washington correspondent stephanie dhue spoke with white house economic advisor jared bernstein today. she began by asking if the economy has really hit bottom? >> in terms of g.d.p., gross domestic product, if you look at the forecast-- these are not white house forecasts, private sector forecasts-- the expectation is for the economy to expand slightly, may be by a percent or so, in the second half of the year. if so, the private sector forecasts are correct, then, yes we would have hit a bottom in terms of g.d.p. growth. of course, from our perspective what really matters is the job market, and there, unfortunately i don't think we have hit bottom. in fact, the president spoke today and made this point that while less bad on the g.d.p. side is, of course, welcome and suggests we've helped to put the brakes on an economy that's headed off a cliff, until we see robust monthly job growth we won't be anywhere near satisfied. >> reporter: he did say the recovery wouldn't happen overnight. some economists predicted things are still going to be slow this time next year, maybe a couple of y

. >>> we're also putting your questions on clunkers and health care, you name it, to jared bernstein, economic adviser to vice president biden later this hour. keep the tweets and e-mails comesing, we'll toss them to jared. >>> senator chris dodd expected to spend time in the hospital as congress takes its august break. we've learned he's been diagnosed with an early stage of prostate cancer. there is a report that he plans to have surgery early next month. dodd's office said he plans to discuss his health at a news conference next hour. we'll be sure to monitor that for you. >>> and remember the lawmaker with a fortune in his freezer? we're also waiting for a jury to reach a verdict in his corruption trial. former congressman william jefferson is accused of taking bribes after federal agents said that they found $90,000 in a freezer in his home. his federal trial in alexandria, virginia, got under way six weeks ago. the democrat from louisiana is accused of taking more than $400,000 in bribes and soliciting millions more in exchange for his influence to broker business deals in afric

jared bernstein, chief economist for vice president joe biden joining us. >>> and the perils of the house as they leave for their august vacations. the congress members, led by henry waxman, says he has pulled together rebelling liberals and those blue dog democrats and hammered out a health care compromise. >>> it's a different story in the senate. bipartisan negotiators says the finance committee needs more time, will not have a bill before they leave for their vacation a week from today. the house says before it leaves today, it will also transfer $2 billion from the stimulus package to the popular cash for clunkers program, which is so popular that after only six days, it was tapped out of money. >>> good day. i'm andrea mitchell, live in washington. the economy shrank by only 1% last quarter, the second quarter. a smaller decline than experts had been expecting. to put today's commerce department report into some perspective, the gdp fell 6.4% in the first quarter. that was the steepest decline as adjusted for almost 30 years. joining us live from the white house, jared bernstein, ch

going to come out with their new projections in large part because the work she did along with jared bernstein obviously had the wrong projections when it took a look at the stimulus package. but the issue here is nobody really understands the urgency, and what the american people are now starting to distrust is that urgency. we all collectively agree we need to do something about costs, we need to do something about the uninsured. the question is how do we do that, and why do we have to have a gun to our head to do it, and that's what people are becoming angry and impatient about. >> remember vice president biden a week or so ago said they misread the economy. then he said no, we just had incomplete information. and now the white house is asking members of congress to take a very important vote with incomplete information, and i think it's imprudent. sean: it's cumulative because they're passing bills they haven't read, the stimulus bill, the cap and tax bill, a lot of these congressmen are feeling the pressure. let me show you how bad it got for this missouri congressman carnehan. look how b

. >> reporr: we've en speaking with jared bernstein, ite house econom advisor, thanks for joining us.>> my pleasure. >> jeff: now, let's take look at some stks in the news tonight. >> jeff: and those a the stocks in thnews tonight, suzanne. >> suzanne: fami businesses account for roughly 80% of american cpanies. so we're launching a new gnature series, looking at t challeng of integrating work and family we're calling it "all in t family." tonight, diane eastabroo introduces us toouis glunz beer. it's onef the nation's largest be distributors, mixing family d business for more than a century. >> reporter: around icago, louis glz is the king of beer, a beverage dynasty that's en stocki liquor stores, restaunts and grocers with suds for more than aentury. it all started in 1889, en louis glunz i, poor german immigrant, pened small win beer and spirits store in th heart of ccago. in the 20th century,ouis's children andrandchildren grew the siness from a mom and pop shop to one of the nion's largest beer distributs. now, fivof louis's great grandkids cay the company into the 21stentury. >

well, the vice president's chief economic adviser, jared bernstein is answering your questions in the0 p.m. hour of "cnn newsroom." send us an e-mail at mailtothechief@cnn.com or send kyra a tweet. >>> come back to mexico, please, that is the plea from a desperate tourism industry. but wait until you hear what it is offering to get you there. healthy hair is soft, silky. and you can get it. fabulous, healthy hair. all you need is pantene. salon names and fancy packaging are nice, but you don't need it. even experts agree. it's damage protection results leading salon brands can't beat. trust me on this, the blow dryer, the curling iron, and the flat iron, and my hair's still shiny. pantene moisture renewal. healthy makes is happen. >>> you know, we should have the music here, game taylor with mexico. you know, it's cheap in mexico right now. in an effort to get tourists back, the mexico city government is offering visitors free travel and health insurance through december and that sweetens some already sweet deals. nicole joins us now with a look at the deals you can get if you're feel

. >> then how could they measure -- she did the report with jared bernstein that said if you spend $800 billion you will sp unemployment at8.5%. and obviously, how did they measure it then and how do they measure it now? congratulations to you as being one of the few journalists that put the feet to the fire of the obama administration -- >> well -- they say save and create. i think that statement alone, save and create, it creates confusion, like it's not measurable. if you say an absolute here's what we're going to create, that's different, but save and create -- >> it' unbelievable. but maria, here's what islso unbelievab. how's this for i atransition intooldman sachs? goldman sachs is going to make something like $ bilon this quarter, and what's interestin about this,guys,here doing it as a bank. they are taking risk as a bank. and i'll tell you, i st g a nasty e-ml from lucas v praagh, the flak over there at goldman chs, saying my rant at "power lunch" about ho goldman sachs increasing risk as a bank -- remember, as a ban it s access to the discount window. it's basically takg risk

made what you might call a strategic mistake which is back in january, when christina romer and jared bernstein issued the report that said -- >> top economic advisors. >> to the president, with the stimulus bill, we can keep unemployment around 8%. now, you have the administration, girding people for the fact it will go over ten and might go up to 1i678 and i think that is a real problem and then you have to ask, gee, if you diagnose the problem, wrong, did you also get the -- diagnosed the problem wrong did you get the medicine, the solution wrong which obama was asked and she said absolutely not, i want you -- >> look at his op-ed in the "washington post," it is revealing and the word taxes and regulations and incentives, nothing about hiring and he has a nice thing, increase this number of people getting degrees from community colleges and that is fine, but who will hire them? what incentives is he giving small or big businesses to hire employees? none, and -- >> the republicans have no ideas. >> you know, here's three ideas, cancel cap-and-trade, pull the bill, cancel the health care plan