reaction, though, now from christina romer, chair of the white house council of economic advisers. dr. romer, the harsh economic realities is that a lot more people stopped looking for work and that contributed to this drop. right? >> there are several things to say. first, with the unemployment rate at 9.7%, the first thing to say is that is still completely unacceptable, still very high, which is why the president has continued to push for actions to help jump-start job creation. he will be announcing small business lending program this morning. i think that is certainly the big issue here. in terms of thinking about what's driving this movement in the unemployment rate down, the number you mentioned is the number of people discouraged. the labor force actually rose this month so because of population changes what we're seeing is the labor force is actually going up so that would normally tend to raise the unemployment rate. the thing that brought it down is -- >> one second. that's a fair point that the overall labor force rose in january, but let's compare january of '09 and jan

christina romer, chair of the president's council of economic advisors.dr. romer, thank you for talking with us. >> great to be with you. >> tell us first, what is the main message in this economic report? >> you know i think the main message in the report is three-fold, someone to document the tremendous challenges that this president and this administration and this whole economy confronted over the last year and more generally. it's to talk about the policies that have been put in place and here i think the biggest message when you bring them all together it's an incredible body of action that even obviously what we've done to try to get out of the recession and heal the financial markets, heal the housing market. but it goes beyond that to things that we've already done in health care, like reauthorizing the children's health insurance program to investing in innovation and education. and then, of course, the third part is the president's agenda going forward and, again, i think it's very helpful to bring it together in one place because you see what

christina romer is the chair of the economic advisers fort president and is with us now. thanks very much for taking the time to be with us this morning. the jobs report, payrolls still losing jobs but the unemployment rate ticked down. which number is the one you think matters? >> well, i think the first thing to say is obviously even with the unemployment rate ticking down we do know that the unemployment rate is still 9.#% so we certainly have to acknowledge that the american people are still suffering tremendously at 9.7%. i do think that the drop in the unemployment rate of 0.3% is unquestionably encouraging and something that obviously is something we're looking at. on the payroll employment number you're right. it did go down slightly. i think the important thing there is slightly. if you think back to a year ago, we now know we were losing some 780,000 jobs a year ago january. so that certainly is tremendously smaller. the other thing that i've been struck by is the fact that we're seeing some variation in that number. in fact, manufacturing for the first time in

christina romer was on our air a few minutes ago, contessa. here is what she had to say in reaction to these new numbers. >> with the unemployment rate at 9.7%, the first thing to say is, of course, that's completely unacceptable. it's still very high, which is why the president has continued to push for actions to help to jumpstart job creation. he will be announcing a small business lending program this morning. >> so, the president has turned his focus in recent days, ever since that massachusetts debacle, senate election of scott brown, the republican, the leadership was here yesterday, contessa. harry reid, nancy pelosi and others. they talked about the way to move health care forward. no progress on that to report. the president has a number of initiatives, tax cuts for small businesses who add new worker, bolstering the small business administration, their ability to lend, lending to community banks, trying to get them to free up some capital to lend to small businesses across the country. >> add those up that's a lot of votes come nove

we'll talk with white house senior economic adviser christina romer.s, breaking news on sarah palin and the actions her husband took while she was governor of alaska. shocking e-mails describing his role as the so-called first dude. >> i knew that there is a possibility this could turn into a frenzy because of the amount of blood that was in the water. >>> we've got an exclusive interview with the lifeguard who risked his life to try to save a surfer from a swarm of sharks. and a truck plows into a convenience store, but it really wasn't a surprise. we begin with breaking news on the jobs department. january's unemployment rate

economic advisers chairwoman christina rumor released a report about the economy to the president -- christina romer. unemployment likely to stay at near double-digit through the year. we have the continuing jobs problem. but the question on whether or not or how to spend federal money to stimulate jobs is in washington now, and an opinion çpiece in "the wall street journal" rights of this. the obama budget takes publicly held debt --ç growth that of 1% of gdp by 2015. long run growth potential of 2.5% per year. a decline of one percentage point would cut the end of the growth rate by over half. that is essentially the difference between a strong economy that can project global power and a stagnant economy. such bass that implies immense future tax increases, balancing the 2015 budget would require 43% increase everyone's income tax. it is hard toç imagine a worse detriment to economic growth. job situation, the deficit as a backdrop forç a brand-new poll reported on from "the new york times" and cbs. çthe poll suggests that both parties face a toxic environment as they prepare for elections in

christina romer was talking about the jobless rate still being at 9.8 percent as we get to the end ofthe year. with all the additional money that's going to be spent on job creation incentives for a company to hire, is a $3.8 trillion budget getting its money's worth if that's the best we can do? >> well, understand, mark, again -- and i think we've seen this over the last couple of months -- we have to create 100,000 to 150,000 jobs a month just to keep that unemployment rate at -- roughly keep that unemployment rate steady. as the economy begins to pick up, that will also put increased pressure as we do begin to add jobs because more and more people -- in addition to that, just the sheer population growth -- but more and more people that had stopped looking for work will enter into the process of looking for work. so it is going to takeÑi quite some time to bring down the unemployment rate and to -- particularly to add the number of jobs that we've lost. again, i don't think anybody is -- i don't think anybody looks at this in any way other than in a realistic way. we have more than

the bill that some of us supported for half the cost, according to christina romer's analysis would havereated twice as many jobs and have the debt impact in our country. we have some serious problems. one thing that happens with budgets that the cbo might be aware of. most americans are not part of the only year that really counts is the year you were in. the year we are in, for as a result of the stimulus package, like a house version that he praised the state of the union, it has $100 billion more. he is counting 170 billion in the next 10 years but he is not counting the $100 billion this year. it is a violation of last year's budget. we will have to have vote sufficient to raise the spending levels through emergency designation, i guess, to spend that money this year. i guess what i am saying is that what i am hearing from the incumbent administration that concerns me is is it is always next year, next year. we have to do all this this year. we will not worry about how much debt is being run up this year. we will worry about it next year. the chart you put up, mr. chairman, is, howe

