot like the firefighters in this fire station work together, act as a team, finished the job. that's what we've got to do when it comes to our nation's recovery. these are a challenging times

for america but we face challenging times before. on the ground here you have the pentagon and from the world trade center. and the reminds us of our resolve as a people and that when we come together as one people and one community, one nation we prevail. that's who we are. it's a nation that exists because generations of americans work together to build a. this is a nation where out of many we come together as one. those are the values that every veteran understands. those are the values that this fire station understands. we've got to make sure that we return to those values and if we do, then i guarantee you we will remind everybody around the world just why it is the united states is the greatest country on earth. thank you, everybody. god bless you. god bless america. [applause]

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♪ [applause] select the president wrapping up this morning in arlington virginia. the january jobs numbers released this morning showed that the economy added 243,000 jobs in the unemployment rate dropped to 8.3%. that is the lowest since february, 2009. house republican leaders spoke with reporters on the numbers earlier this morning for about ten minutes.

>> good morning, everyone. i'm sure you're surprised to see me first. we are going to shake things up a little bit. and christine from south dakota and i'm going to talk about the american energy infrastructure jobs act, which is coming together on the house side this week. we had three bills that can for the natural resources committee which i sit on and these are just common sense bills as far as i'm concerned. we all live in south dakota, so it is a long way to get anywhere. you've got families that are hard-working taxpayers that are doing their jobs trying to stretch their dollars to make everything work but we need to pay for gasoline to drive and pay for diesel fuel and energy to heat their homes. that is all these bills are going to do. they're going to solve two problems at once. they are not only going to deal with our infrastructure needs that we have in this country, but they are also going to lower our energy costs as well. just common sense.

bye accessing some of the offshore drilling resources that we have, by utilizing our oil shale resources and then making sure that we can use other resources that are available to us that have been shut off by this administration such as the keystone pipeline. those makes sense to everyday americans who are hard-working taxpayers that really want to get the job done. the benefits are going to create them jobs. it's going to drive down their energy costs and it's going to give them consistency in this economy, which we have been lacking since this administration has taken office. let me tell you gas prices has doubled since this president has gone into office. and it is a trip tragic shame for those that are struggling for this economy. so for media over spending has to stop. but also, we can do a lot to fix our funding issues and drive down these costs. what is so unique about these bills that are going to come together as the transportation bill is that there's not going to be any earmarks' attached to them. there will be no more or less been to the customer was

dollar's slide comes to the transportation bill. i hope when you are writing about these bills as they come together that that's what you will focus on because this is fundamental reform that's going to be great for america. >> good morning. my name is bill and i'm from texas. the president's statement is going to put out there happy faces today but the american people are going to say not so fast. first of all, we still feel worse than we did four years ago. we still have 5 million more americans that are unemployed than we did a year ago. the economy is still underperforming what it could. if this economy were performing the way it did in the ronald reagan recovery, according to an article in "the wall street journal," we would have almost 17 million more americans working today than we do right now. if the ronald reagan recovery model was followed, we have almost $5,700 per capita in greater gdp than we have today. the president's policies have

failed. they are holding back his economic recovery, and instead of trying to focus on their real-world solutions like these and the gop jobs plan which is bipartisan that's stacked up in the senate is relying on the politics of envy and division. i started a company in late 2005, and that company was sold early last year. if i sat down to start that company today, i wouldn't come and i wouldn't do it because of the uncertainty of this president's policies. i don't know what my taxes are going to be this time next year. i don't know what new regulation is going to get in my way. i don't know the next keystone that's going to be killed. i don't know the next waste of taxpayer dollars on the project and because of that i'm going to sit and wait until the president starts paying attention to the real-world solutions to put americans back to work. thank you.

>> good morning. it was three years ago this month that president obama came to congress and said you must pass my stimulus package. it was a $787 billion spending program and at that time he promised america that if you pass this plan, unemployment will not exceed 8%. this is a 36 month in a row that 8% has been exceeded and yet it didn't have to be this way. there is a different approach that we could have taken and bill pointed to it. president ronald reagan to be very different approach. he took an average focused on pro-growth, on a free-market solutions, and i think it's important to remember that president ronald reagan actually had a more difficult and deeper recession. unemployment was higher. the inflation was rampant, and yet he took an approach that in the third year of his term resulted in the economy booming buy then. president obama has taken the

approach of borrowing and spending and those are policies that failed. if anything, they make it worse. house republicans standing here today looking forward to a pro-growth agenda, a jobs package of what actually get people back to work and get americans back to work. >> on monday the american people were reminded again that this president's policies have failed. when the congressional budget announced this president is on track to deliver a trillion dollar plus deficit every single year he's in office. today is an indication of another failure of this president's policies. 36 months in a row of 8% plus unemployment. we are all encouraged that the on in planning rate has come down. but again, as my colleague said, we were told if we passed the president's stimulus plan we

would never see unemployment above 8%. now, by a technical definition of a professional economist, this economy is in recovery. by historic standards, it is the slowest, weakest recovery in the post depression-era. yet there are millions of americans across this nation who don't feel the recovery. tell that to the one in seven under this president's policy that have to rely on food stamps. to wit to the 50% almost half of americans that according to the census bureau are now either low-income or are in poverty. tell that to them that we have a great recovery. again, the president's policies have failed. it's one of the reasons that regrettably we see the politics of division, but the american people don't want a division and nd. they want more jobs by any historic standard as my colleague from texas pointed out that this recovery followed the

pattern of other recoveries in the postwar era the americans would have thousands of dollars more in their family budget, and millions more would be employed. and that's why i'm proud that once again house republicans continue to pass jobs bills. just this week, revealing once again a portion of the president's health care program, one of the greatest impediments to job growth to small-business. ensuring that our congressional budget office will give us macroeconomic views of jobs impact statements. wasn't it interesting that after the president's health care plan was passed we finally got the report from the congressional budget office that it could cost almost a million jobs. what would happen had that information been available to the american people ahead of time? so another indication of the failed presidential policies, another week more republican

bills passed in the house. >> good morning. the jobs numbers today is certainly welcomed news. i think all of us want to see more americans get back to work. but as my colleagues have laid out, we could do a lot better. and that's the kind of policy that we are talking about in a hour job-creating plan. and in fact, the president this week has indicated that perhaps she may now join us in focusing on the backbone of the american economy, which are the american small businesses. we know that every business at one point was a small business. small business start-ups and the number of jobs created are still woefully low. if we want to get more people back to work, if we want to reflect the kind of growth rate that we have seen in the reagan recovery beyond, we can do that by focusing on small business. and we are going to bring a bill to the floor of the house prior