paul ryan returns to capitol hill today to cast his vote as members consider legislation that would block president obama's welfare law changes. this morning we will be talking about the economy. 51% of americans polled said the economy is getting better. we thought we would turn it into a quantitative discussion with you. how would you have answered the question? is the economy recovering? tell us yes or no and why or why not. you can also post on facebook. send us a tweet or an email. and a dead thursday morning to you. there are some many ways that the economy is pulling out in the political campaign. but mr. by showing you this new nbc news washington journal poll that has been making news this week. here is the wednesday coverage of it. uptick and eight, -- optimism on the economy. there is the uptick. we have lots of headlines to assure you. to demonstrate how important those in washington think the economy is, with the commission on presidential debates announced their topics, and we have the news release here. let me show you if we can get in real close. three-quarters of the debate will be specifically on the economy underscoring the importance. as we get into the discussion with you on this polling question, at do you think the economy is recovering, they also did a focus group. here is a question he asked people what they think is most important in the election. >> when it comes are down to it, this election was really about -- >> the economy. >> health care. >> the economy. >> health care. what's the economy. >> the economy. >> economics. >> the economy. host: you can see among those people participating, most of them have the economy on their mind. if you had taken part of the national survey of 900 voters and ask the question "do you think the economy is recovering ," would you have been part of the 51% that said yes? let's begin with robert. caller: good morning. this is only the third time i have called. i have always wished i could get you on the line. it seems like you are not there that often. this is a special call for me. in terms of the economy and if i think it is recovering, i think it is recovering. i wish we would -- we always talk about this. i do not want to get in the whole thing about mitt romney's comments about the 47%, when you talk about entitlements, why does it have to be about the poor. i do not consider myself corp. why would you say entitlements' means them when it could mean a special tax breaks for super wealthy people? also if the 47% that pay little to no taxes, mitt romney if he paid 14% or 13%, that is kind of close to zero. that is not a long way from not paying taxes. this term about entitlements -- the economy is recovering. we need to define what everybody means by entitlements. i think all kinds of people are entitled to all kinds of stuff. i think they could include everybody. host: let me interrupt you. give us a piece of evidence why you think it is recovering. caller: i think it is recovering and one quick way because the teachers went back to work at enter chicago. because the auto industry is no. 1 in the world again and many have paid back their loans. believe it or not, it is a shame that gas prices are at the ridiculous prices. but oil companies are making bazillions of dollars. the fat cats are getting more fat. host: thank you for your call. steven is an independent. do you think the economy is recovering? why or why not? caller: good morning. thank you for having me. i appreciate c-span. i do think the economy is recovering slowly. i am or the about the petrodollars and how countries like india is starting to trade with iran and not using american currency. i was wondering if you could speak on that a little bit. host: thank you for your call. thomas henderson tweets this. next is a phone call. good morning charlene, you are on. caller: thank you for taking my call. the question is, is the recovery in the air. yes, i think there is recovery in the air. i do want to make a distinction. african americans are definitely still out of the job recovery. there are still no jobs for african americans. nobody is talking about it. nobody is doing anything about it in terms of leaders, elected officials. president obama has done a lot for the immigrant population. he has done a lot for other populations, and specifically african americans here in the country. i am little bit disturbed by it. i know people who are working that have master's degrees and a ph.d. is, they are not making as much as their counterparts who have just basilar degrees and high-school diplomas. that is a disgrace. -- bachelor degrees and high- school diplomas. host: i would point to this article today. there is more on the wall street journal if that topic interests you. let me show you a few more results. this is available on-line. as i mentioned, they have quite a number of economic questions. we tell do the first one we are using our question on this morning. related to that, a very specific one, will the economy get better in the next 12 months? this showed an uptick of 6%. 42% now say the economy will get better in the next 12 months. that came from a group of people earlier said they would stay the same. they are now more optimistic by 6%. more economic data from nbc and the wall street journal. we are using one of their questions. tell us why you do or do not think the economy is recovering. caller: thank you for having me on this morning. i absolutely do agree that the economy is recovering, although it is a little bit slow. that is due to the republicans blocking president obama for anything he passes. if the republicans are not going to give this man anything that he needs for us americans to recover, then shame on them. they are americans, too. i do not get it. i understand it is all about politics. in 2008, a lot of people said this, there is no way that no one president will be able to turn to run this economy the way it was left for us. now, the republicans because they want to win office, they do not want to help president obama do anything. it is a total failure from star one. then again, the recovery is slow, but it is gradually getting there. and four more years, hopefully we can have unity in the house once again. host: thank you, joseph. jan on twitter -- the housing market is getting stronger, at two reports indicate. new construction and sales rise. kathy reporting for the newspaper. the u.s. housing market, existing home sales increased 7.