I think they definitely need to do a better job there. I think this is true not just for president obama but everyone of us. Things are complicated. They are more complex than they look on paper. You bring up the payroll tax cut. I thought it was a terrible idea in the context where we are supposed to collect this money to help pay for the retirement of current retirees. You cannot have it both ways. Claim we have Social Security selffunded and then say we are not going to collect that program. Unds that is extremely important. Do itdmitting the way you is by borrowing more money. There are a lot of things lost in the debate. Some are born and complicated. Specific tonk it is president obama. Guest was a payroll tax cut as part of the stimulus. It happened through the payroll taxes. It did not mean money going to Social Security was reduced. Guest exactly. But that was lost in the debate. Been i do think there has in messaging problem with obama. He did not do the things he could have done which was helped to educate the public. When everyone else is tightening their belts, this is the time the Program Needs to be investing to sustain the economy through hard times and tell the private sector to take over and generate a robust recovery. Biggestk back on the misstep on messaging, if he would have been educating the public on this counter intuitive thing, it could have helped people understand the role of government when we are in the worst downturn the country has seen in 70 years and millions of people are out of work. It would have worked to get the economy back on track. Is withidi shierholz the Economic Policy institute. She is a member of the board of directors at the d. C. Employment justice center. She holds a ph. D. In economics from the university of michigan. Our other guest also has a degree in economics from paris. She is a Senior Research fellow at george mason university. You can read her writing. You can read her work on line. Were talking about what president obama is looking forward to in the future. Ahead, you are on the air. Host i am a smallbusiness owner. I have quite a bit of employees that make minimum wage. Employees, certain people know how to work the system. They will work for three or four months. Then they will stop working. A month later, they will go on unemployment. I feel like the economy is getting better. Job ofould do a better go onnizing the people to theployment, i feel unemployment would go down. People would be more consistent with their jobs. It is all about accountability. Money onke more unemployment then they do being employed. Host heidi shierholz. Guest i think you make a good point about the cost of turnover two companies. We know hiring and firing and people leaving and needing to hire more people is a highcost for businesses. One of the things that can be done to reduce those costs is to increase the minimum wage. There is good evidence that increases in the minimum wage reduce turnover. When people get paid more, they are less likely to leave that job. Moneyan save a lot of for businesses. One of the ways we can combat that turnover is increasing the minimum wage. The other thing that is interesting about the Unemployment Insurance benefits, we had a big expansion of benefits. Congress did that in the downturn and aftermath. That is totally appropriate when you are in the worst slump in 70 years. We have fewer Job Opportunities than before. Increasing Unemployment Insurance is the thing congress always does at a time like this or when the economy is in a downturn. They have done it this time. There has been a lot of research that shows those increases in are notment benefits keeping people from looking for work. We have so few Job Opportunities. We have so many longterm unemployed. People have given up looking for work. If you get unemployment, you have to be actively seeking work. Extended benefits have kept people in the labor force looking for work. That is a good outcome of this extension because it will likely increase the shares of the long term unemployed who ultimately stay in the labor market. I think the problem of. Overnment intervention they have unintended consequences. They have unintended consequences. People tried to go around them. Why we have to think of the energizing our economy. This is president obama speaking in illinois. [video clip] if you think education is expensive, wait until you see how much [indiscernible] costs in the 21st century. If we do not make this investment, we will put our kids, workers, and country at a competitive disadvantage. In the earliest years. I willp to make keep pushing to make high quality education available for every preschooler in america. [applause] not just because it works for our kids because it provides a vital system for our parents. Ias we speak, federal agencies are moving on my plan to connect American Students to highspeed internet over the next five years. We are making that happen right now. We have already begun meeting with Business Leaders and Technology Entrepreneurs and innovative educators to identify the best ideas for redesigning our high schools so that they teach the skills required for a hightech economy. Is the role of education in boosting the economy . Guest at the college level, there is no doubt that getting a University Diploma increases your expected future income. Education is extremely important. This is yet another area where there has been massive involvement of the government. Intervention is not always good in these areas. There are a lot of failing schools in spite of massive increases for adjusted inflation for spending on education at both the state and federal levels. We