we'll have a lot of exciting events. tomorrow marks two more days 'til geraldo. >> steve: that's right. so mark that on your calendar. >> gretchen: i hadn't thought of it that way. you always keep me up to date. >> steve: all right. now it's time for the after the show show and bill and martha. gerri: america's greatly diminished. the median net worth of the american family plunged almost 40% over the course of the last three years. stunning information and that is how we say good morning, everybody. i'm martha maccallum here in washington this morning. >> i'm rick folbaum in here for bill hemmer in "america's newsroom" the housing bust taking its to. the middle class taking the biggest hit, martha.

martha: that's right, rick. stuart varney joins us from the fox business network. stuart, explain these numbers for us. >> the raw dollar numbers lay out the level of wealth destruction. if you go back to 2007, add up what the median family was worth in dollar terms. the number is 126,000 bucks. fast forward just three years to 2010, and that number was all the way down to $77,000. that is the median family's net worth. that is the destruction of wealth on a scale we've never seen before. it takes us all the way back to the levels of 1992 median family wealth. and it means that an entire generation of wealth creation was wiped out in those three years, 07 to 2010. and, martha, the principle reason for that wealth destruction was the housing market bust. the very sharp decline in housing prices because that's where middle america stores its wealth. it was that group that took a very, very big hit because

of the housing bust. martha: it is just devastating, stuart, when you look at it in these stark terms and these numbers and of course everybody attaches so much of their confidence in the market, their confidence in their ability to buy for things and pay for things based in part what they know their home is worth. that is their biggest investment. it raises this question about this recovery we're supposedly in sort of the nascent stages of here. are we? have we begun any kind of a recovery? >> no. wealth creation has not recovered. we have not recovered any of that, any, any amount of that lost wealth. we have no serious recovery. we have not clawed back the wealth. in fact, what we've done is build up the national debt instead. home prices are down some more in the last two years. disposable income, the money, the stuff that you can buy with the money in your pocket, that is down over the past two years. unemployment is still above 8%. middle america has not

recovered the prosperity which it knew in 2007, period. martha: of course prices on everything that we buy have not come down commensurate with that new reality of that wealth. >> that is the spending power of the money in your pocket. it has gone down some more since 2010 when those numbers were factored in. martha: tough numbers to think about but that's the reality and the report from the federal reserve this morning. thank you so much. stuart varney from the fox business network. rick? rick: eric holder on the hot seat once again. the attorney general is set to face the senate judiciary committee today. likely facing a barrage questions about the threat of contempt of congress over the "fast and furious" program. some lawmakers say holder has failed to cooperate with subpoenas from congress. and yesterday the white house responding to the contempt proceedings. >> "fast and furious", the house is moving towards a vote, contempt vote. what is the white house view on it? >> white house view.

[laughter] as you know, ed, fighting criminal activity along the southwest border including illegal trafficking of guns to mexico remains a priority of this administration. the attorney general has also made clear he takes the allegations that have been raised very seriously. that is why he asks the inspector general to investigate the matter. rick: the white house spokesman. the senate hearing this morning will go way beyond "fast and furious" though. grilling the attorney general on the investigation into the leaks of classified intelligence operations. we'll have much more as the hearing gets underway in a little bit. but first, raging wildfires in northern colorado now turning deadly. the body of a 62-year-old woman was found in her burned out home in larimer county, colorado. a fireman tried to get her out but was chased off by wall of fast moving flames. hundreds of people have been forced to leave almost everything they own behind. >> we brought the few things

really important to us. works of art done i about friends and things emotionally chach attached to. other than that we're just really, we trust these guys. we know all these firefighters in our area and, and, whew. rick: tough times out west. adam housley is following the story from fort collins in colorado. ad many do, what is the latest on the fire there? >> reporter: yeah, rick, the family of linda stedman reported her missing on saturday. that is when the fire exploded inside. it began with a lightning strike. due to winds and extremely high temperatures here in colorado the fire absolutely exploded to 20,000 acres at one point in just a few hours. we're told 41,500 acres is the official numbers. they will have new numbers shortly as well as

containment numbers. firefighters last night said they made significant progress. this fire is still active. called the high park fire. there are 600 personnel fighting the fire. tankers have come in as far away as alaska and california. 118 structures have burned. a number are homes. they do not have specific numbers. they used an infrared camera to fly over the fire trying to get where the fire is still active. they say that is the northeast edge. that is good news for people living in fort collins and outlying areas. there are less homes in that area. very difficult conditions here especially up in the higher elevations, rick, as the fire continues to burn in that direction. rick: adam, firefighters in new mexico also have their hands full. what is the latest there? >> good news there as well. winds have died down and temperatures have come down. if you talk to people in colorado and new mexico they will tell you over the weekend saturday and sunday, temperatures were in the 90s in some cases winds 30 to 40

miles per hour. the little bear fire burning near riodoso, you talk about what the firefighters are doing to battle some of the blazes here is their responses. take a listen. >> i couldn't believe i came to the command station a while ago. i couldn't believe how many people were there and how many vehicles were there. they're just doing a great job. it is just going to take time. >> reporter: right now there are 18 fires burning across the west. we'll talk to the national fire center. it is less yaichage this year than last year so far. the west with the bark beetle infestation and heat everyone is worried about what may lie ahead for the western states. we've had five here in colorado so far that have burn, rick. rick: adam housley in colorado. adam, thanks. martha: well the u.n. makes a desperate plea to the world this morn fog for the people of syria. live pictures coming in from

the battered city of homs. another day of shelling and heavy gunfire. u.n. activists are warning of even more attacks coming. they're accusing the government of such brutal crimes using children as young as nine years old as human shields. connor powell live in our middle east bureau with the latest on this. conor, calls to protect these civilians seem to be going unanswered. >> reporter: they sure do, martha. civilians have been caught in the cross fire since the start of this uprising 15 months ago. this new u.n. report lays out how bad it has been especially recently. according to the u.n., children eight and nine years old are forced to from their homes to walk alongside syrian troops and pro-assad militiamen as they go house-to-house searching for rebels. reports they are put on buses and other military vehicles to use as human shields as syrian troops move around the country.

children as young as eight and nine years old are tortured, beaten, whipped with electrical cables one case with electricity. the violence is getting worse and chaotic. efforts to get civilians out of the harm's way so far have not been enough, martha. martha: that sin credible what you're describing, connor. are there any plans to intervene, to help? >> reporter: martha, the british foreign secretary said there are no plans for military intervention. kofi annan the, u.n. special envoy is trying to get a meeting together of his new contact the united states, britain, france, other countries. he wants to include iran in the meeting however but the u.s. and other countries pushed back this sort of contact group. right now they are struggling to get together a meeting to discuss some type of peaceful transition. right now the violence is going to continue pause diplomatic efforts are failing, martha.

martha: awful situation. thank you very much. conor powell reporting. rick: those are a few of the many stories we're following for you this morning in "america's newsroom." it is a spray tan scare. new warnings if you plan to try to get the prebeach glow. martha: and a dramatic hit-and-run caught on tape. you will not belief how this ends. rick: plus eric holder set to face the music on capitol hill. a senate hearing is about to get underway while a vote is pending whether holder will be held in contempt of congress. a family who's son's death may have been caused by the "fast and furious" operation awaits answer. >> brian ultimately came home that christmas. we buried him not far from the house that he was raised in just prior to christmas day. wake up!

