>> summers, geithner, orszag, christina romer.em sat with me hour after hour for interviews. >> larry summers say -- attributed to me is a combination of fiction, distortion and words taken out of context. timothy geithner says "reports about this book bear no resemblance to the reality we lived." >> all of their -- >> that's not a soft walkback. >> no, no, well, it is if you read the book. the fact is on timothy geithner, for one, he has extensive responses to everything in the book that is in the book. what we did is we had an interview prior to publication. 35 minutes. we went through letter and verse. he has a very full explanation for what's in the book. he offers a denial, but not really a denial. if you read that, you'll find that -- >> a combination of fiction, distortion and words taken out of context. larry summers. >> larry summers is another example, larry and i talked many times. at the end of the day, larry's speaking about a specific thing. you should be more specific -- >> i'll come to that. in the book, you allege

gross, christina romer, and john challenger, ceo of challenger, gray and christmas, this country's top outplacement consulting firm. let me start with you, bill gross. you're one of the top bosses in the country. what do you make of his jobs plan, is it going to work? >> well, i think it's significant, piers. it's $450 billion in terms of a proposal that is 3% of gdp if it's passed. you know, it could lead to hundreds of thousands of jobs. i think the two critical questions would be, one, how much of it is going to be passed. i would be suspicious that much of it beyond payroll taxes would be passed. secondly, is it directed in the proper areas? we think really, piers, that globalization and the availability of cheap labor is really the problem, in addition to technology that is permanently laid off millions of workers. so there's a structural problem here that i'm not sure that payroll taxes and the absence of them can help over a longer term basis. >> christina romer, this might sound like a stupid question when you're talking three, four, $500 billion, but is it enough? is this goin

christina romer used there you know mathematics this will add one point one point so dollars in the economy doing this way and they said it unemployment wouldn't rise above eight percent it went up to ten percent it's like nine point one percent you have obama economic program has not done well it failed and going into an election year when they want to have a place where losing eight hundred thousand jobs a month we've had eight tons i mean i'm not i'm only i'm only using their metric to do something to to to describe if they failed by their own standards and they have a failed president ever said that that was one of those lies a stray ship that was that was a press conference they say is a chief economic goal as a goal. they said it wouldn't rise above it which is what the ten percent at this point if i was the president to go back to eight hundred thousand jobs a month you know he doesn't want to go back eight hundred thousand jobs a month as we reason he hasn't mentioned it and that's what their game is let's let's understand you ask the question why are they going after public sector

another top economist, christina romer, said she was sometimes treated like she didn't matter. quote, "i felt like a piece of meat." the white house push-back has been fierce. summers, dunn and romer say they were misquoted and claimed that suskind exaggerated incidents. others who were there say the book doesn't ring true. >> you put a bunch of economists in a room, we're going to argue and we're going to squabble. substantively, and we did a lot of that. but at the end of the day, we typically came up with a unified recommendation for the chief. >> and rick klein, our senior washington editor, joins us now from washington. and rick, this obviously comes at a very challenging time for the president. got the economy, jobs already. but as you point out, there is already real push-back from this white house. >> reporter: that's right. and it is critical push-back from the white house. we are entering perhaps the most important phase of this presidency in terms of getting the public on board for his ideas. he's trying to set this up, here are my ideas versus the republican ideas.

christina romer since said she can't imagine she ever made that "piece of meat" remark. white house is countering point by point some of the other issues that suskind has raised. >> one official points to two of the president's deputy chiefs of staff who are women, one female white house counsel and of course the two women he's appointed to the supreme court, they're hitting back hard on the idea that women don't get close to the president at this point. >> he's got a secretary of state who happens to be hillary clinton as well. let's talk a little bit more about this right now our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin, she's here with me in new york. jessica you've spoke on it a lot of these women who have worked in the white house, spoken to a lot of people as well. give us your thoughts on what this uproar is all about? >> wolf, in the early days when the white house had just convened there was a lot of anguish among the women especially in their feelings with the economic team, that their voices were not being heard and the women went to valerie jarrett, who

