Job growth. Dont say republican, dont say democrat, just get it done. I have not heard anything other than this tough guy rhetoric, and numbers that dont add up. Its critical right now, to make the best decision. A lot of people need relief, and im not too sure the election is going to give it, no matter who gets elected. I hope hes wrong. Were taking you across the country this week. Ali velshi is in orlando. Hes on a battleground bus tour rolling from florida to ohio. And Miguel Marquez joins us from denver. Hes been traveling all over the u. S. Talking to voters. He was just in my home state of iowa. Economy the most important issue for americans. 48 registered voters put the economy at the top. Budget, health care, education, all of them up there. What are you hearing from the undecided voters . What is going to make them make up their mind . Well, lets be fair. Theyre a small piece of the pie. If youre in florida or virginia or ohio, states that are not decided, you could actually decide this election. And what these undecided voters seem to want is specifics. They dont want the promises they have been through the last four years. Theyre prepared to do the hard math. They want to see the actual equation. They dont want to hear 12 million jobs in four years, they want to hear exactly how you create 12 million jobs in four years. They dont want to hear tax cuts or 1 million more manufacturing jobs, they want to know specifically how youre going to do it. From mitt romney, they want to see the math, and from barack obama they want to see, hey, you couldnt do this for the last two years, you did say it was because of congress, but what happens if you end up with the exact same congressional makeup . What will you do differently now that you didnt do before . Miguel, youre in colorado, where the Unemployment Rate is higher than the national average, 8 . You were just in my home state of iowa where the rate is 5. 2 . On paper people in iowa should be less worried about unemployment than people in colorado. But you know what, all across these swing states, people are worried about opportunity, theyre worried about future jobs and the quality of jobs they have right now. Oh, absolutely. The big thing, sort of what ali was talking about, politics are emotional. What people cant see is what the future is. They cant see where Barack Obamas going to take the nation, they cant see exactly where mitt romneys going to take the nation. Weve talked to voters across the battleground states. And in some places theres not so much undecided as they have a soft preference for one or the other. They sort of like this one, but could go over to the other one. My guess is a lot of people dont end up voting on election day and it comes down to the battleground states and getting people out to vote and which campaign has the most organization on the ground to get them to the polls to vote. Its hard to judge the unease, that people even with jobs have right now. A new survey found 34 of middle class americans think their Retirement Income will be 50 or less of their current income. Median income in this country is about 50,000. Do the math. You cant live on half of 50,000 in retirement. You cant. The same survey found middle class americans believe their outofpocket Health Care Costs will be about 47,000 in retirement. Most estimates put it much, much higher than that. A quarter of floridas population is over the age of 60. Which issue specific to Older Americans are you hearing about in florida right now, ali . Well, there are three. The first one, of course, is medicare. They want to understand this better. And this is the one area theyre just not that clear on. Some of them are saying, jut dont touch it. Others are concerned about social security. And whether that will remain solvent. But the other issue you have to keep in mind, some of these people have investments, either savings, which theyre not earning any money on, or actually Stock Market Investments on which may have taken a big hit in the last few years. They want the president , who is going to be for an economy, who is going to help america stay stable, and have the stock market grow. Some of them have 15 or 20 or 25 more years to live and they want to know theyll have enough money to pay those bills youre talking about. Miguel, each state has its own thumbprint, if you will. As you go from place to place, are you finding that the pundits and politicians may be saying, what people are feeling around the country, but people have a different view of things . The view people have is, okay, both these candidates may be fined, they both have great plans. But how are they going to get it done in such a partisan environment. They saw a hellish recession. Theyve lived through that. They saw barack obama come into office with this great hope, and sort of this sweeping mandate of change. They saw it get bogged down in politics and theyre not entirely sure another four years with obama is going to fix it, but theyre equally unsure four years of changing track with mitt romney is going to change it. So you have people, like me, like you, like just about everybody, caught in the middle. What is the right way to go. All right. Miguel in denver, well continue to watch your travels. Really great work this week, miguel. And also, ali velshi, in a few hours, well up up on your money. Nice to see you, ali. Up next, china, a dominant topic at this weeks president ial debate. Well tell you whether china is more threat or opportunity. But first, there are more than 1. 3 billion people in china. That makes up what percentage of the worlds population . Is it a, 9 , b, 19 , c, 29 , no googling. Im going to tell you on the other side of the break. Begin. Tomato, obviously. Haha. Theres more than that though, theres a kick to it. Wahlalalalallala smooth, but crisp. Its kind of like drinking a food thats a drink, or a drink thats a food, woooooh [ male announcer ] taste it and describe the indescribable. Couldve had a v8. 19 of the worlds population lives in china. Its the biggest foreign holder of u. S. Debt, dominated the conversation at the weeks president ial debate on foreign policy. Both candidates had a lot to say on china on the campaign trail. Cnns tom foreman fact checks their claims. Were going to insist china plays by the same rules as everybody else. In part by holding down artificially the value of their currency, it holds down the prices of their goods, it means our goods arent as competitive and we lose jobs. Thats got to end. The pledge from each candidate is clear, i will crack down on china. But can they really do that and do they have their facts right . Are we losing jobs to china . Yeah, we are, about 2. 