robert reich, who authored the book "beyond outrage" and ed rendell. robert reich, i you were running the show, in the presidents's and had the power to set or recommend economic policy action steps what would they be? >> number one, chris, i'd say i the president am going to propose number one that the first $20,000 of income be exempted from payroll taxes effective immediately. a shot in the arm for consumers. number two, i'm going to propose that we as a country, we use the fact that borrowing costs are unprecedented at a low point because everybody else in the world is pouring their money into dollars. that means we can borrow and have a major infrastructure program to fix our crumbling highways and roads and bridges and ports. i'm going to hire and make sure that all -- that a large portion of the people, 23 million people who are now unemployed or underemployed, i'm going to hire as many of them to fix america as possible. we'll have a wpa works project administration and civilian conservation corps to take the long-time unemployed and put them t

thank you, robert reich, thank you ed rendell for joining us. coming up, john edwards hints at a comeback. now there's a man with optimism. but after a dramatic fall, could he actually rise again? maybe we need john edwards' hopefulness. >>> and why did house republicans push a bill based on gender based abortions. are they really willing to say a what they're talking about here? i wonder if the republicans are playing this as a game. >>> what happens when a top surrogate like bill clinton gets off message? >>> and make or break moment for the president. i think that's what he's in right this moment. this is "hardball," the place for politics. [ male announcer ] considering all your mouth goes through, do you really think brushing is enough to keep it clean? while brushing misses germs in 75% of your mouth, listerine® cleans virtually your entire mouth. so take your oral health to a whole new level. listerine®... power to your mouth™. holding down the fort while you're out catching a movie. [ growls ] lucky for me, your friends showed up with th

our phones are open for robert reich. guest: i do not know and i did nothing to keep federal spending and state spending. i have been an advocate of exempting the first $20,000 of income from payroll taxes for a couple of years. it is important to provide employers with some tax incentives to create net new jobs. these are tax incentives. there are a lot of things that could be done. there's no magic bullet. we need to do them on a scale that is proportionate to the problem. i'm hoping the president today in ohio will reveal some additional ideas and bold concepts, even if the can i get through the republican house. he needs to come up with some bold ideas that americans can say, that makes sense to me and if we reelect you, we'll support you. host: here is what the president said on tuesday about the economy and the deficit. [video clip] >> this notion that somehow we cause the deficit is wrong. it is not true. anybody who looks at the math will tell you it is not true. if they start to suggest it is true, they put this

i'll ask former labor secretary robert reich. and should a-list white celebrities get a pass for using the "n" word? >> gwyneth gets a pass. >> russell simmons has a lot to say about gwyneth paltrow's tweet. >> today the american public gave a direct answer to a direct question. yes, they believe republicans are sabotaging the economy in order to defeat president obama. in a new poll 49% say republicans are intentionally stalling efforts to jump start the economy to ensure obama is not reelected. 50% of independents believe the same, that republicans have sabotaged the economy for political gain. had is not a new idea but it has not yet gotten the attention it deserves. not too long ago it was the ideal that dare not speak its name. you could accuse republicans of a lot of things, the thinking went, but sure live they would not intentionally sabotage the economy to keep president obama from winning election, would they? then came the infamous quote from senate minority leader mitch mcconnell who said this just before the mid-term

let me start with robert reich. if you were running the show in the president's ear and had the power to recommend economic policy action steps, what would they be? >> number one chris i would say even if the republicans will not join mely propose number one that the first $20,000 of income be exempted from payroll taxes, effective immediately, a shot in the arm for consumers. number two i propose that we as a country know that borrowing costs are unprecedented because everybody else is pouring their money and we can borrow and have a major infrastructure program to fix our crumbling highway roads and port. and i will make sure that a large portion of the people, 23 million people unemployed will be hired to fix america, and the long term unemployed will be put to work in our parks and schools. if the republicans don't want to go along with this. if they want to be negative, that is fine, i want the american people to understand that i'm going to move forward on this. >> from your words to god's ears. ed rendell, i

