to meet with farmers that grow our sweet potatoes and merchants that sell our product. vo: get the card built for business spending. call 1-800-now-open to find out how the gold card can serve your business. some great news. straight up, no snark here, great news for the country. in terms of the stock market, did you see this, dow up 156 points. highest closing in 3 1/2 years. the dow has not been this high since may of 2008. also the nasdaq, which is more or less the tech stocks, nasdaq closed at the highest level in eleven years today. eleven years. those great numbers were due in large part to the fact the monthly jobs numbers came out today. the expectation was that the

number of new jobs in the country in january would be about 140,000. it ended up being more like 240,000. that is how many jobs were added last month. they revised the earlier numbers to reflect the fact that thousands more jobs were also created in november and in december. today's excellent jobs report means that we have now had 23 straight months of job growth. the unemployment rate has dropped from a high of 10% down to 8.3%. even the internal numbers that came out are good. it's not like a whole bunch of people got hired to wrap packages for christmas or something, the numbers are good in professional and business services, the numbers are good in hospitality, health care, manufacturing. all of the internals look positive. really the only bad economic news today is that good economic news seems to confuse the republican party's likely nominee for president. mitt romney appears to be just flummoxed right now. mitt romney's case for why he should be president basically comes down to the economy, right? pay no attention to his time running state of massachusetts, that's immaterial. what mitt romney wants to be

known as is a business guy. you know what business guys know? they know money. you know what money is when you talk about it in the aggregate for the country? yes, it's about the economy. if the thing important to you is the economy, mitt romney is your guy, right in that what is they want you to see it. when you see mitt romney do you think money? good. that's the went. that's what they want. but when mitt romney talks about the economy, when he talks about money, when he talks about this thing supposed to be the central theme for his campaign, sometimes mitt romney does not make sense. and it's not because he's talking about complicated things. on even the very simplest things, he sometimes makes no sense. for example, governor romney, how's the economy? >> i know the president didn't cause this downturn. this recession. but he didn't make it better, either. he made it worse. >> worse? the word "worse" means less good. it means more bad.

not a thumb's up but a thumb's down. going from a thumb's up to a thumb's down, right? that is what "worse" means. here's what barack obama inherited when he came into office. that was the great recession. that was then and this is now. then to now. bad to better. no matter how much you hate president obama, nobody who understands the meaning of the english word "worse" can look at then and now here and say now is worse. worse is a very simple word. it does not apply in this circumstance. now, mitt romney has gotten in trouble for saying this before. because the whole he made the economy worse thing has been in mr. romney's stump speed for a long time. this was him back in june. >> when he took office, the economy was in recession. and he made it worse. >> the economy of course wasn't worse then, either. when called out on that fact, at the time when he said that last summer, mr. romney took it back. >> i didn't say the things are

worse. >> oh, dude, you totally did. but at least you were embarrassed enough to lie about it when somebody called you on that. now having been called out on that and having had to take it back, today in the face of great economic news for the country, mitt romney is inexplicably back to his old self again. >> i know the president didn't cause this downturn. this recession. but he didn't make it better, either. he made it worse. >> he made it worse. that was mr. romney speaking today in sparks, nevada. the most interesting thing about mitt romney making no sense and flailing on the basic question, dude, how's the economy, the most interesting thing when he says that the president made things worse, mitt romney knows that that is not true. i'm not saying i can read his mind or that i surmise that he must know it's not true. what i mean is, he has said, he has explained that he knows it is not true. >> you've also noted that there

are signs of improvement on the horizon in the economy. how do you answer the president's argument that the economy is getting better in a general election campaign if you yourself are saying it's getting better? >> well, of course, it's getting better. the economy always gets better after a recession, there is always a recovery. >> isn't that a hard argument to make, okay he inherited this recession, took steps to turn the economy around now we're seeing more jobs, but vote against him anyway? isn't that a hard argument to make, is that a stark enough contrast? >> have you got a better one, laura, this happens to be the truth. >> it does happen to be the truth. except on days when you decide to say otherwise. >> he didn't make it better, either, he made it worse. >> also he made it better. mr. romney, you do not always make sense. and here's the reason this is important. this is not just mitt romney being a not great candidate. this is not just mitt romney taking yes and no on every issue. mitt romney taking both sides of

