economy right now? we all want to see the unemployment rate decrease. unfortunately the drop we saw today is primarily due to the number of people who have withdrawn from the workforce. the labor rate participation rate in the workforce dropped from about 64.7% to about 64.3%. that is a significant drop. jenna: what does that mean? it means people are discouraged. you couple that with december and they weren t looking for work. what we re also seeing you need to take a look at the other indices that are out there. and the heritage foundation will come out with their index of economic freedom next week. and this index will show . jenna: let me jump in. we have a couple questions from our viewers. rob, i want to bring you in on this as well. when we look at discouraged workers also if you re out of work on average a little bit over eight months, what can the president do, when he says this will be his focus, what can he do to pick up the pace? i think the president has put in plac
was a sign he had asked for additional policy responsibilities as early as last summer and wasn t going to get it. and the guy to be held responsible for that is raise, which is unusual. gregg: gene sperling, this is a guy who s a real budget hawk. he helped negotiate the 97 budget-balancing act. what do you think of him? look, again, he s been in the administration. he s been over at the treasury department in a senior policy role. he was allowed to negotiate with the republicans on the tax deal, and that s been taken by some as a sign that this is going to be a change in atmosphere. we ll wait and see. the democrats had an artificial, the obama white house had an artificial deadline. if they didn t come to a deal by december 31st, they were going to have grave difficulty. let s see if this new mindset is, at the end of the day, it s going to be the president who determines whether or not guys like daley and sperling are going to govern gregg: and sperling was a consultant at gol
weren t liberal enough. it s because we needed to move to the center. and i think the president is already starting to do that. his moves on the chief of staff, his economic advisory team, moving to the middle where most people are in this country, they re not far left, they re not far right, but they re in that sweet spot in the center, and that s where we need to go as a caucus. if we re going to get back in the majority, that s what we ve got to do. jenna: a quick final question here. two interesting things that have really defined the democrats over the last two years, that s the leadership of nancy pelosi, and it s also been health care reform you just recently voted against nancy pelosi as minority leader of the house, and now you re saying you re vote to go repeal the health care laws. in your mind, what defines a democrat? what is defining the democratic party for the next two years? i think there are a lot of things. we re a big tent party. i supported public education, i th
associated press came on a day when defense secretary robert gates announced $78 billion worth of budget cuts at the pentagon and spoke specifically about the immediate to reduce what he called dod s sprawling intelligence apparatus. since september 11th the u.s. government as a whole has seen a proliferation of new intelligence organizations, many that are excess and duplicative, many that are spread out among the different services, agencies, task forces and combatant commands. in place of having a large permanent, organic apparatus staffed on a wartime level that a pilot will transition to an arrangement that can surge intelligence support as needed from the defense intelligence agency. a pentagon official tells fox news this new targeting center will be smaller than the nctc and likely will not command a large budget. gregg: james rosen in the press briefing room at the white house, thanks. jenna: the house just moving a step closer to a vote to repeal the president s health ca
or history of heart disease or stroke. the most common side effects are liver problems, nausea, gout flares, joint pain, and rash. [ male announcer ] if you have gout, ask youroctor about uloric. jenna: the president saying a short while ago his mission is to grow the economy and accelerate hiring this year. we learned this morning that the nation s economy added 103,000 jobs last month. that is not the whole story. it is a very big report. a lot of numbers. the unemployment rate for december dropped to 9.4%. that is the lowest level in 19 months but you can take that number few different ways. let s talk more about these numbers and the job market overall with the town hall panel. mike santoli from barron s. . elaine chao chair is former secretary of labor and fox news contributor. elaine, when you see the unemployment rate go down to 9.4% but you also see the amount of discouraged workers grow, what does that tell but the state of the