he has since recovered. time for your money. less than one year until the presidential election, where is the u.s. economy headed? i'm christine romans. less than half of americans believe things will be going well in this country one year from today. even that faint hope appears ton on decline. the number of americans thinking things will get better has been steady dropping. no surprise as unemployment remains high and housing prices are not recovery and there's fear of another global recession. alexus glick, experienced on wall street and covering and will cain is the cnn contributor, cloudy with a chance of rain has been your forecast. anything to part the clouds? >> i don't think anything will part the clouds until europe clears up, which might be a while. we're in for stable slow growth but there's more risk. >> it became more difficult and expensive for spain to bore rerow money. there's potentially a funding problem in europe. explain why that is so important? >> europe is a quarter of global economy. european banks are interlocked with our banks. we want them to fix this. but i wonder, they might need a new constitution before this is over and do they have the political wherewithal to get a new constitution? >> you think we had political problems on debt in this country. >> at least we have a constitution that's pretty darn good. they don't. >> europe is a big driving force here. >> it is a big driving force and more head winds in an already challenging economy will make 2012 as unpredictable as possible. if you look at the united states, 11 million homes upsidedown, they owe more on the mortgage. unemployment, look at unemployment, 14 million people out of work, that's not getting any better and there's nothing to show us in terms of the road map going forward to signal that that's going to get any better. how about the 17.5 million children in this country who do not know where they are going to get their next meal. you stack this us with what's going on in the global economy and things look pretty ugly. >> i want to show you two cnn orc polls. the first shows just 35% of the americans approve of the way the president is handling the economy. the economy will be the biggest hurdle next november. perhaps that's the first time that romney now tops obama. will, as a conservative, are you ready to pop the cham pain? >> certainly it is bad for an incoming president, should mitt romney become president, the big question is so what. the second thing alexis talked about unemployment, we didn't talk about debt. everything from the american homeowners or world economy is overleveraged on debt. you have to grow out of debt. one of the ways you do that is through tax reform, getting rid of loopholes. and interesting the one republican candidate who voiced no interest in that is mitt romney. >> simplifying the tax code. we don't have a simple political process at the moment right now. how realistic is it simplifying the tax code and starting to fix our debt problems and our tax problems that way? >> we can pray. what will said is absolutely right. that is the ticket. we need more revenue but we need to grow. we need incentives for people to produce and grow, the only way to square the circle but they are politically paralyzed. >> which we have a debt conversation or growth conversation at the same time? >> you need to have a conversation at a same time. when you look at past recessions, the savings rate in this country has gone to double digits, some of what we're experiencing today, deleveraging, savings rate increasing, that's crucial. we cannot sit here and say that going forward this economy is going to be 100% dependent on two-thirds of the economy consistently spending, spending spending. it's not the future. >> have you been watching tv, alexis? >> i know. >> and the retail machine is getting people to spend money again. >> how to put more money in your paycheck so you can go out and spend. we saw it during the bush era. these are not the solutions. >> these are the structural imbalances that led to the crisis. when you look at china and europe and the u.s., we're in the same position we were in the same totally unbalanced world. >> you are. the u.s. is borrowing from china. united states consumers saving a little bit more but still tons of debt, government is in tons of debt. looking forward, absolutely, we have to do something about that. but that's where it comes. you've got to do something. you can't live the way you're living. if you don't want it to get worse, you have to do something about it. >> when you get close to the renext election, you can't do anything about it until you're past the next election and it goes on forever. >> the reason i'm focusing on it the things alexis just said, the increased savings rate are good things. you know what, the government has limited tools, but tax reform is one of the things they could actually do to encourage growth. will they? you're being a realist christine and the answer is probably no. >> but don't you think we have had multiple opportunities this year, particularly what we're facing down here with this deadline and this super committee, we could show the rest of the world that we're not republicans and democrats, standing for just entitlements or standing tore just no to raising taxes, aren't we americans at the end of the day. this whole process infuriates me because we have an opportunity to lead the way, to show a little leadership and to right the ship and yet in both cases we're down to the drop dead last second to do something about it. >> let's say that. i want to talk more about the super committee when we come back and something the president said. he used the words americans and lazy in the same sentence. what did he mean by that? we'll get into that next too on "your money." [ indistinct talking on radio ] [ tires screech ] [ crying ] [ applause ] [ laughs ] [ tires screech ] [ male announcer ] your life will have to flash by even faster. autodrive brakes on the cadillac srx activate after rain is detected to help improve braking performance. we don't just make luxury cars. we make cadillacs. president obama says when it comes to selling america, we've gotten lazy. >> a lot of things that make foreign investors sees ut u.s. a a great opportunity, our stability and innovative free market