unemployment rate is higher than the female unemployment rate. e a black male in this country, your chances of being unemployed are incredibly higher. >> you have to go back to reagan. the statement i will make, in this economy, it's really working for some people. it's really not working for other people. >> the other argument, not to discount the fact that there are good trades out there that are quite lucrative these days. and the fact that some people still can get by in this economy quite well on the strength of a liberal arts degree or an associate's degree and in some cases on no degree at all. we're just saying statistically it changes your game. zblu mentioned one thing very important. you mentioned trades. we could invest if government would get together for infrastructure. i'm guessing a lot of those jobs would be held by people that have high school degrees, welders, pipefitters, you name it. >> agreed. >> but you have to have a plan. great to see both of you. thanks so much. watch christine romans on "your bottom line." >>> next, are

how dare you suggest that republicans don't want to lower the unemployment rate? one or two small steps, cut taxes and lower regulations. >> you think it was so crazy when reagan cut the tax rate from 70 to 28%? revenue doubled and unemployment went down. >> i didn't know that. that's an amazing thing. >> sean: you know, this is your fault. every show you're on, this is your fault, beckel. >> i think this is hill layer russ. >> more with our [ female announcer ] so you think your kids are getting enough vegetables? maybe not. v8 v-fusion juice gives them a full serving of vegetables plus a full serving of fruit. but it just tastes like fruit. [ male announcer ] get five dollars in money-saving coupons at v8juice.com. today i own 165 wendy's restaurants. and i get my financing from ge capital. but i also get stuff that goes way beyond banking. we not only lend people money, we help them save it. [ junior ] ge engineers found ways to cut my energy use. [ cheryl ] more efficient lighting helps junior stay open later... [ junior ] and serve more customers. so you're n

great depression, the unemployment rate was 16.6%. he won anyway but the important thing there was the trend down from 19.8 when he took office. in modern times the president re-elected with the highest unemployment rate which was ronald reagan in 1984, 72% rate. gerald ford, jimmy carter, bush 41 all lost campaigns for a second term, weighed down by unemployment. we asked the matthews meter, 12 of our regulars including howard here, can barack obama buck history and win even if the unemployment rate is, say, up around 8 1/2? 11 say yes, he can. one says no he can't. howard, i think you're with the 11 yes, he can. >> i'm with the 11. >> even up around 8 1/2. >> just because it's a matter of context. you can't make absolutes in politics. it's a game of context, depends on the context. sadly but necessarily, the obama administration is going to say there's a new normal and he's trying to work us out of that new normal but he's going to point backwards and blail george bush and that's still going to work with some people t depends who he'

and the unemployment rate goes up. it's the compounding factor that the unemployment rate gets higher. people can't afford to move anymore so they're kind of stuck in a place where the unemployment is high. unemployment rate is high because they can't move and go some place else for a job. it's a pernicious fact on the entire economy. >> ifill: we had this deadly merry go round of bad economic news especially in cities which do have a to deal with a disproportionate number of the urban poor. what can they do to try to get off of that? >> a lot of what they do is try to connect different sectors of the economy with other parts that might be growing. a lot of what cities need to do in the case of these foreclosures or the vacant properties they're dealing with is they need to map them and know where they are. they need to then track that with where the people that have lost jobs are and looked and see where there might be some job growth or industry growth where that might be occurring. so if there's some manufacturing go

right now, the unemployment rate at 9.1%. hat amounts to 14 million american who is are out of work. who could benefit the most from the president's plan tonight? hopefully it will be those who have been hit the hardest. if you look at this chart right here, this red and yellow represents african-american workers. latino workers have been suffering for a while now. another area that looks for improvement from tonight's speech, young workers. young workers ages 16 to 24. this is a key demographic for the president, of course, in his re-election efforts. they have suffered during this unemployment crisis. this was the worst summer on record for teenagers looking for jobs. right now, the teenage unemployment rate stands at about 25%. one number i want to leave you with before we go, that number is 16.2%, drew. what that number is is what's called the real unemployment rate. when you take that 9.1% number and you add in all the part-time workers who would like to be working full time or people who have simply stopped looking for w

