food and gas prices taking a toll on consumers. we are asking you, are you confident in president biden's handling of the economy? give us a call if you are republican, (202)-748-8001. democrats can call (202)-748-8000, independents (202)-748-8002. you can text as your comments at (202)-748-8003 but be sure to include your first name and city/state. we are on social media, facebook.com/c-span and you can send us a tweet @cspanwj. before we get to your calls, i will show you some headlines on the economy and we will hear from the president and republican senator as well. here is cnbc's headline. payrolls rose 390,000 in may, better than expected as companies keep hiring. here are some bullet points. unemployment rate held at 3.6% but the jobless rate edged to 7.1%. the average hourly earnings rose slightly, less than expected, but still up 5.2% from a year ago. leisure and hospitality led the gains in jobs followed by professional and business services and then warehousing and transportation. here the headline from politico, biden's new challenge, putting a spin on a slowing economy. let's look at president biden's comments he made yesterday. pres. biden: there is no denying had prices, especially around gasoline and food, are real problems for people. but there is every reason for the american people to feel confident we will meet these challenges. because of the enormous progress we have made on the economy, americans can tackle inflation from strength. -- a position of strength. the progress we have made is critical. at the time i took office 16 months ago the economy had stalled and covid was out of control. today, thanks to the economic plan and vaccination plan america has achieved the most robust economy in modern history. two years removed from the worst economic crisis since the great depression, the job market is the strongest it has been since just after world war ii. we got more evidence of that today. the total new jobs to 8.7 million new jobs, an all-time record. more americans entered the labor force in may. working age people have come back into the workforce at a faster rate in this recovery then it any point the last 40 years. that means the unemployment rate is near historic lows and the number of americans on unemployment benefits has got from record highs to record lows. host: that was the president speaking yesterday about the economy. let's look at republican senator kevin cramer talking about what he is calling the president's missteps when it comes to combating inflation. sen. cramer: first thing he could do is lift regulatory craziness. his first day in office he signed several regulations and executive orders, undid the good orders trump put in place. he also said he inherited a very bad economy, that it was static. he inherited a robust economy built on a strong foundation, lower regulations, lower taxes. the reason we were able to come back so quickly after covid was because of the foundation built by the trump administration and republicans in congress prior to the pandemic. he doubled down on dumb, passed the american rescue plan, he increased regulations, stopped oil development largely in the united states or stop it where it was, and worse than all of that, all of these plus many more send bad signals to investors in the marketplace. while he talks about wanting to incentivize energy development, he wants to have taxes for clean energy, electric vehicles, all the while the world is calling for more oil and gas and other energy sources. everything he does sends the wrong messages. host: we are talking about how confident you are in president biden's handling of the economy. here is his job approval on the economy. approval at 35.5%, disapproval 60.4%. that is almost a 25% difference. we are going to start with steve in anderson, indiana on the republican line. good morning, steve. caller: good morning. yeah, the economy is really bad. it is not going to get any better until we get these gas prices down. it is going to keep -- the economy is just going to get worse because, you know, everything transported, the diesel fuel, the truckers have to charge more therefore it is going to be more on the shelves. just cannot understand why we can't just go ahead and bring back trump's policies. host: which policies, steve? caller: energy independent in the united states. to help these places some. host: have you been driving less because of the price of gas? caller: yeah. i have to drive to indianapolis which is about 60 miles one way, about 120 miles a day. it has cost me probably about $80 more a week to drive back and forth to work. it is just not going to get any better until we can get -- go back to being energy independent in the united states. host: let's talk to anthony next in san antonio, texas on the democrats line. caller: how are you doing? host: good. caller: the prices are ridiculous, but if you look at the rest of the world, we are paying less than everybody else. biden does not control the prices. it is also understood biden allowed the oil companies to open back in the united states. they are not willing to take the loss again. it is not that they are not allowed to, they refused to. host: all right, anthony. joel next in middletown, wisconsin on the republican line. caller: good morning, ma'am. what a welcome addition you are to "washington journal." host: thank you. caller: i have no confidence in president biden. his handling of our economy has been a kin to his handling of afghanistan. i cannot believe all of this -- nobody could be this inept by accident. secondly, when people talk about fuel prices and he did not control them, talking to my fellow texan who said he did not control gas prices, oil is sold on a commodity market, it is sold on futures. when they set offshore production leases and more, keystone pipeline, and then the ability to make pipelines to transport this fuel out of those areas, this is the natural consequence to it. it is not by accident. he said he was going to do it and he did it in an attempt to force us into the electric cars and clean energy. now, i have absolutely zero confidence in anything. host: all right, joel. josephine on the independent line from livingston, new jersey. caller: good morning. host: morning. caller: talking about economy, you know what amazes me? just like the gentleman before me, the sky is falling, oh, that gas is bad. i work for the department of labor 42 years. not once in 42 years did the unemployment rate reached 3.6%, not once. republican and democrat, not once. number two, there are so many jobs out there. this is the first time in years