but let's start by asking, and jared bernstein i'll start with you.ng this president what would you like to hear him say tonight about jobs? >> i think there are three things, judy. first of all, you really want to hear a package that is of a magnitude to really move the needle on unemployment and jobs. and a number in the neighborhood you just mentioned, north of 400 billion certainly accomplishes that. secondly, this is a plan that needs to be plausible, at least in normal times on a bipartisan level. that is, in congress particularly house republicans are to block this plan, he has to be able to go out to america and explain that these measures that he's proposing, you mentioned some in the clip there, are measures that republicans would typically support. and third, he has to just really convey the urgency of working together. i mean the debt sealing is behind us. these guys are coming back from their recess. they got an earful from their constituents that, you know, enough already with budget deficits and debt ceilings and baselines. what we care

. >> now let's bring in jared bernstein. he's now an msnbc contributor and senior fellow for the center budget and policy priorities. jared, when we look at the disparities in terms of income, it's amazing to me -- i just showed a graph to congressman larsen about from -- in the last years from '79 to 2007, 281% increase for the rich. only 16% increase for the bottom 20%. and then they look at us when we talk about shared sacrifice as if there's somebody trying to harm them to say, you can't keep having tax cuts. look at the kind of profits they're making. it is amazing to me that somebody would try to justify continuing this kind of unequal relationship. >> i agree. by the way, i made a graph that had those numbers in it this very morning. and if you actually look at when those income gains did occur for the bottom or the middle, they were about 1979 to around 1999 or so. >> i'm looking at that graph now. >> they've just gone nowhere since 1999. the middle income family, median household income peaked back there in 1999. and

. >>> jared bernstein is a contributor for msnbc, and a contributor as well as serving as the chief economist for the vice president joe biden. jared, good to see you and i don't know what is wrong with the hour this morning, because i have gremlins out of the ying yang here and i'm glad you are in place and we will talk about what is taking place in washington, d.c. >> we have jobs, right? >> yes, we have job, and that issue is on the table. democrats and republicans in washington finally have the president's back when it comes to the deficit plan, but a different story with the american people. put up a graphics with the "usa today"/gallup poll showing 80% of americans believe we are in a recession right now, so why are his proposals not resonating with the public? >> well, they are actually are, but it depends how you ask the question. i don't want to get into too much of getting tricky with the polls, but it is the case. if you ask about the president's job plan or for that matter they tend to conflate it with the t.a.r.p. and the bailouts and things they don't like, but if you drill down

jared bernstein is a contributor for cnbc and msnbc and the former economist for vice president joe biden. ryan, i want to start with you. let's talk about the big numbers here. we've seen the market reaction. what do today's numbers mean for the average american? >> well, you know, i hate to say it. they're unequivocally bad. there was very little good news in this report. average hours worked were down. the goose egg, we have not seen that on a monthly report since 1945. clearly, this was not the worst job report we've seen. what it means is that the economy may at some experts on wall street are saying has hit stall speed, that we're at the risk of rolling over into another recession. we saw that in the manufacturing data this week. we're seeing it in the employment numbers this morning. we are at risk for much lower growth than anybody hoped for this time of the we're. >> the white house issued a statement a short time ago that many of us in the news room found to be surprising. they said basically it's important not to read too much into one monthly report. >> well, i think they're i

. >> jared bernstein, an msnbc contributor and somebody i have not seen this uniformly happy about a thing in washington since i've met you. >> well, let's see where the politics go but we have had a good discussion so far. bring that in. >> thanks very much. appreciate it. >> sure. >>> i'm willing to talk about rebuilding america's crumble infrastructure over drinks or not. when a florida republican who is the chairman of the house transportation committee wants to come on this show and talk about it with me? i don't need cocktails. that is a full on 100% win and that republican will join me next. i couldn't be happier. >>> just about 30 minutes before president obama was scheduled to deliver his jobs speech to congress tonight, a bit of breaking news crossed the wires about a terror threat link to the tenth anniversary of 9/11. late last night u.s. officials received intelligence what is described as a specific and credible, but the unconfirmed, terror threat involving new york city or washington, d.c. officials are not saying at this point what exactly is being targeted but counte

jared bernstein is a contributor and served as chief economist for joe biden.t's nice to see you this morning. let's get straight to it, talk about the president's new initiatives. republicans are balking, but he's changed the conversation here. at least the major point from families making over $250,000 to millionaires and billionaires and saying they need to pay their fair share. but what would this actually do for the economy? >> it would accomplish what he very much need to accomplish in the median term, which is to have that debt to gdp ratio stabilize. every year, the budget deficit grows over a certain rate. the debt grows. this is unsustainable. this plan, if you look at the tables at the end of the plan, gets that to a stable place and the only way you're going to do that is to enact the kinds of measures the president introduced today and make sure they don't phase in too soon so they don't hurt the struggling economy. it was interesting you showed president clinton there. if there's anyone who really understands that you can have a flourishing job ma

