please welcome austan goalsbury. [cheers and applause] -- austan goolsbee.rs and applause] good to see you. all right i'm going to tell you something right now i don't normally say to my guest. >> i don't like how this is already beginning. okay, yes. >> stephen: i'm going to let you get in a word in edgewise because i love to hear you explain how on monday we hit the magical deadly debt ceiling date and we're all still here! the earth didn't swallow the united states like you predicted. >> no -- >> stephen: is your bookie man dead? >> if he they cut off water to your house. >> stephen: yes. >> the fact that there are a few gallons in the toilet that you can drink is not going to save you. you have to get the water started again. >> stephen: remind me not to have a drink at your house. [laughter] >> we hit the debt ceiling. we have emergency measures that we can rely on until those measures run out. we're stretching it. >> stephen: america is living on hamburger helper, is what you are saying. >> at best. it's whatever is in the pantry. the secretary of trea

just a few moments ago i spoke with austan goolsbee, the president's top economic adviser. with all the other troubled spots in the economy, i asked him about his advice to the president about how to handle these higher gas prices. >> it's good that the price of oil is down a little bit this week, but the president was concerned about gas prices and our energy policy before gas prices ever spiked. he continues to be now. my advice is pursuing the polices that he is, which are, number one, let's expand production at home as much as we can in a safe manner, 2010 had the highest domestic production since 2003, number two, let's explore alternative fuels and get the research to do that, and number three, let's do everything we can to reduce energy usage and increase energy efficiency in our cars and in our other vehicles. >> that's a policy advice to the president. let's forget about your boss just for one second here. what would be your advice to consumers that are trying to handle some of these higher costs? >> look, it's tough to deal with those costs. i'm one of those consu