money. >> i'm joined now by a chief economist at the national federation of independent business. bill, nice to have you with us this morning. let's get straight to it, because new york city mayor michael bloomberg says he's giving thousands of dollars to new york business to help train workers. do you believe local programs like that one could work on a grander scale around the country? >> well, certainly training is important, but we also need some reason to hire people, and right now the big problem we have is just weak sales. we don't need tax breaks, we need customers to get the hiring done out there and, of course, that's the problem that we have. consumer spending is terrible. housing, of course, is in the ditch, and not growing at all. so that's really the issue for jobs is having customers, not tax breaks. >> bill, take a look, when we talk about president obama's plan. looks to cut the payroll tax and do so in half for 98% of businesses.