ramifications here. dierdre: robert. great. thank you as always, fox business. speaking of superstars, melissa francis is here. "money" starts now. melissa: very nice, i like that. have a great weekend. clawing back from the depths, we're keeping our eye firmly on the market as the decline con continues. yellen all the way to the bank. linkedin joins social media hot streak despite serious concerns from our own fed chair. wait until you hear who says yellen is dead wrong about those stocks. match made in career heaven. how dating site takes your compatibility score to pair you up with the your perfect boss. you remember this, $50,000 potato salad. one of most likely -- unlikely kickstarter campaigns is going out with a bang. wait until you hear how the fund will be spent. even when they say it is not, it is always about money.

melissa: markets come back from session lows following disappointing jobs report. employers adding 209,000 jobs last month, missing expectations and inching the unemrate up to 6.2%. let's bring in the panel. liz macdonald mcdonald. and james frischling and veronica daguerre. what do you think of this report? >> there is lot of work we still need to do. there are still a lot of people having part-time jobs. melissa: right. >> so many people are underemployed and those numbers really aren't improving that much and i think that's a real issue. that is what the fed is looking at. if you talk to some americans they're under employed and not in positions they want to be in. >> this is not the immaculate recovery that vice president biden talked about 2010 in the summer. we're still not seeing gdp growth annualized above 2.2%.

we haven't seen that in years, right, melissa? melissa: right. >> i don't think you should be happy about 209-k. melissa: can you reconcile the 4% gdp growth with the jobs growth? it is okay but not -- >> there may be revisions to the gdp number. traditionally in this rally, bad news for the economy meant good news for the markets. melissa: but not today. >> not today. i think this is the fifth consecutive month of 200,000 plus jobs with all the expectations combined with gdp -- melissa: listen to the language of the fed earlier this week that they were sounding more hawkish? >> the fed will not put foam on the runway. volatility is natural bedfellow of normal markets. melissa: speaking of markets, gopro, oh, no, tanking on days after earnings that reported a pretty massive quarterly loss as research and development costs nearly doubled. look at the chart. it is so ugly. james would you dump this?

see this as opportunity? >> i respect the ceo. puts the company out at global brand. 38% of the sales coming outside the u.s. i get that. he position this is as media company, i don't see. i position this as camera company. youtube is media company. melissa: they make one gadget, singular, that's what they have. >> making great points. this is a company that has, i mean its valued like u.s. steel or peabody energy or legg mason. that is what the market cap is equating to right now. 2 doesn't have current assets of those companies just yet. >> in terms of market how big is it really, first of all? >> how many do you really need? >> how many do you really need and no barrier to entry. melissa: time for a little pay back the good kind. after significantly less than stellar second quarter profits, some samsung executives are giving back a quarter of their bonuses. i thought this was very interesting. very grim numbers over there unclear how large the bonuses

were in the first place but they're handing back 25% of them. is this a new trend, do you think? >> sony did this, executives at sony a few months ago handed back annual bonuses. yet to see guys like stan o'neal at merrill lynch or guys on wall street handing backbone newses after subprime collapse. melissa: do you think this would be a good idea vdag? >> this is competitive place for employees and executives to work, you start doing something like this, i would think that would create a lot of ill will among the ranks? would what stop people pro leaving? i think they jump ship when the company starts doing this. melissa: ackman could back himself into corner despite admitting his hour-long herbalife presentation was pr failure. he could have crushed chances for his own company to go public. he has been out there a lot. we've seen him cry twice recently over jcpenney and

herbalife. i don't know how many of the guys you see come to tears. try to plan an ipo, do you think he did damage? >> i think he did a little damage, but just a little bit. his performance has been exceptional. any investor in this ipo will look at historical performance. while there is a little taint on this move, i would say overall activists investors are hot. activist hedge funds are performing 2-x from non-activist. they will look beyond this. melissa: up 25% first half of the year. that is all anybody cares about. >> tears are a scary. he has a billion dollar short. he wants the drama to work. melissa: he succeeded in tanking the stock when he came out and said he would have the smoking gun. when he didn't have it -- >> there was no dead body in the back of the trunk. he is a brilliant guy. he is heavily follow odd wall street. melissa: good buy, old friend, southwest airlines and seaworld finally ending their decade-old