culture, but we've been a little bit lazy over the last couple of decades. we've kind of taken for granted people will want to come here. we aren't out there hungry selling america. >> what do you think the president meant by that. >> the asian countries are hungry. and there's no question they work longer hours, they are very driven been very successful. he's acknowledging that. clearly america is a pretty dynamic economy and they are trying to be like this. he's acknowledging facts on the ground. >> they are taking world we revicinitied and doing it in their own way and in some cases doing it better. >> you think in america immigrant work harder, some places like nations are doing better compared to us. >> mitt romney says the americans are lazy, come on -- this is -- >> let's be realistic it is not the aha moment this president is un-american and it shouldn't be dismissed. it's a little revealing about his view of america. who is he talking about when he says we? if he says the government has been lazy, he has a misguided role of what the government has in economy. it's not clear leader in chief. if he's talking about the american business and entrepreneurs and indicting them as lays zy, that's the one characteristic that has made america exceptional. >> it's okay that it's been said, but i think when you look and see the development that's going on across the globe, infrastructure development, our roads are crumbling. look at what's happening in the united states. we've done nothing to upgrade our own infrastructure. you see the evolution and changes that started in the united states happening abroad. the thing i worry about, particularly when you look at unemployment insurance and extending claims, extending claims and extending claims, i understand why we're doing it. but are we incentivizing folks to get out there and aggressively pursue, or is this making us step back because we expect the entitlements will be there to protect us. >> we'll talk about this more later in the program. in normal bad times, that is a real worry, but these aren't normal bad times, are they? >> they are not. i'm pretty sympathetic extending the unemployment in terms of temporarily. >> you don't think it's causing people not to go out and invent something because they are getting a jobless check. >> i think it makes a difference. a lot of people use up the benefits if you change it from 26 to 52 weeks. on the other hand it's very tough right now and the economy is not fair in a lot of ways. i think we have a revolution if they don't do something like that so we need to do that. on the other hand that won't get us out of it. >> do you think occupy wall street is that revolution, some sort of revolution like that? >> if i could figure out what it stood for. >> the revolution that stands for the 99% but i'm not sure the message is clear. you and i have gone back and forth. >> it is either about corruption and inequality as a result of crime and corruption or inequality as a broader standard. if it's about unequality, if that happens, i think it's the first time it would have ever happened in americatic society on pt history of earth. >> the latest hopes depend on this so-called super committee of six democrats and six republicans, but according to peter, the republicans are the big problem. >> they signed an oath in blood to never raise revenues. you cannot solve the debt problem without revenues, eliminate the entire government except for entitlement programs, you still have a deficit. if you can't engage in that decision, it's pathetic. >> those are two pathetics, will. is it time for republicans to drop the notion -- >> the super committee is pathetic. it evolved into the conversation for three or four years, it appears we'redy verging on the extension of the bush tax cuts. have we not heard that song over and over and we're resorting to accounting trickery. we can go with more tax reven revenues, but follow the advice of those smarter than me -- >> they are like a mini me of congress who couldn't do it in the first place. this is exactly what we feared, you would be down to the wire and passing notes to each other not even in the same room anymore. >> this to me as someone who spent a decade on wall street is absolutely outrageous. the fact that the s&p downgraded our debt, that we were given so many warning signs, what are we going to do when we wake up next friday morning and fitch or moody's decides to downgrade our debt because we couldn't get our act together. we signed a $787 billion stimulus bill and we cannot agree on reductions of $150 billion a year? i mean, you look at the defense budget, this makes me crazy, i'm sorry. the defense budget has doubled over the past decade and we're arguing about what impact this is going to have on the defense budget? it's doubled its $700 billion. i'm sorry, go ahead. >> early on, they did seem very energized and were passing notes among each other and it seemed they would at least strike a deal among themselves and if they couldn't sell it, they couldn't sell it. even that seems to be collapsing at this point. you never know last minute but it doesn't look good. >> the rest of the world is watching us to make sure we're not doing it the last minute, the bear minimum, right? >> but they'll lend us money for nothing. >> that's -- >> because we're less bad than anybody else, as long as we're less bad, we're still the best -- >> we set the tone as well. we can't sit here and talk about what's going on in italy and what's going on in greece and going on in spain and not be taking care of what's going on in our backyard. >> nice to see you guys and you're absolutely right. one presidential candidate is calling the super committee the dumbest idea he's ever heard. we'll tell you who that is and what could happen if the super committee doesn't come through with serious cuts next on "your money." ♪ it gives me warmth. ♪ [ boy ] it gives me energy to help me be my best. quaker oatmeal has whole grains for heart health. and it has fiber that helps fill me up. ♪ [ male announcer ] great days start with quaker oatmeal. energy. fiber. heart health. quaker oatmeal. a super grain breakfast. luck? 