Fed to keep interest rates low until 2015

>> the 5% cds. thank you, mandy drury.

>> you're welcome.

>> and now let's bring in former senator blanche lincoln and former rnc chairman michael steele . and mitt romney used this announcement by the fed to pounce on the president.

>> what bern bernanke is saying is that the president is gone. the president is saying that we are making progress, and bernanke is saying no, we have to print more money. what bernanke is doing is doing to get the economy going.

>> senator, is that what ben bernanke said is that what the president is doing is wrong this is.

>> no, what he is saying is that we have to definitely grow jobs in the country if we want to put the economy back on track and that is one of the tools in the tool chest to do that, and that is what he is trying to do. 9 of 10 americans say that the number one priority for the next president needs to be job creation , but there is so many ways that we can do it. and one of those is lessening the unsern certainty coming out of washington . one of the things that we see that would not cost a lot of money is this unbelievable tidal wave of regulations out tlshhere, and 4,200 pending regulations is something that the agencies could deal with and take the same steps that you are seeing bernanke take to create more certainty and more certainly for the businesses out there who create jobs for people out there in the country.

>> michael, you have taken a look at the poll, and the president in the swing states is obviously still doing very well on the economy, and it falls within the margin of error as a matter of fact. and 51% aren't sure of who would do a better job. why isn't mitt romney doing better here?

>> well, i think that's the question that the romney campaign particularly in states like ohio really have to get their head around. the fact that you have this trend line as the polls suggest that people are getting more comfortable with the direction of the economy or feel better about it, says that the romney message needs to get amped up about the importance of jobs and the action by bernanke will give them an opportunity to square it out a little bit by noting that the fed won't create jobs and the fed is pumping money into the economy and they are just printing all of the cash and at some point, you will have to deal with inflation which we are already dealing with, and when you are driving up the prices, the cost of goods and services and material, then, you nknow, where's an employer? is the small business owners that the senator talked about, where's the incentive to go out to create the jobs? so this is an opportunity for the romney campaign to put into perspective for the voters that all of the talk of the more cash into the system is not necessary le go necessaryly good for the downward recession, and forcing more unemployment, and that is not the cycle we want, and we want to get out of it.

>> well, in is a factor that was put into that decision, senator, and are you worried about inflation?

>> well, the hopes is that we will look at the other means and inflation is a tool that has been used in the past and used by other countries to really try to put economies back on track. it is not the best way to do it necessarily on behalf of hard- working people out there. so, we want to avoid that if we can, but there are so many other things that we can do, and working together and looking to the solutions and trying to eliminate the unis certain -- uncertainty, and whether it is policy or regulatory uncertainty and coming out of washington , but the point is that businesses that create jobs are not going to be able to do it unless they have certainty as to what is before them in the next 18 months in terms of tax reform , and all of the different things that are out there. so i think that it is important for people to find some consensus, and particularly on the capitol hill in washington , and start working towards what we all need to be working towards which is strengthening the american economy .

>> it is going to be interesting how the arguments move forward, michael. on one hand, you have 20 million americans who can't find full-time jobs and the median household income which has declined and then i suppose that this is an argument that the white house could make and has made about this income gap between the wealthiest 20% of american households and the rest of the country, and that gap is now at the highest level since they started recording it which plays into the whole tax cut debate and whether people making over $250,000 should pay more, and where is the whole debate going? what is going to turn the needle if the economy is so important in the election?

>> well, it is a couple of things and the jobs report for the next two months that are going to be coming out to show going into the election where the trend line is, and we pretty much know that the numbers are going to be tough for the president there. and number two, it is going to be in the level of confidence that voters have that either one of these individuals, romney or the president, is able to actually begin to create jobs, and remember that we put a lot of money into the economy the beginning with the stimulus money and have $1 trillion of cash sitting on the shelf that businesses are not moving back into the street, and again to the senator's point, there is no consensus built out there because of the regulatory climate that the administration has created and the uncertainty of the bernanke consensus, and it does not free people up to say, i will create jobs and expand.

>> okay. that is the last word, i apologize. thank you, michael steele , and senator lincoln, for coming on the program.

>> thank you, chris.