the final segment this morning, how unemployment insurance works with the nation's unemployment at 9.1% still. we will take a quick break and we will be right back. >> the day after the 9/11 terror attacks. this weekend on american history tv on c-span3, senate floor speeches from september 12 from three senators. american artifacts from pessimists on in american history museum, recovered the objects from new york, the pentagon, and oklahoma. and this weekend, northwestern university professor howard on societal changes in the first half of the 19th century led to the birth of the women's rights movement. get the complete schedule on c- span.org or get this schedule e- mail directly to you. >> "book tv features 9/11 ogs this weekend. saturday, four them. on sunday several others. co also this weekend, a pulitzer prize-winning washington post reporter suggests that the total government efforts to protect america after september 11 are secretive and dangerous and need to be exposed. see she is interviewed by douglas -- , former undersecretary of defense. and dick cheney talks about his ex

later this morning, we'll see if that was the case last month as the new unemployment rate comes out for august. analysts don't expect to see much change even though the weekly jobless figures are down. that's good news. all of this comes less than a week before president obama is expected to roll out his new jobs plan. he is increasingly under pressure even from democrats who say he's been compromising too much. what they want to see is a fresh new plan that the president thinks will work, a vision as they put it to distinguish himself from the republican party. so far we believe his plan will include infrastructure projects to create more construction jobs and payroll cuts, tax cuts, we saw them this year. more for next year and an extension of unemployment insurance. it looks like the speech will not conflict with nfl season opener. he's going to speak about an hour before. lynn? >> tracie potts in washington. thanks. looking ahead to 2012. the nation's economy will undoubtedly factor into the president's campaign strike that yes along with another factor. the strength of his oppon

the blue charts have unemployment rates of 6% to 7.9% so lower than the national average. those lucky states through here and vermont and new hampshire in pink have 5.9% or lower unemployment. can you speak to -- i know you gather the numbers on the unemployment but what is going on in those states that are at the end of the spectrum? it is hard to say because obviously it is dependent on the local economies in the state. some of them are states that have particular problems with the housing market, big do downturn. some manufacturing is involved. a lot of job loss was concentrated in manufacturing and construction. those two combined for over half the job loss during the recession. so states that had a lot of manufacturing and big downturn in housing construction were hard hit. host: do you know what is going on with vermont and new hampshire? they are doing well compared to their regional neighbors. we will take calls then come back and look at employment and particular sectors including construction. earlier we had a call from the construction industry and financial serv

great depression, the unemployment rate was 16.6%. he won anyway but the important thing there was the trend down from 19.8 when he took office. in modern times the president re-elected with the highest unemployment rate which was ronald reagan in 1984, 72% rate. gerald ford, jimmy carter, bush 41 all lost campaigns for a second term, weighed down by unemployment. we asked the matthews meter, 12 of our regulars including howard here, can barack obama buck history and win even if the unemployment rate is, say, up around 8 1/2? 11 say yes, he can. one says no he can't. howard, i think you're with the 11 yes, he can. >> i'm with the 11. >> even up around 8 1/2. >> just because it's a matter of context. you can't make absolutes in politics. it's a game of context, depends on the context. sadly but necessarily, the obama administration is going to say there's a new normal and he's trying to work us out of that new normal but he's going to point backwards and blail george bush and that's still going to work with some people t depends who he'

a guy who's saying i'm the big job creator is having unemployment rise. the president's got a problem at least going in the other direction. >> rick perry always had a claim with the texas miracle before now. because there's been a tremendous population increase in texas, which has led to jobs going up there. and also, high energy prices have been good for texas. bad for us in the northeast, good for texas down there, and created jobs. but now, with all of that being put to the side, we see unemployment going up, there's a lot of low-wage jobs, too, in texas. so his claim to be a model for the rest of the country is falling apart. what made texas, you know, somewhat better than the other states in job creation, up to now, was something that couldn't be replicated in other states. it wasn't because of his policies. it was because of the weather and the conditions there. >> the key word. here's a guy who lived by conditions, attacked obama by conditions and now finds himself suffering the consequences. because presidents and governments don't necessarily con

rate going into the election their thinking is if there's high unemployment been people will blame it on the president when obama has to try to do and i don't think he's doing it effectively to convince the public that this issue of not dealing with the unemployment is the republicans fault. it really is in a sense that he can't pass any real jobs bill because the house will block it so he's sort of over a barrel and he's got to do this difficult job of convincing people that it's not his fault i thank you very much i said david leonhardt investigative journalist thank you. meanwhile economic shuffles are also happening across the atlantic and greece has given bags and insurers an almost sixty countries until later today to decide whether they will accept that step exchange offer there's a started to cut the deal unless it gets at least ninety percent participation which would give the country a short cashflow relief efforts to further rescue greece took a hit after athens admitted it won't be able to me that's deficit reduction deadlines. turkey's vowed to s