more i'm going to do now to put people back to work. >> thanks to former obama economic advisor christina romer. thank you so much for joining us tonight. >> great to be with you. >>> our next stop is new orleans where they're preparing for a slow-moving tropical storm and localized flooding. we'll see just how bad it could get. ♪ okay, so who ordered the cereal that can help lower cholesterol and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. that's yours. lower cholesterol. lower cholesterol. i'm yummy. lower cholesterol. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste? honey nut cheerios. want whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. it's a win win. good? [ crunching, sipping ] be happy. be healthy. can i try yours? build an app for the sales team. and see my family while they're still awake. [ male announcer ] with dell global services, jim's i.t. needs are supported in over 100 countries. so his company sees results. and jim sees his family. dell. the power to do more. [ male announcer ] they'll see you...before you see them. cops are cracking down on drin

gund -- dunn told the post yesterday she did not say that it quotes christina romer that she felt like of meat boxed out by mayle male senior advisors at meetings. roamer tells the post she can't imagine saying she felt like a piece of meat. white house has responded by saying books like these tend to be infused with salacious details and pointed to dunn and romer attributed to them in the book. rick? >> rick: is it true there is a republican strategist who is defending the white house on this? >> yes. karl rove, former top advisor to president george w. bush is critical of su skind as a writer. here is more. >> i'm not sure how much of this book is true and accurate. my personal experience with him is that he tends to exaggerate. >> rove says suskind has written about him in inaccurate and unrealistic way. rick? >> rick: molly line in washington. thanks. >> new concerns over a possible solyndra like controversy occurring. the solar energy company was hailed a success by the obama administration, the stimulus program we are talking about receiving more than $500 million worth of federa

another top economist, christina romer, says she was sometimes treated like she doesn't matter. quote, i felt like a piece of meat. the white house pushback has been fierce. summers, dunn and romer all say they were misquoted and claim suskind exaggerated incidents. others who were there say the book doesn't ring true. >> you put a bunch of economists in a room, we're going to argue and we're going to squabble substantively and we did a lot of that. but at the end of the day we typically came up with a unified recommendation for the chief. >> reporter: the coming days of pushback will be critical for the white house. the president can't afford a perception he couldn't control his own economic team, much less the economy as a whole. rick klein, abc news, washington. >> the white house already on the call this book a combination of half truths and old news all dramatized for effect. >> a critical time. >> of course, and especially dealing with the economy. >> and his poll numbers not looking so good these days. maybe he doesn't need this right now. >> exactly. not the right time.

with us now, the president's former economic adviser, christina romer, she's now an economics professor at the university of california. proofgs or, thank you for being here. let me ask you first off whether you saw any good news inside this report. >> reporter: you knon >> it was pretty hard to find anything. the basic view is this is a pretty wretched jobs report. and i think if you look deeper, it becomes even worse. when we learn for example that hours went down a little bit, so not only did we not add any jobs, but we were cutting back on hours. so that the total labor input went down. or we discovered that another 400,000 people are working part-time for economic reasons. that's another sign of distress in the labor market. so i think it is very hard to put any kind of a positive spin on this report. >> and in fact americans don't even try. we have a new cnn poll out today, we asked is the economy in a recession. 82% of americans believe the economy is in a recession right now. only 18% believe the economy is not in a recession. convince them that this is not a recession. >> i thi

he quotes another former obama adviser, christina romer who had her issues with larry summers and says summers was deliberately blocking her from meetings with the president at the time roamer told suskind, i felt like a piece of meat. there was the allegation that anita dunn is quoted as saying this place would be in court for a hostile workplace because it actually fit all the classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace for the president. there's an important clause missing, if it wasn't for the president. they're saying their words were taken out of context. treasury secretary tim geithner it to play defense because he wasn't painted positively in the book. here's what he said. >> the reports i've read about this book bear no resemblance to the reality we lived together. no resemblance. >> the white house has been pushing back hard. they even suggested yesterday that suskind simply borrowed from the internet for portions of his book. here's what jay carney said. >> one passage seems to be lifted almost entirely from wikipedia in the book. i think based on that, i wo