need to think differently about how to do education in this country rather than just throw money at it. I would suggest that one of the ways is to give people a choice. If people the money and let them choose where their children go to school. It is even more important for low incomeents who are stuck in extremely bad School Districts. I think they deserve the same kind of choice. Higher income parents have more flexibility. They can move houses and choose School Districts. It is the moment to empower people to change the School Districts and empower them with choice rather than continuing to throw money at schools. Host College Enrollment fell 2 in 2012, the most significant decline since the 1990s. To 2013. Point traditional family here nonprofit colleges began a contraction that well 4year nonprofit colleges began a contraction. Fort the Silver Lining this horrible downturn for young people. They will get into school and get that extra degree and it would make them better off in the future. If you look at the data, these kinds of numbers show that it was not happening. We did not see an uptick in enrollment. Enrollment ticked down. That is interesting. I will check that out. K inid not see an uptic enrollment in college. While a lot of kids may have the resources, most College Students need to work to stay in college. If they are not able to find a job to keep them in college, they will not be able to attend school. The other thing is parents who saw their wealth estimated by the housing bubble. They will be less likely to help their kids. That is why we did not see an increase in enrollment. It is one of the things that is hurting his cohort coming out. We know that College Education matters a lot to your future earnings. One other thing that is important to keep in mind is not to be all in all. We know that the median wage for College Workers has not increased for 10 years, even before the recession hit. We really saw a stagnation of the wages of people with an b. A. With other factors that are really driving wage trends, not just educational disparities. Other factors that are falling money to the top of the income and wages distribution rather than seeing it go to middle class families. Education, a College Degree in particular. To really solve the problems in our economy to reduce the wage inequality we have seen. Colleges give the ball on a demonstration a low grade on the economy. Themany people give the obama peopletration many give the Obama Administration a low grade on the economy. Caller my concern is my kids. I have five. The only thing i have seen is that you use it richer and the pork state court. The poor stay poor. The poor stay poor. It has been a continuing trend. If i go on here and get a job and i do not do my job, i would not have that job very long. That someoneeve does not do something about all of these fat cats in washington in getting these kickbacks and not doing very job, what they said they were going to do to begin with. That covers all of them. Host veronique de rugy. That is a heartbreaking call. I strongly believe in america and its ability to turn around. It goes back to where we started. Share of thet population has stagnated. Does not create the kind of dynamism in the labor market that we should be seen. A lot has been done and it has backfired. Thesees were made when interventions were taken. I share your concern. I think the labor market is really stuck in the mud right now. , it will not be like this forever. Thet has been done by government. It just has not worked. Host heidi shierholz. I really appreciate your call. I want to focus on one of the things your call did. We have had a lot of a growth of good jobs even before this recession began. We really did not see wages growing very well for most workers for three decades before this recession began. Obama talked about that during during his speeches. Workersto focus on being able to join a union if they want to. It is increased employer aggressiveness in fighting union drives. E have seen huge growth concern that Companies Facing a union drive can keep a union from organizing. With thes not kept up union fighting in that industry. Workers who want to join a union should be able to. We know that is one of the ways we will see growth in good jobs in this country. Host thank you so much for joining us. A comet anz is economist and veronique de rugy works at george mason university. Coming up next, our america by the numbers segment takes a look at Energy Production and its use. We will be right back. The first lady reflects the schims in the United States schism in the United States about what women are supposed to be today. Are we supposed to be mom in chief or are we supposed to be first mate . If the president is supposed to be head of state and head of government, is the first lady supposed to be the ideal action fashionist . Is she supposed to be a mom in chief . Is she supposed to be the help make . Mate . Lp if she is going to be the help mate, has to understand what is going on in the country and her husbands agenda. As we continue our conversation on first ladies, about the rolelk of the first lady and it moves from Traditional Home and family and its move from Traditional Home and family to activism. This is a website. It is the history of Popular Culture. It is a collection of stories on the history of Popular Culture. To st. Paul culture, it is more than that. Say pop culture, it is more than that. I have been going into detail about how pop culture in packs sports, music. We have history of media entities, newspaper entities. There are a range of things. Ien i formulated the site, cast a wide net to see what works. Sunday with jack doyle. 