A Look at the US Economy
ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: 2013 could be the year America's economy comes back, but broken government in Washington stands in the way. I'm Ali Velshi. This is "Your Money." Jobs keep steady in December, that despite fiscal cliff dysfunction in Washington. Look for more cliffs in the months ahead and look for more overused metaphors from your elected officials. But first, 155,000 net new jobs added in December. That's according to new numbers released today by the Labor Department. The unemployment rate stayed steady at 7.8 percent in December. That's after the Labor Department revised November's rate up a notch. Either way, it's more of the same, positive if otherwise sluggish job gains that we've been seeing for more than two years. But, of the really positive signs in these latest numbers is the gains that were made in construction and manufacturing jobs, sectors that need to recover if America is going to prosper again. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis told me more can be done.</s>HILDA SOLIS, LABOR SECRETARY: The numbers continue to show good increase in different areas and sectors that have been really hard hit. Construction, as you named, we added jobs there for the first time in a long time and we also saw manufacturing coming back. But we need to do more.</s>VELSHI: Economist Tom Porcelli thinks the job outlook is good for 2013, but he says it will be slow going for the first half of 2013 because of Washington's dysfunction.</s>TOM PORCELLLI, CHIEF U.S. ECONOMIST, RBC CAPITAL MARKETS: H1 will look soft relative to H2 and the softness in the first half of the year is really a reflection of a lot of these issues that we have to deal with out of D.C., again, the debt ceiling, the sequester. But, generally speaking, you're looking at a fairly reasonable outcome from a U.S. economic perspective in 2013.</s>VELSHI: Now, all of this generally supports my idea that America could be headed for another economic boom fueled by energy production, low interest rates and a recovery in housing, that is, if partisan grid lock in Washington doesn't mess things up for us all in the coming months. While Washington sort of averted a fiscal cliff this week, America still has a bunch of cliffs to look forward to in the coming months. Democrats and Republicans are set to duke it out over the debt ceiling, spending cuts and then the budget. And just like the fiscal cliff, all those other cliffs will give birth to more tired and overused political metaphors. I will kick this can over to Christine Romans to explain.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Just like the yodeler in that "Cliff Hangers" game on "The Price Is Right," we did fall off a cliff, a metaphor cliff.</s>PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Fiscal cliff.</s>SENATOR HARRY REID (D), MAJORITY LEADER: The fiscal cliff.</s>SENATOR JEFF SESSIONS (R), ALABAMA: Over the cliff.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The so-called fiscal cliff.</s>ROMANS: Or maybe not. Cue Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music."</s>DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is more of a slope.</s>RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL'S "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": It's not a cliff. It's a slope.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's really kind of a slope.</s>ROMANS: Hill, cliff, slope, be honest. It felt more like this.</s>REPRESENTATIVE DENNIS KUCINICH (D), OHIO: This place is starting to have the feel of the movie "Groundhogs' Day."</s>ROMANS: At least the movie made you laugh. This was more like "The Hurt Locker."</s>JOHN AVLON, SENIOR POLITICAL COLUMNIST, "NEWSWEEK" AND THE DAILY BEAST: Congress set this time bomb. Now, they're scrambling to diffuse it.</s>ROMANS: In the end, the cliff, slope, bomb, Groundhog Day, call it what you will, it became a bill and a new metaphor.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kick the can down the road.</s>DIANE SWONK, CHIEF ECONOMIST, MESIROW FINANCIAL: That's just kicking the can down the road.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kicking the can.</s>SENATOR RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: Kicking the can.</s>REPRESENTATIVE MARSHA BLACKBURN (R), TENNESSEE: We are done with kicking this can down the road. We grabbed that can and that can is called spending cuts.</s>ROMANS: But, hey, we're not blameless. That's congressional malpractice.</s>VELSHI: Economic storm of our own making.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are in detox from our fiscal cliff.</s>ROMANS: But the masters reside in the halls of Congress.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like a bull in a China closet.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're like salespeople who tell their customers they can have the $30,000 car.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We should look at those who have lit the candle.</s>REPRESENTATIVE DARRELL ISSA (R), CALIFORNIA: Like an airplane, did we climb over it? No.</s>ROMANS: So, now, can we please put the metaphors out to pasture?</s>REPRESENTATIVE LLOYD DOGGETT (D), TEXAS: We soon face the Valentine Day cliff and perhaps the April Fools' Day cliff.</s>JENNIFER PSAKI, FORMER PRESS SECRETARY, OBAMA 2012 CAMPAIGN: What the president was saying is, I'm not going to play chicken with the debt limit.</s>ROMANS: I guess not.</s>VELSHI: We'll cut through the metaphors and get into what's wrong with this country's budget process on "Your Money" this weekend, Saturday at 1:00, Sunday at 3:00 p.m. Eastern. That's it for me. See you next week. I'm out.