it quotes christina romer as saying she felt, quote, like a piece of meat after being shut out of a meetingng the obama white house fit all thes classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace to women. roamer's office e-mailsed us with a response from her saying "i cannot imagine that i ever said the piece of meat quote. it is just too i willy for words. we didn't hear back from anita dunn, but she's old other news outlets that she was misquoted. >> all right, brian, thanks very much. and ron suskind will be joining us to talk about his new book and all the controversy it's generating. my interview this wednesday day after tomorrow right here in "the situation room." big quuproar over that. other news, in new york city security very tight. the city's mayor said recently that the massive rioting that swept europe, north africa, elsewhere in europe, for example, this year could actually happen right here in the united states if, if, economic conditions don't improve. let's talk about this and more with the new york city police commissioner, ray kelly. always good to have you. i

christina romer weighs n in " the new york times."et's take a listen to comments president obama made last night at the congressional black caucus awards dinner. >> republicans like to talk about job creators. how about doing something real tax passed this jobs bill and every small-business owner in america including one in a thousand black-on the business owners will get a tax cut. pass this jobs bill and every worker in america including nearly 20 million african- american workers will get a tax cut. pass this jobs bill and prove you will fight just as hard for a tax cut for ordinary folks as you do for all your contributors. [applause] host: president obama speaking last night at the congressional black caucus awards dinner. on "newsmakers"this week, lamar alexander discusses why he will step down in january and why he thinks the senate is bogging down in legislative action. >> can i ask about the president's jobs bill? will he get a vote? >> that is completely up to harry reid. >> how so? >> can schedule it anytime he wants. senat

. >> christina romer is quoted as saying, she felt like a piece of meat after being shutout of a meetingen. >> cnn's brian todd has more. >> reporter: for a best-selling author, serious brushback from the white house that depicts in the obama early days. in his book "confidence men" ron suskind said they had doubt whether they could handle the economic crisis. former director of the national economic council is quoted as saying in 2009, we're home alone. no adult in charge. clinton would have never made these mistakes. we couldn't reach summers for comment, but in an e-mail to "washington post" the hearsay attributed to me is a combination of fiction, distortion and words taken out of context. >> i lived the retality and the reports i read about this book bear no resemblance to the reality we live together. >> reporter: timothy geithner responding saying that president obama decided early on to restructure several banks but discovered that his directive was ignored by the treasury. >> absolutely not. i would never do that. i spent my life in public service. >> reporter: gloria borger say

with the book and said many things that affirm everything in the book as did anita dunn, as did christina romered up. they said talk to anita dunn who will give voice to this. this is the president growing into office. part of that point is made in the book. the book is about the evolution of barack obama across four years. >> dunn said it was a hostile workplace and if they were in the private sector, there would be lawsuits. >> her husband is general counsel, we got a little delicate as to what she should be thinking as to a legal issue with her husband seeing her every move. >> do you think the white house is a hostile workplace for women? >> i say in the book i don't think it is now. i think everyone agrees in that very difficult period in '09 to '10, it was. the key to what occurs here, people step up and say this is untenable. who can take charge? obama sits with them. >> with them? >> the women. they have a dinner which is of course in the book in november and hears their complaints. he is sympathetic. in an interesting quote they are going after larry and rahm. he says i need these guys

. >> christina romer makes a number of the same points about focusing on a long-term debt reduction forh of the fiscal space in the short run to do more on growth and jobs. these videos will be posted in the long, full version so everyone will be able to see them on the crfb web site. peter? >> the elephant in the room is the debate in washington. to go big, you have to put revenue and entitlements on the table. it is going to be tough choice for your republican colleagues, those on the super committee. how do you sell the republicans on revenue as a component? are you talking about the same revenue president obama is talking about? >> you have put your finger on the biggest issue that has to be handled between the two parties. i think it can be resolved in a number of ways. to me the easiest way to address it is to deal with the way that congress scores various proposals. as the bowles-simpson committee recommended, allow us to become more accurate in scoring the impact of various policies. and talking regularizing dynamic scoring rather than static scoring -- i am talking about regula