. >> jared bernstein, an msnbc contributor and somebody i have not seen this uniformly happy about a thing in washington since i've met you. >> well, let's see where the politics go but we have had a good discussion so far. bring that in. >> thanks very much. appreciate it. >> sure. >>> i'm willing to talk about rebuilding america's crumble infrastructure over drinks or not. when a florida republican who is the chairman of the house transportation committee wants to come on this show and talk about it with me? i don't need cocktails. that is a full on 100% win and that republican will join me next. i couldn't be happier. [ horns honking ] ♪ today ♪ must have been one of the strangest days ♪ everyone may face the same uncertainty. ♪ some would say that you won't find ♪ protecting yourself, however, requires good decisions. find strength and stability with mass mutual, a company owned by its policyholders. ask your advisor or visit massmutual.com. or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business -- it's good for the entire community. at bank of a

and jared bernstein, who stepped down as vice president biden's economic adviser earlier this year, and is now a senior fellow for the center on budget priorities. thanks for being here. let's go to you first. the president has a major task this week. you have unemployment at 9.1%. and the jobs growth at zero. >> there were two numbers on friday. jobs -- one was zero. and the other was two. jobs growth was zero. the interest rate on ten-year government bonds was two, which is very close to a historic low. and it takes the market was screaming at us. you idiots, you've been focusing on the deficit. the deficit is not our problem. jobs is our problem. obama has an interesting problem. i think it's three, different things. there's what we should be doing. and what we should be doing is a public investment program. no better time to do it. government can borrow money almost for free. that's not going to happen. what can actually pass congress? and the answer is nothing. nothing. obama's quote for endorsing motherhood, the republicans in the house would oppose it. and the third is what he sh

peter morici, msnbc contributor, and jared bernstein, an old friend of mine from the cnbc days, if you will, and also, between that point in time, and more importantly, the chief economic adviser to the vice president biden. >> i'm not sure that's more important, but go ahead. >> it is, it is. it's a great form of credibility to your career to work for the vice president, jared, than to be friends with me. >> i've got to agree. >> although that's good. >> that's good too. >> peter, am i wrong to suggest that the way the rich versus poor tax repeal debate is a bogus debate. it does not address the underlying reason for a lack of jobs in our deficit. >> absolutely. the the reason we don't enough jobs is because there's not enough demand and that goes back to rigged trade, coddling the banks and the other things you've mentioned. and this discussion is really intended to be a campaign platform for mr. obama. and there's not a lot, even underneath the platform. for example, we already have an alternative minimum tax, so millionaires should be paying taxes. the question is, why do they mana

romer and jared bernstein said at the time it would bring unemployment levels down to 6.8%. they have not gone down to that level now. how can there be confidence in any figures you offer on jobs created or what the unemployment will be, based on that record? >> as you know, i was not a member of the economic team then and i have an outsider's knowledge of the deliberations that were going on at the time. i will say that the recovery act produced the level of new jobs that was expected. what changed was that the economy was in a much deeper recession than anyone knew at the time. the hole was deeper and it was that much harder to get out. so i think there's a danger of ever predicting unemployment rates, because as i said in response to the earlier question, there's a lot of things that determine what the unemployment rate is and will be. so even if you create x-million new jobs, if you started out farther behind in economic growth, it's going to take longer to hit a certain level of employment/unemployment. so my own view is and always has been that it's a dangerous thing t

romer and jared bernstein said until the unemployment level is 6.8%. they have not gone down to that level now. how can there be kft confidence on what you offered. >> as you know i was not a member of the team and i had an outsiders knowledge of the deliberation that were going on at the time. i will say that the recovery act produced the level of new jobs that was expected. what changed was that the economy was in a much deeper recession than anyone knew at the time. the hole was deeper and it was harder to get out. i think there is a cage in predicting -- danger in predicting unemployment rates. there is a lot of things that determine what the unemployment rate is and will be, even if you create x million new jobs, if you start out behind economic growth, it is going to take longer to hit a certain level of unemployment. my own view is that it is a dangerous showing pry to pinpoint predicting unemployment rates. i think when a you look at the package like that that you know is going to have a positive impact in terms of g.d.p. growth, you know it is