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.8 2 million in august, and the national median home price rose on a year-over- year basis for the sixth month in a row. next is a call from maine. this is leslie the republican. caller: i think the economy is going down. i blame the last three presidents. especially president clinton. things are getting worse and worse and more expenve. on top of that, they still bring in 1.6 million legal immigrants, plus they did not want to close the borders. pat buchanan is right. things are bad. host: next is a call from colorado. this is a democrat. you are on the air. caller: i think the economy is doing great. according to the model that republicans set, wall street is doing great. a foster it is doing great and it has recovered higher than it has in the last 13 years, then the economy is recovering. all of that money that people make on wall street will trickle down. the only thing that is not doing great is the republicans voted against veterans again when they did not support funding for the jobs bill yesterday. host: thank you. we will show you a story about that in a minute. the amish are you "the wall street journal" this morning. we have some local newspapers, arizona on our cable this morning. we are showing you the local reporting on these census bureau numbers that the wall street journal of debt. next up is ron who is a democrat. caller: i would have to say the economy is improving over what it has been the past three years. i live in an area that is high tourist vacation area. three years ago you almost could close down the street and everything. this past summer was a boom. i have never seen so many people coming into the area. the town i live in is approximately 1400 people year around. in the summer time it goes up to 30,000. every year, this particular one we have just seen a huge increase in people taking vacations that are interested in coming into the area. through no help of the republican congress, we are doing much better. thank you. good morning. host: thank you for calling in. stephen on torture says this -- -- stephen on twitter says this -- let's look at a few more members from the poll. this is a question commonly asked in a way to understand the mood of the electorate. do you think you are better off or worse off than four years ago? 38% are saying they are better off. in august that was 31%. worse off is 41%. that is statistically unchanged since august. in the same place, that is where the 6% came from. asking you whether or not you think the economy is recovering, next up is a call from indiana. this is paul who is a republican. caller: good morning. i am glad to have taken my call. on the economy, how are we going to say we are better off if ben bernanke starts printing money to the tune of $40 billion a month? that will drive the value of our currency down the toilet. anybody with a little common sense would know it. another thing that is really bugging me. every time i hear a democrat call and, the only rich people in this country are republicans. do you know something, i appeal -- host: thank you. law street journal this morning highlights global central banks has they say flexing their muscles. japan follows europe and u.s.. right along side that. we are asking you, do you think the economy is recovering? tell us why or why not. next is a call from oklahoma. jerry is an independent. caller: good morning. you are the fine wine of cable days. the economy is not improving. i think the economy is like an illusion right now just like it was during clinton's tech bubble. the figures are pretty bad. manufacturing is down. i would like to use an example of up here in miami, okla., what jobs are leaving the. a little small business manufacturing company. they were forced to shut down. the reason why they were forced to shut down -- and these jobs will be sent overseas -- is because trial lawyers trying to buy the rhetoric from trial lawyers and gov. regulations. these are all principles coming from the liberal element of the democratic party. since 1968 liberals have controlled all facets of government at federal, state, and local levels. the control the educational system, and the control visual media. the question they need to be asking the, for all of our problems at all these things that have taken place and built up, when are they going to start accepting responsibility for some of the problems we have? thank you. two the good work. host: we are going to have a congressman from oklahoma on our program following next at about 8:30. a democrat from washington will also be at the table. here is the reporting from the washington times. bill nelson a democrat from florida -- good morning jinnah, you are on the air. caller: i would like to start off by saying i think you are the fairest and most non- partisan host that is on c-span. the young lady -- although she was beautiful on yesterday -- i think she is a little biased. i would like to give you an example about what i think about the economy. i think it is going down the tubes. how could you say that we are doing better when we are over $16 trillion in debts to all of these other countries that hit us? second of all, i work for a medical company. last week we had five layoffs. this is an example of what will happen to the medical profession, especially when the new health-care law goes into effect. the doctors are all going to basically bankrupt, and they cannot afford their staff. the government is making it so difficult to even bill a claim to medicare and these insurance companies that it is almost impossible. we have of five employees, and a looks like our company is going under. all of you democrats living in some kind of fantasy land about president obama, you need to step back and look at the bigger picture of what is going on again show the world and what exactly he stands for and the very fact he is an anti colonist and was mentored by a communist leader. does that not mean anything to you people? we live by denture a free country. we live in a great country and he wants to change our country. please wait up. host: maverick on twiter writes -- facebook, in addition to posting a comment we have turned this into a pole. you can respond with agree or disagree on our c-span facebook page. let's check in and see how the poll is going. so far 74 people say a bakery that the economy is recovering. 