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rick: police in alabama coming up empty so far in

their search for the man accused of killing three people near auburn university. s.w.a.t. teams surrounded a house in montgomery. this was yesterday. they believe the suspect might have been hiding out in that house. but after several hours the police left empty-handed. the suspect is charged with killing three people at a pool party over the weekend. two of the victims were former football players from auburn. police arrested two others for hindering their search and for giving police false information. martha: so behind me eric holder is set to face some pretty tough questions once again this morning. that gets underway in less than an hour from now. it could end up with the attorney general being held in contempt of congress. so jonah goldberg joins me live on the set. the editor-at-large for "the national review" and also fox news contributor. good to see you in person for a change, jonah. >> great to be here. martha: let's talk about it a little bit. will they be able to achieve what they want to achieve, issa and his committee? will they get a vote of

contempt of congress through the committee and larger floor on the house and what about the senate? >> what we hear of the committee it will probably pass the fact that boehner came out went all-in supporting him probably pushed a lot of wafers. it will probably get out of committee. that is all maybe issa wants. this is all part of a kibuki dance out of washington. perhaps merely the threat of this getting out of committee will be enough for holder to say all right, here are the documents you've been clamoring for. we don't know. it is a way to up the ante and get leverage for issa. assuming and purely an assumption that holder balks and doesn't cave in. it goes to the full house. no one really knows. presumably most republicans if not all or at least the vast majority of republicans would vote for it. republicans are majority. it could pass party line although i think a lot of republicans wouldn't want that. the baseline, 31 democrats

wrote a joint letter to the administration asking them to cooperate with issa's investigation. so that is sort of the baseline. you figure some fraction of those 31 democrats might vote alongwith them. jim cooper from tennessee is one of the guys they're talking about. martha: let's back up and take sort of a broader view in a moment. if he were to be found in contempt of congress what would happen? >> well, it doesn't happen often. it happened in '83 with an epa director. it happened with harriet miers. and sometimes that really forces things. my guess in a political, political year like this that something would have to give way inside the administration to help try to make this thing go away before then. obama does not want --. martha: you can only assume there are things in those documents that they don't want anyone to know or they would say here. you would say that holder mishandled this and got himself in this pickle unnecessarily. >> absolutely.

people forget what goodwill there was toward obama when this administration came in. second of all if the talking points from holder and his defenders are true this is continuation of a bush policy. i don't think that is actually the case. i think sidewinder was a different thing, if that were true holder could have come in and second this started to stink. we'll clean house everything out there. he would be considered a hero even if there were some small embarassments. instead he stonewalled and built this up into colossal. martha: he you should have said this got away from me. i should have been on top the program. >> the second i realized i heard what was going on i would have put a stop to it and he would have been a hero. martha: the terry family are shaking their head. their son served on the border. he was shot and killed and they want to get answers. i imagine they're asking are we ever going to get answers we're looking for here? >> the trite thing to say in washington you never want to see the sausage being made.

that is usually about legislation about low-flush toilets. when you're talking about some family's son working for the united states government it makes it a lot more poignant. you can see why a lot of people are so emotionally invested in this. martha: issa believes they knew about it and holder may have talked to the white house about it and there was some effort, he seems to think, to kibosh it, to cover it up. that is the nut of what we're talking about. >> clearly thinks that is the case. there are thousands of documents that holder will not release and there is no way that, i mean, there is this old truism you don't want to ask questions you don't know the answer to. i think to some extent issa knows something at least at the gut level and that's why he is willing to press it as far as he is. martha: jonah, thank you very much. we'll watch and it will get started in less than 45 minutes away. all of that will get underway this morning. we'll watch it closely. thanks for being here in d.c. back to you, rick. rick: well, martha, it was an emergency distress call

that scrambled two coast guard ships, four helicopters and 200 first-responders and it may have all been a hoax. we're awaiting brand new details on a possible yacht explosion. it may have never happened. martha: watch out. one town now approving a fine for discussing. cussing. >> people do it, and you say damn. i didn't mean to say that. >> well that might have to go to court. i mean you know on that note.

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martha: got a foul mouth? one town has an incentive to try to keep it clean. middle bureau, massachusetts is getting national attention for this. they're voting to fine anyone who uses public

pronanty 20 bucks. like the swearing jar. if you get caught cursing you will have to toss a 20 in it. not everybody is on board with their plan. they think it violates their free speech. >> the last list i saw was george carlin. he had a long list. we don't have a list here. is there a definition in state law where you're looking at where someone can get a list of what the profanity or obscenity in your officer will in fact use his discretion to determine? >> what they will be doing, if somebody has very aggressive behavior, almost like a verbal assault with their language, then that can be considered as ticketable offense. martha: where does all this end right? many business owners say they are happy with the plan. they think it will help to restrain what they call loud, foul-mouthed teenagers in the area. hmm, not a good situation. we'll see if they can clean it up. rick: new concerns this morning over a popular tanning method that widely been seen as safe but a

panel of medical experts is now warning that the active chemical used in spray-on tans may actually cause genetic defects. here to talk about this, dr. doris day is a board certified determine toist and clinical professor of dermatology at nyu medical center. thanks for coming in. too much sun is bad. tanning beds are bad. and now spray-on tans are bad. entire cast of jersey shore is saying what do we do now? >> we sit need to sit in a dark room but obviously that will never happen. we have to keep things in balance. these studies are back from the '90s. none were done on human cells or humans. they were done on mice cells and bacterial cells looking at potential problems. the problem here, the reason why they're talking about spray-on tans. the risk is from inhaling or ingesting the active ingredient dha. wiping on the tans initially we thought that was only absorbed into the outer

layers of dead skin cells not into the body. rick: not a big deal. >> not a big deal. less than half of 1% of ingredient gets absorbed into the bod i d significance is not known. the fda so far is not overly concerned. there are a lot of messages. rick: the important point that you raise, the studies we're citing this morning were not done on humans. >> right. we don't know what to make of them. more work needs to be done. if you've been doing spray-on tanning that is not a reason to panic. going forward, don't spray-on tan on your face. do not inhale or ingesting active ingredient. don't do it more than you have to. if you're going in the sun do it the night before. because there could be risk of interaction of this ingredient with the sun. i would use it the night before. i think the sunless tanners, same active ingredient than sun exposure. so it is not an excuse to then go back to the tanning salons or go back out in the sun. we don't want to send that message out.

