lose as many as 700,000 jobs from higher gas prices. that s peter morici from the university of maryland. remember this recession we just went through was prompted by a housing crisis, a mortgage crisis. but generally speaking, most recessions in the united states are prompted by oil prices. christine, are these high oil prices and high gas prices a major threat to our jobs recovery here in the united states? peter morici says if gas prices stay high and continue higher that you re going to see a second recession in the u.s. others say wait a second here, $3.50, $3.60 is well off the record highs and not as high as the $4 many people were saying it was going to take to hurt consumers. and there s also something else, people have a little extra money in their paycheck. i think there s $40 extra in the paycheck from the payroll tax holiday. high gas prices are meaning they re not spending the money someplace else.
they are we trying out automatic gate solutions. i much prefer having a person. that person can be friendly and provide a smile and information about the park and answer questions. but, with the higher minimum wage he switched to automated ticket months. fewer people, more unemployment. in fact, unemployment has risen more in states that raise their minimum wage. what would happen if we threw out the minimum wage? oh my goodness. that leaves an employer in the catbird seat to dive that wage as low as possible. wait a wait a second these business was like to pay their employees as little as possible. they must pay more than minimum wage because good workers have choices. at this bowling alley restaurant most workers make more than the minimum. but they didn t start there. i was minimum wage as dishwasher which was like
we saw mitch mcconnell and boehner did the same and said the numbers are alarming. they re focussing on the bill or the law being over $1 trillion. that was kind of the special marker. obama did not want to go above $1 trillion. so republicans are obviously using the numbers to make the case that this was a major expensive, you know, boondoggle. bret: and saying i told you so. saying i told you so, this was a mistake. we haven t heard a lot on the democratic side aside from the obama administration officials pushing back and saying wait a second here. this is just authorization, not appropriations. which, you know, getting out of the bureaucratic speak means it doesn t really count as dollars unless congress doles out the money. bret: let s get into that. so they put the things in the law, but congress then has to allocate the money for the combra grants and programs. charles, this is pretty amazing. if they are going to veto something, spending that is in the healthcare law. t
seized on it this morning. we saw mitch mcconnell and boehner did the same and said the numbers are alarming. they re focussing on the bill or the law being over $1 trillion. that was kind of the special marker. obama did not want to go above $1 trillion. so republicans are obviously using the numbers to make the case that this was a major expensive, you know, boondoggle. bret: and saying i told you so. saying i told you so, this was a mistake. we haven t heard a lot on the democratic side aside from the obama administration officials pushing back and saying wait a second here. this is just authorization, not appropriations. which, you know, getting out of the bureaucratic speak means it doesn t really count as dollars unless congress doles out the money. bret: let s get into that. so they put the things in the law, but congress then has to allocate the money for the combra grants and programs. charles, this is pretty amazing. if they are going to veto something, spending that is
lots of democrats i have spoken with who say, wait a minute. 10% unemployment in this country. democrats need to be focusing on jobs, jobs and jobs. they don t need to be focusing on anything else. do financial regulation and then make a pivot to jobs. that s what we ought to be talking about, and they think, you know, republicans will have a more receptive audience, wolf, with 10% unemployment, people in this country maybe less hospitable to immigration reform. thanks for joining us here in the situation room. all right. thanks very much. dramatic images of disaster from a tornado that plowed across dozens ever miles leaving at least a dozen people dead in two states. plus, playboy s hugh hef nore the rescue. quite frankly, i can respect that.