every policy issue. both sides of a every factual issue all the stuff we know about him when he started running for president when i was roughly a toddler. this is the reason there is a mitt romney candidacy in the first place, at least what they tell us. this is the whole basis of his campaign. he's supposedly mr. economy, right? when you think about economic questions you're supposed to think about him. if you want the economy to get better, he wants you to want him to be president. you can understand why it would flummox him the economy is getting better without him but he does appear to be flummoxed after being forced to release his tax returns showing he is maybe the richest guy to run for president in modern times. his net worth is the net worth of the last eight presidents combined, times two. after releasing tax returns, there has been a basic question for him. hey mr. imaginable rich

zillionaire guy, can you relate to the problems who have nothing given you pretty much have everything? are you just for rich people? or are you for everybody? >> i'm concerned about our poor in this country. we have to make sure the safety net for our poor is always strong and able to help those that can't help themselves. >> aside from the weird idea they are our poor, that mitt romney owns poor people that was sort of the right political answer. right? i'm concerned about the poor in this country. despite the awkward phrasing, as always with mitt romney, sort of the right answer. good answer. then this week on cnn -- >> i'm not concerned about the very poor. >> mr. romney went on to explain the reason he's not concerned about the very poor is because of the very poor have a safety net. when that explanation didn't seem to make it any better, he then said his remark was being taken out of context. that didn't seem to make it any better, either. in a new interview with the next guest, mr. romney has decided to stop defending that statement, stop explaining it, stop trying to put it in context and instead

he's now just saying it came out wrong, it was an accident. >> when you do, i don't know how many thousands of interviews, now and then you may get it wrong and i misspoke. >> here is the thing, i misspoke. misspeaking is a real thing. this for example is misspeaking. this, for example, is misspeaking. >> right after the break we are going to interview eric who climbed the highest mountain in the world, mount everest, but he's gay, excuse me, he's blind, we'll hear about that coming up. >> that is misspeaking. here is another one, vice president george h.w. bush talking about ronald reagan. >> for 7 1/2 years i worked alongside him, proud to be his partner, we had triumphs, we made some mistakes, we've had some sex -- setbacks. >> that is misspeaking.

misspeaking is when you mean to say one word but something else comes out entirely. >> one of the most difficult problems he or she will face in 2008? >> there you go. why don't we ask osama bin laden -- osama obama. obama since he won by such a big amount. >> that is misspeaking. that's misspeaking. here's a more recent example. >> i am confident with the leadership and the backing of the american people, president obama will turn this country around. we believe in america. we believe that our best days are ahead of us. excuse me. president romney. president romney. president romney. >> that is one of the ways you know something is a misstatement. maybe everybody laughs, or you make a noise and you apologize, that is a misstatement. do we have one more? i think we have one more. >> american needs a military where our breast and brightest

are proud to serve and proud to stay. >> our breast and brightest. that is misspeaking. there is a difference between a mistake and misspeaking. there is a difference between a mistake and a misstatement. you can try to pass off a mistake, a scandalous remark as if it were a slip of the tongue, breast and brightest, passing it off as a mistake doesn't usually work. you can tell what is a legitimate mistake and what is a slip of the tongue. the attempt to disguise an actual mistake as a misstatement was attempted recently, attempt and fail spectacularly by rick santorum, right? you probably saw this. >> i don't want to make people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money. i want to give them the opportunity to earn the money. >> you told an audience that you don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money. >> i looked at that quote. i looked at the video and i don't -- i'm confident i didn't say black.