rick: everybody feels better when they spend time outside in the sun and a lot of people with sunscreen of course. and a lot of people don't like the way they look. they like the way they feel when they have a little color in their face. so what do you do? >> you can use a bronzer. there are great powder bronzers you can get from all different companies at all different price points. those look natural and wonderful. they go from wash to wash but that is fine. you've been working with the skin cancer foundation on this campaign, go with your own glow. we're trying to help celebrate your own natural skin color, want a little contour, bronzer is good. wipe-on tan is good if you have an event and want a little color. a lot of cultures celebrate your even natural skin tone. we have to move in that direction a little bit. with the a tanorexic mom we saw what extreme can do. we hope we moving back to a happy medium. rick: what do you say to your patients, dr. day i like spending time out doors, i like being active out there. what do you recommend? >> encourage that. as a dermatologist i want my

patients outdoors, active and living a happy lifestyle. it is not about avoiding that. but about being sun smart. avoiding midday sun exposure when you can. using sun protection. applying enough of it. wearing a hat and physical protection when you can. you can do those things and really enjoy the time out doors. i go on vacation once a year and come back and i'm same color i started out with. it is doable. hard but doalable. we see skin cancer every day. this can be life-threatening and disfiguring besides premature aging. rick: little kids reapplying how often do you need to reapply on kids. >> every two hours if you're swimming or sweating it off. get great sun protective clothing as well. try to stay in the shade if you can. rick: dr. doris day, professor of dermatology at nyu medical center. >> thanks for having me. rick: martha, good advice up here. martha: certainly is. rick, thank you. so the governor says, from

florida, says he wants to make sure if you vote in his state, you're really allowed to. but the feds say that they are violating the law. now both sides are filing suit in this and there are new details in the battle against voter fraud. plus this. >> i'm slowing down obviously because there are people in the crosswalk. happened so fast the my niece said the car came around me and hit them. he flew up in the air like a rag doll. rick: heart to watch that one. you have to see how it ends. we'll show you. hollywood ending in the nhl season for the very first time in their history. they have been around for 45 years. the l.a. kings can say they're stanley cup champions. the kings completing a fairytale season with a 6-1 victory over the new jersey devils in game 6 of last night's finals. structured settlements.

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[ female announcer ] and you've earned a say. get the facts and make your voice heard on medicare and social security at earnedasay.org. martha: fox news alert this morning. there is new fallout after a member of president obama's cabinet was involved in two hit-and-run car crashes. commerce secretary john bryson saying he will take a leave of absence after reportedly suffering a seizure. now authorities are trying to determine exactly what happened. senior white house correspondent and foreign affairs correspondent wendell goler joins me now live from the white house. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, martha. about 10:00 last night joan bryson's spokeswoman sent a

statement to reporters announcing his leave of absence after bryson spent the day at his office here in washington. his aides and white house officials spent the day unable to answer many questions about saturday's events. the statement read in part, quote, effective immediately i'm taking a medical leave of absence so i can focus all my attention on the health issues that arose over the weekend. earlier white house press secretary jay carney shed little light on saturday's sequence of events. >> we're still in the process of gathering information about it. you understand that this happened, he was alone. he was on private time. not with his security detail. he was hospitalized. so there is more that needs to be learned. >> reporter: carney said the president hadn't spoken to bryson though his chief of staff has, martha. martha: so what do we know about the accidents in terms of what happened? what are we learning at this point, wendell? >> reporter: we know bryson hit a car containing three people saturday afternoon in the l.a. suburb of san gabriel. he got out, exchanged a few

words with the occupants. he got back in his vehicle but hit the car again as he drove off. he hit a car five minutes later and police found him unconscious slumped over the wheel after that incident. a spokeswoman said bryson suffered a seizure at some point during the sequence of events. it is unclear whether it was before the first crash or result of one of them. bryson a.i.d.s said he didn't remember either one of them. police said he would have been charged had he not been taken to the hospital. >> disturbing situation. wendell goler at the white house. rick: major new developments in the fight over potential voter fraud in the key battleground swing state of florida. the justice department is now planning to sue the state over florida's efforts to clean up its voter rolls. the feds claim florida is violating federal law in doing so. but florida argues the tens of thousands of registered voters may not in fact be u.s. citizens and it has

filed its own lawsuit over the issue. here is the governor. >> this is not a partisan issue. this is republican, democrat, independent. this is protecting the rights of u.s. citizens and not diluting their vote by non-u.s. citizens. when non-u.s. citizens register to vote and vote it is illegal. it is a crime. it shouldn't happen in our great state. we're focused on jobs, jobs, jobs. we're trying to fix the voter rolls and they're trying to stop it. it doesn't make any sense. what is so frustrating we're trying to watch how we spend our money, pay down our debt do right things for citizens of the state the federal government says oh, no you can't do right things for your citizens and we'll sue you. it doesn't make any sense. rick: john fund, from "the national review." this sure is fun five months before election day, jon. >> it is really strange. it all began last year when a television station in florida decided to go look at people who had been sent jury duty notices and come back and said no, we can't serve.

we're noncitizens. they found over 100 of these people who had voted. then they went and looked at some of the other lists and found in other counties they were noncitizens. now the state of florida submitted a request to the department of homeland security saying please give us the citizenship information on these people. in fact there is a federal law requiring the federal government to send florida this. it usc 8.1373. but the federal government refused to send this information. that's why we have this current fight. rick: with all due respect to the governor who we heard from at the top here says this is not about politics, how much of it is about actual widespread problem with the voter rolls and how much is about politics? we can't defy ney politics plays a role in all this so soon before a presidential election. >> of course it is plrtly political. remember this is florida. in 2000 the presidential race for entire country was settled by 537 votes. that means any problem with the voter rolls, florida found 53,000 dead people on

its voter rolls. any problem with the voter could lead to another meltdown in 2000, throw it into the courts. none of us want that, democrat or republican. i agree ultimately this is an issue of ballot integrity. we have two civil rights. civil right to make sure we're not prevented from voting and civil right to make sure our vote is canceled out by someone who is dead or a noncitizen. rick: press you on headlines crossed regarding this story. the latest is the state's list ever potential noncitizens is potentially flawed, this is the florida state list, that local voting supervisors, election supervisors who are both democrat and republican are refusing to go forward with the purging process. >> fair enough but in september 2011 florida asked the department of homeland security give us your list which is far more accurate. the department of homeland security has refused to give the list. i just read you the federal code that says they have to give the list to the states. why in the world is the federal government

withholding a citizenship list? rick: the argument here, jon, this is an attempt to target minority voters, blocks and latinos most likely those deemed potentially as non-u.s. citizens, how do you respond to that? >> well, first of all, 53,000 dead people, i don't think there is any discrimination there. they're dead. rick: right. >> secondly. if you're targeting, in you're targeting voter list, target people moved out-of-state. that is nondiscriminatory. targeting people who are felons that is nondiscriminatory. as for noncitizens. this is florida. a certain percentage of people in florida who are noncitizens comb from latin american countries. this is florida. rick: how about the impression how this might feel to certain people out there to a latino voting bloc and large and getting bigger by the day and importance of conservatives in the republican party to reach out to that group, is this the right message to send right or wrong to leave this kind of feeling with them? >> rick, i have spent a lot

of time in florida. i have yet to meet a hispanic voter in florida who thinks noncitizens should vote regardless where they're from, period. end of story. rick: always good to talk to you. thank you for being here today. martha. martha: we showed you this a moment ago, a horrifying hit-and-run that was caught on tape. watch as you see two men cross a street when a car suddenly accelerates and hits one of them. he is airborne and in the street. the other man chases after it as the car speeds off. happened over the weekend in los angeles. police are treating this hit-and-run as an assault with a deadly weapon because they believe it may have been intentional. they're looking for the driver of that car. quite a scene. rick: unbelievable, martha, if looks at videotape it seems like the driver veered off the road in order to go into that little parking lot area whatever it is in order to hit that guy. martha: it appears that way. way he rolls off the car almost like a hollywood stuntman. he seems to be getting up at

the end. i think according to the reports i'm pretty sure that he is doing okay. but they are searching for that driver and the man chased after him. wasn't able to do anything about it at that point. tough story. rick: let's hope they find him. that is tough. coming up the coast guard and hundreds of first-responders swinging into action after reports of people in the water after a boat explosion was reported but was this an actual explosion or an elaborate hoax? what police are saying today. martha: boy, that is another one. all right, president obama rolling out a new economic message this week. one reporter asked the president a very pointed question in a key swing state. >> mr. president, the last time you were visiting the henry county area one of the things you told us if they voted you into office you would think about them every day. unemployment still well over 15%. why should they reelect you? why should they give you another four years? martha: well the president's answer to that, straight ahead. summer road trip, huh?

