. >> i am jamie colby in for martin marietta martin marietta. martha maccallum. bill: 49% believe the president's policies contribute to the economic downturn. fox business network stuart varney here. mary katharine ham, editor-at-large hotair.com. stuart start with you. what is happening this week, stu? >> don't mince words. it is a terrible report. 386,000 new claims for jobless benefits is far too high. this makes it basically the worst recovery since world war ii from any recession. the use of the record recovery is being very generous indeed. three years after the end of the recession we should not see a high number of new jobless claims, period. bill: just a week ago we were getting better. what happened? >> it was artificially low number. it included july 4th week. a lot of people didn't register for unemployment benefits. art fish -- artificially low. bill: they continue to go up. do we have a fix on that? >> the trends is u

martin marietta martin marietta. martha maccallum. bill: 49% believe the president's policies contribute to the economic downturn. fox business network stuart varney here. mary katharine ham, editor-at-large hotair.com. stuart start with you. what is happening this week, stu? >> don't mince words. it is a terrible report. 386,000 new claims for jobless benefits is far too high. this makes it basically the worst recovery since world war ii from any recession. the use of the record recovery is being very generous indeed. three years after the end of the recession we should not see a high number of new jobless claims, period. bill: just a week ago we were getting better. what happened? >> it was artificially low number. it included july 4th week. a lot of people didn't register for unemployment benefits. art fish -- artificially low. bill: they continue to go up. do we have a fix on that? >> the trends is up. you're getting perilously close to 400,000 each and every week. three years after the end of a recession you should not be seeing a number that high, not even close. bill: stuart, why is that happening? why can we not break the cycle? why are we still stuck in the mud? >> the economy is extremely weak, period. if i may express an opinion, the president's policies to regurgitate or sort of resuscitate the economy have failed. taxing, tax increases which we face down the road are not doing much for this economic recovery. in fact it is suppressing the recovery. bill: we'll talk to kevin mccarthy, part of the republican leadership on that topic in 10 minutes. we asked the question, are you better off than you were four years ago? this is what we found in fox polling. 48% say no. that is lot about reagan years, right track, wrong track. how do you evaluate the number. >> that is the reagan question isn't it 31 years ago. ronald reagan asked the same question of voters then, are you better off now than you were four years ago. it was a winning question. the answer back then is same as its now. no, half the people say we're not better off. that is a big negative for president obama. bill: more on the polling a bit later on the program. stuart, you have a lot to talk about on fbn. stuart varney, thank you for leading our coverage there. here is jamie with more on this. jamie: bill, you mentioned the new fox polls. they're pretty telling the race for the white house is statistical dead heat right now despite a flood of negative attacks on governor romney. the numbers are largely unchanged from a month ago. 45% support the president. 41% back the governor. that is within the margin of error. a look at the all-important independent voters, show 20 8% of them, they're still undecided. mary katherine hall, fox news contributor, editor-at-large at hotair.com. to see you. good morning. >> good morning. jamie: where are we right now? i want to ask you about the independent voters. hard to believe 28% of them still don't know. >> no, they're going to wait around. they will do vacations. it will be post labor day when they start engaging. republicans more than democrats at this point are enthused about the election, excited about voting. in the middle sometimes you get people who are low information, who tune in later in the game. that's what, that's what all this pregame is b everybody is trying to set the agenda for when those people start paying attention. there are 28% of them like you said who can be convinced either way. jamie: without a doubt the obama campaign has spent a ton of time attacking governor romney, in particularly let's say with bain capital. did they get anything out of it if the polls show they're still in a statistical dead heat. >> different polls show different things. in this case in the fox poll for sure over the past couple months governor romney held steady at 40 or 41. in fact the president's numbers have fallen several points. they were 47 at one point several months ago. 45, just a couple points higher at one point. interesting his are falling steady and falling off as well. here's the thing. they're both attacking a lot. they both want to make more ground up at that. i add another data point from the cbs "new york times" poll, president is lose on likeability numbers which is normally his big strength on negative economy. the negative attacks is blowing on the hope and change. he may not stay that clean while attacking this hard and that will be problematic for him. jamie: campaign watchers always said likeability is a key factor. how much less likeable is the president after the comment, because i'm seeing a lot of outrage across the country from small business owners in particular who are saying you're telling me that all my hard work doesn't mean that i built my business? who else