sign that the economy is moving in the right direction. let s dig in and talk more about it. senior fellow at the center on budget and policy priorities, the jared bernstein. all right. let s difficult in. the labor department says the drop is fueled more by fewer people that are looking for jobs, but these numbers are before the sequester went into effect, so can this be sustained? this is where we need to be if we want to turn this recession or the lagging recession around. so that s the question. i mean, the sequester hasn t kicked in yet. when it does kick in, i m afraid it s going to cut about half a percent off gdp growth, certainly maybe around 500, 700,000 jobs, so the question is, is the underlying economy have the strength to shake that off going forward and post more job reports kind of like this one? that s unknowable. i think this report gives you a little more faith that perhaps that can happen.
there s been a real disconnect so far between economic growth, lots of folks in the middle just treading water. if we can sustain reports like this, then the recovery will finally reach those in the middle class, but that s an if. when we talk about the middle class and the sequester and whether or not we have seen any initial results in the economy from this, as you point out, wall street nothing. now we get the jobs number out for february looks sharp. if we could keep this up, that would be fantastic, but what kind of leverage does this give to sequester negotiations? i don t think it gives them much. if anything it would strengthen the hand of of the people who say i think the sequester will be baked into the cake, will be part of this so-called continues resolution, the budget that they put together at the end of the month to keep the
government running. the question isn t whether the sequester will be turned off in the near term. the question is, will the sequester create enough economic drag, because it will create some action to kind of shut down job reports of this magnitude? i m afraid it may do so to some extent. jared bernstein, great to see you. thank you for your insight. thank you, thomas. there s word that the white house may be again going for the grand. we re talking about the grand bargain. that could be back on the table now. the obama outreach of this week. we ll continue next with the president set to meet with republicans on capitol hill midweek. now, the hill is reporting today that the white house has set a july deadline for brokering this bipartisan deal. the new diplomacy received rave reviewed following yesterday s lunch. i thought it was a good exchange of views, very informal setting, coats off, sleeves rolled up, really discussing