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[♪...] >> male announcer: book now, save up to 65%. call 1-800-sandals. the super committee has until the middle of the week to propose a plan to cut the budget or they risk setting off unpopular automatic spending cut. newt gingrich gave his opinion of the super committee this week. >> the way i characterize it, it's as though somebody walked in and said, i'm under instructions to shoot you in the head unless you let me cut off your leg. that's what the super committee ssh -- read the story, horrible things will happen. >> he also said the super committee is the dumbest idea he's seen in a lifetime. any chance the super committee will prove newt gingrich wrong? >> well, he can characterize it as dumb as he wants. i don't thing a slew of bad things will happen, if the super committee fails to come up with a plan, people have said we could get downgraded or a slew of automatic cuts, none of those things may happen. here's why. markets had no expectations that could be considered positive for this committee. they won't be surprised. there may be some volatility in the near term. ratings agencies like moodies came out and said we're going to wait and see what you do by 2013 essentially. and in terms of the spending cuts, congress literally has 13 months to reverse its decision. >> they have a little back door. . it's interesting that on wall street's past performance, they know the past performance of washington that's giving them a hint of how things might go. gloria borger, the american public too, pessimistic about the super committee, 78% say it's unlikely the super committee will agree on a deficit plan by november 23rd. that's according to a recent cnn orc poll. when asked who would be responsible if they didn't come up with a plan? 42% blame the republicans, 32% say they blame democrats. gloria, is it an example of president obama winning with his message that republicans are standing in the way of progress? washington? >> i think they all lose. what shred of credibility they have and don't forget this is a congress with a 9% approval rating. whatever shred of credibility they have will be lost if they do nothing. people are getting increasingly pessimistic about it. they already kick the can down the road in the debt ceiling agreement that led to this. and now they could get the can down the road again or try and do something through a back door as jeanne points out. overall, what does that do to congress? it says that, you know what, they can't even agree on $1.2 trillion. they are going to have to have automatic cuts that do their jobs for them and oh, by the way, republicans like john mccain may try and undo some of those pentagon cuts. so i think it's another big mess and it will be received by the public that way. >> someone who's been warning of a big mess for a long time is david walker, the ceo of the come back america initiative. i want to show you a chart that was in the "washington post" that got our attention about how we got here. i want you to look at this. if you look at the top part of this chart, that orange and yellow, the yellow is the bush era tax cuts, that's how much of our national debt, the debt held by the public is from the tax cuts. then you can see wars in there and the economic downturn, you can see t.a.r.p., and fannie and freddie is the light blue and the gray is our debt. you've seen this coming for years, begging americans to take deficit reduction seriously long before it was a hot topic. what are these three things telling you about the priorities for the super committee? >> i never believed the super committee was going to go big, although we need for them to. it's not set up for success, four people voted against simpson bowles. i'm still cautiously optimistic that they will reach a deal. what they need to do is recognize that the big deal, meaning tax reform that will raise revenues and meaningful insurance reforms that significantly reduce spending will not come until after the election. they ought to recommend having a second round of recommendations with no amendments up or down vote in 2013. that's when the big deal will be done. if you don't reach $1.2 trillion on this, every member of the super committee and every member of leadership should be punished by the american people because they are incompetent. >> i'm going to tell you, i think we all agree. these were the 12 people that were supposed to disstill down and get this done and there was a big concern it would be a mini me and all of the same petty reasons, took us to the brink before, would be here again. gloria, there are a minmy me of congress. >> sure. as david points out, you know, the closer you get to an election, the less chance there is that anything substantive will get done, period. that's the rule of congress. because people are afraid of taking a politically dangerous votes, whether it's on taxes or whether it's on entitlement cuts. so what they'll do is they'll kick it down the road again. and you know, it's just -- we're in this process where there just doesn't seem to be a pal atable end for anyone. by the way barack obama will then go out and run against the do-nothing congress, that includes democrats and republicans. >> i want to show you another picture out of the wall street journal. this chart shows you the bush tax cuts and how they would add to -- they would add to the budget going out to 2021 if allowed to stay there. defense spending, take a look at that. look at defense spending, both the magnitude and size of how it adds to our bills. take a look at medicare spending. we have a super committee right now that is deadlocked really on the issue of bush tax cuts but we also have entitlement spending and defense spending that are also in magnitude growing. jeanne, everything has to be addressed. >> and you know what, they have to deal with bush tax cuts by november of next year because they expire december 31st. it could be that the lame duck congress after the presidential election, depending i guess on who wins that election, may be able to make the final decision about the bush tax cuts in the context of deficit reduction. this is a conversation we'll be having all next year, even though i agree with gloria that an election year -- >> if barack obama wins, he's already on the record saying that he would veto any attempt to extend the bush tax cuts. >> we'll ask david walker when we come back in two minutes because we