what i think i started to say a word and sort of mumbled it and changed my thought. but i don't -- i don't recall saying black. >> you know what rick santorum didn't say there? he didn't say i don't want to make blaaaa people's lives better by giving them other people's money. that's not what he said. he said black people. that is not a misstatement, it was a scandalous remark he made about african-americans and he wanted to make it go away by trying to say it was a misstatement. mitt romney wants us to believe it cares about poor people, that it just came out wrong. it's door people, four people. nor people. i am concerned about sore people, not poor people. >> when you do i don't know how many thousands of interviews, now and then you may get it wrong and i misspoke. >> in a state with 12.6% unemployment rate for the state,

in a state where 58% of homes are currently under water, even as it looks like mitt romney is going to run away with the nevada republican caucus tomorrow, has mitt romney flummoxed his basic message why it is he is running in the first place? joining us now is jon ralston. mitt romney just explained his misspokenness. you are very busy, thanks for making time for us. >> nice to be with you, rachel. >> when mitt romney told you he misspoke, that it was an error when he said he was not concerned about the very poor, what was your first thought, how did you feel about the answer? >> i better be careful what i say here i don't want to misspeak, rachel, but i have to tell you i was frankly stunned when he said it because it's clear what happened, from when he said first that it was taken out of context, his campaign people were seeing the damage that was done, i don't know who that might be, might ridicule

that statement, maybe rachel, decided to back off and try to get it off the table. but of course based on what you did and others are going to do it's not going to go away, that's simply because it reinforces the narrative that we are going to see over and over again, if indeed he becomes the nominee of the republican party, which is that this is a guy out of touch, not just with poor people, but with regular people. with the middle class that he keeps trying to say he wants to help. a tremendously damaging part of the mosaic about mitt romney, right? >> looking at the nevada economy in particular, that is what makes it so remarkable that something in the water in nevada makes mitt romney say impolitic things about the economy. he wants foreclosure to bottom out. not concerned about poor people. slipped up and didn't mean to say that when he said that. will that stuff stick to him in the general election in nevada even if it doesn't for the caucuses tomorrow? >> the democrats think it will. rachel, i think it will, too.

there is no bigger issue here in nevada than not just the economy but what essentially caused the economy to almost die here and that was this housing bubble bursting. you mentioned the figures, bigger here in southern nevada, most of the people down here, maybe 75%, 85%, are under water in their homes. they hear mitt romney say over and over again, believe me it will be repeated over and over again, in ads the foreclosure process should go through, and essentially they should do nothing. right before i asked him about the very poor comment i asked him about the comments, he tried to pivot immediately to talk about president obama. but i said that's not what you said, governor. he immediately got very testy and said i know what i said. so he knows those comments, too, are going to hurt him, rachel. >> in terms of the caucuses tomorrow, obviously, mr. romney is heavily favored, we have seen in the exit polls from florida this week, more than a third of romney voters said they wished somebody else were running, that

they had another choice to make. how much passion do you see for him among republican voters in nevada? is he winning there because they are psyched about him or is it something else? >> well, i'm not sure you can find anybody without the last name romney who is psyched about mitt romney. you don't get the whole psyched going on anywhere. listen, i think the republicans want to beat president obama, so they are psyched for that reason. but rachel, the reason he's going to win here, most likely tomorrow, because he has been running here, as he's been running everywhere, for four years. he has an organization set up, he's got money, so he's buying a ton of ads to attack newt gingrich. but i still think the wild card out there, that the romney people i think this a sub level are worried about is ron paul factor. he did well here in 2008, got 14% of the vote. there is more energy, there is more organization among the ron paul folks this time and you know it's a caucus, not a primary as it was in florida. people don't just push a button. they go in a room with a bunch of other people.