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rick: developing right now in "america's newsroom", a construction worker is killed while working inside a tunnel outside of las vegas. the accident happened at lake meade near the reservoir. apparently some materials came lose and pressure under the tunnel sent debris flying into the air. a big relief in cape cod, massachusetts where police say they finally captured a black bear roaming the area since memorial day. a 14-year-old from china becoming youngest golfer on record to play in the u.s. open. tournament organizers say andy zang made the field as an alternate. martha: president obama set to hit the road on the economy but one local reporter in a swing state of virginia, in the swing state of virginia asked the president with the unemployment rate at 15%, why should voters reelect him? here is president obama's answer, watch.

>> we've gone through the worst financial crisis since the great depression and, everybody i think has been impacted by, you know, the economic crisis that followed. the good news is that we're starting to see progress but obviously we have a huge amount of work to do. one of the things that we can still do in the region as well work through the community colleges to make sure that workers who are displaced, folks who are still out there looking for work, they're able to get trained for some of these new jobs. martha: hmm. interesting. answer. that well break it down. the chart shows the national unemployment right from the start of the recession in 2007 through last month, so you can see where unemployment has gone, it has come down since its peak still high at 8.2%. some say it is 16% if you include everybody looking in the mix of folks that have quit looking for jobs. we have andrea tanteros and bob beckel with us today.

they're both co-hosts of "the five.". >> good morning to you. martha: good morning. bob, when you break down the answer look at it he looks back at the financial crisis. says the worst one since the great depression. the second thing he goes to in this answer is that we're really doubling down on clean energy, wind and solar which i think is huge opportunity for rural communities. do you think that is something when voters hear that in rural communities, is that what you would advise him to go to right out of the gate, that issue? >> probably not. what you're hearing, i would bet you, did seven or eight interviews yesterday and probably heard the same answer over and over again. if i were him, i would certainly ask the question, perennial, interesting question, are you better off today than you were four years ago. on that answer there is absolutely no question, that they are. martha: really? >> oh, by far. by far. martha: we just talked about home values with stuart varney and how people's incomes and family wealth

has diminished by 40% over the course of the last three years in the economy. so i don't know people feel that way. andrea, what do you think?. >> that is true. deficit spending is at record high, martha. we saw on friday 300,000 more people were added to the long-term unemployment list. unemployment was revised up. gdp was revised down. look i agree with bob on one thing, he should have not taken that rural message going to virginia. but people are not better off than they were four years ago. the president has had so many different messages on this remember he said if it is not back on track he doesn't deserve another term. then he said he didn't know how bad the crisis was. now he said he knew it was bad but needs another term to fix obamacare? he is all over the map. he is not laying out anything new that he hasn't said in his state of the union which these solar panels and windmills. that is not going to get us back on track. >> before you jump in, i want to pull up something i think will be informative to

your point. families, this is "fox news poll" that came out i believe last week. or this one is from may. let's take a look at it. it says that your family's financial situation compared to four years ago, 23% only say it is better. 46% say it is the same and 31% say it's worse. bob? >> well, that says 69% the people say it is as good or better than it was. and so i, i mean you can add that in reverse. martha: 23% say they're better off. 46% say they're the same. >> about the way it was, yeah. so --. martha: i don't know that is better off than you were four years ago. that's what we're talking about. >> remember four years ago, talking about june of the year 2000. if we could just take ourselves back to the year of, date of, in 2000, and look across the economy, and where, auto industry was on its knees. you go on and on. what obama has not done frankly is sell it very well. he ducked obamacare pause the republicans intimidated

him. got way in front of him. it was his own fault. shouldn't have had that done. he has a story to tell. the other thing he should say, which he won't say regrettably i have never seen a challenger get by with easier press than mitt romney. >> that is completely untrue. >> has anybody asked mitt romney exactly what he would do about these things? martha: bob, we're almost out of time, i want to get back to what you said in the middle, bob. andrea, in terms of selling it is interesting to watch what he goes to. that's why i pointed out, first thing he went to was wind and solar power. what you're not hearing, america is so great, we're so resilient. businesses will get things going again. competitiveness in this country. we need to get loans moving. all goes back to community colleges and wind and solar and how much the government can invest in those things. that is where the message is. >> he hasn't changed at all. he is doing a little clinton small ball on issues. bop talking about tell the story. what story does you have to tell, martha? he passed a stimulus got us a job average 2 million a

job. that was a failure. obamacare was his key item and he talked about how it is flawed and may get overturned. the president doesn't have a story to run on. to simply say it is all relative doesn't work. frankly, bob he had, bigger purse strings than any president to turn up the round. he had republicans and democrats do what you want. he did and didn't work. >> you all making fun of green jobs. will be future of this country. this country is not what it was four years ago. >> why is europe backing off it? why is germany backing off it. europe is backing off green energy because it is a failure. martha: we'll look forward to your show at 5:00. thanks very much, guys. we'll see you then. bob and andrea, thanks as always. rick, back to you new york. rick: lively debate. coming up next one u.s. state voted to get rid of all its property taxes. we'll tell you where, coming right up. wake up!

that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. fohalf the calories plus vgie nutrition. could've had a v8.

rick: welcome back, everybody. we're awaiting new details this morning on a possible hoax that wasted valuable resources and could have cost lives. coast guard, police and ambulance crews racing to sandy hope, new jersey, after getting a distress call from a yacht saying a yacht was on fire, 20 win people were onboard and it was sinking fast. helicopters and hundreds of first-responders later, nothing was found. laura engle found in our new york city newsroom. what do we know, laura? >> reporter: a emergency team in new york received a call from someone claiming to be from the crew of a yacht called the blind date saying there was a explosion on board near sandy hope, new jersey.

abandoning ship in the life raft. that call as you mentioned set off a quick and robust reaction with more than 200 first-responders, with mass casualty reception areas in newark and coast guard station in sandy hook reporting what they thought would be injured passengers. the coast guard deployed two boats and four coast guard helicopters and new jersey and long island police helped to search roughly 640 nautical square miles. a coast guard spokesperson said rescue crews searched five hours and never found any sign of debris, boats or passengers, rick. rick: unbelievable. i imagine there are stiff penalties for calling in a hoax like this. >> this is no joke. cost of rescue effort is substantial. coast guard efforts totaled $100,000. making a false distress call is federal penalty punishable by penalty of five to 10 years in prison and $250,000 fine. the coast guard telling foxes reward to find those responsible $3,000.