the unemployment rates are so high and the communities are so desperate. we don't begrudge the president taking resources to iowa and some of the other places. we would like to have that same kind of response. in the communities that you have high unemployment rates and the pain and misery that is going on in the tour that we did in the five cities that we visited during our break. we saw thousands of people standing in line and the people were appreciative that number one, we recognize the pain in those communities. we also brought employers there to give them an opportunity to try to get a job and so we are working hard and we are very focused and we want to make sure that the president understands what we are doing and that he works with us and that we address our resources to those places where the highest needs are. he protects his base. >> let me ask you about the speech that he gave before the black caucus and a clip of the speech. you called it curious among other things. let's listen in to what he had to say. >> take off your slippers and shake it

they've been on the unemployment roles for a long time. is starts playing into the family dynamic. addressing chronic unemployment is a huge issue in terms of just the psychology of the american people >> wes moore thanks for visiting today. >> thank you. >>> virginia senator jim webb has been grappling with all of these issues. senator webb thank you for joining us from the hill. alan simpson says $4 trillion for the supercommittee to come up with if the real problems that we face down the road are going to be dealt with, not immediately but in terms of phasing in these cuts. is that even possible, given the current climate in congress? >> we're obviously going to have some pretty strong debates on where taxes would be and where cuts would come from. i do not believe we should be increasing ordinary earned income taxes on any level. i think there are places for us to be able to get money from changing things like capital gains tax and the loopholes and those sorts of things that have existed in our tax code, but the number one reality that

it did work. >> never got on the 13% unemployment until world war ii! >> world war ii. vernment spending. >> eight years you want to start a war? [everyone talking at once] >> we need to mutt more money in the economy right now. [everyone talking at once] >> thank you. >> okay. let me in! if president obama can bring the unemployment rate down to 8%, by september, 2012, next year, before the election, couple months, will he have a better chance at winning re- election? >> 8% would be better than 9. and a lot better than 10. >> will he have a chance of winning? >> i think he has a chance now and i think he has a better chance at 8%. >> it's at 9.2 now. >> he'll have a better chance at 8, obviously. better at 5. >> right. >> if the economy appears to be going in the right directions, he has a very good chance of getting reelected, especially in the republicans choose one of the candidates other than mitt romney, or jon huntsman. >> if i want -- this is what i want. and i think the question was ill put. i want to know at what level the unemployment would have to be for obam

the u.s. unemployment figures today. the numbers are renewing fears that the country may be in fear -- may be in danger of slipping back into recession. stocks go lower on both sides of the atlantic, proving once again that the problem is global. >> obama is the first president since the second world war to witness a month where overall, no new jobs were created. no president since then has been reelected with unemployment so high. in august, private companies do create 17,000 new jobs, but it was wiped out by the public sector. the dow jones fell 253 points. it might be a statistical free, but it is also a symbol. >> it indicates that the administration's attempts to indicate -- to turn the economy around have failed. >> unemployment was above 10% in 2009 and has come down. but the rate has hovered around 9% all of this year. the white house predicts it will stay that way next year, too. the president and his daughters are off on a holiday weekend. he turned his back on cameras today, but next week there is a speech to t

this year's session has an eye on the home front, focusing on the unemployment crisis. it will be together world leaders and ceo to confront the huge challenges this country faces right now. president obama, addresses the group later in the week. and former president bill clinton joins me now from new york. thank you very much for being with us in. >> thank you. >> now, sir, your mantra right now is jobs, jobs, jobs. what do you think can happen to radically shift the unemployment picture and also pass muster in the washington in these very partisan times? >> well, i don't know if i'm the best person to answer that second part of that question, but i believe that, we, those of us who aren't in government, can think of ways to create jobs which will reinforce what i believe are the positive suggestions coming out of washington. essentially the president's plan has big payroll tax cuts in it, which will benefit the economy by lowering the average family's tax bill by $1500 and they can have that to spend. that will help. by lowering payroll taxes for employers will make it