partnership. they were cobranding. on the back of southwest planes they would have the whale. i don't know which is mortar niched. >> ticket sales are so key for seaworld. they have a boatload of debt on balance sheet. that is the problem for seaworld. how do you keep families coming in when you see stories that you're locking up shamu the whale and those whales are not being treated so great and should be out in the wild instead? coke, hyundai, toys "r" us, groupon are under pressure to cut ties with seaworld. melissa: you think that is what it is all about. >> absolutely. "blackfish" hurting sales. melissa: southwest not like it is that great of a brand. we did a story not too long ago a guy tweeting thrown off the plane. whoever's side of the story was true, southwest got a lot of bad pr out of it. these are two struggling brands. >> two struggling brands. hough upside for southwest to associate with seaworld?

i'm wondering about that. melissa: absolutely. take that blackberry, ryan seacrest typo keyboard may have been pulled to patent infringement suit with blackberry but the host is back in the game with slightly adjusted typo. you have one of these, james. >> i have to admit, i found this. this is contra brand. melissa: like on the street, walking around outside and laying there and you picked it up? >> i go with that story. melissa: you know what a typo. or typo ii? >> original typo which is contraband. i'm a loyal blackberry person this might be the reason i get off blackberry to move to iphone. melissa: have you been using it for a little while. >> i use it for a little bit. blackberry keypad is better, functionality on iphone -- melissa: do you know the patent police are right outside? >> i just don't know -- melissa: they will slap the handcuffs on you. you let me use that a little bit and read all your email which is

not that exciting turns out. like the balance is still off. i actually don't have iphone because i can't type on that. i would prefer to have an iphone but i'm just not, i'm too old or something. i can't make it happen. are you able to type all the time and it is fine? >> again, it is for blackberry person. it's a little difficult but superior to the on screen keyboard. this could make blackberry users transition. i think it could be very exciting to see how many people sign up. melissa: if same thing doesn't happen, happen last time around. we were excited on this ryan seacrest was in on it. so it is fabulous. >> maybe apple buys the company. melissa: he got stopped, why would they beat the patent issues this time? anybody want to take a stab? >> they tried to change it substantially. i don't know if it is changed enough substantially. we'll see demand for this sort of thing. i don't know if blackberry customers will make the itch switch. >> do you like it? do you think it's a good idea. melissa: i would try it because i really want an iphone. i might keep the blackberry on

the side while trying it. you have another one? you still have your blackberry. did you find two of those on the street? >> i might be able to find second one. >> might go back to the street to find another one. thanks, guys. nice job. the spud of your dreams is almost here. the deadline for potato salad kick-starter is less than 24 hours? i can't believe it. janet yellen is warning on social media a trio of companies might be proving her wrong. more "money" coming right up. ♪

we never thought we'd be farming wind out here. it's not just building jobs here, it's helping our community. siemens location here has just received a major order of wind turbines. it puts a huge smile on my face. cause i'm like, 'this is what we do.' the fact that iowa is leading the way in wind energy,

i'm so proud, like, it's just amazing.

melissa: we're just getting word the president is set to talk at 2:35 this afternoon. giving a briefing of sorts from the white house. we'll stay on top of that, bring it to you live as soon as it happens. we don't know what it is about but we'll let you know as soon as we do. social media on a hot streak. linkedin latest to would you earnings blowing past expectations may come as a surprise to janet yellen. earlier this month she called the sector overvalued.