75 million over the past dozen years. Many of them are manufacturing jobs. If you look at the map from the Economic Policy institute, you can see its not even all over the country. The places with the darker orange color have lost more jobs to china. You have oregon and texas. Look at california over here. 3 of their jobs in the past dozen years lost to china. The candidates say this is largely happening because while america allows its value of the dollar to be set by the free market, and that determines the cost of labor, that china manipulates the cost of its currency. So it can control the cost of labor. Because they have a lot of people they need to employ. Theyd like to keep labor costs low to attract a lot of business. Now, its difficult to do a onetoone comparison, because productivity is very different between the u. S. And china. But lets look at it this way as much as we can. If you had a u. S. Factory and you wanted to produce something there, by the time you paid a laborer all the benefits and salary, thats going to come out to about 34 an hour, to do the same thing in china is going to be more like 2 an hour. So the Chinese Government has structured its infrastructure and Everything Else to support this idea, to bring factories in, to take advantage of that cheap labor, and to put inexpensive products out to compete on the world market. And boy, does it compete. Look at this graph showing what has happened since 1985. This is how many chinese products we were importing in 1985. And it has gone up and up and up and up, so that this is a recession right here, by the way, the little dip there, its now reached levels here, dropped down a little bit more. But a tremendous increase in the number of chinese products coming into the United States since 1985. But now look at what were sending over there. U. S. Products in 1985 were about even with chinese, and now not nearly as much. Its far behind. What can a president do about that. They could put some kind of a trade barrier in place to stop the chinese imports, but if they did that, china would probably respond with trade barriers to u. S. Products going there. They could say to the u. S. Companies, you cant go over there and take advantage of the cheap labor. If that happens, the companies are at a greater disadvantage on the world market. You have to remember, china has been buying a lot of u. S. Debt. If china stopped doing that, it could make it hard for the government to borrow money to keep operating. Professor of economic policies at the university of california irvine, director of the documentary film death by china. That was a fantastic analysis by tom foreman. And there are more dimensions to this trade situation. Flatout government subsidies of an Industrial Complex there, military complex in china, right . You also have vast, vast levels of stealing, property theft, huge concerns the American Government is on record about. That goes beyond the currency issue, which you heard a lot about in the debate. And the wage issue, peter. So youve got five or six different levers here with china. And at any one time the president s only moving one of them. Yes. You know, the one thing i would add to toms analysis is, sure, china has cheap labor, but my Research Indicates that the far bigger advantage that china has in the world market is from Everything Else it does, and that includes, as you indicated, the currency manipulation. Huge, huge, huge illegal export subsidies. The theft of our intellectual property. The right in china to put anything you want in the water or air. And basically, Labor Conditions which are essentially indentured servitude. There are a lot of moving parts. The question, of course, is what do we do from a policy point of view. Now, the romney proposal to crack down on chinese currency manipulation is interesting, because it was the same thing obama promised in 2008 that he didnt deliver on. Is it a good idea. Well, the advantage of that is simply if you brand china a currency manipulator, it gives you the right to control duties. If china is undervalued by 25 , 30 , you would be able to put tariffs on chinese goods, which would help all industries. The other thing i would say about toms analysis, is this whole thing about we only lost 2. 5 million jobs. Thats just dead wrong. Its a lot more than that. Because since china entered our market, christine, in 2001, our growth rate has dropped by twothirds. And weve been failing to create 2 million jobs a year, over 20 million and the wages, some argue the wages of theobs we have been stagnant. Absolutely. Not just china, but china the biggest player. Let me bring in a White House Defense here. The president pointed out in the last debate that the dollar is right now at its most advantageous for exporters to china since obama came to office. He actually said the most since 1993, i think. That were moving in the right direction. They have let this currency float a little bit in that band. Isnt that a sign of progress, that the chinese are listening . Lets see. Lets look at that plan. First of all, its a very parochial plan by the president. He doesnt really see the big global picture. Heres the problem, yeah, the yuan has gone up some. But the dollars gone down more over the last two years. So that fits peg to the dollar by china is actually hurting every other country in the world, including europe, which is in the tank. So thats number one, when you talk about the president s view on that. The second thing is, if you look at when the president took office, christine, the trade deficit with china has grown every single year and is now going to breach 300 billion. Over the course of his term weve added over 1 trillion in debt to china. The bottom line here is that chinas currency wont be properly valued until we dont have a trade deficit with china. Were out of time, but well talk about it soon. Great having you on again. Thank you so much. Want to know how you can make 70,000 a year with an Associates Degree . One of the best jobs out there. They need you. And it cant be outsourced. Ill tell you about that job right after the break. [ male announcer ] youve been years in the making. And there are many years ahead. Join the millions of members whove chosen an aarp Medicare SupplementInsurance Plan insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. Go long. For a golf getaway. Double miles you can actually use. But mr. Single miles cant join his friends because hes getting hit with blackouts. Shame on you. Now hes stuck in a miniature nightmare. Oh, thank