. >> is just into the kron 4 new room employers added an no net jobs the unemployment rate is still on unchanged at 9.1% first time since a first time since february of 1945. >> heavy rains are expected to hit the gulf coast throughout the weekend there is a slow-moving " tropical system and the governor of louisiana has already declared a state of this depression on your screen it will dumb 10 to 15 in. of rain in louisiana and alabama in some areas there may be 20 in. of rain can buy today it could become a tropical storm and the new name will be lee. and that of the high hurricanekatia is still churning and atlantic. people have been stuck without food and water national guard used helicopters to drop in much- needed supplies flood warnings are still in a fact the white house says cleared some funds for federal aid home over 900,000 people are still without power. >> i feel guilty about it but it's nice. >> when burden have closely study conditions when for our holiday weekend the land spots will be in the upper 80s and beyond the coastal stay in the '60s we will have a full forecas

a guy saying i'm the big job creator is having unemployment rise. the president is going in the other direction. >> rick perry always had a claim with the texas miracle before now. there's been a population increase which led to jobs going up there. high energy prices have been good for texas down there. bad for us, but good down there. that to the side, unemployment is going up. there's a lot of low-wage jobs in texas. his claim to be a model for the rest of the country is falling apart. what made texas somewhat better than the other states up to now is something that couldn't be replicated. not because of policies but the weather and conditions there. condition is the keyword. he's lived by conditions, attacks obama with conditions and now is suffering the consequences. presidents and government don't necessarily control the unemployment. >> you have the texas chainsaw massacre. the massacre is the economy. it's not rick perry's fault he has 8.5% unemployment. >> was it his claim to fame that it was lower? >> no. and it's not the president's fault

the unemployment piece -- most economists say that the single most stimulus think we can do is continue to unemployment benefits. if you put money in the hands of people who have no other means of support, they will spend it on the everyday necessities of life and the will keep economic activity going. keeping unemployment compensation available to people who are unemployed is something that we must do. host: you spent 29 years in southampton college. the president called for a summer job funds. what has been your experience with a federally funded summer jobs? guest: at one. at southampton college, there was a program and it was in the late 1970's, and we employed several people under that and they worked hard. when the funds expired, many were able to be added to our permanent payroll. in terms of the summer jobs program, we did not have any experience administering one of those. we have several summer academic sessions and we employed some students to help with that. but we didn't have a direct summer jobs program. host: eric from florida. caller: my biggest complaint without obama i

they don't want to hear his spin about the work program. youth unemployment is up by 78,000 on today's figures. even after his work program has started. what young people and their families are asking is where are the jobs? >> the work program is the best way to help young people and indeed all people back into work. now, of course, as i've said these figures are disappointing but we shouldn't ignore the fact that since the election there are actually 500,000 more jobs in the private sector and employment over -- there are more people, 300,000 more people in work than there are a year ago. that is absolutely -- let me just say to the honorable gentleman, there is not one ounce of complacency in this government about the need to do more to help people back to work. we have a growth plan, that includes cuts in corporation tax, freezing the council tax, cuts in petroduty, making sure we have enterprise zones in every part of our country but in every week and in every month we'll be adding to that growth program so we help people get back to work. >> mr. speaker,

that is the only way to win re-election during a time of unacceptably high unemployment. an exclusive today, "time" magazine reports that's the conclusion. bill daley and his senior advisors came to that conclusion after a secret white house staff retreat in june. historian michael beshlosh was invited to come to that meeting economies and won. "time" white house correspondent michael scherer who broke this story reports, fdr and reagan argued that the country, though in pain, was improving and that their opponents anchored in past failures would make things worse. the president's aides all resigned to unemployment above 8% on election day, now see in roosevelt and reagan a plausible path to victory. they intend to make sure that voters believe a year from now that their fortunes are improving and that they plan to persuade the american people that a republican in the white house would be a step backward. michael scherer will join me in just a moment. but first, a little history. >>> in 1936, when fdr was running his first re-election campaign, the unemployment rate was 1

if we pass the stimulus we will have unemployment rate at 8%. e spotlight next thursday night when the president goes before congress. the country is out of recession over two years now but americans don't feel that way. brand-new numbers. we just put them out this morning. look at that. 82% say yes, the economy is in a recession. only 18% say no. americans i guess, don't agree with the economists. jobs by far the most important economic number. want more proof? look at this number right here from our same poll. we asked americans what is more important for the obama administration to do? create jobs or reduce the deficit? by more than 2-1 margin 68% say create jobs and only 3 in 10 reduce the deficit. >> presidential candidates are out with their own job plans and trying to look presidential. mitt romney may give hints about his own plan. what do you know about? >> he will speak on a hispanic group in film and what he will say tuesday in nevada when he lays out his plan. he calls for making business taxes competitive with other nations and elimi