we have scott martin of united advisors. charlie and remember ron can back with us as well. -- veronica. i want to set the stage. earlier this week, there was a dinner, debate at steve cohen's house. it was glenn hubbard versus larry summers and this exact subject came up. charlie, take it away. >> this is our sources inside the room. this was off the record debate. melissa: right. >> kind of interesting, steve cohen's house is beautiful. we should have picture. melissa: enormous. ridiculous. >> that's why you and i wanted to be there. melissa: i tried. >> hates me but hates her even more. >> well. >> there was interesting discussion about obamacare, about dodd-frank. they kind of disagreed on that. melissa: yep. >> here is where they agreed on. summers likes obamacare. summers likes dodd-frank. here is where they agreed. janet yellen's comments about social media. from what we understand larry summers criticized fed chair,

remember he was almost fed chair. melissa: right. >> for going out there attack valuations of social media stocks, somewhat unbecoming of a fed chair to go after those stocks, to make a market prognostication. we should point out hub ard agreed with him. that was the one of the takes. melissa: 100 people there. super loaded folks from greenwich sponsored -- >> sponsored by greenwich chamber of commerce. good friend, larry kudlow was moderating. former colleague at brand x. we don't say that name anymore. comments were really interesting. he went after janet yellen. remember he got turned down the job because he couldn't get senate approval in order for janet yellen to get in there. criticized yellen about social media stocks and debate other issues this is interesting. summers supports obamacare said it shouldn't have been implemented until economy improved. melissa: maybe why --

>> maybe why he is not fed chair. he goes off the reservation constantly. melissa: scott martin, bring you into the discussion. worth noting as he is saying wrong of janet yellen to criticize social media he is good friends and close colleagues and long history with cheryl samburg at facebook. what do you think of this story, scott? >> cheryl has become quite rich as facebook has recovered. if janet yellen didn't like social media before she made that comment, certainly doesn't like it now because they blew her up on it after that comment was made because it was to charlie's point and some of the guys at party, it was out of left field. making a speech and all of sudden, and mentioned biotech stocks and that company, that was completely off-guard as far as the market is concerned. probably last time you will hear her talk about individual stocks. shows the fed going off monday date and paying too much to the stock market. melissa: vdag, worst stock

analyst/short-term trader of all time. >> i don't know if she is the worst. it is not her job. a lot of investors objected. it is outside of her per view. not as if she has enough issues to deal. she has fish to fry. melissa: chime in charlie. >> one thing strikes me odd about this debate, larry summers, respected economist, former head of harvard, worked in the white house. glenn hubbard, another respected economist. melissa: big-time. >> dean of columbia business school, debating economics at home of steve cohen whose firm was shut down because vary ridable magnet of insider trading according to u.s. attorney from southern district, barely as much as we know, farce we know escaped prosecution himself while a dozen of his people. melissa: scott, martin, strike you as odd. >> a little bit weird. melissa: unseemly. >> interesting all the places those two guys would get together at stevie cohen's dinner party? maybe had a few drinks. let's talk about stuff we

normally wouldn't talk about. i'm glad you guys had sources there. melissa: i would have loved to have been invited for the record, but regardless. thanks, guys. playing cupid. how e harmony can find you ideal boss with match made in office heaven. emergency this response when leaving a company. this ceo got the ultimate show of appreciation. mariachi band, carnival included. do you ever have too much money? ♪

in new york state, we're changing the way we do business, with startup ny. we've created tax free zones throughout the state. and startup ny companies will be investing hundreds of millions of dollars in jobs and infrastructure. thanks to startup ny, businesses can operate tax free for 10 years.

no property tax. no business tax. and no sales tax. which means more growth for your business, and more jobs. it's not just business as usual. see how new york can help your business grow, at startup.ny.gov what happened? life happened. stress. fun. bad habits. kids. kids. kids. now what? not milk. not sheep. not that. let's think smarter.

let's get some science in here. let's build a bed. another bed? no, a smarter bed a entirely new sleep number bed that tracks your movement, your heartbeat, your breathing - sensors working directly with the dual air chambers - yeah you need the air chambers. introducing the sleep number bed now with sleepiq technology. it tracks your sleep patterns and tells you how to adjust for... a good night's sleep, a better night, and an awesome night. so what sleep number adjustments make the difference? try cranking it up? adjust it down? a little bubbly? or nix the late night flicks? wait, you'll know what works, cuz sleepiq™ technology tells you. and all you have to do is sleep. which is easy. only at a sleep number store, mattresses with sleepiq start at just $999.98 because everyone deserves a great night's sleep. know better sleep with sleep number. melissa: just a reminder. we're waiting for the president, giving a briefing shortly. we're expecting him 2:35.