an employee has the right to go to an employer and say, i want this for a salary. i heard my beautician say, people don't want to work today. no, they want to be paid a decent wage, they want food on the table. gee, isn't that a bad idea, they want food on the table. host: the josephine, you were about to say the gas prices. people are working but they cannot afford to fill their tank up. caller: let me just say this, i have been there. i am 78. it did not happen just now. in 1974 when i bought my first car -- they talk about gas prices -- we were all too happy to pay gas prices. do you know what it is like to stand in line for gas for two days? what are you talking about? you do not know what gas is about. we would have paid any price to get gas. you are paying high prices now, you are right, you are paying a high price. but you are not looking at the right person. look at the companies that produce the gas. i said it before months ago. look at the quarterly reports. you people have your ears closed and what do i mean by the quarterly report of the fuel industry? you want to make money right now? buy stock in fuel because they are making hand over foot. they are gouging you and you don't get it, you do not get it. they are stealing from you. wake up. host: speaking of gas prices, here is from yahoo! finance. gas prices -- troubling sign on the health of consumers. sticker price shock at the gas pump may finally be breaking the back of the u.s. consumer. new data shows current u.s. gas consumption levels are running 3% lower than a year ago and have been declining at a 3% to 5% clip the last seven weeks. people are driving less. let's talk to james in myrtle beach, south carolina on the independent line. caller: yes, ma'am. host: yes, james. caller: the lady who just sat there speaking told nothing but the truth. i sit here all week long and i listen to these people call in. most of them sound like they are 50's up into their 70's, mid 70's, and all they want to do is complain because we have got a little bump in the road. you are going to have to make some sacrifices and we are going to have to pay a little bit more money for the gas and what we buy at the store. this is not the first time this has happened. i remember when jimmy carter, we could only buy gas on certain days. then ronald reagan came in and did the trickle-down tax bill and it worked. we went through hell before it started working but it worked. and that it was so good he got reelected. host: james, do you think this is just something temporary and it is going to go away pretty quickly? because it has been a while. caller: i know it has been a while, but it is going to take some time. it took time for us to get back on our feet for jimmy carter, i mean, ronald reagan. if you had a job, you had to keep that job. it did not matter what pay you were getting, at least you were getting money. they put a freeze on it. and then we went through the same thing with bush. young bush left office in 2007, 2008, it looked like a ghost town. we stopped working and they quit hiring. it got so bad the mexicans were going back to mexico because there was no work. host: james, i want to show you president biden's from last july. almost a year ago and he was assuring americans inflation and supply chain issues were temporary. pres. biden: we know as our economy has come roaring back see price increases. some worry this could be a sign of persistent inflation, but that is not our view. our experts believe and the data shows most of the price increases we have seen were expected and expected to be temporary. the reality is you cannot flip the global economic light back on and not expect this not to happen. as demand returns there is going to be global supply chain challenges. we have seen that in semiconductors which are used in automobiles. that global shortage, has slowed vehicle production created a temporary spike in car prices. that is a real challenge. my administration is doing everything we can to address it. but again, these disruptions are temporary. host: that was the president from last july. let's hear now from joe in arnold, maryland on the republican line. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: good morning to you. i have got zero confidence in joe biden. he first starts his presidency by declaring war on our energy industry in this country and expects that was going to solve our problems by transitioning to green energy that is not ready to go. they then dumped $2 trillion into our economy we did not need and they expect we would not have inflation the way it is. they declared war on the lower and middle class, making it impossible for them to see their families. we need to vote these democrats and their lousy policies -- [indiscernible] host: sounds like we lost you. it was not a very good connection. we will next go to michigan on the democrats line. caller: correct. this is all part of the cycle. the republicans come in, they wreck the economy, they ignore the pandemic, the democrats come in, they repair it. reagan went in, ran inflation through the roof, debt through the roof and then bush did the same thing. clinton came in, ran the pay issue go system, paid off part of the debt. he lost to another. republican bush came in and crash the economy in 2008. obama comes in, fixes it, and then you acted like there was a huge problem that trump had to repair something. he didn't. he was riding the obama wave, ignored the pandemic, gave tax breaks to billionaires, ran the economy into the ground. here is joe biden has to come in and repair it. that is part of our political system. host: so chuck -- caller: republicans run into the ground and the democrats fix it. host: you are confident that the president will fix it. do you have an idea of a timeline? how quickly do you think he can fix it? caller: he is doing the best he can with the republican congress that does not want to repair anything. he is doing the best he can. host: let's talk to sheila in oklahoma on the republican line. caller: hello. thank you for allowing me to call today. i enjoy having you as a commentator. you know, ever since president biden has come in our economy has gone down. at the gas pump he got rid of the keystone pipeline, gas went up. they want to do lisa's and they applied -- leases and they applied for leases but the democrats will not allow them to drill. we were energy independent when president trump was there but we are not now. we are having to buy oil. we got it of jobs from the energy factor by shutting down the leases which causes us to have to buy oil. we were not when