we are looking at 17% of our people being either unemployed or underemployed. we are looking at average length of unemployment being longer than it has been since world war ii. we are looking at a situation where over the last eight or nine years, median household income has declined by over $2,000. we are looking at a situation where, according to "u.s.a. today", accept 18, 2009 -- quote --"the incomes of the young and middle-aged, especially men, have fallen off a cliff since 2000 leesk more age -- leaving more age groups poorer than they were in the 1980's." we're seeing a collapse in the middle class, an increased gap between the rich and everybody else. and then, to make a very bad situation worse, as a result of the greed or irresponsibility, and illegal behavior of wall street, we're now in a terrible, terrible economic decline. mr. president, the american people voted overwhelmingly last year for a change in our national policies and for a new direction in the economy. after eight long years of trickle-down economics that benefited the very wealthy at th

that does not count the millions more who are underemployed or. i who have just gotten so discouraged they've left the workforce. >> we talk about discouragedpeople wonder. talking about a manufacturing worker at a manufacturing town in the midwest where what are they looking for as another job? >> right. are they looking for, what are they looking for? the green jobs thing sounds great, the administration has been talking about it since the spring. best estimates far muir than 1% of the job in the sgregreen executor. a lot the turbines disappeared, the solar companies laying people off. >> sure. >> and developing. we'll talk about this later in the hour, developing resources and rnd in other countries where air force growth is happening. >> what role i mean, if you want to be mabd at the government, mad at the administration in fairness people ask all the time, what role should she have in creating jobs? we don't want to live in an economy where job, coming from the government anyway. >> i think the best role the government can play is in fact in

another 15 million people are underemployed or have quit looking that means that over 30 million americansant to work but cannot find the job they want. more people join their ranks every single day. worse, four in 10 unemployed workers have been jobless for 27 weeks or longer. yes, we have a jobs crisis in our country and it's everybody's number one issue. that's why i joined with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to form the congressional jobs now caucus. to keep the focus where it needs to be. that's why i sponsored bills to create jobs in america, to stem our rising trade deficits, and to bring justice to wall street which has shut down normal lending across this country. contributing to the jobs crisis. job creation is not a republican issue or a democratic issue. we're all in this together. last month toledo, a city i represent, lost an additional 1,200 jobs. added to the yearly tally, more than 38,600 individuals or 11.8% of the city's population are without work. the unemployment rate in adjoining rural ottawa county, also in our district, is now over 17%. again, these are offi

we have 1 in 5 unemployed or underemployed in the double digits, people out of work six months or longer, a lot of americans. i think when you see numbers like this, you think where's the recovery? you really need to see more signs the recovery is actually taking hold. this puts it back into perspective for a lot of people. >> temporary hiring is up for a fifth month. is there anything to take from that? >> that's a positive, one of the first signs things are rebounding, see an uptic in temporary hires. for people out there looking for work, they're still having an incredibly difficult time. temporary work is up but people looking for full time jobs and a lot of people have given up and why the unemployment rate isn't higher than it is. >> do you have any indications unemployment will go further up this year? >> some people think it will go up, some saying 10.5% in the first quarter, xhi.com is saying it will go up 8% towards the end of 2010. that's not positive. the only consensus is the real recovery creating 15 million jobs over the next five years or 250,000 jobs per month, that will

>> well, i think that this, here we sit still one in five american workers unemployed or underemployedwe're looking at a recovery where the economy's going to grow, but we're not going to see improvement in unemployment soon enough. this is still a huge, huge problem. we have deficits growing, we have to continue to provide unemployment benefits. we have no revenue coming into the government at the rates we need to cut into the deficit. this is the political problem that the democrats face. if, for some reason, unemployment were to turn around in time for the democrats, either in 2010 or 2012, they could make a case that with financial services regulation, that with health care, health care insurance security, that that would be a component of economic security and that they were going to move the-- everything in the right direction. that only could be accompanied by a change in unemployment. if we don't see that, it's over. >> bret: yeah, charles, it's a big "if". >> look, and the stimulus only a fifth was spent in the year '09. the majority of the money is going to be dumped in 10. c

i want to say something to every person in ohio who is unemployed or underemployed. i am fighting for you. [applause] >> i can't say -- i can't say -- i can't say it will be today. i can't say it will be easy. but we are going to fix this thing. you have my word on this. i will move heaven and earth to create jobs in ohio, and i will not rest until it's done. because, because the state of our state is unyielding. [applause] >> unyielding -- unyielding in the face of the global economic turmoil. unyielding in the face of budget cuts and job loss. unyielding in the knowledge that we are more than our challenges. [applause] >> and unyielding in the belief that ohio will not always be just our home, but our hope. i believe in ohio. [applause] >> i believe in ohio because we may have been dealt a tough hand, but we are going to do what ohioans have always done. we are going to play it to win. we've had to make tough decisions. we've had to make sacrifices. but we have worked to reduce the blow of this international economic meltdown, and the decisions that we have made ha

