Sequestration celebration at the White House?

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," April 9, 2013. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And welcome to "Hannity". Tonight, it's party time once again at the White House because at this very moment, the President, Mrs. Obama are dancing the night away at a taxpayer funded concert that's called "Memphis Soul". Now, we're just beginning to get our first look inside of this exclusive event, it was streaming live online just a short time ago.

Among those in attendance, let's see, entertainers, Justin Timberlake isthere, Cyndi Lauper is there, Queen Latifah, and many, many others. However not included on the guest list, you, the average American. In fact, today marks the one month anniversary of the White House lockout of average Americans. Now sadly, it's been 32 full days since we the people were welcomed inside the people's house for tours and if you ask our celebrity president why, he'll tell you oh, it's all because of sequestration, which he himself wanted.

Remember, he was the one that sounded the alarm about the automatic budget cuts. He was the guy that claimed that teachers would be laid off. Criminals would be set free. Planes would be falling from the sky, but yet somehow he maintained a straight face while making those outrageous claims. Unlike tonight because right now inside the East Room of the White House, I can guarantee you the president, he is all smiles enjoying the concert thatyou, the American people, in part are paying for.

Now, let's be honest. Tone deaf does not begin to describe just how insensitive, how out of touch the administration is.

Joining me now with reaction, former chair of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, professor at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, Austan Goolsbee. Sir, how are you? You weren't invited to the party?

AUSTAN GOOLSBEE, FORMER OBAMA ECONOMIC ADVISER: No, I wasn't.

HANNITY: Eight vacations between the Bidens and Obamas since the beginning of the year. We got concerts. But let's look at this in the bigger, broader picture. I want to run through a list of stuff for you. I promise I'm going to leave you plenty of time to respond. Let's first look at the polls. By the way, CNN, hardly a conservative organization, the president's approval rating on the economy, disapprove, 54 percent. The federal budget deficit, disapprove, 58 percent. Here are the scary numbers. And these all came out last week.

The U.S. Census Bureau, 50 million Americans living in poverty. Fifty. Children in America living in poverty, one out of five. One out of five, 20 percent. Food stamp participation increase since Obama took office, 48 percent. Number of food stamp participants, nearly 48 million Americans. Then another 14 million on permanent disability. Number of food stamp participants under the age of 18, nearly 20 million. Add to this, we have 90 million fewer Americans in the labor force. Ninety million, Austan, and yet he's throwing parties. He's going on vacation --

GOOLSBEE: Not fewer. Ninety million aren't in the labor force.

HANNITY: Excuse me. Well, you have -- according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics just last month, 663,000 Americans left the labor force.

GOOLSBEE: OK. But you're consistently comparing to the day that the president took office, failing to note that there has been improvement in essentially all of the measures you described over the last 24 months.

HANNITY: Austan, since he is, listen, every president gets measured for their term. So, this is a great concert, by the way. Since he's been president, we've now doubled the number, nearly doubled the number of people on food stamps, 14 million Americans on permanent disability --

(CROSSTALK)

Hang on.

GOOLSBEE: And then he turned it around to be getting better.

HANNITY: Six and a half trillion of new Obama debt and you're telling us things are better! Now, the American people are watching this wonderful concert --

GOOLSBEE: Yes, I'm telling you things are getting better. They got worse as he came in, and they've gotten better --

HANNITY: And that jobs report is 88,000 jobs is better when we lose

633,000 Americans in the labor participation rate?

GOOLSBEE: That was not a good month.

HANNITY: Not a good month. How is it getting better then?

GOOLSBEE: That was a tough month. The month before was a lot better. Two hundred and thirty six thousand jobs. It's getting better at a modest rate. It needs to be faster. You and I agree on that. Where were you when the president gave back $20,000 of his salary? Gave back to the taxpayer. Why didn't you say--

HANNITY: Cry me a river. Cry me a river.

(CROSSTALK)

You know, how about -- listen, forget the $20,000. How about stop taking vacations and playing golf with Tiger at $180,000 Air Force one hour? You're on drugs! You can't be serious!

GOOLSBEE: Look, Margaret Thatcher who was a great world leader and one of the favorites of Ronald Reagan, came multiple times for state dinners to the United States. Under your plan --

HANNITY: At a time of prosperity. He created 20 million new jobs.

(CROSSTALK)

GOOLSBEE: Would you like a whopper or fries?

HANNITY: Excuse me. Wait a minute. Hang on a second. Reagan took over an economy with 21-and-a-half percent interest rates. Double digit inflation. Double digit unemployment. By the way, far worse than what the anointed one took over.

