In the past two months, it was revised upward. So it takes the last year average of jobs created at 180,000 a month, a much better number. And it comes in contrast to that contraction we saw in gdp in the fourth quarter. So calms people down a little bit about where this economy is headed. If we look over the trends that are going, and we look back over the Unemployment Rate, and we have from august to january, we can see where we have been going, and, you know, flirting, going down and in the right direction. But why are people looking at this and being optimistic about Something Big thats on the hill thats coming ahead of us . During periods of economic expansion, typically these numbers get revised upward as we go true a recovery. And thats whats been happening. Each month is being revised upward as december and november were. So now were seeing a likelihood this 157 can be revised upward as well. Were going in the right direction. The Unemployment Rate is always a bit of statistical noise. And the economy, generally speaking, is firing on more cylinders than most people realize. Manufacturing, doing a little bit better, construction doing better. Even retail trade, which typically lays people off in january after the holidays had an uptick in employment. Its not the greatest report in the world but its going to the right direction. Even based on the heels of Consumer Confidence and where that took a hit and that melded together with this, you know, how does that bake in for what people should anticipate in 2013 . Well, i think some people think the Consumer Confidence dropoff was a result of the end of the payroll tax withholding holiday so a little bite in their paychecks the first part of january, felt that money being taken out in greater lumps than the last two years and tax hikes may have depress the Consumer Confidence. So has the behavior of washington. Weve had the debt ceiling suspended, another budget baths to go through. So investors, businessmen and even individual investors and consumers are still somewhat haunted by whats happening in the nations capital. And if we could put the markets gain back up, we had seen it go above 14,000 earlier this morning. Its right there. Right there, right now. Okay. So this hasnt happened since 07. Early october, the alltime high, 14,164. Standard poors, 1465. Were within striking distance of both. And thats a good sign. The stock market is performing well. The bond market is performing as expected, if the economy is recovering and so are other markets. And the indicators i look atom as, actually quite positive. None showing signs of strain, the future economic prospects better than the past. So for now markets are tell us things are all right. That may change sometime in the future but looks good at this at the moment. And ron made fun of my ravens absolutely. See this . Ravenstheme note paper. Running wild over these guys. Im going to take your 5 bet, okay . Not in the immortal words of mitt romney, how about 10,000. How about burger king and 5 . Done. Youre in ravens territory now. Look, ive got themed paper. I dont have that with me. I was out doing other things this morning. Getting up to speed on the markets while im like i need ravens paper. The niners are going to crush these guys. Theyre not. Great to see you. If youre coming on the show, im warning everybody. I want to bring in todays power panel, jerry bernstein. Also former economic adviser to Vice President joe biden. Msnbc contributor perry bacon. Political editor for the agreo. Jill zukman and republican strategist tip saltzman. No shade on the ravens. Were going to talk about politics and news of the day. I want to start out First Talking about exactly what we have seen going on, the reaction out washington, d. C. To the Unemployment Rate. And lets go jerryd, if we look, Unemployment Rate to 7. 9 . Clearly no need to keep the pesky jobs council around with all those ideas and insight. Whats your reaction to what we have seen with the jobs report for today and also the news of the jobs council disbanding . Well, the latter is pretty small potatoes in terms of news of the day. The job council has been around making some suggestions. Im not sure how much that amounts to. I think the jobs report to me the most important thing were the revisions to last year. You heard ron mention that we thought we had added 150,000 jobs per year in 2012. Turns out to be 180,000. I think about 2. 2 million over the course of the year. Thats not great. In fact, my view on the economy is a little bit less sunny than rons. The Unemployment Rate has been stuck in a range between 7 and 8. 2 now for almost a year. So were kind of slogging along. Growth is definitely better than that negative gdp report from the last quarter. That was anomalous. But its not gang busters by a long shot. Okay. So thats the big story weve got this morning. Perry, i want to talk to you about the big story thats been unfolding since yesterday and the headlines in the papers today, the reviews being in on chuck hagels performance on the hill. Skprael taking it on the nose from his former colleagues. Want to remind everybody how that hearing went. Take a look. The surge would be the most dangerous Foreign Policy blunter in this country since vietnam. Were you correct or incorrect . Yes or no . My reference to the senator hagel well, if you would like me to explain, why well, i actually would like an answer. Yes or no. Well, im not going to give you a yes or no. I think its far more complicated than that. Name one person in your opinion who is intimidated by