you talked about alan krueger and his interview. they would like to see no drama surrounding the debt ceiling to the association. they feel the economy would be in better shape if we did not have any drama. 72% of americans agree any increase in the nation that limit must be accompanied by spending cuts and reforms of a greater amount. that is the principle i laid out, boehner said. repeated a number of times since. it sounds like a dog will have plenty of drama in his debate. >> oh, i think there will be plenty of drama. they need to propose some spending cuts and take some leadership role in this. whether we accompany the debt ceiling increase with debt reduction, which, by the way, is the typical way things happen. that is business as usual. if the president wants to avoid drama, he should get a head of this. connell: let me ask you about the debt ceiling. i think it is a pretty interesting topics. we talk about free markets and interest rates going up. if we really believed in free markets, when it we just not have a debt ceilin

as evidence to support their own agendas and one quarter we have white house economic adviser alan krueger saying quote while more work remains to be done today's employment report provides further evidence that the u.s. economy is continuing to heal from the wounds inflicted by the worst downturn since the great depression and there's newly elected house speaker john boehner who said quote too many americans are still out of work and washington has too much debt our oversized overspent federal government is a drag on the economic growth and job creation as burden every american with a fifty thousand dollars share of its debt and rising so what these numbers really mean and could the fiscal cliff hysteria be hiding the real issues plaguing washington talk about all that and more i'm joined now by paul craig roberts columnists columnist sorry and assistant secretary of the u.s. treasury during the reagan administration paul thank you so much for coming on. the spirit so the job numbers report just came out today of course saying that we're increasing jobs in the workforce i read one of your

we'll talk about it with white house economist alan krueger. >> we'll be covering that as well, so have a great evening, everyone. thanks for wachx nightly business report, see you tomorrow night, right here.." captioning sponsored by wpbt agrccs esoub as wgt hp access.wgbh.org wg >> join us anytime at nbr.com. there, you'll find full episodes of the program, complete show transcripts and all the market stats. also follows us on our facebook page at bizrpt. and on twitter @bizrpt. vo:geico, committed to providing service to its auto insurance customers for over 70 years. more information on auto insurance at geico.com or 1-800-947-auto any time of the day or night.

the last year that there's a little bit of good news but there's still a lot of work to be done, alan krueger, the chairman of the president's council of economic advisers saying in a statement, quote, while more work remains to be done, today's employment report provides further evidence that the u.s. me is continuing to heal from the wounds inflicted by the worst downturn since the great depression. he also points out that there's a need here to continue the president's policies. but also talked about the fact that now that you have resolution to the fiscal cliff matter, that it provides now some certainty in the marketplace. and then also this word of caution that we always hear from the white house every time these monthly numbers come out that they're often revised, either up or down, that you should not read too much into one month's numbers. nonetheless, republicans hitting back today. the rnc saying that, yes, there's good news here, but that unemployment still remains very high and that this is not really a time to celebrate when you've had so many months of near 8% unemployment, ash

alan krueger is chairman of the president's council of economic advisors. >> i think we're seeing the job market continuing to heal. the economy's continuing to heal from the very deep damage that was caused by the financial crisis. >> brown: even so, there were also indications of continued sluggishness in december. the unemployment rate was 7.8%. that's up a tenth from the initial reading in november, which was revised upward today. and the number of unemployed rose 164,000 to 12.2 million. that number rises to nearly 23 million once part-time workers and those who've given up looking for work are added in. most economists expect modest growth but little overall improvement this year, as the pace of job growth remains too low to make much of a dent in the unemployment rate. we get an economic snapshot of different regions of the country from three public broadcasting reporters: erik anderson is a business reporter and anchor on kpbs in san diego, california; cathy lewis is an anchor and host of her own show, "hear say," on whro in norfolk, virginia; and stan jastrzebski is news dire

alan krueger is chairman of the president's council of economic advisors. >> i think we're seeing the job market continuing to heal. the economy's continuing to heal from the very deep damage that was caused by the financial crisis. >> brown: even so, there were also indications of continued sluggishness in december. the unemployment rate was 7.8%. that's up a tenth from the initial reading in november, which was revised upward today. and the number of unemployed rose 164,000 to 12.2 million. that number rises to nearly 23 million once part-time workers and those who've given up looking for work are added in. most economists expect modest growth but little overall improvement this year, as the pace of job growth remains too low to make much of a dent in the unemployment rate. we get an economic snapshot of different regions of the country from three public broadcasting reporters: erik anderson is a business reporter and anchor on kpbs in san diego, california; cathy lewis is an anchor and host of her own show, "hear say," on whro in norfolk, virginia; and stan jastrzebski is news dire

alan krueger who is the chairman of the president's council of economic advisers saying in a statemente, while more work remains to be done, today's employment report provides further evidence that the u.s. economy is continuing to heal from the wounds inflicted by the worst downturn since the great depression. he also points out at least from his point of view that the president's policies are helping to strengthen the economy. also discusses the fact that now there's more certainty in the marketplace because of this passage of this fiscal cliff bill, if you will. and then this caution that the white house always issues every time the numbers come out that they're often revised either up or down and you should not read too much into one month's numbers, victor. >> so, we talked about at the top, the president has a long to-do list, he's got a cabinet to offer appointments for, and he promised gun control legislation or a plan coming from the white house in january, and he also hams the debt ceiling fight that's coming up. he's got a lot to do. and we saw on the front page of the "post

alan krueger, the chairman of the president's council of economic adviser says, while more work remains to be done, today's employment report provide further evidence that the u.s. economy is continuing to heal. hawaii's unemployment is much lower than the national rate. but courtney says it's tough for small businesses to make it here, to grow, to hire more people. but at the tea chest -- >> we do some private label packing for several of our customers. >> reporter: gu says he's ready to expand and isn't worried about future fiscal fights thousands of miles away in washington. >> as our business grows, we're going to need to manage it. so we definitely are looking at either a couple of more part-timers or definitely one more full-time position. >> reporter: the rnc says it's good news that the u.s. economy is adding jobs. but the unemployment rate is still too high and that this is no time to celebrate after months of near 8% unemployment. wolf, kate? >> dan lothian in hawaii for us this evening. thanks so much. >> he's going to miss that assignment when he gets back to washington, d.c

we know for example and i must have said it 100 times, alan krueger chief economic adviser to the presidentreases as unemployment benefits near an end. and we think that there's anywhere from a one quarter to a one percent impact on the unemployment rate from higher benefits. it's a good thing to do to help people who have trouble getting a job, but whether or not it keeps them on the unemployment rolls longer -- >> and dragging the economy, because there's mark zandi saying the economy is going to go rather dramatically it appears to me and people aren't going to be out searching for a job. >> well, at that point they should be drawn in to the economy to look for work, senator. that would be the general economics. >> good intentions. >> good intentions and negative consequences. >> as we go to break, russian president vladimir putin has granted gerard depardieu russian citizenship. i don't -- >> you're kidding, right? >> no, not at all. >> he didn't want to go. >> he applied for -- >> he applied for russian citizenship and he has been granted that. >> dual citizenship? >> and he was grante