one of our colleagues who we have had on the show, dan mitchell, libertarian scholar from the cato institutete he doesn't believe that obama deserves the full blame. he said started before he got there. he deserves part of the blame, not all the blame. but what about congress? is >> david: we are talki about policies, though. that is the point. the policies that the president are -- by the way, this president had the congress, both houses of congress for two years, rick. that didn't seem to help either. >> eight months. >> two years. emac, the fact is we're focusing on policies. i don't care who is the president. i care which policy that president has. these licies aren't working. >> the ministry whitewash is in full overdrive right now. the press sinct of the for precinct of the far left idealogue. they are hearing from the companies siding health reform is hurting them. they are hurting their job prospects at the companies. goldman sachs saying it, mercer saying it, donald trump atrump --richard trumka at the o saying it's creating part-time nation. record people are part-timers. >> david:

we will ask dan mitchell in washington, d.c., a senior fellow at the cato institute. thank you both for joining us tonight. josh, a few months into 2013, goldman sachs' head economist who wrote the new report said in april the sequester had "little impact so far"." with his new report running counter, what changed in five months? >> i think the story is still not so bad. it's a negative for the economy but it's not an especially large one. what the goldman report found is that instead of 0.2% in income growth in the month, we had many federal workers furloughed. those are supposed to end at the end of the summer. that's a temporary effect. the main effect is these 10 years of budget caps that it creates. not only did we have spending cuts this year, fairly low levels of government spending on both defense and non-defense discretionary spending. that's a drag in the economy. state local governments had been cutting a lot over the previous three years. they're starting to see their tax receipts improved, they're hiring again. while the sequester is a negative, we're add

dan mitchell and josh barrow. thank you both for joining us tonight. josh a few months into 2013, most of the headline said no big deal, sequestration not so bad because the -- and actually goldman sachs alex phillips said the sequester had, quote, little impact so far. running counterto what he said, what's changed in five months? >> the story is not so bad. it's an negative but not such a alarge one. what the goldman report showed, we should 0.1% growth, because of many federal workers being furloughed, that's supposed to stop at the end of summer. it's the ten years of budget caps that creates, that not only did we have spending cuts but low spending for the next ten years. but that's odrag on the economy, it comes in the context of another example, they're starting to see their tax receipts improve, they're hiring again, even though sequester is a negative, performance has been fairly flat the economy is growing no, sir as fast as i.t. should and we are going to continue to see that staple. >> you mostly agree with josh that this is not that bik of

even vladimir putin says it's unlikely all of the chemical weapons could be destroyed, but dan michelle -- mitchell doesn't men that it couldn't be destroyed. >> i say that the obama administration should threaten assad we'll impose obamacare on syria if he doesn't give up his weapons if that's what they want. but i have two thoughts about this. i'm not a foreign policy guy. i'm a fiscal policy economist. we're squandering too much money in washington. the idea we're going to pay assad a billion dollars to at least pretend he is getting rid of chemical weapons? doesn't strike me as a good deal. let's set aside libertarian principles and look at this as a practical perspective. we could probably have the cia give a couple of his generals ten million dollars each and get it done cheaper. i if assad wants to extort money from us weed in to view this in the same way if you get a ticket from a cop for 50 tuesday and you up aer him hundred trippet up? no. at least be sensible controlling costs. >> neil: the bottom line is he is no dummy, the syrian president. he knows there's a history of this country th

also, dan senor, steve rattner, katty kay. andrea mitchell. >> there was big news overnight.the man who was sentenced to life in prison, plus 1,000 years, after pleading guilty to imprisoning and raping three women over the course of a decade. let's get a report now. >> i'm near the place where ariel castro's home once stood. we're here because this morning, breaking news, ariel castro is dead. he hanged himself last night in his prison in southern ohio. in the town of orient. that's where he was being held. he was taken up to the ohio university medical center where he died of his injuries shortly before 11:00 last night. castro was being sentenced for 1,000 years for the capture of those three women he raped and tortured on cleveland's west side. back to you. >> gruesome story just got more gruesome. lord knows what those poor women are think as they wake up to this news this morning. the big news yesterday, syria, the president and the international community at large are keeping tabs on washington where a vote could come today on strategic strikes in syria. a senate resol