the labor department calling it the weakest performance in almost a year, the unemployment rate unchanged at 9.1%. jenna: another important part of the report is the revisions we saw. we saw rescissions downward for both june and july. it's raising fears right now on wall street and elsewhere about another recession. if we take a look at the dow the dow has been trading lower for most of the morning. you can see down more than 200 points right now. normally a light trading day, by the way heading into the labor day holiday. just a few moments ago i spoke with gene sperling one of the president's top advisers. i asked him why we haven't seen and didn't see job creation last month. >> when you're coming back from a financial recession of this

we see a similar picture in the unemployment rate. if we had not had the federal response, the unemployment rate would have been 15% in the second quarter of 2010 and would have continued rising to 16.2% in the fourth quarter of 2010. this again according to sandy and blinder. in addition to helping create jobs it is also worth noting the importance of the 2009 recovery act in strengthening the nation's social safety net. according to an analysis of census bureau data unemployment benefits kept 3.2 million people out of poverty in 2010. medicaid and chip expansion insured half a million fewer children were uninsured in 2010 than in 2007. snap, formerly known as food stamps, kept 3.9 million people out of poverty in 2010. and the turned on come tax credit capped 5.4 million people out of party in 2010. i hope our witnesses can comment on the importance of these programs and their impact on their recovery. with that we will turn to senator sessions. for his opening remarks and then we will turn to our witnesses for their testimony. >> th

the u.s. stayed at 9.1% in its unemployment rate. the country in the month of august. some republican candidates for president already chiming in. we got this just moments ago from governor mitt romney. >> i watch washington right now and it breaks my heart because the people there don't understand how america works. obama is not working. he has disappointed the american people. this morning very bad news. did you see the numbers that came out on job growth? look, there is zero faith in barack obama because he's created zero jobs last month. >> came out with that line quickly. you'll probably here it again no jobs created in the country for the month of august. this comes as the president gets ready to deliver his speech to the joint session of congress next week on jobs and the economy. let's move now to other stories that are making news across country. this is a shame here. look at this video. a fight, a brawl breaks out at a football game. this is a youth league game in sarasota, florida. you see a player launch himself full speed

so in the end, is the unemployment problem mainly structural? a lack of skills? bts it. >> if that was a problem for the united states' economy as a whole, we would see two things: we would see a lot of job openings that aren't being filled; and we also see wages starting to increase very quickly, because the people who would be willing to show up for a job could demand a higher wage. we see the opposite. we see very low number of job openings, we see very low wage growth. though it is true, for some places, some firms, some industries, it's not true at an aggregate-wide level, it's not true for the whole economy. >> reporter: thus konczul's rx: stimulate the economy and create more jobs. but while that would put some back to work for awhile, spending the way we used to isn't the long-term cure, says karabell. >> there is a problem here that we have not figured out how to solve. there is not an immediate fix to the mismatch between skills of millions or tens of millions of people, and the jobs that might be created in this newer economic world. that mismatch is no

the unemployment rate stands at 9.1%. the real unemployment rate is over 16%. as the unemployed 30% have been out of work more than one year. there are 58% of american adults in the work force. labor day is right around the corner. our guest since down as the landscape continues to change. lack of useful skills for new jobs is creating a larger pool of qualified workers. the public image for unions is said to be at an all-time low. americans believe unions have a positive influence on their salaries, benefits, and working conditions, but they do not think the unions contribute to productivity and the ability of u.s. companies to compete around the world. the political season is heating up. republicans are vying for their party's nomination. one republican said one in four americans cannot find a full- time job. 14 million people remain unemployed. the administration is working on details to spur job growth. secretary solis is no newcomer to washington. before becoming labor secretary, she served in the house for 8 years. she worked on affordable health care, pro

but 26 of the last 28 months the unemployment rate has been at 9% or above. americans who have been outs of work for six months or more now number 6 million. that number has dragged down the president's approval rating, the percentage every americans who approve of his job performance as president of by the way, president obama's american jobs act will cost $447 billion. question, what is the difference between stimulus one and stimulus two, just presented by the president, the american jobs act? richard? >> will well the race of taxes is higher. but it's warmed over leftovers from the first stimulus, the idea that there's shovel-red projects that will make a difference in jobs. even president obama has put scorn on that idea. the funniest thing was his line that he was going to tell us how to pay for it, a week from monday, which is a classic, the check is in the mail line. he won't tell us how to pay for it. >> there's a lot of basically pork and earmarks, or another term for infrastructure. but i think that $4,000 tax credit for long-term unemployed, some o

