MSNBC's Thomas Roberts, filling for Ed Schultz after his suspension, talked to former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich about the stalled talks on raising our debt ceiling and how the paralysis in Washington, D.C., is allowing the bigger problem to be ignored -- namely, the fact that our politicians have done little to nothing to address the situation with unemployment in the U.S.

I for one am sick of the hostage-taking by the GOP on this issue and their complete irresponsibility on taking Medicare and Medicaid hostage and demanding that either the poor and the elderly get hit as part of their deal, or they crash the world's economy. As Reich noted, there are very large problems our politicians are refusing to deal with in regards to our economy that they're completely ignoring due to ideological issues and making this ridiculous argument a centerpiece when they should be focusing on getting Americans back to work instead.

Reich has much more in his columns at his blog in a couple of his latest posts, some of which he discussed with Roberts here.

How to Get Washington’s Attention:

Finally, it seems, the economic burdens of America’s vast middle class may be catching up with the Street. The Dow lost 2.22 percent today; the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was down 2.28 percent. Both marked their worst declines since August 11, 2010. The Nasdaq composite index fell 2.33 percent. We’re coming full circle: The stock market is dropping because corporate earnings are slowing. Corporate earnings are slowing because consumers are pulling back. Consumers are pulling back because they don’t have enough jobs or adequate wages. The immediate cause of the sell-off was an announcement by ADP Employer Services, a payroll processing firm that estimates employment, that private employers added only 38,000 jobs in May. The economy needs 125,000 new jobs a month just to tread water, given that at least 125,000 people join the potential labor force every month. Simply put, if new hires are in the range of five digits, American consumers will not have enough purchasing power to buy what the private sector can produce. Read on...

The Truth About the American Economy (II):