we do have a press conference coming up here in the next few minutes. we'll bring you the very latest when we get it. rick? rick: laura, thanks very much. martha? martha: let's look what is going on in the markets this morning, shall we? dow jones industrials up about 44 points. 56 points now for the big board. 12,467. everybody is watching spain's massive bailing bank out, banking bailout she said. the dow closed down 142 points on monday as investors gave a thumbs down on that plan. the focus remains on europe. the market looking better in the early going so far this morning. behind me eric holder will be back in the hot seat just moments from now. the attorney general will take some tough questions about "fast and furious" on the senate side this time. also questions is about the leak of sensitive white house documents that is also in the plan for today. we are live on capitol hill. rick: also, martha, it is crunch time on the campaign trail. president obama, governor romney, bare-knuckled, trying to paint each other

as out of touch with voters. so whose message is more effective? our panel weighs in. don't go away.

martha: fox news alert. attorney general hole hold facing a grilling for the second time this week, this time it happens over on the senate side. fast and furious and the intelligence leaks topping the agenda this morning. that's how we start a brand-new hour of "america's newsroom." i'm martha maccallum in washington this morning. rick: good morning, everybody, i'm rick folbaum in for bill hemmer. a house committee moves forward with whether or not to hold the attorney general in contempt of congress. martha: mike emanuel joins us live from capitol hill.

mike, what are we expecting this morning? >> reporter: we do expect frustration from republicans on the senate panel. there is frustration from republicans in both the house and senate. they believe eric holder has not been fully cooperative with their investigation on fast and furious. a subpoena was issued last october the 12th, and so over in the house side what we are seeing is for chairman darrell issa, enough is enough. >> one, we need to know about the post february 4th period in which there was a cover up of a false statement made to congress. and two, we do need the chain of accountability for fast and furious so that we can have those people responsible for brian terry's death held accountable. >> reporter: as you see the attorney general walking into the room, the senate hearing getting underway on the house side. chairman issa says that the process that is going forward, the contempt process can be

stopped if the attorney general provides more answers, martha. martha: mike, i just want to go to this live shot that we're looking at right now as eric holder is shaking hands with a number of the senators that will be questioning him this morning. that was jon kyl, patrick leahy as he goes in and everybody gets settled down. this is i believe the ninth time that eric holder has testified with regards to this issue. as we also pointed out, mike, he will also be discussing the intel matter, which may get even more focus this morning. there is also a call for outside investigators to look into that issue as well. what are the supporters of eric holder saying in the face of all this, mike? >> reporter: martha, some express surprise at chairman issa moving forward with this yesterday. you noted this is the ninth aeu phaoerpbs by the attorne appearance by the attorney on fast and furious including four and a half hours just last week, here is more from a vocal

offenders of eric holder. >> this subpoena is about federal documents under seal, federal documents that involve matters under investigation or whatever other fishing expedition they can find with the elections in mind. it will not succeed. >> reporter: as in any hearing we expect there will be a few surprises here before the senate judiciary committee, some democrats likely will be supportive of the attorney general, some republicans have tough questions about the national security leaks, and also about fast and furious, trying to get answers for that border agent's family, martha. martha: mike, we are just hang on this for a moment as we watch this live shot on capitol hill. eric holder once again at the center of all of the action. this is a packed room behind me on capitol hill as this plays out. he'll be sworn in moments from now. senator grassley, of course, has been one of the most outspoken senators opb senator in

senators in thunderstorms of holding eric holder ars feet to th's feet to the fire on fast and furious. a lot of people talking about the leaks that could jeopardize american security overseas. it's been a very tense go for eric holder. that is an understatement. >> reporter: on the security leaks some are suggesting this is about election year poll tickets, that it was designed to make the commander in chief to look strong. others deny that. they are going to call for a special outside council to look at the national security leaks, feeling like the two u.s. attorneys named are a little too close in order to take a really tough look at the obama administration national security chain, if you will, to see how those leaks got out into the public and onto the front pages

of publications like "the new york times." martha: mike, thank you. i know you'll be watching awful this as it plays out live behind us. we will go back to it as the action gets moving along this morning on capitol hill. rick, back to you in new york. rick: thank you, mart that. new polls out of a cushion swing state showing a slight advantage for the president. pennsylvania has the president leading governor romney by 6 points, 46 to 40%. president obama maintaining his popularity with women voters in the state. 51% to 31%. a state the president won petrie handily in 2008, more than ten points above senator john mccain. martha: governor mitt romney slamming president obama this morning for being out of touch, reacting to comments that the president made that the private sector is quote, doing fine.

here is the governor earlier on fox & friends. >> the right course for america is to encourage free enterprise, small business, big business, we want people to hire. and the president has the most antibusiness, anti-investment, anti-jobs administration i think i've ever seen. and the people of this country want to see people who have private sector experience, who know what it takes to get the private sector hiring again. martha: governor romney spending the day in florida, a swing state of course. the latest polls are showing them in a dead heat in the state of florida. rick: we could be on the verge of seeing a housing boom in one state any way. north today coat taste considering a proposal that would make it the first state in the country to completely eliminate real estate taxes. counties, towns and other local entities in the state take in $810 million annually that come directly from the property taxes. this would be, if it's passed, the first time since 1980 when

ask got rid of its income tax that a state has discontinued a major tax. liz clamin is anchor to countdown on the closing pwefplt yoclosing bell. you should write a book. what do you do with all the programs that rely on the money? >> believe it or not it's not a popular amendment that is going on the ballot on tuesday in north dakota. if somebody said to you, eliminate your property taxes of course you would think that was wonderful, but the voters are look at this on both sides of the aisle and saying, you know what this would lead to questions if we ban property taxes, how would we maintain our parks and build a new school and keep our roads good and healthy and safe. this is what is rising to the forefront of this big question. the polls are showing that a large number of people are against this ban of the property taxes, and so you're looking at right now a state that is

14th, as far as highest property taxes are concerned, which is pretty high for north dakota considering its 48th when it comes to population. you can look at the list and see. at the very top of the highest property taxes you've got new jersey, then illinois, new hampshire, text a but then all of a sudden pretty close-up to the top here, north dakota. when you look at the lowest, hawaii is the 50th, so they are the very low ez along wit ez along with alabama, louisiana, delaware and south carolina. rick: and so is the republican governor of the state, he's also against it. >> exactly. jack dalrimple is against this as well. he's looking at this and saying we have a surplus now, but without the tax reserves that come in what would we do? how would we replace this? he is looking at the surplus and saying, let's not suck it up simply by doing something that

people think is popular and that is eliminating the property tax. rick: you can catch liz over on the fox business network 3 to 4pm eastern time on countdown to the closing bell, the final moments on the day on wall street, soon to be a best-selling book. back to you. martha: she's written books before. she'll probably do it again. a special election in arizona to replace gabrielle giffords, the former congresswoman seriously you wounded in a deadly shooting spree. who could forget that day? today's vote to fill out the term could be less about the candidates for her seat and more ultimately, some say, about president obama. anita vogel gains u joins us five. tell us about the choices voters are facing in arizona's 8th district. >> reporter: a bittersweet day for voters in tucson to replace give r-frplt on the gop side we have jesse kelly a former marine

and iraq war veteran, a businessman who narrowly lost to giffords back in 2010 by a mere 4,000 votes. the district leans republican, but democrats are trying to cast the 30-year-old kelly as too extreme for past comments about wanting to privatize social security. although he has apparently changed some of those views and has focused more on attacking president obama in this election. >> we will choose higher taxes, or we will choose a business-friendly nation. we will choose obamacare, or we will choose repeal of obamacare. and energy tax or somebody that will go to fight to stop the e epa. >> reporter: there are a couple of polls out there, martha, most of the polls showing kelly trailing the democrat by double digits in some cases. we'll be watching this one. martha: who is the democratic candidate. >> reporter: a lot of people might remember, he is