48 people disagree the economy is recovering. you can add your voice to that on c-span's facebook page. next up, jim an independent is on the air. caller: good morning. i would like to say that i believe the economy -- everyone saying it is doing well, my company is closed up. i have a four degrees and i have to stand behind all of these newcomers to america. whoever is saying the economy is doing better -- i am sad to say i voted for the guy in office. host: what kind of work did you do? caller: retail. host: the whole entire company is gone? caller: it is gone with the wind. everything, the car dealerships -- there is nothing in town. host: how long have you been out of work? caller: a about one year and a half. host: have your unemployment benefits run out? caller: they are gone. i was a seasonal worker working at certain places. i cannot get a full-time job. i do not know what people are talking about is getting better. i bounce iran from temporary job to temper a job. i did not have the student loans for nothing. i like your show on every moment -- every morning. these newcomers in america, they are forgiven for a softer anything. we have all kinds of newcomer criminals to our country. host: i am sure all of us wish you well on your job search. here is the list, let's take a look. number one is still bill gates. warren buffett number two. larry ellison third-place. the koch brothers next. christy walton of walmart, jim walton, alice walton. robson walton. and in 10th place, michael bloomberg at $25 billion. do you think the economy is recovering? vivian is a democrat. caller: good morning. thank you for letting me on the air. i do think that the economy is doing better. i work in the medical field. we have not lost any people. i think is, if we let the republicans have their way, this economy will go down. people that are stranded and cannot find a job -- the jobs are out there. there are plenty of jobs out there if people want to work. the republicans that i hear come on the television saying that president obama is not doing his job, he cannot do his job if the republicans will not stand with him. we are united. we are the united states. if we all work together, the republicans work with the democrats and independents work with the republicans and democrats, i thank you for letting me have my comment. host: here are two facebook posts. there's more on the facebook page asking the question, do you think the economy is recovering?" dave is a republican. caller: i may be a little bit off the reservation here, but i think the question is a little bit wrong. it is not if the economy is recovering, but has the economy recovered? the level of gdp is 1.7% higher than the prior peak in the fourth quarter of 2007. the economy has recovered. that is a real term. it has just been a slow recovery and has not been fast enough for a number of reasons. but the facts show from economic analysis that the economy has recovered. we have moved into an expansion mode. it is just growing slowly. host: thank you very much. we picked the question of directly from the nbc news pollster question. 51% said yes. in august it was 50. the not shores are 2%. not recovering as 45% and 46%. pittsburgh, pa., to reset is up next. -- theresa is up next. caller: it is not progressing. it is not using its full potential. i studied an economist named milton friedman. his philosophy is laissez-faire which is putting it into the hands of the people. that is all i have to say. host: usa today hasn't economically related story. your of as comedic -- commuting solo. next up is a call from irving, texas as we ask you if you think the economy is recovering. caller: kid you hear me? host: good morning. caller: thank you to c-span. i believe the economy is actually recovering, but the so- called job creators are not willing to invest in our economy. job creators are outsourcing the work overseas which basically it affects the unemployment. it ought to be what each individual feels. the economy is better, because when president obama took office we were losing massive jobs, going through a lot -- we went through a financial crisis. he turned that around and stop that. the problem is, all of a sudden all of these job creators that the bush tax cuts were given to -- i do not consider myself an economist. i am just a layperson. i watch a lot of c-span. the people that were given these tax cuts to, instead of investing the money in are in the in this country, they look at the bottom line and take the jobs overseas. the most expensive part of a job is labor. if you can get a job done at $5 an hour, with america you might be getting paid $15 an hour. i do think the economy is getting better. i just think that, you know, the so-called job creators need to be more patriotic to were the country. host: thank you. let's listen to another clip from a virginia group of undecided voters. the question is "was cares or concerns you right now?" >> just the whole economy. how do we get out? i do not see any candidates really having a plan were really giving direction. host: back to the newspapers this morning. next from twitter -- let's take the next call from here in washington, d.c. joyce is a republican. caller: i agree with those who say i do not think we are recovering. i think the major part of it is so many of the billionaire's are sailing along and we are being pulled back by billionaires' like george soros who continually says he was to puncture the american supremacy. he has a book called "the bubble of american supremacy." he says that. i heard him speak a while ago at the national press club. one thing he was trying to do at the time was trying to legalize drugs. there was a huge article in the new yorker magazine talking about a meeting he held. i am very concerned about this election. we attended a meeting that some of his young people who have collected a lot of expertise on the internet talking about the millions and millions of votes they had collected that they thought they could interject into the voting system. one of the things that scares me so much more about it is the group he was leading said they would like to legalize all drugs if they could. we have so many problems now with drugs already. usa today, some discussions over the years about the hoax of medical marijuana. host: i am going to jump in because we only have a few minutes left. the washington post tells us the washington, d.c. area where the government is a major contributor to the economy is thriving through the tough times. even after the recession took its toll, seven counties ranked among the nation's most affluent. next call from north pole, virginia. caller:-- norfolk, virginia. caller: i think the economy is recovering. i would like to ask republicans to figure out one thing for me. if mr. romney ran for governor of massachusetts, how could they have -- he left them in a deficit. why can they not see that? he is no good. if he created all of the jobs, -- that is one stage he