did it then? >> right. i think that is an important moment. i have see it popping up on my facebook page with folks not necessarily political engaged but heard the comment and are concerned about it. mitt romney lit a fire under him. he looked better on his feet and normally more excite i had than on the campaign trail. it set the groundwork to talk about stuff he cares about that makes him look good and does not speak well of the president. the quote sounds very bad for him. he has to face up to the fact that he said it. people keep saying out of context. if you read the whole context it doesn't exonerate. he talks about hey, look you're not sew hard-working as you think or smart as you think. the roads built your business for you that is not a solid message for independents. they look at that and go look, i know a lot of people who built their business and value success and i want to continue to do that. for that 28% that matters. jamie: thanks very much. mary katharine ham, great to see you. >>> that thanks. jamie: florida is a key state and florida could be a winner for the president if he can lock down its 29 electoral votes. the outlook is shaky. florida drowning in high unemployment rates and mass foreclosures there. bill: another fox news alert. significant developments on the spiraling violence in syria. we're awaiting a vote at the u.n. security council. next hour, 10:00 a.m., eastern time, a resolution that is aimed at ending the bloodshed there. this is very difficult work. this is a day after a rebel bomb attack struck at the heart of bashar assad's regime killing key members of his inner circle including the defense minister and his brother-in-law. david lee miller is live at the u.n. what can we expect next hour? good morning. >> reporter: we expect a vote as you mentioned but diplomaticly it is not expected there will be a great deal of movement. kofi annan called for the vote scheduled to take place yesterday to be postponed so member-states can unite. now appears they are deadlocked. nevertheless 10:00 eastern time a british sponsored resolution calling for sanctions targeting iran unless the regime moves back its troops and weapons from heavily populated areas will be voted on here at the united nations. russia and china repeatedly said they are going to veto this resolution. the russians even have their own resolution which specifically omits any mention of sanctions. yesterday president obama spoke with the russian leadership. the secretary-general of the united nations spoke to chinese leadership, trying to broker some type of a compromise. that bottom line here does not appear to be in the offering. no breakthrough is expected. we expect that vote to take place again in a little less than one hour's time. bill? bill: what then, david lee, if the vote fails to pass as expected? >> reporter: it is very possible that there could be a vote on a simple u.n. resolution that would do nothing more than extend the mandate for u.n. observers to remain in syria. that mandate is going to expire on friday. already though the norwegian general, bill, who was in charge of the observers on the ground, has left damascus. he is headed to geneva. in his news conference before departing he told reports for the sake of the syrian people we need effective leadership from the security council but he also said that the mission of those observers on the ground completely irrelevant unless there's a political process in place and at this time that does not appear likely. bill? bill: david lee, thank you. we'll be in touch when we get he had headlines from the u.n. here in new york city. david lee miller acrosstown. jamie has context on this. jamie: ambassador bolton is weighing in later. over the last 16 months the u.n. claims that the syrian regime killed 10,000 protesters. in 2002, president george w. bush labeled the regime as part of axis of evil a group of countries that seek weapons of mass de, have. who are the folks rising up against the regime. 55% of the population, 25 years old and younger. bill: 10 minutes past the hour now. developments as we get all that. we're just getting started on this thursday. there were disturbing new reports today why the fort hood shooting was simply not investigated. there was a congressman saying it was all out of political correctness. >> got to check that one out. as congress remains in a dead-heat extending bush tax cuts, americans are saying what they think about washington's tax debacle. the numbers could be a concern for the white house. congressman kevin mccarthy is in next. bill: mitt romney hammers the president on comments that suggesting that success is a gift from the government. michael barone will analyze that. >> he tries to divide america, tear america apart. he tries to diminish those successful in one line of work or another. it is simply wrong. it is not the course for om a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. jamie: wow! it is a bombshell report out this morning on the fort hood shooting and the man charged with mass murderer at that military base. the review claiming the fbi was too concerned about political correctness to fully investigate the questionable relationships of an american muslim in our military. republican congressman michael mccaul says e-mails by army major nidal hasan show signs he was an islamist extremist and was told it was not investigated because of sensitivity issues. hasan is charged with killing 13 people and wounding 32 in the november 2009 rampage at fort hood. currently he is being tried in a military court. bill: americans now weighing in on the tax cut debate dominating washington and the campaign trail and the markets as well. new