and i think if there is any such thing as a persuadable republican voter, it's a republican voter supporting mitt romney right now. those ron paul people are ferocious, ready to swarm the caucus. i am not surprised at the meets newt gingrich here and he may come closer to romney than romney wants. >> jon ralston, the busiest man in the country who is not himself running for office. have fun tomorrow, man, good luck with the caucuses. really appreciate it. >> thanks, rachel. we have a best new thing in the world coming up tonight, that will stick in your head and not leave. but in a good way. that is coming up in a few minutes. but first, one more thing, about things that go oops in 2012 politics. today buzz feed first reported this afternoon that rick santorum may not qualify to get his name on the ballot in indiana. for the indiana republican primary. that reporting was early this afternoon. tonight, rick santorum did miss

getting on the ballot in indiana. the state republican party says mitt romney made it, ron paul made it, newt gingrich made it but rick santorum has failed to qualify to be on the ballot in indiana. he apparently ran into trouble in marion county, basically indianapolis, where it should be noted, 55,000 people voted republican for congress last time. mr. santorum only needed 500 signatures there. he did not get them. this is the guy iowa republicans picked in their presidential caucus preference this year. tell me why iowa republicans get to go first? tell me again the importance who iowa republicans choose for president? olay total effects. with 7 age defying effects in just one, easy to use cream. i've swapped to all-in-one total effects. why don't you swap too?

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get dual-action listerine® whitening rinse. building whiter, stronger teeth. right after the november 2010 election something happened all across the country. it happened instantly, out of the blue and in a seemingly coordinated fashion. newly elected republican governors and newly elected state legislators starting pushing one bill after another, all aimed at doing the same thing, rolling back union rights. the place where there got the most attention was in wisconsin. where newly elected governor scott walker had not campaigned on going after union rights with you boy, did he. arguing that he had to destroy union rights in wisconsin in order to improve the state's budget. mr. walker rammed through all sorts of union busting legislation. it shocked not only the democrats in the state legislature with you pretty much all of wisconsin. in covering the remarkable large

scale protests against scott walker we made the case at the time that a fight over union rights in wisconsin was a fight about a lot of things but was not a fight about the budget. we made this point repeatedly on the show back then when we were covering it. the first hint that what republican governor scott walker was doing was not about the budget along with the legislation to kill union rights, supposedly to save the budget, the governor blew an even bigger hole in the state's long-term deficit with a whole bunch of giveaways to business groups. another hint it wasn't about the budget? he exempted from the union stripping bill certain public safety union supported him when he was running for governor. so what scott walker was doing didn't smell like, didn't look like the actions of a person who was being motivated by their concerns about the budget. it looked like the actions of a person who had partisan motivations. a person specifically trying to use public policy to benefit the republican party. if you kill the unions, you kill the funding and organizations democrats have to compete with

republicans in elections. this is what campaign spending by outside groups looked like in the 2008 election. the two groups that spent the most that year were unions and they mainly spent for democrats and against republicans. then look what happened in 2010 after the supreme court citizens united ruling. the big money on the right skyrocketed, 7 of the 10 outside spending groups that year, thanks to citizens united, were on the right, fueled by corporate contributions. the only non-conservative groups that cracked the top ten were unions. if you eliminate the unions, you eliminate the democrat party's only way to compete in terms of big money in elections. even with scott walker facing a recall as a result of his union stripping with the ohio union stripping thing like wisconsin's, being repealed in november. even with this huge backlash against stripping union rights where it has been tried so far, the republicans are still

pursuing it. now they don't say it's about the budget, it's about jobs. so in indiana, mitch daniels signed into law that state's brand new anti-union right to work bill. republicans there say it's about creating jobs in the state. republicans in minnesota advanced their effort to bring the same anti-union legislation to minnesota, too. same with republicans in ohio. republicans in michigan are considering pushing it there as well. the argument from these republicans is that this is all about creating jobs. but in the same way that what happened last year in places like wisconsin was not about the budget, this is really not about the jobs. because passing anti-union laws, anti-union right to work laws, does not appear to do anything to spur job growth. this is not a hypothetical thing, this is not theorhetical, this has been tried, there is evidence. check this out. this is manufacturing job losses in the united states since 1994. it's better to have a smaller bar on this chart, right, because that means fewer jobs lost.