we have no guidance whatever it will be about. we'll keep eye on it and keep you up-to-date. the dow heading back. let's head up to nicole petallides on the floor of new york stock exchange. nicole? >> s&p 500 is with up arrow. that is amazing. traders were taken off-guard with the dow off 300 points. the dow was down 100 points but recouped some of those losses. that being said, we're still seeing downward action with a lot of names down, american express, jpmorgan, goldman sachs, some financial names are under pressure. there are winners to speak of like proctor & gamble and names came out with earnings and like doing well. proctor & gamble doing great on the dow jones industrial average, up 3.7%. automobiles came out with their sales numbers. seeing great sales numbers. but the big picture here is all the major averages are down for the week and now the dow with leg down moving into negative territory. monthly jobs report as well

today. back to you. melissa: nicole, thank you so much. match made in career heaven. dating service eharmony wants you to find the love of your work place life. its elevated career service will use sites famous compatibility to pair workers with perfect bosses hopefully death unto they depart. maybe that is too, this sounds like pretty interesting idea, jonathan. what do you think? >> melissa the boss you want is competent, end of story. one who earns profits for company. one that is successful. one that treats you as individual yes, and respects you. more than anything you want a boss and ceo who knows how to do his or her job. that should be ultimate goal of any employee. you want the company to last. melissa: charlie gasparino, i can just imagine you putting all of your personality traits on

eharmony career website and spinning out exactly the right boss for you or giving you that message maybe no one can really manage you. >> this is the dumbest thing i heard in my life. just think about it. you will pick, in this crummy economy, economy is growing. there are more jobs out there. melissa: fairly crummy still. still fairly crummy. >> you will be picking your boss? give me a break. in terms of me, with my, people love working with me. melissa: you're a dream, you're a dream employee. you listen to every directive. >> they love me. melissa: respect every boundary laid out for you. two different work places and everywhere you have gone you bring a smile to boss's faces. >> right. melissa: eharmony is responsible for 600,000 marriages with a divorce rate of just 34.8% since 2000. >> that is marriage marriage. melissa: that is marriage marriage. do you think they would do better or worse matching with you a boss? >> i'm not sure how they do it.

smart strategy to diversify because they have so much invested in this one product. this is another product line for them. this is putting a lot on employers -- 3.8%. want amazing relationship with your boss. i agree you want a boss competent, kind. i don't think you expect your boss to make up for relationships that maybe you don't have at home. asking a little too much. meet my emotional needs to. melissa: just about money, right. talk about a way to go. here is the flipside. when a reporter decided to step down, his workers wanted to give him a good-bye he would never forget. look at this. i have to say, i got a little teary watching this. embarrassing. gospel singers performing you are the man. some were doing somer assaults and flips. there was mariachi band. every person in the company was out there. look at signs. he is retiring.

they have nothing to gain from this. this is just, appreciation. can you imagine? what do you think? who wants, jonathan? >> exactly the opposite of, union archetype, union stereotype we hear about melissa, relationship between bosses and employees is adversarial relationship. quite the contrary, bosses and employees should have have the same -- >> taking one, most of the times, these companies get, you know, security guards, like guys i had to fight with in sun valley to throw you out the door. >> they don't have to be like that. melissa: charlie, when you leave someplace, like at some other network, that is what it was like when you left. >> i don't allow security to throw me out. melissa: look at this. >> i got choked up by this. melissa: veronica, you reacted same way. if you listen to the music and watch the whole thing in privacy of your own office. >> looks like a cult.