for example polling shows this, 72% of you say it's a bad idea to raise rates on anyone during a an economic downturn. back in 2010 president obama agreed to a two-year extension of the bush-era tax rates. he proposes allowing rates to go up for those that make $250,000 a year. that would raise $85 billion per year for the government. a little bit of context. the federal deficit an estimated $1.2 trillion. people making more than $250,000 a year pay 44% of all income taxes. kevin mccarthy, republican from california, house majority whip. sir, good morning to you. >> good morning. bill: there was a vote yesterday, 414-2 in the house that would encourage the white house to show it hands on what it proposes about the looming cuts that are coming up at the end of this year. what do you want to know? >> we want to know, have you got a plan? one thing this white house and this democrat-controlled senate, they never produced a budget. do you have a plan where you're going? sequestration says it will cut 1.2 trillion over 10 years. half of that coming from the military. how can you plan to protect this country and this nation around the world if you don't know what those cuts are going to be. the best thing to do is plan ahead of time. we think there is better way ever going about doing it. we're asking the white house to tell us what their plans are and they refuse to tell it. politics as usual. bill: you saw the poll there, about 72%. what do you make of that number? >> when you see 72% that is a bipartisan part of this country. this is a country understands small businesses create jobs. when the president wants to raise taxes he hurts small business. most of them run as an s corp. a bipartisan joint committee and went through and studied it. more than a million small businesses will have their taxes increased. small business creates more jobs than any large corporation. that's why we're hurting today. bill: you heard ben bernanke on the hill this week in a couple different hearings, one on the house side, one on the senate side. his message was do no harm. he cast concerned about that. what do you think of that comment? >> that comment was very telling, number one thing hurting american job growth is uncertainty and policies coming out of the white house. think for a moment when the democrats came in and democrats controlled all. that the stimulus would mean that unemployment would never go above 8%. 40 months later, that is not true. then obamacare creates more uncertainty into the marketplace. and the amount of regulation. that's why just next week we'll pass a bill on the floor that says no new regulation until unemployment is under 6%. bill: will you have democrats vote in your favor on that, do you know? >> i believe we will. bill: how many? >> well, normally we just get a handful. you know what? we start somewhere. biggest problem we have is even having a bill come up for a vote in the senate. harry reid won't bring anything up. bill: look under the hood on these tax negotiations. where are they with your democratic counterparts? is there any common ground at the moment or i this something that will drag for five months? >> well i actually hope there could be common ground because remember, when democrats controlled all two years ago, they extended because they knew in a down economy, just like 72% of americans, that you should not raise it. 130 democrats in the house voted for that. but then just this week i listened to senator patty murray say she wants the country to go off the cliff for political reasons? that's what is wrong with washington. we should put people before politics. best thing we could do is end uncertainty, extend the tax cuts into the next year to be able to work out an entire new tax reform. bill: still not clear where the negotiations are. are there any? >> well if the dems want to go off the cliff you know where it is, there don't seem to be any. and we're wide open in the process. i know mitch mcconnell said, put both plans, tax plans up for a vote in the senate. put the president's tax increases and the extension of the tax cuts and harry reid said he wouldn't even bring them up. bill: we'll see if that happens. kevin mccarthy, thank you for your time. we'll talk very soon. thanks, jamie? jamie: a lot of people talking about this morning. president obama's remarks behind every successful person in this country is the hand of government. new polls showing a majority of people think though government is the problem. we're going to take a closer look at that. bill: george zimmerman breaking his silence in an exclusive interview with sean hannity. he will tell us his side of the story about what happened the night trayvon martin died and whether or not he would do anything differently as he looks back now. >> is there anything you regret? do you regret getting out of the car to follow trayvon that night? >> no, sir. >> do you regret that you had a gun that night? >> no, sir. >> do you feel you wouldn't be here for this interview if you didn't have that gun? ó@@ down here, folks measure commitment by what's getting done. ó@@ the twenty billion doars bp committed has helped fund economic and environmental recovery. long-term, bp's made a five hundred million dollar commitment to support scientists studying the environment. and the gulf is open for business - the beaches are beautiful, the seafood is delicious. last year, many areas even reported record tourism seasons. the progress continues... but that doesn't mean our job is done. we're still committed to seeing this through. bill: all right. 23 minutes past the hour right now. new report from the aarp saying more than 1 1/2 million older americans have los