and 160 million people who got a tax hike that were not expecting a tax hike, on top of that, december there was a ton of money in this country and incomes were up huge because everybody wanted to beat the tax hikes, dividend payouts and special bonuses and savings went through the roof. it felt like the american public was so afraid they started to save money which is definitely against our dna and they re pulling back a little bit and i think that wal-mart is feeling is. and wal-mart is telling because it caters to middle class americans and people who have lower incomes and they re not spending. absolutely right. charles is right about the payroll tax, i was a big proponent of spending the payroll tax for that reason, i think that $40 on average they said people s payroll people s less money came into people s pockets. megyn: $50,000 a year, $40 hit. and that s the paycheck and a reason and people are getting ready for sequester. i understand that defense department had to
absolutely worked. but ultimately, when history judges they will say what did occur and it has been four years. there will be another four years. i can tell you today we had numbers out last month on income and spending. income exploded. i mean it was income number since may of 2008. why? well those dividend, remember those big dividend payouts before the tax hike and a lot of people took guy gantic bonuses before the big tax hike. what scared me spending was really below estimates. feels like maybe the american people are beginning to hunker down. that has been a major problem. even though people give the president, you know, props if you will, in their own lives they re really not acting out on it. martha: one of the things we talk about, consumer spending. we just started to absorb the fact everyone is paying higher taxes across the board. if you make $50,000, you re, it is going up by a thousand dollars for, most people across the board. so, you know, i m concerned about the next q
that s all coming up this hour. but we begin tonight with the sad, uncomfortable walk of shame that bp executives were forced to make today after being called to the white house to meet personally with president obama. that little perp walk out of the west wing was the visual accompaniment to a tremendously consequential set of headlines today, for anyone who is an executive at bp, or anyone who has a lot of money invested in that country. bp announcing today that it will set aside $20 billion, with a b, $20 billion in a fund to compensate victims of their still-ongoing oil disaster in the gulf. bp also notified its stockholders today to stop expecting billions of dollars in dividend payouts. those payouts will not be forthcoming, not for last quarter, not for this quarter, not for next quarter. even as the president said today that it s in all of our interests that bp stays financially able to continue to bear the cost of the disaster, the future of the company at this point looks
but we begin tonight with the sad, uncomfortable walk of shame that bp executives were forced to make today after being called to the white house to meet personally with president obama. that little perp walk out of the west wing was the visual accompaniment to a tremendously consequential set of headlines today, for anyone who is an executive at bp, or anyone who has a lot of money invested in that country. bp announcing today that it will set aside $20 billion, with a b, $20 billion in a fund to compensate victims of their still-ongoing oil disaster in the gulf. bp also notified its stockholders today to stop expecting billions of dollars in dividend payouts. those payouts will not be forthcoming, not for last quarter, not for this quarter, not for next quarter. even as the president said today that it s in all of our interests that bp stays financially able to continue to bear the cost of the disaster, the future of the company at this point looks about as bright as the future of