if you don t address the economy and change the jobs picture, the health care situation only gets worse, and as we have gone to an implementation of obamacare, you have seen a greater stress now on the small business community which is necessary to build the new jobs. so it s completely backwards, and it s not, it s not unreasonable megyn: we still have the numbers on those, 51 her plus percent of americans favor repeal of the law, 51-plus favor repeal of the health care law. here we are more than two years later. bernard, let s talk about keystone oil pipeline. the republicans tried to force a start on the construction of the bill of the keystone oil pipeline last week, and 69 democrats voted for it in the house. they say that they are within one or two votes of getting it done in the senate as well. if democrats in the congress reject the president s approach on keystone, what does that say to the president, and what does it say to the american people? well, what i think it sho
the third consecutive increase in cost at mcdonald s and we will find consumers will think the happy meal, is not so happy when it is 3 percent more expensive. stuart: i am still pushing, how weak will be we through the year? guest: a lot wild cards on the table. if we are able to get comprehensive tax reform get some clarity, see visibility for companies perhaps they will hire and put manufacture, money to work but right now they will not and the companies will hold back because they have if clarity, no visibility. and they are disappointing if their data and that will show up in the economy. right new, jobs are a concern, and that jobs picture will not change until companies feel more confident. that is not the case. further stewart this is the third time in three years, 2010, hopes faded. and then again hopes and faded.
housing, negative news. far too many people filing for first time unemployment claims. that paints a negative picture of the jobs picture. we re only selling 4 1/2 million new 4 1/2 million homes per year. that s way down from where it should be so these two areas have turned around any progress, any growth there. it s stalled. we re going in the wrong direction, bad news for yes, decelerating good word. exactly right. home sales, rising layoffs and manufacturing activity has slowed because of what s going on in europe because they re not asking for as much. this sounds very familiar and sounds like the last two years. you can t just blame europe. you can t just saw oh, it was the tsunami in japan. it s europe slowing down. are you talking to the president right now? yes. look, the president s policies have failed. i mean, you ve got to be straight forward about this. he s had a policy of big time spending, stimulus. government does everything. he s had it for three years a
any upward trend we were seeing suddenly stalled. stu, what does this mean? reporter: the baseline for the economy s performance, the baseline for the election are those two areas, jobs and housing. both those two areas are getting worse. first of all the jobs picture. far too many people claiming unemployment benefits. that number, 38,000 should be going down d that number 386 hours should be going down but it s going back up again. the job creation cut in half, millions have left of the workforce. we are on selling 4.4 million homes per year. that s a very slow number. that number is going down even though mortgage rates are about 4%, historically low. so the housing picture. bumping along the bottom and if anything getting worse.
months that we ve highlighted here, the unemployment rate was rising. and according to his theory, it was that impression that voters took to the polls. president jimmy carter, the unemployment rate was headed down in the leadup, but in the april, may, june, springtime frame, unemployment was rising. we all know carter lost his re-election bid despite an improving jobs picture. one more. let s look at a trend lien for a president who won a second term. ronald reagan despite a punishing unemployment rate, the top 10% during his first term because it was heading in the right direction, downward, voters gave him four more years. david corn, sounds like an s.a.t. question, i know. does it make sense to you? logic then dictates that right now we re in the time sequence that matters most, not post labor day. i take that point. also i think we live in a different world where information is absorbed and