8 on cspans q a washington journal continues. Host we are looking at international energy. Frank, with the center for strategic and international studies. Headlining todays wall street journal is says the u. S. Sees a boom in Global Energy use. The world will use far more of every type of energy. The u. S. Energy Department Said that an energy will drive current consumption. Us why weby telling are looking at this. Host it is important to the u. S. , priorities on a number of fronts. The environment, energy andrity, our Environment Energy consumption is going to grow by 10 after the year 2040. The worlds Energy Consumption will be up more than half over the same time. Why is this so important to the United States. Give us more details about how that the sec affects our planning for our energy usage. Guest in d expenditures are one of the highest portion of consumer budgets. Consumers are paying relatively high prices for fuels, particularly petroleum, right now. Italy electricity bills have stayed relatively low. The impact on the consumer budget is rising. Oil prices have created concerns. It is worth understanding the issues that drive that. Host you can call us as at 2025853880. If you are in the mountains, call us at 2025853881. Why is it important to look at u. S. Energy consumption and where it is headed . We are competitors, but we are also allies. You use energy for everything you did. You turn on the lights, run your electrons, cars for transportation. Electronics, cars for transportation. The emerging economies in the past, 70 of our demand was met by the developed world, as you would expect. As populations grow and Energy Intensity increases in the developing world, emerging economies are switching back. Ebay Growth Centers are asia, the middle east the big Growth Centers are asia, the middle east, africa. The prices are global. We seedam sieminski, some of the key findings. World Energy Production is expected to increase 56 by 2014. Consumption grew by less than 10 . U. S. Consumption pick up is going to be in a number of places. Electricity consumption will rise and fuelling consumption will rise. We believe coal will hold onto most of its market share over our protection period. Automobiles are getting more miles per gallon. Petroleum andw liquid fuel consumption to come down over time despite the fact that there will be more cars on the road. What doesk verrastro, that mean by you what does that mean to you . Guest we have gone to a servicetype society. We can be more competitive. There are great opportunities. Host will we be more reliant or less reliant on foreign resources by 2040 . Guest we will be less reliant. Chasm betweenbig and a lot of Infrastructure Investment has to happen. A lot of aboveground issues that we frequently talk about. As we look at opec production, it is predicted to, mainly from the middle east. That is the growth area. Why is that significant . Guest there are three Different Countries in the middle east that have big oil reserves. Audi arabia, iraq, and iran opecare key members of the organization. Production inoil countries like iraq and iran will drive considerable production. There might actually be too much production. They might have to decide how to divide up their market shares. Host we look at this graphic. The nineopec production is opecntrated in the non production is concentrated in the United States. Tell me about this. In brazil, and oil is coming from what they call the presalt to a logic formation. In canada, it is the oil sands. Kazakstan, is typical oil production. Russia is one of the biggest countries in terms of having the same kind of Oil Shale Resources we have discovered and exploited in the u. S. In places like north dakota and texas. Is predictedstates to have this growth. Growth, here is 2010, 2040. The predictions we are seeing from eia what are you watching for, Frank Verrastro . Production in the United States is on shale oil side as well as conventional production, offshore production. We thought u. S. Production peaked in 1970, and you are looking to be risk averse. Demand was growing, resource was scarce. Now we have totally flip to that. The highest production potential in 20 years, the number one or number two gas reducer in the world gas producer in the world. We could be the number one exporter at the end of the decade. It is a major transportation. Major transformation. Host jean is on the line. Gas to using natural produce methanol, as israel is for the, to compete rising price of gasoline. China for eight years has been producing methanol and using it in their cars from coal. Unfortunately, their process is polluting because it burns coal to drive the process. There happens to be a 1984 patent process from Johns Hopkins that from Johns Hopkins and produces twice as much methanol per ton of coal because it does not burn the coal. It is a chemical process. In any case, will the united thees leaves revisit alternative fuel act of 1988 and give methanol chance to help us at the fuel pump . Host Adam Sieminski . Guest the exploration of what can be done with alternate fuels is an ongoing activity here in the u. S. There has been lots of things happening. Inare using a lot of ethanol our gasoline. We are up to 10 essentially of the gasoline supply coming from ethanol. There is a lot of experimentation along with fuelced biofuels, these of diesel fuels. Methanol is one of the possibilities, but so far the cost of doing that has been higher than the number of the alternatives under way. In our longterm projections for fuels going out in 2040, we see quite a bit of fuels like ethanol in brazil and t