you. But, with the capital one venture card. You can fly any airline, any flight, any time. Double miles you can actually use. Whats in your wallet . Alec jr . It was a gift. America needs more jobs. After that hellish recession, job creation just has not been strong enough. Nearly 60 of the jobs gained in the recovery, by the way, have been low wage jobs as well. And weve only seen strong employment growth in a few sectors, a few sectors that stand out. Leisure and hospitality, for example. Last month alone, 38 of jobs added were in health care. Its one of the few fields where you can make a good salary without a bachelors degree. Dental hygienist, its a great job if you dont mind bad breath. We spent a day with one dental hygienist to get the dirt on cleaning teeth. Nice to see you. Sharmaine dennis loves her job. This is my career. Flexibility, high pay and growing command put dental hygienist at the top of this list of best Health Care Jobs, ahead of audiologist, occupational therapist, physical therapist, and optometrist. Well get started and then well do the oral exam. The Median Income for dental hygienists is about 68,000 a year. Hiring is projected to rise 38 by the year 2020. Above average for an industry already on a hiring tear. More than three Million Health care jobs have been add over the last decade. On the industry is projected to grow nearly 30 by 20 20. The data clearly says that virtually every occupation in health care will see job growth ranging from primary care and general surgery dentistry, even psychologists, but the largest number of new jobs will be mid level jobs. These will be jobs of technicians, of allied health professionals, of home health aids, even health coaches. Heres the pay for those top jobs in health care. But not all Health Care Jobs are created equal. Theres huge demand for home health and personal care aids, but they take home about 20,000 a year. Good paying jobs like charmaines take an investment and more school. I took the opportunity of doing it in the evenings. It was four days a week and i worked full time during the day and on the weekends. Wow. So you were working so hard. I was working really hard. But it was worth it. But these are investments you have to make in a career, right . A decision to not have a job, but to have a career. That was my goal. She needed an associated degree. The Typical Program cost 30,000. She made the investment and is collecting the dividends. Were not just talk about the money. When i open that mouth when they open that mouth, nothing surprises me after 24 years. Nothing. It feels good to get that plaque buildup. It does. Do that polishing and get that beautiful smile. Knowing that theyre going to continue with their home care. Shes the real deal. Good job security there for some of those health care fields. Debates are over. Ten days left until you head to the polls. The key issues both candidates are just flatout ignores. Im going to rant on what we havent heard. Americans believe they should be in charge of their own future. How theyll live tomorrow. For more than 116 years, Ameriprise Financial has worked for their clients futures. Helping millions of americans retire on their terms. When they want. Where they want. Doing what they want. Ameriprise. The strength of a leader in retirement planning. The heart of 10,000 advisors working with you onetoone. Together for your future. If youre a man with low testosterone, you should know that axiron is here. The only underarm treatment for low t. Thats right, the one you apply to the underarm. Axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18. Axiron can transfer to others through direct contact. 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[ brooklyn accent ] 50 more simoleons. [ western accent ] 50 more sawbucks. [ maine accent ] 50 more clams. Its a lobster, either way. [ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card. With a 50 annual cash bonus, its the card for people who like more cash. [ italian accent ] 50 more dough whats in your wallet . In ten days, we head to the polls, but there are still major issues both candidates have failed to address. Hello, europe anyone . The deterioration of europes economy squeezing the sales and profits of u. S. Corporations. Dupont is cutting 1,500 jobs worldwide. Forbes says it will lose 1. 5 billion in europe this year. Caterpillar just slashed its 2012 profit forecast again. It says we do not see signs the governments of the eurozone and the european spral bank will change economic policies to deal with the recession. We believe the eurozone is the most significant risk to our 2013 outlook. Ouch. So mr. President , mr. Romney, what role if any should the u. S. Be playing in fixing europes debt crisis . I ask. But all i hear is this. [ crickets ] then theres housing. Yes, the recovery looks fragile, but its real. More than 500,000 homeowners still got a notice last quarter. Negative equity is falling, but 10. 8 million americans are still under water. Yet both candidates have been virtually silent on housing. But the one thing that really gets me, the one ive been talking about for months, the fiscal cliff, massive tax hikes, massive spending cuts scheduled to take effect january 1st. Actually, it came up in the last debate when the president flatly dismissed it. It will not happen. It will not happen. Hes talking about the sequester, the part of the fiscal cliff that mandates huge, sharp automatic spending cuts. He says its not going to happen. How can the president be so sure . Well, he can be sure because when the people vote on november 6th and the president is reelected, a strong message will be sent that the American People want a balanced approach to solving this problem, and there are plenty of people on both sides who want to get that done and will get that done. No talks of congress. No effort to make any Real Progress right now. Just a wait until after the election, and it will be all fine kind of thing. Sorry, im not too reassured yet. Thats an awfully big gamble when american households are facing an average tax hike of 3500, when 109 billion in automatic spending cuts not well thought out or smartly targeted are set to take effect next year. When the cbo has said going over the fiscal cliff will plunge the u. S. Economy back into recession. With ten days until the reelection, it doesnt look like were going to get it, not out of washington, not out of congress, and certainly not on the campaign trail. What have you heard . Have you heard anything that you need to hear to make your decision . Tell me on facebook or via twitter. Lets keep the conversation