as you can see there is no correlation between whether you are a state with union rights or without union rights, in terms of whether you have been losing manufacturing jobs. killing union rights does not make your state more desirable for employers. there is no correlation. you want to look at one state's experience, longitudally, over time? look at oklahoma. manufacturing jobs in oklahoma from 1990-2001. in 2001, oklahoma passed the anti-union law. oklahoma passed its own right to work law. look what happened to manufacturing jobs in oklahoma since then. oh, they've fallen off a cliff. this is not to say that oklahoma's right to work law caused all those job losses but there does not seem to be any correlation to the job picture getting better, either. it is not about jobs. it is about destroying the only hope the democratic party has at competing with the corporate side that funds republicans for elections. this is about making it so democrats cannot contest elections with republicans in any of these states. so that democratic presidential

candidates can't win in these states. jon nichols wrote about it yesterday at the nation. two days after ohio voters repealed their anti-union bill there by a 22 point margin, two days after that rebuke of the anti-union agenda, wisconsin scott walker got on a plane and flew to arizona and gave a speech to conservative think tank telling them now it was their turn to go after union rights in arizona. don't be afraid about what happened in ohio, don't be afraid about what happened in wisconsin, "we need to make big fundamental permanent structural changes." because isn't that what you associate with the word conservative? that group that scott walker spoke to has now championed a radical stripping of union rights in arizona. that is rocketing through the state's republican legislature. introduced on monday, passed out of committee wednesday on the way to the governor's desk in no time. killing union rights in arizona. a radical, radical set of proposals.

this is not about the budget. this is not about jobs. this is about destroying the democratic party in partisan terms. this is about making it so democrats cannot compete in terms of organization or the big money that decides elections. this is about taking off the table, making illegal the sole means by which democrats can compete with the unlimited support republicans get from corporations. about using public policy, not to help the country, but to help the republican party. it is true of how they are changing the voting laws to make it harder for likely democratic voters to vote in these states. it is true how they are using redistricting to make more seats safe republican seats, and it's true of what they are doing to union rights. using state law to kill unions, in order to hurt the democratic party in elections. that's what this is. a... make that alabama... make that mississippi. the best part of the gulf is wherever you choose...

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we have been covering the iraq war parade story. st. louis had a parade last weekend to mark the end of the iraq war, to thank the veterans, 100,000 people showed up in indianapolis. the veterans were happy to have the end of the iraq war noted like that, to be thanked for their service and welcome home. st. louis, god bless them, new york, where we usually have ticker tape parades to mark the end of the war, the mayor of new york has resisted this idea. this story is evolving and quickly. we have news on this story tonight, exclusive news on it coming up in just a moment.

also a programming note, this sunday morning i will be on "meet the press," nbc, newt gingrich will also be on "meet the press" but he won't be talking to me, he will be talking to david gregory. after newt gingrich i will be on with mr. gregory and david brooks and meet the press is sunday morning. then after meet the press you may have heard there is a football game, super bowl, while you're watching the pre game festivities around 3:30 p.m. eastern through the oscillating heat waves coming off your vegan hot wings, you will see "the rachel maddow show" super bowl ad. we are told it will be around 3:30 eastern during the pre-game. we have a super bowl related app for the show in the print sunday new york times this weekend all that plus the return of ferris buhler and david beckham in his underpants. that's it. we'll be right back. my patients,

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>> it depends when you say don't stop. >> that's what you said. >> i know that's what i said. when i say don't stop the foreclosure process, what i mean is the best way to stop it is by getting the economy going. >> playing devil's advocate, mitt romney doesn't want to help me, the president does. >> the president has been in office three years, if they feel he's helped them, they ought to vote for him. if they feel the economy is going in the right direction, vote for barack obama. >> that's how mitt romney writes campaign ads. every friday morning i think it will be relaxed i can take it slow, nothing going on, then fridays turn in these huge news days. today the news the komen foundation has caved after everybody got so upset with them for going along with the defund planned parenthood jihad after affiliates started balking and staffers started quitting, after the internet essentially sharpened their pitch forks and lit their torches, the komen

