and will eventually hurt the economy. we re probably not arrived at that point yet. but with this spike in progress, 3.88 is the national average as of today. most drivers are paying $4 and a above. the impact will be apparent fairly quickly. bill: 100 bucks. fill er up. thanks, stuart. 9:20, fbn. that impact is apparent. martha: gas prices hit all-time high this month. americans consumed more than 340 million gallons much gas a day. americans spent nearly $481 billion on gas and world energy use will increase, get this, by 53% by the year 2035. this is a problem we ll have to deal with for some time, folks. now to france where a tense, 30-hour standoff ended in a hail of bullets. an admitted terrorist who claimed ties to al qaeda is now dead.
cross examine the defense s final witness, an anesthesiology expert. paul white says it was michael jackson and not murray who gave himself a fatal overdose of propofol. according to steve jobs sister his final words were, quote, oh wow, oh wow, oh wow. mona simpson says jobs said that after looking at her, his children, and then his wife. the apple founder died on october 5th at the age of 56. what a legacy he left behind. according to reports, apple has more than $81 billion in the bank. that s more than the u.s. government. the massive troop withdrawal from iraq this year won t mean there won t be american boots on the ground in the persian gulf region. the obama administration is expected to reposition forces in kuwait to prevent a collapse in iraqi security from having a major impact in the region. nbc chief pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski joins me now. good day to you. good day, veronica? was this always part of the
that s what it is. if you look at it, it is maybe 81 billion dollars in spending cuts. and 1.45 trillion in tax increases. that s not a jobs bill. just read a report, number one detriment to job creation in this country is the president s health care plan. businesses aren t going to hire people that they know they are going to be mandated to cover that s the number one thing keeping people right now from hiring new people. because they know next year, and the middle of the year after that they have to have an additional benefit that they don t now cover. greta: yours and mine favorite issue, lightly, a year ago you commissioned the gao to do a report on waste and fraud. i still have it on my desk. they are now getting cut. it is very disappointing that the appropriations committee would cut the member of congress budget 3%, but cut
that s what it is. if you look at it, it is maybe 81 billion dollars in spending cuts. and 1.45 trillion in tax increases. that s not a jobs bill. just read a report, number one detriment to job creation in this country is the president s health care plan. businesses aren t going to hire people that they know they are going to be mandated to cover that s the number one thing keeping people right now from hiring new people. because they know next year, and the middle of the year after that they have to have an additional benefit that they don t now cover. greta: yours and mine favorite issue, lightly, a year ago you commissioned the gao to do a report on waste and fraud. i still have it on my desk. they are now getting cut. it is very disappointing that the appropriations committee would cut the member of congress budget 3%, but cut
think that the worst prediction did not happen the at least here. steve: that s a good thing. of course it s the storm surge that you ve got to worry about as well after the winds die down a little bit. what about this? when you look at the stats, for instance, katrina costed something like 81 billion, maybe as high as 100 billion dollars. clearly this is not in that league. but, still, our economy is sputtering around right now. this couldn t come at a worst time. could it? it couldn t. you re right. the economy is so fragile right now. and basically, the economy growing at less than 1%. this is going to do real damage to consumer spending and when we think about this, this is one of the biggest resort weekends that the beaches all over the east coast and those were essentially closed down for the weekend. and here in washington, i m sure it was the same in new york, all the restaurants have been closed this weekend. so it s going to do some real damage to the consumer spending an