>> probably a really cheap way to get advertisement. think how viral this thing went. probably a really great way to do this for the company. melissa: how cynical of you vdag. >> i cried. >> isn't this cultish? >> all the people are really good-looking. you notice that? >> you notice people are all thin, good-looking. >> it's a clothing company. >> every enterprise needs a good leader. look at difference between -- and apple. melissa: every morning when i come to work that is what i want to see. thanks, guys. disappointing jobs report. more americans out of work, as market continues to dive. i hope you it is national date night after all. did you know that? don't worry, the princeton mom and charlie gasparino will help bring you "a" game. "piles of money" coming up. ♪

we are waiting for the president. he is giving a briefing at 2:35. we don't have guidance for what this briefing is about as though it could be related to jobs, russia, they are staying tight-lipped on this one. markets plunging further into the red wiping out all the gains. let's go to the less cme, looks like we are pushing positive territory to close the session. not so much now. what do you think? >> the general public doesn't trust the market. there are too many theories out there a2: ginber the investor i

different directions how one of them in a series i heard earlier today. do you agree with that? >> i agree with part of it. we didn't have a black swan alert, it was an ugly duckling. what you were talking about as well as the russian europe sanctions will be a problem too. it is a big trading partner of ours. three things were kind of waiting on the market and the last thing was done 4% gdp after a revised down 2.1. a lot of guys behind me feel like it is a 6% swing when you

walk outside. those things are starting to weigh heavily, and on speculative is minds. they are getting out and will take a back seat and get more information. maria: we will tackle that and get more information. july disappointing jobs report meeting the optimism over the encouraging gdp growth. the 209,000 jobs added falling short of economist predictions with the unemployment rate climbing to a higher than expected 6.92%. here to discuss the economist peter morici, douglas holtz-eakin and heritage foundation at steve more, fox news contributor. thanks to all three of you for joining us. do you think the jobs report today supports that 4% gdp print? >> no. if you look inside that 4% you see 1.7% is inventory swing. the core growth rate is 2.3%, up

for quite a while now. that is not news. the only big change between the past week job performance is productivity has gone away. we move from a bad growth nudge the economy to a no productivity economy. >> the economy is not generating jobs because it is not growing rapidly enough. we have grown at half the pieces we did in the last two decades of the 20th century we created 6 million jobs next over the last 15 years. the period prior to is that for a comparable period would be $41 million. the situation is absurd. immigrants have captured every one of those 6 million jobs. melissa: do you think the 4% gdp growth matches the jobs report we got today? >> i am more bullish. i think with the economy

shifting into a slightly higher gear, peter is right. we had half the crop -- job growth we should but there are signs the economy is starting to ratchet up a little bit. what was interesting about this report is that we haven't mentioned is wages are really really flat. americans are not getting an increase. wall street likes that because they don't like waging creases but workers like a lot and if they don't get pay increases they can't go out and buy the goods and services these businesses are selling. melissa: what about the employer cost index? >> i didn't see it in today's report, we were growing at an annual rate of 2.4%. inflation-adjusted, that is pretty flat. i would like to believe, american household has more in common, i see more of the same.

we have seen over the last six months a decline in the long-term unemployed, people unemployed more than six months. what is interesting is it corresponds closely to the expiration of the unemployment insurance benefit. republicans would be crazy to reinstate extended unemployment benefits. the unemployment rate would go back. melissa: peter morici, some say the good news in today's jobs report was the unemployment rate ticked back up to 6.2% because it showed some people i getting hopeful and looking for a job and counting themselves as part of labour force. >> don't know whether hopeful is the right word. they're looking for things to live off of. one of every six adult men between the ages of 25 and 54 too young to retire and too old to be in school are unemployed. that is incredibly high number but what is sad is many of them are still not looking for work. i would like to see the

unemployment rate stayed constant but forced to at 400,000 jobs a month. if we were growing properly we would be working off the problem. melissa: how do we get there? >> deep structural changes. the entitlement reforms, tax reforms we need so badly, no more temporary policies, number gimmicks, deep structural reforms to turn the private sector loose. melissa: throw the molotov cocktail into the middle. appreciate it. we are still awaiting the president galicia's set to speak at any minute. let's go to peter barnes as he sets us up for this. what we expecting? dierdre: there's an awful lot of president talk about. the white house hasn't said specifically what he will talk about. but of course we have the jobs report from this morning. it did not come in as high as wall street was expecting but it was still over 200,000 jobs and the president we will probably