foundation saying they are undefending planned parenthood. also, we got major economic news today, the stock market closing higher than it has since the financial crisis, dow closing higher since may of 2008, nasdaq closing higher than the year 2000. unemployment dropping to the lowest it has been in three years. on the same day we get that news mitt romney in nevada says if you think the economy is going in the right direction, vote for barack obama. okay. the president announces his plan for a program to put veterans to work, rebuilding trails and roads and levees on public lands. this is for veterans. i dare the republicans to try to block this idea. you will hear from the veterans and veteran supporters and everybody who has ever understood econ 101 if you do. today not just for friday but any news day, there was a giant pool of news. and, andthe huge deal news story barely noticed, was this one.

>> why should any american citizen be kicked out of their homes in this cold weather in ohio, it's going to be 10, 20 below zero. don't leave your home. when the companies say they have your mortgage, unless you have a lawyer that can put his finger or her finger on that mortgage, you don't have that mortgage. you're going to find they can't find the paper up there on wall street. so i say to the american people, you be squatters in your own homes. don't you leave. >> that was not today. that was three years ago. you'll find they can't find the paper up there on wall street. that was marcy captor. democrat of ohio on the floor of the house was exactly right. the people trying to kick you out of your house, wall street firm or bank trying to kick you out of your house might not hold your mortgage. in order to use mortgages in order to use your house as a casino chip to bet and profit and trade it like it wasn't a

house, it was just a piece of paper, they had to turn your mortgage in a piece of paper or into an electronic record and in the process of doing that, in lots of cases, they pretty much legally gave up their right to foreclose on you and kick you out of your house. when they're turning houses into casino chips destroyed the economy and housing market so you couldn't pay your mortgage anymore. in the midst of the higher profile news, the crusading attorney general of the state of new york, eric schneiderman brought a huge lawsuit against some of the biggest names on wall street. bank of america, wells fargo, jp morgan chase over what they did to homeowners, over whether or not this is legal. and whether or not this lawsuit made it on the front page today has two huge implications for the country. number one, accountability. accountability for the man-made disaster that was the financial catastrophe at the end of the bush presidency. accountability. that's one. eric schneiderman explained that part of it when he was here on the show recently. >> there are a lot of folks

trying to rewrite history, paint it like it was a volcano or earthquake, now we can move on to the problem of paying too much to cops and teachers and firefighters. this was a man-made crisis, it was created by regulatory neglect and greed, and i assure you without telling you anything about secrets of our investigation, we have not found a trace of evidence that a cop, firefighter, teacher or sanitation worker contributed to blowing up the american economy. we think we have to hold accountable the people that caused the disaster. >> number one, accountability. the other big consequence, the lawsuit filed by eric schneiderman, he is now part of the face of obama administration on accountability for wall street. as announced in the state of the union address, he has been brought on board the obama justice department new fraud-fighting unit to deal with wall street crime. the obama white house in raw political terms is no longer being overshadowed on stuff like

that by more progressive attorneys general like eric schneiderman. eric schneiderman is working with them. so yeah, it's accountability. for the sake of national politics, this is the unified democratic side now. and on the other side, speaking for the republicans on this issue, is this guy. >> don't try to stop the foreclosure process, let it run its course and hit the bottom. >> the banks aren't bad people. they're just overwhelmed right now. banks are scared to death, of course. they're feeling the same thing you're feeling. >> bank feelings. joining us now jared bernstein, senior fellow at center on budget and policy and msnbc contributor. mr. bernstein, as an expert on bank feelings, it is nice to have you here. >> thank you, yeah we need to put some of those banks on the therapist couch, i think. >> that's right. what's the practical implication of this lawsuit filed today by the new york attorney general? if he's successful, does he stand to mick a real difference,

