Poll: Public remains pessimistic about economy

>>> is there a disconnect between the way the public perceives the economy and what's really happening? today's jobs report shows the economy created 127,000 more jobs than originally thought in november and december. just the latest not a string of positive indicators that are pushing the dow closer to 14,000, consumer spending , income, home prices, business investment all are up. and yet despite the public remains pessimistic. nbc and "the wall street journal " found in our last poll just 27% of americans are satisfied with the state of the u.s. economy . aconsumer confidence is down dramatically, 66.7% to 58.6% in january. and joining me is alan krueger , on the council of the economic advisers for the president. we got the jobs report and i know what you'll probably say on that, good, trend lines, all this stuff, we have this conversation every month. but i want to ask you more about the gdp numbers, because it had all positive indicators, and yet what brought it down was government. what's bringing consumer confidence down is the government gridlock. so is washington the biggest problem for the economy?

>> i think certainly a major risk that we face is that washington can make mistakes. gridlock in congress that will fail to take the steps, that will strengthen the economy and put us on a sustainable budget, bring our deficits down in a responsible, balanced way.

>> does the president -- considering what the defense cuts did to the contraction of the u.s. economy in the fourth quarter, dois the president going to be more aggressive in trying to find a way to stop the so-called sequester, the automatic defense cuts that would go through, which could it looks like now -- we already know the economic impact defense cuts have had last quarter. these would obviously slow down the economy even more. is the president going to refocus on this.

>> the president has been focused on this for some time. the president made a submission to the super committee a year ago or so, which would have reduced our deficits in a balanced way, eliminated the sequester and his negotiations with the congress on the fiscal cliff. he did the same thing. so this is something that the president has provided a plan. the sequester is bad policy. it's something that we should eliminate. it wasn't intended to take place. and we got a taste for the impact that the sequester might have if it were to take place with the last gdp numbers. and also, i would emphasize that in addition to the broader effect oppose the economy, cutting head start in indiscriminately, cutting essential services that people rely on is not good for the country.

>> why did the white house eliminate the jobs council ?

>> the president created the jobs council , as you know. it was given a two-year charter. the jobs council made a number of very helpful recommendations. we followed up on over 90% of the ones we could. we have implemented things like making it easier for foreigners to travel to the u.s. and help our tourism industry . we continue to engage with members of the jobs council . i think the president has found it very beneficial to meet with members of the business community , labor, other experts. you saw several meetings the president held with business leaders and other leaders around the fiscal negotiations. and he's going to continue that engagement, use it in a productive way.

>> do we understand why people look at it and the shutdown of the jobs council after the re-election into the second term that was the jobs council just sort of a political billboard for the campaign?

>> no, i don't think that's right. the jobs council was very helpful in making recommendations. the president is going to continue to reach out, engage with the business community and others to get the best ideas that we can to help build a stronger economy and help strengthen the middle class .

>> allen krueger, chairman of the president's council of economic advisers , chief economist for the president. thanks for coming on. happy jobs friday.

>> my pleasure, nice to see you.

>> let's bring back the gaggle. the economy, sara, it seems, there is this disconnect. and what i found interesting about the gdp report is that it messed up everybody's talking point. so the democrats have been trying to say, hey, look, the economy is growing. not growing. except why didn't it grow? government spending went down. so the republican argument, if we've got to contract -- nobody's talking point was benefited from the gdp .

>> i think what is very clear from gdp in this new jobs report is that government is the problem. because they are creating an environment of uncertainty, which they have been doing for some time now. and they are -- there's too much regulation. so you combine people's fears of too much regulation, a lot of these health care regulations now starting to kick in. it's a problem.

>> you think -- you look at these government data, we see the shrinking of government spending , this one was all federal work.

>> i think part of the problem is, first of all, there's still a lack of confidence in government policies in the wider business community and especially among small businesses that are usually responsible for so much job growth . but the other problem is that at the same time you have the sequester, which is sucking money out of the private economy , by a lack of government spending , you have tax increases, which are further sucking money out of the private economy , bringing it back to washington . and you need, if you're going to do all of that, a way for washington , through policy, to foster private sector investment and get money into the private sector . and so if you don't have that combination, chuck, this is where you end up with problems like the ones we're facing.

>> the government doesn't make a profit. and that's a big part of the problem here.

>> but the economic pr, we saw with the defense, the president said everybody claims they're against sequester. nobody is publicly trying to stop it. there isn't a campaign -- the president is going to campaign next week on guns, campaigned this week on immigration -- try and build support. perfectly fine. we know it's part of his agenda. does he need to start traveling the country and talking about, hey, we can't let sequester happen.

>> no, look, i think he won re-election by a decent margin, because people saw progress. and there is -- there are two candidates with competing visions. i think you need that kind of clarity in his economic debate. no, i think these --

>> he hasn't created enough clarity?

>> well, the clarity ended with the election.

>> is there support and sequester? i don't really think it's there. enough house republicans or from the white house . and that's why it's going to happen --

>> public opinion , very supportive of defense cuts. shameless plugs. sara, you first.

>> ed koch , great american, in 2000 endorsed bush. pay for his family.

>> stevie from malden. check roll call and joshua miller for the massachusetts senate .

>> say it in a boston accent .

>> and my daughter's second grade academy team, season opener tomorrow morning, second grade basketball.

>> very important. i'm wearing a red tie today because it's national wear red day , promoting awareness for heart disease . it kills approximately one woman in this country every minute. go get your blood pressure checked. i did. i now am watching it very carefully. you should too. that's it for this edition of "the daily