. >> robert reich on the republican governors planning to denide their citizens health care. >> i wouldlike to see governors be tough and opt out of this. >> and van jones weighs in on the big news on student loans and the deranged fallout from the supreme court's historic ruling. >> freedom will not be extingsuished in my lifetime, not under my watch. >> thanks for having. did you know you were living under the glen beck watch? now is when the fun starts for us liberals. now that we have health care going, we're entering a new phase in the fight over health care reform in america. republicans lost the fight in congress. then they lost the fight in the supreme court. now they're fighting back by telling outright lies to the american people in an attempt to take out president obama. >> that was a central claim. failing to buy health insurance did not result in a tax, but court has now spoken. it is a tax. >> mitch mcconnell and dozens of other republicans in congress say that the health care law is a tax increase on the middle class? the republican national committee has a new ad hammer

. >> let's bring in robert reich, a professor of public policy at u.c. berkeley and the author of the book "beyond outrage ". you got to have another outrage here for this deplorable and vapid comment by mr. romney. what caused this negative for average americans? >> we now have a federal reserve survey, a report, that makes it absolutely clear that when the bottom fell out of the economy starting in 2007, it hit the middle class especially hard. as you said, michael, housing prices have fallen by a third on average and most of the middle class has almost all of its assets in its homes. the middle class, they may have a 401(k), they may have a little bit of a pension fund, a little savings in the stock market but most of savings, their assets in their home. obviously the middle class is squeezed. that same report also shows that the median wage since 2007 has dropped over 7%. that's the median. that's people who are right there in the middle, half above, half below. and that also explains why this recovery has been so anemic. people don't have money in t

robert reich joins me next.nd in tonight's "rewrite" what do you think was the weirdest thing mitt romney said in that speech today? okay, here's a hint. it was in the spot where he talked about what he did on memorial day. i'll explain what was so weird about that in "the rewrite." [ male announcer ] hey, isn't that the girl who tore out your still beating heart? [ bowling pins ] ok, how's this gonna play? mi amore. [ chicken clucking ] [ male announcer ] bit needy, g. ok don't sweat it. just do your thing. hey! hey! [ male announcer ] definitely a little bit epic. stride. hey! hey! ♪ ♪ we all need it. to move. to keep warm. to keep us fed. to make clay piggies. but to keep doing these things in the future... at shell, we believe the world needs a broader mix of energies. that's why we're supplying natural gas to generate cleaner electricity... that has around 50% fewer co2 emissions than coal. and it's also why, with our partner in brazil, shell is producing ethanol - a biofuel made from renewable sugarcane. ♪

who, robert reich, will pay for this? >> ultimately the public pays one way or another as they are paying now. the question is not who is going to pay. right now we are paying through the nose for health insurance, not only for ourselves but for people who use emergency courtroorooms because they don't get preventative care. the question isn't are taxpayers paying or are we going to pay through insurance bills or individually, the question is how are we going to get down the long-term trajectory of increase in health care costs. with regard to this pre-existing condition that's so popular i think there is going to be the following compromise. i would be interested in betsy's response. i think the insurance companies will say, all right. we will support the public option which came pretty close if you drop the requirement that we provide -- >> i disagree. some states have already eliminating pre-existing conditions. new york is one of them. that's why new york and new jersey have the highest insurance rates in the country

robert reich joins me next.nd in tonight's "rewrite" what do you think was the weirdest thing mitt romney said in that speech today? okay, here's a hint. it was in the spot where he talked about what he did on memorial day. i'll explain what was so weird about that in "the rewrite." you know, we're a little early for this thing... want to hop in the back and get weird? no. family vacation... vegas. ♪ no. no. give it a big yank! really? yeah! [ knock on window ] no! no. ♪ ugh, no! [ sighs ] we can have hotdogs for dinner?! yes. [ male announcer ] in a world filled with "no," it's nice to finally say "yes." new oscar mayer selects hotdogs. made with 100% beef and no artificial preservatives. it's yes food. olaf's pizza palace gets the most rewards of any small business credit card! pizza!!!!! [ garth ] olaf's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! put it on my spark card! [ high-pitched ] nice doin' business with you! [ garth ] why settle for less? great businesses deserve the most rewards