this country into a severe recession so that 17% of our work force today is either unemployed or underemployed. millions of our fellow americans have lost their homes, they've lost their savings, they've lost their ability to send their kids to college. they've lost their hopes for the future. mr. bernanke failed at his job. he should not be rewarded with reappointment. further, madam president, many of us, after eight years of the bush administration, we said it is time for a change, it is time to change the priorities of this nation. time to move us in a new direction. the evidence is overwhelming that from an economic perspective as well as many other perspectives, the bush administration failed. let me quote from "the washington post" earlier this month, and this is what they said about the bush economy. quote -- "the past decade was the worst for the u economy in -- for the u.s. economy in modern times. it was, according to a wide range of data, a lost decade -- let me repeat, a lost decade for american workers. there has been zero net job creation since december 199 9, zero. middle-incom

in a sense that would have be recognized by homeowners, small businesses, or the unemployed or underemployed stabilization of existing financial and two shams and to raise a delicate point the compensation of their executives is not a goal in and of itself. the issue i have no disagreement with donna kohn is very realistic and a very bleak forecast for a slow and gradual recovery. i thought i very elegantly done. but the issue of course is whether a very gradual improvement is tolerable and is not what is to be done about it. and skip over a few things but i can't post on subjects without congratulating him in his final remarks invoking the spirit of making a crucial point that. the stability of the two instability and also for her, i think, making the point that monetary policy is a blunt instrument in this matter. as my old boss, henry burris coming is to say is what we need is the rifle shot of regulation, not the blunderbuss of higher interest rates to deal with these questions. alan krueger stated the economy is not good enough albeit better than it would have then without the three pil

about how we pulled this country out of a recession in which 17% of our people are unemployed or underemployed. and the fact of the matter is that the fed today -- today -- has the capability, the power to take significant action to protect the middle class and working families of this country. i don't know about illinois, but i'll tell you that in vermont i get call calls every week. why did i help bail out these large banks and now they're charging me 28%, 30% interest on my credit card? mr. bernanke has the power to lower the interest rates today. i want a fed chairman who is going to do that. mr. president, we heard last night from president obama, who appropriately pointed out the very serious problems that small businesses all over this country are having in terms of getting the low-interest loans they need, in order to create the kind of jobs that our economy desperately requires. mr. president, the chairman of the fed today has the power to provide low-interest loans to small- and medium-size businesses. it is just large financial institutions who can receive zero-interest or low-inter

the proportion of rhode islanders who are underemployed, working part-time or add jobs below their skill level is considerably worse than that. families in my state and across the nation are struggling to pay for groceries into stave off foreclosure. the economic distress is so widespread in places like rhode island that hardly anyone remains untouched, directly or indirectly. it is heartbreaking to drive around par to providence where nearly every house on the block is boarded up, where families have been evicted from their homes and the neighborhood is now and physical decay. the explosion of the housing bubble left wreckage across this nation which will take years, perhaps even decades to clean up. mr. president ben bernanke bears considerable responsibility for the lax regulation that brought about the housing bubble and there is no mea culpa he kanfer fest ee brace that fact from history. to make matters worse a quick review of his public statements in the months leading up to this crisis demonstrates a troubling pattern of false confidence. on february 27, 2008 months before the st

this country into a severe recession so that 17% of our work force today is either unemployed or underemployedto college. they've lost their hopes for the future. mr. bernanke failed at his job. he should not be rewarded with reappointment. further, madam president, many of us, after eight years of the bush administration, we said it is time for a change, it is time to change the priorities of this nation. time to move us in a new direction. the evidence is overwhelming that from an economic perspective as well as many other perspectives, the bush administration failed. let me quote from "the washington post" earlier this month, and this is what they said about the bush economy. quote -- "the past decade was the worst for the u economy in -- for the u.s. economy in modern times. it was, according to a wide range of data, a lost decade -- let me repeat, a lost decade for american workers. there has been zero net job creation since december 199 9, zero. middle-income households made less in 2008 when adjusted for inflation than they did in 1999." a lost decade. standard of living for american wo

i want to say something to every person and ohio who is unemployed or underemployed. i am fighting for you. [applause] >> i can't say -- i can't say -- i can't say it will be today. i can't say it will be easy. but we are going to fix this thing. and you have my word on this. i will move heaven and earth to create jobs in ohio, and i will not rest until it's done. because, because the state of our state is unyielding. [applause] >> unyielding -- unyielding in the face of the global economic turmoil. unyielding in the face of budget cuts and job loss. unyielding in the knowledge that we are more than our challenges. [applause] >> and, and unyielding in the belief that ohio will always not -- always be just our home, but our hope. i believe in ohio -- [applause] >> i believe in ohio because we may have been dealt a tough hand, but we are going to do what ohioans have always done. we are going to play it to win. we've had to make tough decisions. we've had to make sacrifices. but we have worked to reduce the blow of this international economic meltdown, and the decisions