hear crow that the private sector has not created 10 million or so private jobs since the end of the recession. also talked to russian president vladimir putin on the situation in the ukraine, and reiterated he wants a diplomatic solution to that so probably bring that up as well. he has also got the houses staying in session has delayed its august recess to try to get something passed before it adjourns on immigration and border security so he could weigh in on that. we have the situation in the middle east, gaza and israel as well as the two americans infected with the ebola virus who will be coming back here. plenty for the president to talk to a lot on his plate. melissa: can use of a live shot in the podium, we are keeping an eye on the white house and we will tell you as soon as he comes to the podium. in the meantime travel site expedia hitting new highs after

beating the top and bottom lines. go to nicole petallides on the floor of the stock exchange with more on this stock store. good to be an investor is there. >> up arrow for a popular name, expedia, and down arrows for so many stocks, expedia bucking the trend, doing so well, airline bookings on the rise, better than expected results. stock up 5.5% on better than expected quarterly results. airline ticket revenue rose 22%. we saw wholesale.com, a hot wire.com, the corporate travel sector, overall really bucking the trend is so it really was a winner and all the analysts raised it as well. melissa: nicole petallides, thank you for that. with you are on wall street or main street, here is who is

making money today, anyone with a piece of tesla, shares moving higher after a lot of positive headline earnings overnight. ceo elon musk has revealed construction on his much-anticipated factory was imminent and the vehicle, what the vehicle delivered could triple by the end of next year. more than 28 million shares in the company meaning he has made an extra $180 million today, that is very impressive. making money, monica lewinsky, she landed a new gate as an ongoing vanity fair contributor. leaders have been so taken with her recent articles that the magazine has asked her to keep riding on a regular basis. still uncertain, however, what she is actually going to be writing about. cashing in on her come back, carried in a tv thriller, "sharknado," back in the spotlight, she launched a new perfume to celebrate.

it is called shark obviously and it retails for $25. i wonder what it smells like. cheese says it is light, refreshing and smells like lavender color flowers. that is why it is called shark. i imagines this is what she smelled like in the movie. we will squeeze in a quick break. the president is about to come out and talk to the press. we don't know what he will be addressing. a lot of issues right now, we are on it. we will be right back. [bell rings] ♪ time and sales data. split-second stats. ♪ its so close to the options floor, you'll bust your brain-box. all on thinkorswim, from td ameritrade.

you make a great team. it's been that way sincthe day you met. but your erectile dysfunction - it could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph like needing to go frequently or urgently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medications, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sexual activity. do not take alis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as this may causan unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess with cialis. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long-term injury, seek immiate medical hp for an erection lasting more than 4 hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or if you have any allergic reactions such as rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a 30-tablet free trial.

melissa: i am melissa frances with your fox business brief. burger king in come up by 19%, and also reported positive sales in every single region of business. burger king's recent strategy is focused on lowering costs into new menu items, not doing as well, kelloggs outlook for the year has been reduced after earnings dropped 16%. cerealmakers struggle as consumers shun cards and the viewer sit down breakfasts. the f a a is worried about planes flying over global hotspots. has banned any american plane from frying -- flying over iraq in altitude's lower than 30,000 feet. that is the latest from the fox business network. the president coming up in just a moment. we will be live on that. there is a live shot.

giving you the power to prosper. we will be right back.

melissa: we are moments from the briefing by the president. lots of speculation what he is going to talk about. we will take it as it happens list stand by, don't go anywhere. valentine's day is 7 months away. you don't have to feel bad about

your relationship status. tomorrow is designated national date night. who better to sort out the economics of romance than our favorite odd couple, my personal feminist charlie gasparino with the author of mary smart, susan patton, who pays on a date. would it bother you if you went on a date with a woman and she paid? >> i tell you all the time. melissa: would you mind? >> i thought i picked some questions. but first let me say a few words about the economy. this morning we learned our economy created 200,000 new jobs in july on top of 300,000 new jobs in june. so we are now in a six months to wreak with 200,000 new jobs each month. that is the first time that has happened since 1997. over the past year we have had

more jobs than any year since 2006. all hold our businesses treated 9.9 million new jobs over the last 53 months. that is the longest streak of private-sector job creation in history. as we saw on wednesday the economy grew at a strong pace in the spring. companies are investing, consumers' spending, american manufacturing, energy, technology, autos, all are booming thanks to the decisions we have made and the grit and resilience of the american people we recovered faster come farther from the recession than almost any other advanced country on earth. the good news is the economy is getting stronger, things are getting better, engines are revving the a little bit louder and the decisions we make right now can sustain and keep that here are a seriesum going.