and robert reich will join me for the discussion on that. >>> later, the far right, obama haters. taking yesterday's supreme court decision too well. van jones will be here tonight to make them feel a lot better. >> and a very serious situation, colorado battles the biggest wildfire in the state's history, leading scientists to say it's a sign of global warming. we'll have that discussion. i'll be talking with one of the leading scientists on that. >>> share your thoughts on twitter using the hash tag ed show. wee coming right back. the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. wouldn't it be nice if there was an easier, less-expensive option than using a traditional lawyer? well, legalzoom came up with a better way. we took the best of the old and combined it with modern

well, last night on "politics nation," robert reich talked to host al sharpton about repeated gop claims tax breaks for the rich help the economy. >> republicans have learned a very important lesson over the years, al. that is if you tell the same big lie over and over and over again and you have enough money behind the big lies, eventually people start believing them. they've been saying that the bush tax cuts need to be extended because they worked so well in 2001, 2003 and in the years after that. well, the fact of the matter is, they poked a huge hole in the budget deficit and instead of creating a lot of jobs and creating -- instead of improving wages and economic growth, even before the great recession, the bush tax cuts were a complete dud. we had almost no job growth compared to the job growth during the clinton administration. and the median wage, the wage for most americans, continued to drop after 2001. you had a huge, huge tax cut for the wealthy and nothing trickled down. i mean tickle down economics is a cruel joke, and the republicans have absolutely no compunks about sayi

governor john engler, and then former labor secretary in the clinton administration, professor robert reich joins us. later, the former head of the financial market sheila bair. >>> president obama's nominee to head the nuclear regulatory commission, alison mcfarland said she would work to create a positive working relationship with her fellow commissioners. if confirmed she will replace the current chairman, who resigned after complaints about his management style. california senator barbara bomber chairs this two with-hour hearing. >> we've been discussing the best way to proceed. because we know senators have schedules, we'll withhold our opening statements and allow you to do your introductions. we'll start with with senator blumenthal, please, introducing the nominee for chairman. >> thank you, madam chairman, and ranking member inhofe, i'm very honored today to introduce alison mcfarlane, president obama's nominee to be a commissioner, in fact chairman of the nuclear regulatory commission. i want to thank the chair woman and members of the committee for giving me this opportunity. dr.

whatever you want to say and also i think what's really fun these days is people, i just watched robert reich give a lecture, i would like the good old network and watch the same old news, the criticism we select the news we agree with, that's a reasonable criticism, but i think to the extent that media bias, i think the most egregious in the goldwater years. look at the media coverage it was atrocious. that doesn't happen as much anymore. you can criticize individual pieces but i don't tend to play that game much. >> norm any thoughts? >> of course, tom and i have written a lot about this. i do think there was substantial liberal bias in the mainstream press in the 1960s, i think there's no doubt about it. i think our media environment has changed radically. we have a partisan press now that is back to the future, but with much greater reach, depth and immediacy than we have ever seen before. this is not like william randolph hurst and that added to our complications, creating different sets of facts for people and if we're going to talk about the media you have to start with that, and when

. >> okay, so let's talk about the impact of today's report with former labor secretary robert reich, author of the new ebook, "beyond outrage." and ron, i want to start with you. the big picture of this as we look at what the numbers mean. we hear all the time we can't look at one report. we have to look at the trend. >> the trend is decelerating. we saw 200,000 jobs over a period of time. now the numbers are at 69,000. it's hard to put a positive spin on the data in any way, shape or form. i just got back from michigan. they're upbeat. kelly services, which provides temporary services says they're seeing more hiring of temps going to permanent jobs. some numbers don't square. we have big problems overseas with europe and china slowing rapidly. that seems more around our neck than anything domestic. >> can we put that full screen back up, guys? the one over six months so people can digest what we're seeing from december of last year? as we look at this we can see a slow trickle down theory. what does this mean? is this truly a brick wall? will we see this accelerate? >> oddly enough,

