Adieu austerity: Sarkozy voted out

>>> to a seismic shift in europe . it could be significant political consequences both here and abroad. in france was goodbye to nicolas sarkozy . and bringing socialists back to power for the first time in 20 years. in greece, voters delivered a rebuke of austerity measures there with 60% of the popular vote going to smaller opposition parties in parliamentary elections. so could the austerity back lash spell trouble for the paul ryan backers of the use? one mr. romney , for example? msnbc contributor jarod bernstein. a former economic adviser to vice president joe biden . the french are fed up, the greeks have gone gonzo. if changes in the air over there, what do you think it will mean for the recovery here in the u.s.?

>> well, we're having this argument here in the u.s. for quite a while now with the president months and months ago proposing, for example, the american jobs act. and the republicans in congress absolutely blocking it. and i don't think we talked about that in the same kind of austerity terms that you just took us through. it is exactly analogous. there was one party, the administration democrats suggesting the economy is in recovery but not nearly quickly enough. and we need to take out some kind of fallback insurance if you will by implementing more stimulus. it was blocked by austerity minded conservatives who said, no, the ideal thing to do was to pivot to spending cuts and deficit reduction.

>> we know and ben bernanke has suggested in comments that the economy may need some kind of additional stimulus. given the condition of congress, and the republican obsession with what has failed in europe , that's i guess unlikely in the short term.

>> it is unlikely. it is not like the folk who have been blocking those measures here are going to see what happened in france and greece and the scales will fall from their eyes and say it is time to change our policies and embrace more of the kind of fiscal expansion that would help create more jobs and would come preliminary what bernanke is trying to do.

>> we know that romney loves to paint the president as a european style socialist which is incredible. and he weighed in. today take a listen to this.

>> he is taking america on a path toward europe . and europe is not working there. it's not going to work here. europe is in real trouble as their debts mount. people demand more and more from government and government has to borrow more and more to satisfy their demands.

>> how does romney do that? when he knows that it is him who support rank austerity measures . he supports paul ryan 's budget. he wants to go cut, cut, cut. it's not president. it's him. he's the european socialist.

>> martin, i feel your, i don't know what to call it. frustration, bemusement.

>> it is staggering, the frustration one feels when you hear the man say outright lies repeatedly.

>> so this is exactly why i actually left my perch in the white house . i thought perhaps i could come out higher and with help from lots of other people, like yourself. but other voices, a lot of people out here trying to say, let's clear the air here and have a good discussion based on the facts. but when a candidate like that who has absolutely no plan for the short material. if you actually look at governor romney over on.

>> he has a 59-point plan. i've read it.

>> and he very explicitly says there is nothing we can do about the short term economic pain. then you have another party that in fact has a plan. yet it is being very deeply block by those who would impose the very kinds of austerity and spending cuts that are very clearly hurting europe themselves say a definition of a neurotic is the person who engages in the same behavior over and over again and think you'll get different results. you won't get different results. you will hear the economy here just like over there.

>> it interesting because i was hearing this morning lots of republican talk on blogs in papers about the fact that the stock market was going to collapse because the french government elected a socialist president. i think at this point the stock mark is actually up. there we are. sorry. the dow is down 10 at the moment.

>> here is what -- mrs. political uncertainty. the stock market doesn't like that. what the stock margaret, the bond market wants to see. i've seen it time and again is growth. they want to see a plan for growth. if you go out there and say i am going to could not strain growth through fiscal policy , through contractionary government. more often than not you will see it go down. they know that the economy has to be the dog that wags the tail. the tail here is -- i'm sorry. the dog here is the growth. and we're missing growth.

>> thank you so much.

>>> next, the president in full campaign mode. what's in store this week at the white house ? stay with us. i