ed white house economic adviser christina romer brief reporters on the annual economic report.she is followed by press secretary robert kids. this is about -- robert gibbs. this is about an hour. >> good afternoon. i need to get a shot clock up here. [laughter] [unintelligible] well, you know, the president and dr. romer are good examples. i will do two quick examples and i will turn it over to the chair of the president's council of economic advisers. we talked about the reports of the president's. earlier today, president obama called to congratulate the president-elect of cluster rica for her recent wind. the president affirmed his commitment to work in close relations with coast rica on issues including clean energy, a climate change, and security for the mutual benefit of the citizens of both countries. second, february 18, the president will meet with his holiness the dalai lama. it will take place in the map room in the white house. the president looks forward to an engaging and constructive dialogue. >> [unintelligible] >> i do not have that yet. that is -- the best pla

the bill that some of us supported for half the cost, according to christina romer's analysis would havereated twice as many jobs and have the debt impact in our country. we have some serious problems. one thing that happens with budgets that the cbo might be aware of. most americans are not part of the only year that really counts is the year you were in. the year we are in, for as a result of the stimulus package, like a house version that he praised the state of the union, it has $100 billion more. he is counting 170 billion in the next 10 years but he is not counting the $100 billion this year. it is a violation of last year's budget. we will have to have vote sufficient to raise the spending levels through emergency designation, i guess, to spend that money this year. i guess what i am saying is that what i am hearing from the incumbent administration that concerns me is is it is always next year, next year. we have to do all this this year. we will not worry about how much debt is being run up this year. we will worry about it next year. the chart you put up, mr. chairman, is, howe

the bill that some of us supported for half the cost, according to christina romer's analysis would haveed twice as many jobs and have the debt impact in our country. we have some serious problems. one thing that happens with budgets that the cbo might be aware of. most americans are not part of the only year that really counts is the year you were in. the year we are in, for as a result of the stimulus package, like a house version that he praised the state of the union, it has $100 billion more. he is counting 170 billion in the next 10 years but he is not counting the $100 billion this year. it is a violation of last year's budget. we will have to have vote sufficient to raise the spending levels through emergency designation, i guess, to spend that money this year. i guess what i am saying is that what i am hearing from the incumbent administration that concerns me is is it is always next year, next year. we have to do all this this year. we will not worry about how much debt is being run up this year. we will worry about it next year. the chart you put up, mr. chairman, is, however,

using the methodology developed by christina romer, president obama santop economic adviser, these taxs could cost -- president obama's top economic adviser -- does losing 5 million jobs on top of the double-digit unemployment rate concern you? >> congressman, those are not our numbers. of course, we would not ask you to support programs that would carry that risk. >> the methodology by the president's own adviser, that calculated this -- >> there is not a chance that a reasonable independent economist would look at that package of measures and suggested that would be the effect over time. one thing is important -- and suggest that would be the effect over time. the board and of the current system is not good for business. they normally put it at the top of their basic concerns -- the burden of the current system is not good for business. even the national number does not capture it. there are much higher numbers in many parts of the country. that is why it is so important that we are on this and keep working to reinforce this. the worst thing we can do today is to stand back and say,

the bill that some of us supported for half the cost, according to christina romer's analysis would havewice as many jobs and have the debt impact in our country. we have some serious problems. one thing that happens with budgets that the cbo might be aware of. most americans are not part of the only year that really counts is the year you were in. the year we are in, for as a result of the stimulus package, like a house version that he praised the state of the union, it has $100 billion more. he is counting 170 billion in the next 10 years but he is not counting the $100 billion this year. it is a violation of last year's budget. we will have to have vote sufficient to raise the spending levels through emergency designation, i guess, to spend that money this year. i guess what i am saying is that what i am hearing from the incumbent administration that concerns me is is it is always next year, next year. we have to do all this this year. we will not worry about how much debt is being run up this year. we will worry about it next year. the chart you put up, mr. chairman, is, however, the

you know, thinking about the study that john coven and others did in examining the forecast of christina romer and others on the stimulus, they were using sort of the old keynesian forecasting model and the ones that sort of deal with those expectations, rational expectations of people, businesses, consumers and others. do you think, looking at the cbo, who does a terrific job on things, the base under extensive research in macroeconomics, with the cbo fiscal multipliers used to high? what were their estimates of the stimulus impact perhaps a little larger than you see? >> thank you, mr. brady. and i'm a big fan of the cbo and especially a fan of its current director, who i think has been in a tradition going back to alice rivlin what we expected directors. the infrastructure buildup to analyze the think this kind of been there since day one. too often in washington, proof proceeds by induction if you remember your past that if something is true today as it was true yesterday. and if we adopt the model the 70's that tells us how policies could affect the economy, then it's very unlikely that t

using the methodology developed by christina romer, president obama santop economic adviser, these taxikes could cost -- president obama's top economic adviser -- does losing 5 million jobs on top of the double-digit unemployment rate concern you? >> congressman, those are not our numbers. of course, we would not ask you to support programs that would carry that risk. >> the methodology by the president's own adviser, that calculated this -- >> there is not a chance that a reasonable independent economist would look at that package of measures and suggested that would be the effect over time. one thing is important -- and suggest that would be the effect over time. the board and of the current system is not good for business. they normally put it at the top of their basic concerns -- the burden of the current system is not good for business. even the national number does not capture it. there are much higher numbers in many parts of the country. that is why it is so important that we are on this and keep working to reinforce this. the worst thing we can do today is to stand back and sa