66-year-old ron barber. he was buy congresswoman give ford side during that terrible shooting back in january of 2011. he served as a volunteer forgive fords, then he became the district director following her election to congress in 2006. we are told she urged him to run after she announced her retirement last january. >> i think you know why this race is important to me. i've lived and worked and served this community for a longtime. it's been just a real privilege to be able to serve people here in this arena, working with congresswoman giffords as her district director. >> reporter: now whoever wins will serve in this seat until the seat expires in november. there will be another election then. of course democrats really wanting to hold onto this seat if they are thinking about taking back congress. martha, back to you. martha: meaningful election on many counts. anita, thank you very much. rick: president obama, governor romney both attacking each other for being out of touch with the

american people. so who is right? karl rove joins us with his take coming up. martha: afghan president hamid karzai putting his foot down when it comes to air strikes. his demands to nato, next. rick: an update on a story we first told you about yesterday, the school that dropped, god bless the usa at a kindergarten graduation but allowing a song by justin bieber. new developments in this controversy now that the mayor has stepped in. >> every graduation this song has been in the ceremonies, we have had standing ovations. especially after 9/11, i don't understand why can't our children do it.

martha: both president obama and governor mitt romney's campaigns have been accusing each other with being out of touch with average americans. here is mitt romney slamming the president's recent comments on

the economy. watch this. >> he said the private sector is doing fine. is he really that out of touch? i think he's defining what it means to be detached and out of touch with the american people. martha: well, president obama's re-election campaign hit back on that, of course, and they said this. quote, we would be happy to have a debate about who is out of touch with middle class americans with mitt romney. mitt romney's solution and how to strengthen the economy is to fire more people. that is according to stephanie cutter, on starting point. karl rove joins me now, a former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to george w. bush, also a fox news contributor. karl, out of touch seems to be the catch phrase of the week by both sides. in many ways the obama team always sort of felt that would be an easy thing to argue with mitt romney, because he's very wealthy. the idea that he was out of touch with the common man was an idea they felt was pretty

salable. >> they did. president obama's policies are not liked by people. his world view isn't necessarily accepted. the administration earlier this year went out and said we are going in the right direction and stopped that after a month or two, because people don't think we are going in the right direction. two-thirds ever the people think his policies have hurt or had no effect on the economy. a third of the people think we are going in the right direction, nearly two-thirds think we're going to the wrong direction. this is not the big winner that the obama campaign thought it would be, and particularly after last friday. friday was of course the president's comment where he said the private economy is doing fine, what i'm worried about is state and local workers. unemployment among state and local employees is 4.2%, half the national average. martha: that's been the focus of the conversation, firefighters,

teachers, extension of government workers, really. you're saying that is not really where the problem it. >> look, we really don't have good numbers on this. for example, here on career firefighters, before the economic problems started it was 317,000 career firefighters. in 2010 the last year for which we have number there's 335,000. but more important there are these three initials. moe. the administration has insisted on maintenance of effort. if the state or local government wants to get money from the stimulus to keep government employees on the payroll it has to agree that it will keep spending as much money as it did in the previous year, it will maintain its spending efforts. so the stimulus monies have been aimed at adding to the numbers of state and local government employees, not simply maintaining them at their current levels. martha: spend what we've been giving you in the past and argue to us why you need more money and they will you'll be eligible for it. >> spend what you were spending in the past and they will give

you more so you can add to it. martha: looking back at president bush's emphasis moment at the grocery store where he didn't know what the scanner was. that was a moment that people looked at him and decided, perhaps, unjustifiably that he was out of touch with american peep. that notion seemed to grab attention. you know, mitt romney still needs to accomplish that. there is large groups of voters that he -- that he could accused of being out of touch with when you look at the poll numbers. how does he sort of bridge that gap? >> look, his problem is not so much that people think he's out of touch, it's that they don't know enough about him. there is a certain value of information we need to have about a candidate. martha: obama's side would say he's been running for office forever. >> we've seen surveys between 20 and 30% of the american people, while they know who romney is don't feel they have adequate

information about him. there is a race going on right now, a race by romney to fill that -- sort of space with a definition, his narrative of who he is, and a race by the obama campaign to define their narrative. right now romney has done a slightly better job of that, a significantly better job than i thought he would do at this point and the obama campaign has done a much less job. martha: romney's campaign feels they gave him an opening with the private sector doing fine. thank you very much. >> welcome to washington d.c. martha: thank you, sir. rick: a hearing underway right now as members of congress are considering a contempt of congress citation for the attorney general, eric holder, right there on the screen. brand-new details o on the fast and furious saga. for 32 years they've insisted their daughter was dragged away by a wild dog, and it turns out they were telling the truth when they said the dingo took their

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>> get out. the dingo in the tent. the dingo took the baby. no, please, god, help me. martha: meryl streep and tom

neil. a cry in the dark. it turns out the dingo took the baby in the end. according to a brand-new report from medical examiners. 31 years after the notorious death of a baby in the out back officials have declared that she was indeed attacked and killed by wild dog. >> not only will we be ablwe live in a beautiful country, we could ask all australians to be aware ever this and take appropriate precautions and not wait for somebody else to do it for them. martha: the mother of that little baby. the police initially believed the chamberlains told the correct story about the dingo but later it led to murder charges and three years behind bars until the conviction was

overturned. what a dramatic story that was. rick: her lawyer says her only crime was falling in love with a notorious mobster. right now at the federal courthouse in boston the woman who spent 16 years on the run with james "whitey" bulger finds out her fate. molemolly line is there live. >> reporter: the prosecution says they would like to see catherine grieg get ten years behind bars. the prosecution saying they need to come down tough and hard on catherine grieg here because she was essentially harboring a fugitive and helping him stay on the run for all those years. the defense is asking for 27 months, that she was the girlfriend not the hard-core criminal that james "whitey" bulger is accused of being. her attorney con sends she is a gentlewoman ha had no knowledge of the guns and hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash found at the santa monica

apartment that she shared with bulger. she did plead guilty to identity fraud and harbor erring a fugitive. pothey posed as a retired couple. in court papers allege that she protected bulger from being discovered by law enforcement nothing full well he was wanted for serious crimes and having ample opportunity to walk away at any time, she not only concealed him from law enforcement but committed additional felonies herself in order to keep him there capture. some of the felonies, using fake id's to get medical care and other things they needed over the course of the many years of their run. rick: what about james "whitey" bulger? what is the deal with him? >> reporter: he remains in

prison, in custody of course. he'll be heading to trial in the fall. he's pled not guilty to awful the charges he's been facing, many of them stemming from the years that he was actually acting as an f.b.i. informant, including those 19 murders. all of those accusations occurred at that point in time where he essentially on the payroll and compromising with f.b.i. agents. rick: quite a story continuing to unravel. molly line, live in boston. thanks. martha: a terrible story. all right. there are new developments on capitol hill at this hour, a senate committee taking their turn now, grilling attorney general eric holder. topping the agenda, of course, is fast and furious, and the white house intelligence leaks. we ask our own questions when the expert panel joins us on this coming up next. laces? really? slip-on's the way to go. more people do that, security would be like -- there's no charge for the bag. thanks. i know a quiet little place where we can get some work done. there's a three-prong plug. i have club passes.