joining me now is robert reich, a labor secretary and now a ethics professor. he is author of "beyond outrage" let me start with you. by asking can they keep saying these same lines even though we know how destructive the cuts have been? how do they keep running the same line? >> they learned an important lesson, that if you tell the same big lie, and you have enough money behind the big lies, people start believing them. they believe the bush tax cuts need to be extended because they work so well in 2001, 2003, and after that. the fact of the matter is they poked a huge hole in the budget deficit, and instead of creating a lot of jobs and improving wages and economic growth, even before the great recession, the bush tax cuts were a complete dud. we had almost no job growth compared to what we had in the clinton administration, and the median wage, for most americans, continued to drop after 2001. you had a huge, huge tax cut for the wealthy and nothing trickled down. republicans have no compunction about saying that trickle down economics works when the eviden

outfront tonight, doug holtz-eakin, and robert reich, author of the new e-book, "beyond outrage." robert, let me start with you. look, we want to be happy and hope this is for real, but this really was a whole lot of talk. i was kind of amazed. you could look through it, there was very little specifics. it was all hope that maybe, if needed, talk will become action. >> well, erin, i think the explanation is that the market had fallen so far and so deep, particularly after friday's very dismal jobs report, that the market and traders were looking for any silver lining. any good news. bond prices are very, very high. the yields are very low. a lot of global savings are just looking for where to put their money. and stocks are looking relatively good. so everybody was sort of waiting for the first little bit of good news and they would surge into stocks. there's another factor, and that is also there are traders on wall street. there are speculators. they tend to exaggerate the volatility. on the way down they sell short, on the way up, they speculate. >> doug, what do you make of thi

lawrence tribe, tom goldstein, and our frequent guest, robert reich, predict that the health care law will live. if the supreme court rules against the affordable care act, it clearly reopens the debate and discussion and effort about health care in this country and gives progressives another good shot at making their best case for single payer. the cochair congressman keith ellison is prepared to line up behind single payer if the court strikes down the law tomorrow. 75 members of the caucus already support congressman john conier's singer payer bill. it's a tough fight but it's one worth fighting and gerald madler explains many americans may not fully understand what single payer means, but they understand medicare for all and they like it. even after millions of dollars were spent to denigrate the health care law, 35% of americans think it's a good idea compared to 41% who think it's not a good idea. let's turn to adam green, co-founder of the progressive change campaign committee. i know you have been waiting for this for a long time. what is the game plan if the mandate is struck

. >> discussing the dismal job report what it suggestion for the future economy, i'm joined by robert reich. mr. secretary thank you for joining us. >> there is no way of dressing this up. these are bad numbers that took almost everybody by surprise. they are worse than predicted not only this month's, ma is may's, but also march and april. they were revised downward so we have a job stall. >> if we don't get it started soon, we will have economic impact. you're back in the cabinet the phone rings, 8:31, the numbers have become public, the president is on the other end saying mr. secretary help, we need a new economic policy, what would you advice that barack obama do right now to begin to get this engine geared up again? >> i'd say to him don't worry about republican support they may not support you, haven't supported you. tell the american people what should be done right now number one, exempt the first $20,000 of income payroll taxes. it would put cash in people's packets. they can go out and spend it and that could fuel more jobs. number two, you have interest rates now because europea

"outfront" is robert reich and dan mitchell senior fellow at the kato institute. dan, i want to make it clear that given the timing of the financial crisis, most of that money was spent under barack obama, but george bush started it with the t.a.r.p. plan and before the crisis began he did a stimulus plan earlier that year. this is a bipartisan stimulus spending environment, and i'm wondering whether you think it's worth do it anymore? >> i agree with you completely. bush was a big spender, interventionist and obama is a big spender. but it's not a question of diminishing returns, it's negative returns. the economics didn't work for hoover and roosevelt in the '30s and jap naaan in the '90s. we should copy countries like singapore and hong kong and switzerland that keep government spending under control. more resources in the productive sector of the economy is the key to long-run sustainable growth. >> should we spend more right now? if you were in the camp to get more money earlier, if you didn't get it, does it make sense to put a few hundred billion here, or t

