thanks for being with us tonight. you know, it takes big ideas to get this country back on the right track in times of great economic turmoil. one of the most ambitious plans of the new deal was the works project administration, which spent more than $13 billion on public projects and provided jobs to millions of americans for eight years. the wpa helped get us out of the great depression. couldn't we take a page out of that? right now we have 9.2% unemployment, declining wages, and the unemployment is much higher than that, and stagnant home values. we need government spending to help boost the economy, the same way it did during world war ii afterwards. all right? so instead we have two political parties fighting over who can cut more spending from the budget and put the country's financial future at risk. that's where we are. oh, by the way, the president
>> if we start cutting the budget deficit right now, ed, it is going to get worse. unless we are talking about raising taxes only on people at the very top. and let's face it, being rich means you have everything you need. you're not going to spend very much. in fact, being rich means you don't really have to spend very much at all. but everybody else -- you know, you want to hire people now. you said the wpa, we need to create jobs now. >> so the democrats, if they were to get the reid plan, they would protect the big three, which is big for the base, big for people on fixed incomes, and it would not increase revenue. and it would cut what you're talking about, the possibility of job creation, because we're taking too much out of the economy. how could this be viewed as a win for the president? >> well, i don't think it would be a win. it's a win only relative to what the republicans are proposing. but if you save social security and medicare and medicaid, that's great. but if you take $2.7 trillion
thanks for being with us tonight. it takes big ideas to get this country back on the right track in times of great economic turmoil. one of the most ambitious plans of the new deal was the works project administration, which spent more than $13 billion on public projects and provided jobs to millions of americans for eight years. the wpa helped get us out of the great depression. couldn't we take a page out of that? right now we have 9.2% unemployment, declining wages, and the unemployment is much higher than that, and stagnant home values. we need government spending to help boost the economy, the same way it did during world war ii afterwards. all right? so instead we have two political parties fighting over who can cut more spending from the budget, and put the çcountry's financial future at risk. that's where we are. oh, by the way, the president
thanks for being with us tonight. it takes big ideas to get this country back on the right track in times of great economic turmoil. one of the most ambitious plans of the new deal was the works project administration, which spent more than $13 billion on public projects and provided jobs to millions of americans for eight years. the wpa helped get us out of the great depression. couldn't we take a page out of that? right now we have 9.2% unemployment, declining wages, and the unemployment is much higher than that, and stagnant home values. we need government spending to help boost the economy, the same way it did during world war ii afterwards. all right? so instead we have two political parties fighting over who can cut more spending from the budget, and put the country's financial future at risk. that's where we are. oh, by the way, the president
raising taxes on people only at the very top. and let's face it, being rich means you have everything you need. you're not going to spend very much. in fact, being rich means you don't really have to spend very much at all. but everybody else -- you know, you want to hire people now. you said the wpa, the ccc, civilian conservation corps. we need to create jobs now. >> so the democrats, if they were to get the reid plan, they of course would protect the big three which is big for the base, big for people on fixed incomes, and it would not increase reven revenue. and it would cut what you're talking about, the possibility of job creation, because we're taking too much out of the economy. how could this be viewed as a win for the president? >> well, i don't think it would be a win. i mean it's win only relative to what the republicans are proposing. but if you save social security and medicare and medicaid, that's great. but if you take $2.7 trillion out of the economy, and if you do it soon, unfortunately, then you're going to have a tremendous problem. if you don't raise taxes on the
people who are saying we cannot afford to extend unemployment benefits to millions of people who are now in danger of running out because of very, very high unemployment rate and long-term un -- record high long-term unemployment, many of these same people are saying, well, we have got to extend the bush tax cuts to the richest people in our society and we don't need to worry about the budget deficit when it comes to them. i'm sorry, i think they have it upside down. i think we have to help people at the bottom, people who don't have jobs. we've got to not only get them benefits but also get them -- i said before -- a kind of neo wpa, works project administration. we've got to put them to work, get them money, trickle down doesn't work. if you provide tax breaks to the people at the top, nothing trickles down. we've seen that over the past -- certainly over the past ten years. certain l ly certainly, in fact, in many respects the past 30. >> about 2 million americans, 1.9 million americans lose their
families. >> jobs came back at a faster pace, even in march of 1933 after the economy started to recover from the depths of the great depression and they are coming back now. i guess the question that americans want to know and frankly the administration looking for answers to too, what do you propose we do now? >> there are a lot of things that can be done. first thing we must do is no any longer listen to the deficit hawks although the long-term deficit is a problem, right now the problem is getting people back to work. even if they have to create a works project administration like the great depression or have a temporary holiday on payroll taxes, let's say take the first $20,000 of payroll taxes and say nobody has to pay payroll taxes on the first $20,000 for a year or two years, those steps and other steps like them would get people employed and that has to be the number one objective. you can't deal with the long-term future budget deficit
everybody who broke the law and subverted the constitution a get out of jail free card and a virtual set of instructions on how to get away with all of it next time too. the administration did. mr. president, you will not get disagreement from the professional left that compromises the essence of practical politics, but you have gotten, you are getting, you always will get that disagreement from the professional right. they do not want compromise. they want everything. everything from more profits for insurance companies and less money for schools to you admitting you're not really president and that you've decided to endorse tea party candidates at the midterms. why on earth do you start every negotiation just barely left of center? anybody on this planet haggling always asks for far more than they expect to ultimately get. start at single payer and maybe you get public option. start at indictments for torture and maybe you get a truth and reconciliation commission.
friday we've got these numbers in for july that show a total of 71,000 new jobs were created by the private sector in the united states. that may sound good, but you need 125,000 just to keep up with the growth of the population. that 9.5% unemployment rate does not reflect this growing army of people who are unemployed and too discouraged even to look for work. so we are not out of the woods. in fact we're still in the woods, still in the swamps. we've got to do much more. >> and what is the much more? >> well, i mean there are a lot of things that can and should be done. for example, one thing that i've been trying to push is to have a payroll tax holida 80% of americans pay more in payroll taxes than they do in income taxes. so you say the first $20,000 of income, there will be no payroll taxes for the next two years. we'll make it up by, let's say, subjecting that people with incomes over $250,000 to payroll taxes. here's something else, a wpa. we did it during the great
whatever the dark lesson in that sick truth, however, the frustration over it should not be directed at the professional left. the professional right is far more deserving. it is profound and noble to see this president take so seriously the premise that he is just as much president of the people who didn't vote for him as of people who did. but this is ridiculous. the president has shown a willingness to give the professional right not just seats at the table, as he tries to restore this country to where it was before bush and cheney got ahold of it, not just give them half the seats at the table, but often, far too often, to give them all the seats, the table and the damn carpet as well. the professional left didn't start the health care negotiations by moving to the right of single payer and then of the public option, the administration did. the professional left didn't try to grease some skids with the minority by taxing union benefits, the administration did. the professional left didn't shire shirley sherrod and congratulate itself on quick action to avoid a media circus in this environment, the administration did. the professional left didn't