GOOLSBEE: You get the timing mixed up. You get the timing mixed up.

HANNITY: And wait a minute. He created 21 million new jobs, doubled revenues to the government, gave us at the time the longest period of economic --

GOOLSBEE: The recession happened in the middle of his first term.

HANNITY: Excuse me. Are you saying that the Obama economy is better than the Reagan economy and better than the Reagan recovery?

GOOLSBEE: No. I'm saying that the recession that was taking place when Obama came into office was a lot worse than the economy when Ronald Reagan took office.

HANNITY: So, interest rates are 21-and-a-half percent. And inflation and unemployment double digits is not worst than --

(CROSSTALK)

Really, you believe that?

GOOLSBEE: Yes, yes. By far. Let's just get the data.

HANNITY: Really?

GOOLSBEE: Sean, what are you talking about? The Reagan recovery after the recession of 1982 was one of the strongest in American history.

HANNITY: OK. What was the unemployment rate?

GOOLSBEE: I'm not taking anything away from it; it was a fabulous economy.

HANNITY: Reagan had double digit unemployment. Obama had 7.9 percent when he talk office.

GOOLSBEE: No, no.

HANNITY: Interest rates were low when he took office and they're still low because of the Fed which I think is artificial. Inflation was high. It's non-existent now.

GOOLSBEE: Sean, we have the worst recession since 1929.

HANNITY: OK.

GOOLSBEE: It was worse than 1979-1980.

HANNITY: OK. And what happened in the last quarter economically? You said this last report was bad on unemployment. What happened in the last quarter in terms of growth in this economy?

GOOLSBEE: Of this?

HANNITY: Yes. The Obama economy.

GOOLSBEE: Of last year or the first quarter of this year?

HANNITY: No, the last quarter of 2012.

GOOLSBEE: OK. The last quarter of 2012 was slow growth. It's been revised upward to another slow number-less than 1 percent.

HANNITY: And what was the jobs rate for March? What was the jobs rate for March?

GOOLSBEE: 7.6.

HANNITY: OK. And what was the -- how many jobs did we create?

GOOLSBEE: Eighty eight thousand.

HANNITY: And how many people left the labor force?

GOOLSBEE: In the hundreds of thousands.

HANNITY: Six hundred and thirty three thousand people. How many people have left the labor force since Obama has been president? How many people are no longer counted in the labor force?

GOOLSBEE: Well, the labor force participation rate has gone down about 55 to 60 percent of it from aging of the population, about 40 percent from discouraged workers.

HANNITY: So, we're in the fifth year of the Obama presidency. Hang on!

GOOLSBEE: I love this quiz.

HANNITY: Hang on.

GOOLSBEE: I got to get you on my class, Sean.

HANNITY: Let me finish.

GOOLSBEE: I keep trying to get you out here to have dinner with me but now I'm going to take you to my --

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: So we have nearly $7 trillion in Obama debt. We have the worst poverty rates in the --

GOOLSBEE: The worst recession since 1929.

HANNITY: I know, you're a broken record. The worst poverty rate in his fifth year as president. The worst poverty rate since the 1960s.

GOOLSBEE: And there has been improvement over the last year.

HANNITY: The worst deficit since the 1940s --

GOOLSBEE: No, it's not the worst since the sixties-- it's improved the last twoyears.

HANNITY: No, that's not true! The labor participation rate has not been this low since the Great Depression.

GOOLSBEE: Yes. Labor force participation, we're getting older. People are retiring. That's more than 50 percent.

HANNITY: And now, it's Bush's fault. Isn't that Bush's fault?

GOOLSBEE: It's not Bush's fault. We're getting older. You think that's Bush's fault? You're going to blame that on the president. Why didn't you say good job, Mr. president, when he gave back his salary?

HANNITY: All right. Listen, when you go home tonight, and you bow before your altar to Obama in a picture above your bed. I want you to light a candle for me because you're living in an alternate universe.

GOOLSBEE: But I'm not burning my own house down with it.

HANNITY: No, no, just light a little candle and you can blow it out like you usually do before you go to bed.

GOOLSBEE: Alright.

HANNITY: And say oh, yes, oh, anointed one, just chant, "yes we can, Obama, yes, we can, Obama." If you believe all this.

GOOLSBEE: Burger King.

HANNITY: All right. Austan, good to see you. Unbelievable.

GOOLSBEE: Good to see you again, Sean.

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