. >> and robert reich has written many times how much more we're working, men are working more 800 hoursore per week. women who were not in the workforce are now in the workforce. we're going to get to the point where we're working seven days a week, 14 hours a day under these conditions and right wing will say mission accomplished. what would you do differently to bring jobs back to america. >> we need to get rid of the tax incentives that tell companies there is a tax benefit to you moving production offshore. you can keep your profits offshore in tax-haven countries which won't tax you at a rate that the rest of the industrialized world taxes you. that's the first thing. we're encouraging jobs-- >> cenk: there goes the big corporations again. the minute you get to the progressive strike, they cut it--no. we did a little bit have a little bit of an issue. but this is the point that david is driving at. it's all in the incentives or disincentives that you give these companies. hey, china is not going to tax you as much and we encourage that and don't put a tariff on that, of course they

and then robert reich joins me along with sarah to talk about what you just heard from president billon. back in a moment. but when i was diagnosed with prostate cancer... i needed a coach. our doctor was great, but with so many tough decisions i felt lost. unitedhealthcare offered us a specially trained rn who helped us weigh and understand all our options. for me cancer was as scary as a fastball is to some of these kids. but my coach had hit that pitch before. turning data into useful answers. we're 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. if you made a list of countries from around the world... ...with the best math scores. ...the united states would be on that list. in 25th place. let's raise academic standards across the nation. let's get back to the head of the class. let's solve this. >>> welcome back. president clinton telling me that he thinks the tough decisions on the fiscal cliff will be put off until after the election. that could cause more turmoil for the economy and stock market. >> what it means is they will prob

i'll ask former labor secretary robert reich.ties get a pass for using

. >> it's interesting because robert reich has been talking about this for a long time former labor secretaryresident clinton and then also nick han hower says, i am not doing it necessarily out of the goodness of my heart although that's part of it. but he is saying if you don't get the money to the middle class, there is no money to buy anything. here is a stunning fact. sent percent of our economy is based on consumer spending. if nobody has money to spend, so the reason i say this, david, is it seems obvious when you brake down the numbers and smart people agree, why doesn't tim geithner under a so-called progressive president do that? >> it's a very good question. what we know is that the programs have been put in place in terms of loan modifications are really more about spreading out foreclosures over a longer time period so the bank balance sheets are protected. this has been by senior treasury officials. that's something we call "extend and pretend." they extend out the foreclosures as long as possible, get a few more payments out of people befohey kick tck them out of their homes. s

. >> okay, so let's talk about the impact of today's report with former labor secretary robert reich,t with you. the big picture of this as we look at what the numbers mean. we hear all the time we can't look at one report. we have to look at the trend. >> the trend is decelerating. we saw 200,000 jobs over a period of time. now the numbers are at 69,000. it's hard to put a positive spin on the data

. >> we will discuss what mitt romney said later in the show with robert reich.e said this is the government between you and your doctor. who is being left out? are there people who need affordable healthcare who won't be getting it despite the ruling today? >> the closer you get to the that magic number where you are making enough money to be happy and settled and satisfied in your life maybe that's 90,000, maybe that's 100,000. once you start getting to that 80, 90,000 dollar mark however, things are not helping you as much, to be very honest because things will start to cost a little bit more when you have to pay your premiums. >> that's true. but the point is that we are trying to take care of everyone here and i don't mean use the government as a crutch. >> that's not what i am trying to say. what i am trying to say is that it's not fair for everything else to be regulated. we regulate wall street. how doesgood does that work? not very good at all. airlines. we regulate everything but we don't want to regulate this insurance thing. not fair because these peo

. >> robert reich on the republican governors planning to denide their citizens health care. >> i wouldand opt out of this. >> and van jones weighs in on the big news on student loans and the deranged fallout from the supreme court's historic ruling. >> freedom will not be extingsuished in my lifetime, not under my watch. >> thanks for having. did you know you were living under the glen beck watch? now is when the fun