yevment rick perry is officially in the race. president obama's approval rating falls below 40 percent for the first time with gallup. lou dobbs react toss that. >> michelle malke nevment

says the administration was dealt an embarrassing blow last week on its attempt to curtail oil and gas exploration. we'll have a fair and balanced debate on that claim. a 16-year-old goes swiming in a lake and winds up dead, thanks to a brain eating ameba. dr. michael baden joins us live to tell us how that happens. see you top of the 1:00. jenna: america's asking about the economy and back with us, we now have economist mark zandi, chief of moody's analytics. mark, we certainly have a lot of questions, first to the extension of the payroll tax credit and also the extension of unemployment. a lot of our viewers have the question about where we get the money to do that if we're also in a time where we're cutting so many programs. is the money actually available to do that? >> yeah, that's a great question. we'll have to borrow the money, so that would add to the decifit in the near term. but i think we could and should pay for it in the longer run. so what we would do is marry those cuts, an increase in the e.i. benefits, with

future cuts in government spending and or tax increases. so i think we should pay for it but pay for it over a longer period of time, over the next decade. but it's a very good point. jenna: as you mentioned to us, you feel like it's worth it at this time to keep the economy from sliding further backwards, instead of forwards. you also were talking a little about our tax structure earlier, and susan had a question, and this comes up a lot when we talk about tax reform, her question is about a flat tax, simplifying the tax code, also lowering it in some cases, what do you think about that? >> well, that goes to the point i was making earlier about eliminating or at least scaling back some of the tax deductions and credits and other loopholes in the tax code. and there are many. just to give you a sense of that, if you add up all of the costs of all of those loophole, it's a little over a trillion dollars a year, so it's a lot of money, and if we can eliminate or scale those barks then you make the tax base broader and more flat, fairer, less complex, and you raise a lot of revenue, so much revenue,

you could probably even lower marginal rates on businesses to try to help our global competitiveness or even ensure that we don't have to raise tax rates on individuals. so i agree with the thrust of that question. i think we should move towards a flatter tax base. jenna: do you think we have the resources, and resources in the people that are in power right now, to really get that done? do they have -- and speaking frankly, the smarts? and the guidance to do that? >> yeah, you know, i think they -- here's the most important point. i think almost everyone understands that this is a good idea. from an economic perspective, on both sides of the aisle. of course, there's a lot of constituencies, each tax credit, each tax deduction, has someone who really likes it and wants it and will fight for it, so politically, it's difficult, but i do think when we get to the end of next year and the tax cut, the bush tax cuts are set to expire, that's a poignant time when i think the politics might

marry nicely with the economics, and we could get some substantive tax reform and move to something that i think everyone would agree is from an economic perspective the root thing. jenna: this is a final question, donna wants to know, and maybe this is the $17 trillion question, depending upon our debt, mark. in what we're do you really expect to see the economy turn around? >> well, you know, it is already turning around. it's certainly a lot better than we were a year or two ago. but i think it's probably going to be this time next year, maybe even two years from now, when people will actually feel that way, when they really feel like things have turned the corner, their financial situation is improved, unemployment is moving definitively, so we've got a good year, perhaps two, before we'll keep comfortable about the way things are going. jenna: and so many people that way. that gut check, so important for so many reasons. thank you very much for being with us today. >> thank you jenna. rick: good questions from

the folks in the chat room. appreciate that as well. when we come back, a battle to keep a lid on teenagers causing havoc in philadelphia, what the city is doing and will it be enough, straight ahead.

jenna: new information coming in on a beef recall over contaminated meat sold at three major grocery store chains. julie, what do we know about this? >> reporter: well, if you like meat and live in the southeast, listen here, certain packages of ground beef are being recalled at three major grocery store chains in the atlanta, georgia metro area due to the possibility of e coli contamination. the beef is being recalled at winn dixie stores incorporated, p. -- publix incorporated and kroger. the contamination problem was apparently found at the national beef packaging company of dodge city,

kansas, which distributes to the southeast. national beef has had to recall more than 60,000 pounds of beef, according to the u.s. department of agriculture, after the ohio department of agriculture found the potentially deadly bacteria in its products. so far, stores on alert for the contaminated ground beef are located mainly in alabama, florida, georgia, louisiana, mississippi, south carolina, and tennessee, but they warn the meat could have been distributed nationwide. symptoms of e coli include severe stomach cramps, tenderness, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, the good news, the agriculture department saying there haven't been reports of illness so far but national beef saying it is conducting a thorough investigation. jenna. jenna: good information for our viewer, julie. thank you. rick: a controversial curfew in one of america's biggest cities, because of flash mobs like this one. this is all happening in philadelphia. over the weekend, the mayor issued a 9:00 p.m. curfew for parts of the city for

anyone under the age of 18. there were no flash mobs, but there were dozens of arrests. david lee miller is in our newsroom with more on that. david. >> reporter: that's right, there were 70 arrests this weekend for violating philadelphia's curfew, including an 18-year-old who stabbed a 16-year-old in the arm after leaving a city organized bowling party, but overall, officials say the first weekend of this curfew is a success. most importantly, there were none of those flash mobs that have plagued the city for the past two years. the mobs organized on social media sites have attacked people as well as property, rampaging through stores and wreaking havoc, last month the violence escalated with one victim hospitalized with a frequented skull, the mayor lashed out not only at teens but parents, saying they do more to control their own kids. speaking this weekend, the mayor offered a stern warning, as well as some advice: >> if your child is out after curfew, tall, short,

nice, not so nice, the curfew is the curfew is the curfew. buy a watch. >> reporter: not only can teens be fined for violating the curfew but so can parents. critics say the curfew is collective punishment, unfairly targeting inner city blacks, the local chapter of the naacp supports the mayor's curfew, saying what he did took courage. other cities have been plagued by flash riots and the teen curfew in philadelphia, it might be tried elsewhere, for instance, kansas city, missouri is now considering the same type of law. for now, rick, it looks like all eyes are on philadelphia, waiting to see if this program continues to be a success. rick. rick: david lee miller in the newsroom, thanks. jenna: we're waiting for the president, his town hall meeting to get underway in canon falls, minnesota. there's a live look. he's on a three-day bus tour, giving him a chance to talk about jobs and hear about the economy directly from every day americans. we're going to have more coverage of the president,we use coming upd next.

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jenna: we heard that the president began speaking in cannon falls minnesota he's having a town hall about the economy. we will continue to follow that for you. rick: he says he's happy to be out of washington and in minimum so the that. thanks for watching, everybody, "america live" starts right now. megyn: fox news alert, economists issuing a new and dark outlook for america's economy, just as president obama rolls into the midwest in an effort to renew his focus on jobs. welcome to "america live" on a monday, everybody, i'm megyn kelly. we will have more on that in just a moment, but the president has just begun his remarks on jobs. we want to go to him for that right now. [applause] >> around the world people still understand the extraordinary power, but also the extraordinary hope that america represents. so, there is nothing wrong with america that can't be fixed.

what is broken is our politics. [applause] think about it, over the last six months we've had a string of bad luck. there have been some things that we could not control. you had an arab spring in the middle east that promises more democracy and human rights for