Median income down under President Obama

According to Pew Research just 31 percent of Americans approve of the President’s handling of the economy

This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," November 8, 2013. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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O'REILLY: "Lou's the Boss Segment" tonight, the stock market closed in record territory today, the Dow up 167 points. And while the business community may be prospering, many working Americans are not. Median income down from when President Obama took office nearly five years ago. And according to Pew Research just 31 percent of Americans approve of the way Mr. Obama is handling the economy -- a disastrous number.

With us now to explain further, Fox Business Anchor, Lou Dobbs. So isn't this interesting that the stock market, you know guys like you and I we have portfolios.

LOU DOBBS, FOX BUSINESS ANCHOR: Right.

O'REILLY: And mine's making money and I'm sure yours is, too.

DOBBS: Twice as much.

O'REILLY: Yes, you're twice as smarter, so that's the way it goes. But then the working guy doesn't have a lot of disposable income to buy stocks.

DOBBS: Absolutely.

O'REILLY: Their -- their position is going down and down and down and down.

DOBBS: The Dow Jones Industrial is up 20 percent.

O'REILLY: Just this year.

DOBBS: Just -- year to date.

O'REILLY: Right.

DOBBS: The S&P 500 up 23 percent. The unemployment rate is 7.3 percent. It's moved from 7.9 percent in January now to 7.3 percent. The labor force participation rate, the number of us by percentage of population working, has dropped to a 35-year low, 62 points --

(CROSSTALK)

O'REILLY: Yes because people are giving up.

O'REILLY: We have more people underemployed, unemployed in this country.

O'REILLY: Part time.

DOBBS: Right now 14 percent of the country is in that category. And we are taxing jobs. The effect of Obamacare is to tax jobs, to create part-time jobs. We have -- we have stagnant wages over the course of three decades.

O'REILLY: I know. I mean, is -- this is the irony of this whole thing. President Obama's primary goal in his life --

(CROSSTALK)

DOBBS: Right.

O'REILLY: -- is to redistribute income assets. Right?

DOBBS: Right.

O'REILLY: Do you agree? I think nobody can disagree with that.

DOBBS: Absolutely.

O'REILLY: And he came into office with the belief that he was going to make the USA more fair, economically. That is, bring the wealthy closer to the working people.

DOBBS: Right.

O'REILLY: He has done the exactly the opposite. The fat cats are making more money than ever before. All right? And the workers are making less money.

DOBBS: He's raised taxes through Obamacare, through taxes on capital gains; raising the income tax rate. None of this is a tax on wealth itself. And I'm not trying to give him, I assure you, any ideas.

O'REILLY: Well if you die tomorrow, Dobbs, they're coming with a truck to your house. They're going to take everything they can between Jersey and the feds. You're lucky you have a motor scooter left after they get through with you.

DOBBS: Well the fact of the matter is, I'm going to make sure I resist the outcome.

(CROSSTALK)

O'REILLY: Yes I mean don't die. But that's how they get it.

DOBBS: But the truth is, that we are -- we are watching companies in this country do no more investment in plants and factories. They're buying back their stock. And everybody's making a bundle. The effect of a stock buyback is to reduce the number of shares in a market which does not reduce demand. The fed puts out another $1 trillion a year and then next thing you know the market keeps rising and rising without necessarily improving earnings.

O'REILLY: But let's get back to --

DOBBS: Or creating jobs.

O'REILLY: -- let's get back to the folks.

DOBBS: Sure.

O'REILLY: I mean five years President Obama's been in office and median income is down in five years.

DOBBS: Right, right.

O'REILLY: So obviously 31 percent, I don't even know who these 31 percent are. I think he's doing a good job in the economy. They must be you. You and me. The stock market guys. The fat cats.

DOBBS: It's sure not me.

O'REILLY: It's ok.

O'REILLY: Because I would like to see the middle class in this country prosper. I would like to see people who aspire --

(CROSSTALK)

O'REILLY: But they can't the wage earner can't unless there's more jobs and competition.

DOBBS: Exactly.

O'REILLY: -- for that earner.

DOBBS: Why does this elude the President of the United States?

O'REILLY: I don't know. I've been saying that for years, you've to have more jobs to drive wages up. But now they want a $10 an hour minimum wage.

DOBBS: Right, right now the jobs that aren't being created will pay more than the folks who can't find a job should have expected five years ago.

(CROSSTALK)

O'REILLY: What that will do is the $10 minimum wage and this is for you, Ralph Nader, ok, that will make fewer jobs.

DOBBS: Absolutely.

O'REILLY: The people at the bottom will go, look, I'll do without so- and-so and so-and-so because I don't want to pay that much money.

DOBBS: It's a very simple matter. This President is taxing wealth. He's taxing income. He is taxing jobs. And instead of talking positively and strongly about the direction of the country and restoring prosperity he is talking in the --

(CROSSTALK)

O'REILLY: But he's not -- he wants the feds to run the economy just like he wants the feds to run the medical system.

DOBBS: He says that he's not -- he doesn't know how to code, therefore he's not responsible for HealthCare.gov's debacle. But the truth is he is the President.

O'REILLY: He's the leader.

DOBBS: And he's got that responsibility which he is failing miserably.

O'REILLY: All right. Finally, finally, most, many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and the paycheck's shrinking.

DOBBS: Right.

O'REILLY: This is a -- this is a recipe for -- for anger and disaster. Every society in the history has had the folks, you know, be destitute. All right, has risen up. And I mean there's big trouble. Is that's what's on our horizon?

DOBBS: I think that there is a very good case to be made that we are looking at the prospect of civil unrest. We're looking at a population of Americans that have never had to deal with the fact that 50 percent are living in poverty.

That 50 percent of the folks out there, 50 million of the folks --

(CROSSTALK)

O'REILLY: They're getting entitlements.

DOBBS: -- are on food stamps.

O'REILLY: Yes.

DOBBS: This isn't the American dream.

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