the israeli lobby in the United States senate. Well, first name one. I dont know. Well, why would you say it . I didnt have in mind a specific person. Perry, republicans in what youre hearing in washington, d. C. Proud of the performance they demonstrated yesterday . This is a very unusual hearing. Usually when an ex senator comes to be nominated for something, his former colleagues treat him nicely. Hillary clinton had that, john kerry had that. Very striking yesterday. The republicans, they seemed very happy to, you know, pile on a really sharply attack chuck hagel. You saw roy blunt come out today and say hes not voting for this nominee. You saw the republicans be very aggressive. At the same time, every democrat is for him. And as long as the democrats stay with him, its hashrd to imagine he will not be confirmed. But a very rough and unusual day yesterday for hagel. All right, julie, you had the opportunity to work with secretary ray la hood and know about the preparedness that goes into getting cabinet members ready for hearings like and able to take on the tough questions. I want to remind everybody some of the fumbles chuck hagel had yesterday and talk about what would have gone into getting him ready. Take a look. I have just been handed a note that i misspoke and said i supported the president s position on containment. If i said that, it meant to say that obviously, his position on containment, we dont have a position on containment. Just to make sure your correction is clear, we do have a position on containment. Which is that we do not favor containment. The kinds of unpreparedness and mistakes and ive been told from the highest levels that he had been waterboarded, you know, practiced at the pentagon. He had been working on this. So jill, is it a surprise that hagel seemed unprepared, or is it a surprise that republicans were going at him so hard . None of this should have been a surprise, thomas. I mean, they knew that the republicans were not happy with them. And the democrats, i think its too strong to say they support him. Theyre going to hold their nose, perhaps, and vote for him, because the president wants him. But no one is really for him. So all of these things were expected. And he should have been prepped and ready to answer every single one of these things. He should have been prepared for i want yes or no. He should have been prepared for iran and containment. I mean, even his correction was incorrect. And chip, let me talk to you, because our nbcs first read has out that hostile gop questioning might have made democrats even more you wanted, or so the white house hopes and believes. And this is what perry was referring to earlier about roy blunt appearing on the daily rundown. Take a look. A majority in the senate should be able to confirm. I wouldnt intend to be part of that majority. But my certainly my strong inclination would be this is a vote that should be done by a majority rather than a 60vote standard. And this person is going to leave today. The president leaves. That makes a difference. All right. So the biggest thing there, chip, to come out of that is the fact that, you know, the filibuster coming up. And that doesnt look like its likely to happen in this scenario. Should republicans be proud of the chest beating they did yesterday, and trying to make what is a wellrespected former senator, vietnam vet, look bad in front of the country . Well, i think chuck hagel made himself look bad. Woefully unprepared. I just hope the super bowl is better tv sunday than this was for tv because it was awful. It wasnt good on either side. The one thing we learned about chuck hagel, hes much better asking questions than answering questions. There was no curve balls yesterday in this hearing that we unexpected. He was terribly unprepared. If there is anybody that should have been embarrassed by his performance yesterday was chuck hagel. Perry, does that mean again, this is not something that people are saying is you know, democrats, anyway, that cold water is being thrown on this, and that this isnt going to move forward. I mean, jill is right. Democrats are not excited about chuck hagel. That said, i think pretty much every democrat in the senate will vote for him, which means he will be confirmed. And ultimately, the things he talked about yesterday, the white house has generally controlled Foreign Policy, its pretty tightly there. Its not clear how much impact hagels nomg or lack thereof of iran will really shake policy. But he was dreadful yesterday in terms of in terms of answering questions. But i still think democrats are going to get behind him, because obama wants him and obama really likes him and thats sort of all that matters and the republicans arent going to filibuster him as roy blunt laid out this morning. Does it boil down to money though . Its about the defense cuts coming. I just think it was kind of a bad day for the impression of politics and political theater for any American People who are watching that. Theres already enough of a view that the senate and the house even more so, are kind of these dysfunctional partisan bodies with all this bickering. And thats kind of what you saw yesterday. Probably for most people, that was the most chuck hagel they have seen in a long time and i cant imagine they were very impressed by it. Look, on the budgetary side, i actually think chuck hagel can really help in bringing down the defense budget, but doing so in ways that are smart, unlike the sequester, which are across the board spending cuts, absolutely make no sense. Before we let