of steps we could be taking to maintain momentum and perhaps even accelerate it. there are steps that could result in more job growth, higher wages, higher incomes, more relief for middle-class families, and so far in congress we have not seen them willing or able to take those steps. i have been pushing for common sense ideas like rebuilding infrastructure in ways that are sustained over many years and support millions of good jobs and help businesses compete. i have been advocating on behalf of raising the minimum wage, making it easier for working folks to pay off their student loans, fair pay, paid leave. all these policies have two things in common. they would help working families feel more stable and secure, and all of them so far have been

blocked or ignored by republicans in congress. that is why my administration keeps taking whatever actions we can take on our own to help working families. it is good that congress was able to pass legislation to strengthen the va and i want to thank the chairman and ranking members who were involved in that. it is good that congress was able to at least fund transportation projects for a few more months before leaving town although it falls far short of the kind of infrastructure effort that we need that actually accelerate the economy but for the most part the big-ticket items, the things that would really make a difference in the lives of middle-class families are not getting done. a recent example, immigration, we all agree there's a problem that needs to be solved in a portion of our southern border. we even agree on most of the

solutions but instead of working together, instead of focusing on the 80% where there is agreement between democrats and republicans, between the administration and congress, house republicans as we speak are trying to pass the most extreme and unworkable version of a bill they already know is going nowhere. they can't pass the senate and if it were to pass the senate i would veto. they know it. they're not even trying to solve the problem. this is the message bills that they couldn't pull off yesterday's so they made it a little more extreme so they could maybe pass it today. so they can check a box before they are leaving town a month. this is on an issue they insisted had to be a top priority. our efforts administratively so far have helped slow the tide of child migrants trying to come to our country but without additional resources and help from congress we are not going

to have the resources we need to to solve the problem. that means while they are out on vacation i'm going to have to make some tough choices to meet the challenge with or without congress. yesterday even though they have been sitting on a bipartisan immigration bill for over a year house republicans suggested since they don't expect to actually pass a bill but i can sign that i actually should go ahead and act on my own to solve the problem. keep in mind just a few days earlier they voted to sue me. for acting on my own. and when they couldn't pass a bill yesterday they put out a statement suggesting i should act on my own because they couldn't pass a bill. immigration has not gotten done, a student loan bills that would help folks who have student loan debts consolidate and refinance

at lower rates, that didn't pass, the transportation bill that they did pass just gets us through the spring when we should be planning years in advance. states and businesses are raising the minimum wage for their workers because this congress is failing to do so. even basic things like approving career diplomats for critical ambassadorial posts aren't getting done. last night for purely political reasons that republicans for certain period of time blocked our new ambassador to russia. it raised such an uproar that finally they went ahead and left our russian ambassador a time when we're dealing every day with the crisis in ukraine. they are still blocking our ambassador to sierra leone where there is currently an ebola outbreak, they're blocking our ambassador to guatemala even as they demand the we do more to

stop the flow of unaccompanied children from guatemala. there are a lot of things we could be arguing about on policy, that is what we should be doing is a democracy but we shouldn't be having an argument about placing career diplomats with bipartisan support in countries around the world where we have to have a presence. the bottom line is this. we have come a long way over the last 5-1/2 years. our challenges are nowhere near as daunting as they were when i first came into office but the american people demand and deserve a strong and focused effort on the part of all of us to keep moving the country forward and to focus on their concerns and the fact is we could be much further along and could be doing even better and the economy could be stronger and more jobs could be created if congress would do the job that the people sent them here