these ideas have proven to work, and i know that they will help provide assistance to lower the unemployment rate and add jobs. we have gridlock in congress, a congress that wants to undermine, shaking our very being and causing us to lose out

the unemployment rate remains far too high and as of august the unemployment rate was 9.1%. long-term unemployment is up sharply. in august, long-term unemployment, those unemployed for 27 weeks or longer, with 3.9%. that is up dramatically from the .8% average over the period from 1948 to 2007. the median duration of unemployment is also up sharply, climbing to almost 22 weeks in august. we know that some of the drag holding back the recovery is caused by the nature of the recession that preceded it. economists have found the following recessions that were caused by our company, a severe slew of man -- financial crisis. the recoveries tend to be shallower intake much longer. the two leading economist, the two reinhart's dr. carmen reinhart and dr. vincent reinhart found in their research and i quote, real per capita gdp growth rates are significantly lower during the decade following the severe financial crisis. in a ten-year window following severe financial crises, unemployment rates are significantly higher than in the decade that preceded the crisis. the decade of relati

our look behind the headlines. unemployment may be stuck at 9.1%. is doing better than ever. lottery ticket sales. "usa today" reporting that ticket sales are up nationwide with 17 states even posting all time records. and there's evidence that it's no coincidence. during hard times people are more likely to try for a quick buck or a megamillion bucks. there are direct correlations between down economies and lot to sales. people who make less spend more of their income on lottery tickets. with the recover stall hopes of hitting the jock pots are not the only escapism either. the summer movie season is on track to finish up 3.5% over last year. that's even though the box office took a beating from hurricane irene last weekend. overall movie attendance up for the first time this year since 2007. alcohol sales are going strong as well. rising almost 10% over the last year. the booze business saw growth across the board from bars to liquor stores to wholesalers aez well. all goes to show as long as we get the urge to drown or sorrows 80 proof might just

the weekend. a high unemployment rate there as well. this is really the central focus of this administration right now. as you know, a lot of the gop candidates have already come out swinging accusing the president of not doing enough to stimulate job growth. the white house has pushed back on those types of criticisms saying that this administration has created about 2.4 million jobs, but they say this is a difficult recession, that they're going to be head winds. the pressure is on in this speech today as you mention, but certainly on thursday for the president to deliver some new ideas. some ideas that might help stimulate the economy. the question is whether the ideas be able to pass through the republican led house. if they don't ark loft analysts are saying the big jobs plan might become the president's platform. when we listened to the president speak today one thing to watch out for are any signs of what he might be taking about on thursday. we'll be listening very closely to hear if we get a glimpse of what might be discussed th

by two percent it will lower the just the unemployment rate and any positive movement will benefit president obama and the next election but there's only one thing republicans have not changed their mind on the entire time obama has been in office is raising taxes they say they will not sign on to anything in any form that doesn't that seems to be what's going on here they've seen some of the provisions of the bill and they don't like it and your take on that. yeah i think that's a good assessment there are two provisions the way and which will be paid for is to get rid of the bush tax breaks to the wealthy so the top two percent as president obama specified will be taxed and he'll also get rid of some of these corporate loopholes which have prevented major corporations and even mid-sized corporations from paying any taxes republicans are using the economic downturn as an opportunity to say that taxes and regulation is what's not causing hiring but that's simply inaccurate from the research i have seen in the polls i've seen coming from business again and again the vast majority are saying t

we see a similar picture in the unemployment rate. if we had not had the federal response, the unemployment rate would have been 15% in the second quarter of 2010 and would have continued rising to 16.2% in the fourth quarter of 2010. this again according to sandy and blinder. in addition to helping create jobs it is also worth noting the importance of the 2009 recovery act in strengthening the nation's social safety net. according to an analysis of census bureau data unemployment benefits kept 3.2 million people out of poverty in 2010. medicaid and chip expansion insured half a million fewer children were uninsured in 2010 than in 2007. snap, formerly known as food stamps, kept 3.9 million people out of poverty in 2010. and the turned on come tax credit capped 5.4 million people out of party in 2010. i hope our witnesses can comment on the importance of these programs and their impact on their recovery. with that we will turn to senator sessions. for his opening remarks and then we will turn to our witnesses for their testimony. >> th