president trump was there. everything he tries to do he ruins. host:host: speaking of oil from overseas, opec+ announces a 50% increase in oil output for july and august. that is on "the hill" newspaper. on thursday the opec+ nations agreed to increase oil output by 50% for the next two months after initially standing by a 400,000 barrel release. that is now going to go up to 648,000 barrels per day. let's talk next to paul in brockton, massachusetts on the independent line. caller: good morning. the whole thing is sickening. corporate america is pretty much running the white house and all of the politics. getting back to the saudi arabia and supply, why wouldn't they? with this huge price increase they are going to make trillions of dollars off american people. the sad thing is someone that makes $50,000 a year in massachusetts is destitute. they cannot afford their housing, now their energy. try to heat a house with $1200 a month. i was talking to a trucker. he told me it cost $3000 in fuel to go from brockton to california. the democrats are in charge by corporate america. corporate america is fleecing the poor people and they did not realize it. they are owned by special interest and the interests for the american people -- if we had a good man in their, he would do whatever he could to fulfill our energy needs to keep this price down. instead, he is just -- they are in your face. they have other agendas. host: my question to you is, how have you been affected by it? have you made any changes to the way you are living, to what you are doing, how much you are driving, how much food you are buying? caller: you have to live or you just go deeper in debt. americans are going deeper in debt. people are buying less things, doing less things. it is coming to a head. another year from now people are going to be really broke. you are going to see more homeless people because they are letting corporate america torch and destroy people. now the credit card industry has changed the rate of exchange. now the customer has to pay the rate and the fees. it is a nationwide thing. that is another joke. nobody regulates the credit card industry because their hands so deep in the politicians' pockets. nothing is said about it. it is sad. americans are going to be swallowed alive unless they find someone who cares about america. host: let's go to jeff in delaware. caller: i was wondering why you did not correct that person that said republicans controlled congress? clearly they do not. did the democrats even know what is going on? he went on and on about how republicans ruined the economy and democrats fix it. that seems to be the consensus among liberals. i wanted to talk about "the washington times" got the pulitzer for lies about hunter biden? it is ridiculous. i want to congratulate johnny depp -- host: it seems that you called on the wrong line. please make sure to call on the right line next time. susan is next on the republican line from massachusetts. caller: hi, how are you today? host: good. caller: i want to talk about joe biden doing a lousy job. he is not for america. all of these deals for the countries that can have everything the american people cannot. this man is a fake president. he went home early again to delaware. don't the american people understand? he is not up to it. he is not fit enough to do it and you people know it in the media. another thing, harris' people, they are resigning. you have is 21 young staffers leaving because they see biden. he is not doing nothing for any race. he is making it worse and it is a globalist takeover. until the american people understand -- when are we going to start talking like that? i cannot wait for the republicans to win because we are going to impeach him, the whole crime family, hillary clinton and obama. remember that fog? ? -- thug. host: checking in on the gas. the national averages $4.81. you can see the red being the highest and the west coast california is the highest in the country. the average being $6.29. let's go next to chris on the independent line from westminster, maryland. good morning, chris. caller: thank you for letting me talk. i have no confidence in biden at all. he has done some good but the most important things he has not taken care of. gas prices right now, oil prices, instead of enacting the self-defense act to bring out more lithium and cobalt, he could have put that self defense act and ordered the companies to drill more and build more refineries but he has not done anything like that. he is just letting the corporations do their own thing and we are being bombarded with higher gas prices which is basically a repetitive tax. host: all right, chris. let's go next to anita in florida on the democrats align. -- line. . anita? let's go to clay in metairie, louisiana on the republican line. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. several of my comments that i would make have been made by other republicans, so i would skip over that. but i would look at this nice lady on c-span, do you feel like you were better off today than you were two years ago? i certainly don't. the few of my programs i watch are c-span and the business channel. the business channel may sound like old, rich retired guys. no. when i look at the business channel and i look at the ceos that run the corporations, and then i look at president biden who is an old man. i'm sorry, i am older than he is but he looks like an old man and act like an old man. that is not give a lot of confidence. host: tell me how it is worse for you from two years ago. caller: i will skip over the usual inflation, but generally if you are retired and you have any money invested, which is the only way you can retire, it is 20% down from what it was two years ago anyway you cut it. that certainly has affected me as a retired person. host: all right, clay. let's go to ocean caller: you doa did, abolish the military. you abolish the a national endowment for the humanities, massive cuts in all federal agencies. every politician resigns and you have a constitutional convention and start the government over again. the other problem is obscene ceo salaries. you send checks to every american in your suggestion, people spend too much money. they have to cut back. host: let's take a look at brian at, the director of the economic council. he spoke earlier this week on how long this inflation will continue. >> what is the expect tatian -- expectation today? how long will inflation be here? >> there is uncertainty and i will leave the predictions to forecasters. you and others have seen most forecasters out there and their p