to do. i will not stop trying to work with both parties to get things moving faster for middle-class families and those trying to get into the middle class. when congress returns next month, my hope is that instead of simply trying to pass partisan message bills on party lines that don't actually solve problems, they are going to be willing to come to get it to at least focus on some key areas where there is broad agreement. after all that we have had to overcome, our congress should stop standing in the way of our country's success. with that let me take a couple questions. i will start with roberta hampton. >> in the middle east, why do you think is real should embrace a cease-fire in gaza when one of its soldiers appears to have

been abducted? and also have you seen israel on your call to protect -- >> it is important to note that we have, and i have unequivocally condemned hamas and the palestinian factions responsible for killing two israeli soldiers and abducting a third. almost minutes after a cease-fire had been announced and the u.n. condemned them as well and i want to make sure that they are listening to, if they are serious about trying to resolve this situation that soldier needs to be unconditionally released as soon as possible. i have been very clear

throughout this crisis is that israel has a right to defend itself. no country can tolerate missiles raining down on its cities and people having to rush to bomb shelters every 20 minutes or half hour. no country can who would tolerate tunnels being dug under their land that can be used to launch terrorist attacks, and so not only have we been supportive of israel in its right to defend itself but in very concrete terms for example in support for the iron don't program. intercepted rockets firing down on israeli cities. we've been, you know, trying to cooperate as much as we can to make sure that israel is able to protect its citizens. now at the same time, we've also been clear that innocent civilians in gaza caught in the crossfire, have to weigh on our

conscience and we have to do more to protect them. a cease-fire was one way in which we could stop the killing, to step back and to try to resolve some of the underlying issues that have been building up over quite some time. israel committed to that 72-hour cease-fire, and it was violated. and trying to put that back together is going to be challenging, but we will continue to make those efforts. and let me take this opportunity, by the way, to give secretary john kerry credit. he has been persistent. he has worked very hard. he has endured on many occasions really unfair criticism. simply to try to get to the point where the killing stops and the underlying issues about israel's security, but also the

concerns of palestinians in gaza can be addressed. we're going to keep working towards that. it's going to take some time. i think it's going to be very hard to put a cease-fire back together again, if israelis and the international community can't feel confident that hamas can follow through on a cease-fire commitment. and it's not particularly relevant whether a particular leader in hamas ordered this abduction. the point is when they sign onto a cease-fire, they're claiming to speak for all the palestinian factions. if they don't have control of them, and just moments after a cease-fire is signed, you have israeli soldiers being killed and captured, then it's hard for the israelis to feel confident that a cease-fire can

actually be honored. i'm in constant consultation with prime minister netanyahu. our national security team is in constant communication with the israeli military. i want to see everything possible done to make sure that palestinian civilians are not being killed, and it is heart breaking to see what's happening there, and i think many of us recognize the dilemma we have. on the one hand israel has a right to defend itself and it's got to be able to get at those rockets and those tunnel, in. on the other hand, because of the incredibly irresponsible actions on the part of hamas to oftentimes house these rocket launches right in the middle of

civilian neighborhoods, we end up seeing people who had nothing to do with these rockets ending up being hurt. part of the reason why we've been pushing so hard for a cease-fire is precisely because it's hard to reconcile israel's legitimate need to defend itself with our concern with those civilians, and if we can pause the fighting, then it's possible that we may be able to arrive at a formula that spares lives and also ensures israel's security. but it's difficult, and i don't think we should pretend otherwise. okay? bill plante. >> mr. president, like the cease-fire, you called for diplomatic solutions not only in israel and gaza, but also in ukraine, in iraq, to very little effect so far.

as the united states of america lost its influence in the world. have you lost yours? >> look, this is a common theme that folks bring up. apparently, people have forgotten that america is the most powerful country on earth still does not control everything around the world, and so, our diplomatic efforts often take time. they often will see progress and then a step backwards, that's been true in the middle east. that's been true in europe, that's been true in asia. that's the nature of world affairs. it's not neat and it's not smooth. but if you look at, for example, ukraine. we have made