joining me now are labor secretary thomas perez and msnbc contributor victoria defrancesco soto.ight. >> thanks, rev. >> a pleasure to be here. >> where would we be if we didn't have this constant austerity measures that are being pushed through by the gop? >> well, we'd certainly have an unemployment rate that is far lower. let me give you one example. you're correct. we've had 42 consecutive months of private sector job growth to the tune of 7.5 million jobs. during that same period, we have lost 500,000 jobs in government. and who are these jobs that are being lost? they're primarily teachers, firefighters, police officers at a local level. i have three kids in the public schools in my neck of the woods, and they're seeing larger class sizes. they're seeing that there is less teachers in the school. there is less teachers aides in the school. if we had simply been able to keep that number flat, and i have never seen a recovery -- i'm unaware of a recovery where you had no growth in government jobs. if we had been able to keep that flat, we would have an unemployment rate under

tom perriello, and victoria defrancesco soto and james peterson. were playing the rapey song to go with the rapey commercial, right, all fine, feels like a fine way to use social media. but what doesn't is like the idea that we are having a massive party infighting going on, like i just feel like what has happened to our congress at this point? am i meant to take it seriously? >> democracy is about coalition building. it's about legislating wh, but we've come to a screeching halt. a lot of the emphasis on ted cruise. he's fascinating politically to watch because what's happened is he's become a pace car and the republican party. so i don't think he can really take him seriously. i don't think, you know, in terms of his presidential run or in terms of what he does in congress, but what he's doing is he keeps pulling the party further and further to the right, hence more and more stalemate. so i think this is the key of why ted cruise is such the linchpin of understanding the republican intraparty politics. >> you were in the congress relatively brie

. >> well, secretary of labor thomas perez and victoria defrancesco soto, thank you both for your timey pleasure. >>> coming up, the politics of war. all of the sudden the hawks in the republican party are changing their tune. i wonder why that is? >>> plus, the one and only arsenio hall is returning to late night tv. but first he stops by "politicsnation's" studio. you don't want to miss this. i've been taking a multivitamin for years. centrum silver. both of us actually. our pharmacist recommended it. and that makes me feel pretty good about it. and then i heard about a study looking at multivitamins and the long term health benefits. and what do you know? they used centrum silver in the study. makes me feel even better, that's what i take. sorry, we take. [ male announcer ] centrum. the most recommended. most preferred. most studied. centrum, always your most complete. ♪ now you can give yourself a kick in the rear! v8 v-fusion plus energy. natural energy from green tea plus fruits and veggies. need a little kick? ooh! could've had a v8. in the juice aisle. need a little kick? ooh!