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droid does. keep left at the fork. does it do turn-by-turn navigation ? droid does. with verizon, america's largest 4glte network and motorola, whater you want to do... droid does. rick: fox news alert, back to our top story today, attorney general eric holder is facing off with senators on the senate judiciary committee at a hearing that is going on right now. that is senator patrick leahy, of course. senator charles grassley spending much of his opening statement on the fast and furious operation, criticizing the attorney general for not fully releasing all the documents in that botched gun-running sting, listen. >> this constant stonewalling is why the house committee is forced to move forward with contempt proceedings. i think the american people deserve a better explanation than that they have received so far, and especially the terry

family does. rick: chris stirewalt is the digital politics editor for fox news. kf mcmarch land is a fox news security analyst. it's tkpwhreut to talk to bot it's great to talk to awful you. we want to focus on the hearings in the senate with regard to the fast and furious and the leaks that are being investigated by the special prosecutors. chris, you on the fast and furious stuff, the contempt of congress proceedings that are beginning on the house side, how does all this play out? >> how it plays out, you're seeing a perfect microcost um of it here. for eric holder the problem isn't one thing, it isn't just the fast and furious and the contempt, you'll have the vote coming up next week in the oversight committee, then it goes to the full house for a vote. it might get through, that would be a huge deal. as you see today it's not going to be just about that for eric holder, it's going to be about other things, other

controversies inside his ago see, that includes the national security leaks and a lot of anger among republicans that holder is trying to stop the state of florida from purging its voter rolls, a swing state that is crucial to his boss, president obama. rick: this is not what the white house wants to be focusing on five months before the election. does the white house do some behind the scenes move to make it all go away? >> he has to be worried about his base. among the base eric holder is very popular. he is very well respected on the left. if barack obama was seen to be santiago the branch off underneath him he would pay a real political price. rick: kt let's shift to the national security league aspect of all of this that chris has keyed up for us here. the cyberwar on iran's nuclear program, other details that are out there, drone strikes

targeting certain al-qaida individuals, our enemies who now have this information, because it was leaked to the new york times, it was leaked to the "associated press," what does this give them, the enemies. >> three things are important here. one what it tells foreign intelligence agencies, the guys who cooperate with us, the saudi intelligence agency, the british intelligence agent see, we can't keep secrets. if you tell us stuff you'll have to read about it in the front pages of "the new york times." what the second thing does though is that anybody who is considering turning tail and being an informant for the cia, the united states, for our allied intelligence agencies has to think, you know, if i do that you won't protect me i'll be vulnerable to getting killed by my own people. and the third thing, is it does tell tpwraf t telegraph to our adversaries, how do we gather intelligence. it's not the cold wards where you worried about a state and

you new what military they had and tactics they had. in this case it's small groups, tribal family members. the key in finding out what is going on with them is intelligence, and it's not satellite intelligence, it's human intelligence. you want to have your spy in the room with those guys. what this has done is it's made it very difficult for us to have the spy in the room. rick: i want to ask you kt about the chill this sort of puts over the agency and operatives that are doing very dangerous work on the ground all over the world. let's take a listen real quickly to the attorney general who is reading from his prepared remarks at the beginning of this hearing and talking about exactly what beer discussing now. >> on friday i assigned two experienced, independent united states attorneys to lead great criminal investigations being conducted by the f.b.i. of potential, unauthorized disclosures. now these u.s. attorneys are fully authorized to consult with members of the intelligence community, to follow all appropriate leads wherever they do lead, and ultimately to

prosecute any criminal violations to the fullest extent of the law. they will do an independent and thorough job. but let me be clear, unauthorized disclosures of classified information could jeopardize the security of our nation and risk the safety of the american people. they will not be tolerated. rick: kt, real quickly do you buy it? >> we'll see, if they don't come up with something, real names of people who have done the leak then it's a ko*ufrp. once it's a cover up then you get a special prosecutor. remember, democrats are joining in the cry to find out who is doing the leaking. this could be the summer of 1972 all over again. this could be watergate right before a presidential election, and administration trying to cover it up, push it over. i do think the leaks have come from the highest circles of the administration. rick: chris, are we going to see reporters go to jail because they refuse to give the names of your sources for these articles? >> just remember the scooter

libby case and the valley plane case for the bush administration was a very big deal. the stakes very lower than this. you had people going to prison. stakes are higher here, you won't be that surprised to see some big stuff going down. rick: chris and kt thank you so much. >> you bet. >> thank you. rick: martha. martha: they are people are partisan politics from coast to coast. today fox news goes inside the making of all of these political advertisements that we see on de television. chief washington correspondent james rosen looking into that. >> reporter: welcome to washington. they are the feature of modern american politics we most love to hate but political ads aren't going away, indeed they are growing more sophisticated. it is estimated that the make erts of political ads and the candidates and campaigns that are the subject of the ads, along with the tv and radio stations that run the ads will sustain a $4 billion industry this year alone. analysts told fox news half of

all money raised in politics at all levels, house, senate, presidential races all added up is used to purchase air time. in delaware, haoeuz, 30 miles north of columbus, the three dozen employees of the strategy group for media do all the research, scripting, shooting, editing and time purring for the roughly 1,000tv and radio spots that the firm will produce this year. the group is one of about 50 consulting companies that do this kind of work with about two dozen servicing each side of the political aisle. handling media for such g.o.p. politicians as mike pence, a strategy group client since his first house win back in 2000. the firm will gross a lot of money this year. >> being as compelling and interesting and creative as the coca-cola add off it and the car

ad after. we are trying to reach people and grab their attention in the context of all ads on the air. if it's not creative, thin if it doesn't make people laugh, elicit emotion, if it looks like it's made up or an over-the-top attack that doesn't pass the gut check test it won't succeed or work. >> he also defended negative ads saying if candidates only ran positive ads the viewer/voter would be deprived of critical information in an election season i don't want to be deprived from seeing martha maccallum, we are separated by two flimsy studio doors. martha: you can come down the hall and we'll chat during the break. thank you very much. rick: i'll let you guys have your little hro* fest down there in d.c. when we come back we'll switch gears and talk about this story the cornerstone of george zimmerman's defense in the trayvon martin case. a task force hold its first

hearing today on florida's controversial stand your ground law. martha: president obama says the private sector is doing just fine. he could be pulling back on that just a bit. we'll tell what you that means. we'll be right back. are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. [ male announcer ] we began with the rx. ♪