change banks' behavior and get some relief for people? >> he absolutely does. by the way, that is kind of the heart of what i think ag schneiderman is all about. i don't know anyone has tried to get to the heart of precisely that, rachel. a real behaviorial change, holding the banks accountable in this case for allegedly fraudulent documentation. you know, if you want to hold someone accountable for defaulting on a mortgage loan, you kind of have to have the iou. if you don't own the loan, you can't foreclose. i thought -- it was interesting to hear marcy captor say that three years ago. >> what is the logic behind the alternate message on this, competing message on the right? mitt romney saying that his policy, what he would pursue as president would be to let foreclosures bottom out, let them run their course, what is the logic behind that? >> when i hear that i go back to herbert hoover liquidate, liquidate, liquidate, that was kind of his solution to the great depression.

the problem mitt romney is having with this is he is just not understanding the extent of what really brought this economy to where it was in 2009 as you note earlier, it's getting better. that was a bubble in the housing market that just imploded, inflated by the financial mess we were talking about. if these were perfectly normal times, if there wasn't an overhang of housing and all the foreclosures, some of which we have discussed could be fraudulent, if it wasn't, if we're not looking at all the unemployment and risk aversion and the banks, we might have a reasonable discussion about the role of government in the mortgage finance. that is not the economy or housing market we're talking about. massive market failure, lots of people who will lose their home if we don't engage in interventions the president was talking about this week. in fact, the more aggressive, the better in this regard.

>> do you have high hopes for this financial crimes, this fraud task force that the justice department is now heading up? president mentioned it in the state of the union, a very high profile place to launch something like that, schneiderman brought on as a co-chair in that. do you have high hopes? i have high hopes. i haven't had particularly high hopes in many of the areas in the housing space, because a hot of policy has under-wheel manied. schneiderman knows of what he speaks. i have a feeling he knows where bodies are buried in ways that others don't who have gone in this. but also, i think he's coming at this with an authority, coming from the level of the states where he gets what is happening on the ground particularly in new york with the market. he might not have gotten as much of that from the justice department. >> jared, one last question, on the jobs numbers today, you wrote on your blog, this is a critical message for policy makers, we have momentum on the most important economic issue to

the american people, jobs. let's not screw it up. what does "let's not screw it up" mean? how could they screw it up? >> let's not screw it up means we have some momentum going here, quite clearly, in the job market. we're not talking banks or interest rates or deficits, we're talking jobs. if they were to continue to squabble about extending the payroll tax benefit and unemployment insurance benefits, extended benefits and fail to extend those at the end of the month when they expire, boy, that could put a damper on again, what is a trend that is moving in the right direction, so that's what i mean, rachel. >> fair enough, jared bernstein, senior fellow at the center for budget priorities. thank you for being with us. >> my pleasure. thank you. best new thing in the world, a musical edition coming up. c'mon dad!

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[ male announcer ] how could a luminous protein in jellyfish, news to report on this end of the iraq war parade issue that you have been inundating me about since we started talking about it on the show. new news on that, that's next. real estate in hong kong, and the optics industry in germany? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. but don't just listen to me. listen to these happy progressive customers. i plugged in snapshot, and 30 days later, i was saving big on car insurance. i was worried it would be hard to install. but it's really easy. the better i drive, the more i save. i wish our company had something this cool. yeah. you're not... filming this, are you? aw! camera shy. snapshot from progressive. plug into the savings you deserve with snapshot from progressive.

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to mark the end of the iraq war. they've heard from people in chicago, denver, san antonio, tucson, nashville, greens brebo north carolina and more. there isn't a national appetite to do this, people don't really care enough to do this. turns out, people care. a lot of people want to do this. i can tell you anecdotally, that's been our experience, the response we have had just covering this issue. adding urgency to this debate is the fact that after the super bowl either boston or new york will likely be throwing a parade for their football team for winning this weekend's game. iraq and afghanistan veterans of america have challenged the mayors of new york and boston with a petition saying if the giants and patriots deserve a super bowl parade, don't iraq vets? responding to the objection raised by new york mayor michael bloomberg that he doesn't want new york to host a parade for the end of the iraq war because the afghanistan war is still