you go as the former spokesperson for outgoing secretary ray la hood, what are you hearing in your circles about who might take his place . You know, every name ive heard offered up i think is wrong. I think most of these names have been, you know, someone has considered them and for various reasons arent going to happen. I think when they do nominate someone it will be a total surprise to everybody. All right. Our power panel for today, thank you very much. Im not going to ask who you think is going to win the super bowl, unless you say the raerchs, dont want to hear it. The ravens. Thanks. And we remember ed koch. Just ahead, talking about the very Colorful Life of the former mayor of new york stirks his passing this morning. Plus, hope in the house. The house of representatives will be taking up the issue of i hope Immigration Reform. When theyre back in session next week. And up next, congressman Joaquin Castro, democrat from texas. Our big question for you today, harbowl, beyonce, commercials, what are you looking forward to . Do not tweet me shade. I will not read them on the air. Find me on facebook. We are back after this. 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Or swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, changes in eye sight including blurry vision, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or skin sores from diabetes. Common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain, and swelling of hands, legs, and feet. Dont drink alcohol while taking lyrica. Dont drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. Those whove had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. Ask your doctor about lyrica today. Its specific treatment for diabetic nerve pain. To hear more of terrys story, visit lyrica. Com. I want to bring you up to speed on this developing story that were following coming to us out of cairo right now in egypt. These images coming to us where protesters and police have been clashing outside of the president ial palace in cairo. Our eamon mayman mohyeldin sayse throwing molotov cocktails toward the walls of the president ial palace. A fire broke out inside the walls there. We were looking earlier, if you look at the bottom left hand of your screen, kind of where that green laser beam lights are going, there was a smaller fire down there that seems to be contained. Again, theyre trying to work against these crowds, trying to make sure theyre not throwing molotov cocktails. But, again, the protests have continued there. The situation in egypt has certainly been chaotic as the revolution there has been evolving ever since 2011. But well keep an eye on that and bring you up to speed when we learn more. As Congress Gets ready to tackle Immigration Reform, there could be a snag in the key agenda item. The issue both parties are trying to grapple, how to deal with Border Security. As the daily caller points out, senator Chuck Schumer says Border Security is a trigger in the deal, was not explicitly their blueprint for senator marco rubio and what he insisted on. Could this disagreement on Immigration Reform derail the president s time line which he outlined in a recent tell municipal dough interview . Im hopeful that this could get done and i dont think that it should take many, many months. I think this is something we should be able to get done certainly this year and id like to see if we can get it done sooner in the first half of the year, if possible. Joining me now is congressman Joaquin Castro, a democrat from texas, new to congress but a driving force behind the push for comprehensive Immigration Reform. Sir, its great to have you with me. And in a conference of texas Business Leaders yesterday, you spoke optimistically about Immigration Reform passing because of the times we live in. But does the Republican Partys inconsistency on Border Control as part of Immigration Reform worry you as this debate moves forward . Well, i think theres no question, tom, there is a place for border enforcement and Border Security. Thats critical to the bill. But i think they have also got to be reasonable about how they do it. The commission that the senators propose would have folks like rick perry and jan brewer, who could be appointed to that commission. And the danger you get into there is that these folks have absolutely no political incentive, because theyre worried about primary challenges. They have no incentive to ever say the border is secure. So im not saying that Something Like that couldnt work. But if youre going to do it, youve got to do it right. When you talk about doing it right, does that mean that Border Control should be the first step, though, because it seems thats the linchpin for the republicans leading the charge on this. At least senator marco rubio now supporting this path to citizenship. But do you think that his powerful voice and also as a republican rising star, will push conservative members of the party to make concessions on that point . Those that want to see Border Patrols and Border Security being the first thing as opposed to a path to citizenship for the millions of americans that exist in the country currently . Well, i think that you can do those things simultaneously. You can continue to secure the border. Remember that this president has committed more resources and more man power to the border than any president in american history. Theres 652 miles of barrier, over 100 million has been leveed in fines against businesses that hire undocumented workers. Weve got 21,000 Border Patrol agents along the border. Thats more tha