The November Jobs numbers are out: 146,000 more jobs were added last month and the unemployment rate fell to a four-year low of 7.7 percent.

Alan Krueger, chairman of President Obama’s Council Of Economic Advisers, says he thinks it’s worthwhile to combine the hopeful signs in the jobs report to other bits of optimistic economic news.

“We see a picture of an economy that is continuing to heal from the ‘Great Recession,'” says Krueger, who dismisses criticism that the latest decrease in unemployment came from people dropping out of the job hunt. 

Regarding the ongoing fiscal cliff negotiations, he warns: “The last thing the economy needs right now is for a tax increase on the middle class,” which he argues would take a severe bite out of already feeble consumer spending.