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PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: There's extraordinary skepticism that any discussions like this can actually produce results. I'm well aware of that. I don't mind skepticism.

I'm open to every demonstrably good idea.

HOUSE MINORITY LEADER JOHN BOEHNER, R-OHIO: The biggest problem we heard from our economists with regard to why employers aren't hiring is all the job-killing policies that are being offered by this administration and this Congress and creating an awful lot of uncertainty for American employers.

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BRET BAIER, HOST: Well, the White House held a jobs summit today, as did Republicans. The president is saying that he is open to anything, even tax cuts and that he is worried about rising deficits and debt as well, but wants to turn this recovery, which he calls weak, around.

So what about this? Let's bring in our panel: Steve Hayes, senior writer for The Weekly Standard; Jennifer Loven, chief White House correspondent for the Associated Press, and syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer.

Jennifer, let's start with you. Do you think they thought they got a lot out of this summit and what is the feeling at the White House?

JENNIFER LOVEN, ASSOCIATED PRESS: As you know, the president is goint to give a speech on Tuesday where he is going to lay out some of what he thinks will be good ideas for a new jobs bill.

And I think today was kind of a precursor to that, so they could say that they talked to a wide-range of people from business and economists and academics and try to gather some of these ideas.

But some of these ideas are already set, as you know. They wouldn't be going into a speech Tuesday without knowing a lot of what they plan to do.

And the president gave a little bit of a hint of that today, one piece that I know that the White House is talking about with the Hill, with Democrats on the Hill, is more money for weatherizing homes, making homes more energy efficient. That would create jobs, and presumably help the environment as well.

BAIER: Charles, noticeably absent today, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. They were not included in the dozens of CEOs and small business owners and union leaders. What about this jobs summit?

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: Well, it is obviously a PR maneuver. Unemployment is high. People showed on Election Day in November that the administration and Congress are spending all their time on health care, which is not a high priority. High priority is the economy.

It is the conceit of liberals in power to imagine that the government not only should but can create jobs. Outside of world wars, it doesn't. Generally it gets in the way.

I mean, there are things that you can do by clearing the brush. Number one, kill health care with all of the job-killing mandates and penalties which are holding up employment. Secondly, kill cap-and-trade, which will destroy what's left of the industrial Midwest. Kill the stimulus package, and distribute the remaining billions either to individuals or to the treasury.

The other thing they can do is to approve the free trade agreements with Columbia and South Korea, which will create American jobs. A lot of economists have a consensus on that.

And lastly, and the most important here, is sort of a reprise of 2008: Lift the unbelievably absurd restrictions on drilling for gas and oil, which would create a gold rush of jobs in the country and help us in terms of national security and the economy.

You know, that's a way to save the economy in five points and I wasn't even in the jobs summit. Perhaps I should have crashed it.

BAIER: You might have been welcomed at the Republican jobs summit, because they went through a lot of those points today. Steve, what about this battling jobs summit and the politics involved?

STEVE HAYES, SENIOR WRITER, THE WEEKLY STANDARD: I think Republicans wanted to show that they had their own ideas and that their ideas were ideas that have been proven to have worked right, by and large.

I think things like removing the uncertainty for small business owners about the kinds of effects that we'll see with a cap-and-trade bill, with health care.

And this isn't hypothetical. I mean, I have had discussions with small business owners, medium-sized manufacturers, and they will tell you, they say, look, I would like to hire people. I can't do it right now because I don't know what it is going to cost me when and if we have new health care mandates.

So it is a significant issue as they think about how they're going to conduct their business in the next year and on down the road. So beyond hypotheticals.

The second point I would make is that the Congressional Budget Office put out a letter to Harry Reid on November 18 and it talked about the fact that the proposals that they're talking about, particularly the payments, the penalties that small businesses or businesses would have to pay, would indeed cost jobs, keep people from hiring.

So while Vice President Biden is saying that the president has been focused on nothing but jobs, jobs, jobs - in fact, what he has been doing is pushing health care, and health care, I think, is one of the major reasons that we haven't seen more hiring.

BAIER: Jennifer, there is a major defense still of the stimulus package. The vice president did it again today, and we have heard that many times.

The president has mentioned numerous times lately a concern about the deficit and the debt and that taxes and government spending can't do it all. How does the White House match up health care, cap-and-trade, all of these agenda items with that statement, those statements?

LOVEN: Well, I think, you know, you have heard some people at the White House talk about what they're going to do next year is have more of a focus on the deficit, as you mentioned, and yet at the same time there is now a big push both internally and externally to focus on job creation.

And you're right. They're going to have to match that up. I'm not sure they know exactly how they're going to match that up yet. It's not clear to me.

You have the president giving a little bit, you know, of both messages today, talking about the need to figure out new ways to get jobs into the pipeline. At the same time he said to some of the people in the room, government isn't the answer. The private sector is the one that creates the jobs.

BAIER: But you get the sense from the president that everything is on the table, and if Republicans came to him with some ideas about tax incentives, et cetera, that he's open to it?

LOVEN: That's what it sounds like. That's what he said. And we'll see what they come up with. I think the speech is intended to sort of lay out the exact road map. But I think you will get a really good hint of what he thinks will be the right way to go and whether, in fact, he will take in some Republican ideas.

BAIER: Charles?

KRAUTHAMMER: Another speech? Politically, it's the law of diminishing returns. I'm not sure he has got a lot of traction on any of the major speeches in Afghanistan and all of those 28 or 29 speeches on health care, so let's see how he does. But I don't hold out a lot of hope that it's going to sway the public concern about lack of action on jobs and high unemployment.

HAYES: His top priority clearly is health care and has been health care, but I don't think it is any mystery, if I can be the resident cynic, I don't think it's any mystery why he is talking more about jobs now and government spending. Those are the two issues that rate highest on poll after poll after poll by organization after organization what voters are concerned about. Of course he needs to talk about it.

BAIER: I think Charles also has residency here on that.

HAYES: As a cynic, I will take second to Charles.

KRAUTHAMMER: I'm happy to take a partner at any time.