happening, the head of iraq and afghanistan veterans of america, wrote american knows the afghanistan front still rages on. with the end of combat operations not expected until 2013. that doesn't mean our country can't start welcoming home those who have returned and paved the way for those still to come. it will show our troops in afghanistan now that they won't be forgotten when they war ends, too. if we can afford two wars, he writes, we can afford two welcome home parades. here's the big news on this, though. even though mayor mike bloomberg has so far been shy on this issue of an end of the iraq war parade in new york, it's starting to seem like the rest of new york city government might not be so shy, they may be coming around. new york's powerful city council speaker christine quinn put out a statement saying after the initial drawdown of forces we called for a celebration, a parade in honor of the troops returning from iraq when the time was right. excuse me, when the time was

right. in 2012, the time is now. a citywide celebration is in order. the sacrifices made cannot be ignored and deserve to be honored by cities across the nation, new york city first and foremost. this might yet happen, in boston, around the country, in new york. this might yet happen. christine quinn will be our guest on this show on monday. [ female announcer ] with swiffer wetjet, cleaning better, doesn't have to take longer. i'm done. i'm gonna... drink this... on the porch! ♪ give me just a little more time ♪ [ female announcer ] mops can be a hassle, but swiffer wetjet's spray cleaner and absorbent pads can clean better in half the time, so you don't miss a thing. hi mary! morning! gladys. gladys! [ female announcer ] swiffer. better clean in half the time.

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they need it more than the bank does. we will physically put ourselves in the way. we will do direct action. we will gum up the process. we will be there when you try to take their home away. we will pitch tents in the front yard. we'll be in the way. when the bank shows up, we'll turn out to stop it. this kind of direct action is not always pretty but it, more often than you think, works. actually sometimes when it works, it is pretty. sometimes at least it sounds great. listen to this. ♪ ♪ we're asking you to hold all the sales right now ♪ ♪ we're going to survive but we don't know how ♪ ♪ all the people here

>> multipart harmony. the words are mrs. auctioneer, all the people here, we're asking you to hold all the sales right now, we're going to survive but we don't know how. then they repeat that refrain over and over again. the singers are from organizing for occupation. i'm not sure if it should be seens aan offshoot of occupy wall street. they started before occupy wall street was under way. so i think that means they can't be an offshoot. the point is, they're trying to prevent unfair foreclosure. this took place a while ago in civil court in brooklyn. it worked. they stopped this auction. ♪ we're asking you to hold all the sales right now ♪ ♪ we're going to survive but we don't know how ♪ ♪ mrs. auctioneer

♪ all the people here >> the group used the tactic a second time just last week, same brooklyn courtroom, same song, same outcome. clapping. despite some of them getting arrested, again, the action was apparently successful. >> mike check. >> mike check. >> just in case. >> just in case. >> you didn't hear. >> you didn't hear. >> we shut down the auction. >> we shut down the auction. >> before they could finish. >> before they could finish. >> they were only able. >> they were only able. >> to sell one property out of four. >> to sell one property out of four. >> direct actions to stop foreclosures are taking place all over the country. as far as we can tell, organizing for occupation is the first group to use singing, to use good multipart harmony singing as their tactic. a member of organizing for occupation told us when we asked that the lyrics to the songs they've been using were written by a poet named luke nephew.

the point of the song, a member, jay kim told us, is to do more than just make noise. try to change hearts and minds about what counts as a problem and what counts as a solution in the ongoing housing disaster. she told us that their idea is is to surprise people and to try to move people while trying to stop the foreclosures from going ahead. and just like that, every chant of "hey, hey, insert now has got to go" has been rendered obsolete. politics of all kinds, politics of all kinds, not just protest politics but electoral politics and all the way people do politics get better when they get creative. best new thing in the world today. i will see you sunday morning on "meet the press." kra "up w/ chris hayes" is next.