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rick: the bieb's band along with lee gree greenwood. we told you about the school that put the end to, god bless the usa. they said it was not appropriate for a kindergarten graduation, go figure. but justin bieber's song "baby" was okay. the school says they will no longer allow bieber's song either. the parents are trying to get the song, god bless the usa

reinstated for next week's ceremony. martha: president obama will be giving a speech on thursday. he is expected to redefine a bit this controversial comment that he made about the health of the private sector. >> the truth of the matter is that as i said, we've created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months. over 800,000 just this year alone. the private sector is doing fine. martha: oops, that was a controversial statement and a lot of discussion has followed it. i'm joined by wisconsin republican ron johnson a member of the senate appropriations and budget committee. senator, welcome, good to have you here. >> morning, martha, how are you doing. martha: i'm doing great. do you expect on thursday the president will walk that back at all or leave it on the table and move on? >> he already tried to walk it back. but it really wasn't a gaffe. i think the president actually does think the private sector is

doing okay and his entire approach since he entered office was to grow the government sector of our economy. he really thinks that the government produces i guess long-term self sustaining jobs. if that were true his $800 billion stimulus would have created those jobs and we won't be sitting here with 8.2% unemployment, which really if you factor in the 4.5 million americans that have lost hope and dropped out of the labor force that number is closer to 11%. the fact of the matter is the private sector is not doing fine, we node to get rid of regulations, we need to concentrate on growing the productive sector, the private sector of our economy not the government sector. martha: i think the big question right now is whether or not the president is going to sort of launch a new front in his economic argument to the american people. is he going to try to come forward with something fresh and new, or is he going to go become to the jobs bill that has been mentioned in recent interviews and statements that he made, he claims that it would have produced a million jobs in this

country if only congress had got even on board. he blames you guys. >> well, listen, martha, president obama only has one playbook, and it is deficit spending. he's spent over $5 trillion that we don't have. borrow that money, put that burden on our children and grandchildren, and directing that toward government. that's the only thing he knows. he has no experience in the private sector. i don't believe he understands how the private sector works. he has no respect for it. i think the point i've been trying to make too is just an attitude change. in wisconsin we had a governor that came into office and said, wisconsin is open for business. if we had new leadership in this country that said you know what, america is open for business. we want people and businesses to succeed so they can grow and create jobs, that's how we get ourselves out of this financial mess is by growing our economy. the president does not understand that. he wants to grow government. mitt romney fully understands that because he has experience in the private sector and he's an optimist.

an attitude will make a big difference. martha: and obviously you're very supportive of his candidacy. when you look at the president and you wonder what goes on in the discussion in the courtroom when they talk about this speech on thursday, and there has been some reporting that there are factions of his advisers who would like him to sort of relaunch the economic effort to have a new idea, to have a new slogan and whatever it takes to get behind that new slogan and perhaps that would be something along the lines of getting america working again, you know, bringing in the private sector and the public sector sort of into partnership. kind of a morning in america way of approaching this. i mean, you know, do you think that is likely that we'll see sort of a new, fresh launch of attack so to speak coming from his side, and what would that do to the republican argument? >> well unfortunately i don't think it's likely, but i'd love to site. if the president would say let's build the keystone pipeline, let's reign in the regulatory agency so we can reduce the

regulatory burden on job creators. let's work with members in congress that want to put forward progrowth tax reform. republicans realize we want to increase revenue in the federal government but we want to do it the old fashioned way by closing our economy. we never will close the gap by having the gross revenue 15% of gd perks. they have to make businesses more successful and more profitable so they pay for classes, that's how you do this. not by increasing tax rates and srul flying the private sector. martha: i hear you. we have tax cuts expiring and spending cuts that will be kicking in at end of the year. a lot of people are saying it will bring us to a fiscal cliff. i won't be surprised if the administration comes up with new ideas. we'll see what they do on thursday. senator, thank you. always good to see you. >> have a good day. rick: coming up in a few minutes at the top of the hour "happening now." my buddy general a jenna lee

has a look. >> reporter: the great recession slashing the net worth of the american family to levels not seen in 20 years. how will we recover? we'll have the white house that sk question. if the supreme court strikes down the healthcare law which candidates benefits in november? you may be surprised as to what analysts think about that. one city is taking on sugary drinks. will we see this as a trend across america and will it work? big questions today on "happening now" coming up in a few moments. [ male announcer ] you sprayed them. thought they were dead. huh? [ male announcer ] should've used roundup. it kills weeds to the root, so they don't come back. roundup. no root. no weed. no problem. [ slap! ] [ slap! slap! slap! slap! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums.

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martha: "america's newsroom" coming to you in part from bar washing done today as we are covering eric holder live hearings, and we are watching senator tkpwr- grassley who has

been grilling eric holder on capitol hill. here is a bit of a exchange that happened a moment ago. take a look. >> how is it that you can look at the details in those affidavits, as several members now have had a chance to do, and see nothing wrong, when others reviewed them and saw very major problems? >> well, i look at them, and i can't talk about the contents of them, these are matters that are under seal, but i will align myself with what ranking member cummings said in his letter, looking at the same materials and reaching the same conclusions, i think, that i do. you reach conclusions on the basis of, you know, hind sight. martha: all right. there we are at the road block basically, because there have been documents that the department of justice has been asked for in the fast and furious case. darrell issa's committee has led that charge, and not all those documents have been turned over to support the subpoena given to

them and that's where we find ourselves in the question of this contempt of congress proceeding. as it moves along we'll keep a close eye on it and bring you any other breaking news or interesting back and forth from that room as it comes in. rick. rick: thanks. a new task force in florida holding its first hearing today on the state's controversial stand your ground law that is going on right now. stand your ground allows people to use deadly force if they think their lives are in danger. and it's the cornerstone of george zimmerman's defense. he is the one accused in the fatal shooting of trayvon martin. phil keating joining us live from long wood, florida. we understand that trayvon's parents are planning to speak today, right? >> reporter: yeah the parents of trayvon martin are anticipated to aeu arrive here around noon for a rally outside. at the same time about 350,000 petitioned signatures from around the country will be presented to this governor's task force meeting inside urging the state's stand your ground law be reformed, if not repealed. of course a bloody and beaten up george zimmerman as you can see

by the photos that night claims he only shot trayvon martin when he feared for his own life. and just last week in miami a brand-new grand your ground case, a man charged with murder. he wasn't charged for a full week, he's a security guard at a strip club, but he shot and killed one man and told police reportedly that he felt threatened. as this task force is learning today, all you have to feel in florida is reasonably threatened. >> now, since stand your ground, there is no duty to retreat. this is a tremendous change in the law. >> reporter: now that is what has become so controversial is you don't have to be on your own property to use deadly force. you can be anywhere in the state of florida. and several studies, which will be presented to this task force suggest it has not deterred crime, just increased justifiable homicides, back to you.

rick: phil, thanks. we'll have more right after this.