the president will lay out a speech to the nation, and democratic sources are telling us that it calls for $300 billion in tax break, incentives and other spending offset by an equal amount of budget cuts. this is being described as a major make-or-break moment for the president. we will discuss it along with mitt romney's competing plan that he unveiled today, but first on the phone, chief white house correspondent jessica yellin with the details. jessica, this $300 billion figure, and what are the detailing of it? >> hi, anderson. with people in discussions with the white house confirm that the $300 billion has been the working figure for the jobs package for a week now, and it would mean $300 billion in both spending and then cuts. you know, the white house has said that this is a revenue-neutral package so in addition to outlining the new spending the president will also outline some cuts on thursday in his speech, but he would then put out a more detailed package later, explaining more of those cuts when he makes the proposal to the deficit super committee, and i should point out that of course, these numbers could change between now and thursday, anderson. >> so just so i'm clear, $300 billion in new spending and then an equal amount of cuts or what is the breakdown? >> yes. yes. $300 in new spending and $300 in cuts so that you will come out with a zero total in the end. >> and do we know specifics about or what could be in the package? or what other specifics? >> right. the biggest ticket items as we understand it would be payroll tax cuts and then an extension of unemployment insurance. those are the big dollar figures. but, i'm also beginning to believe by democratic policy makers in the package some money for laid off teachers, also funds to renovate the dilapidated schools and the democrats see it as a quick way to employ laborers an studentd and also first responders, and you can see a political advantage for putting in money for first responders and teachers and not only employing laid off individuals, but it is also theoretically harder for members of congress to vote against that,although in this political environment, anything is possible, anderson. >> how does the president go about this? >> well, in the speech on thursday, i expect him to lay out not just the specifics, but a vision of how government can help us in his view. he'll then hit the road and he will be giving the campaign-style speech we heard from him yesterday, and hitting congress hard, and going out selling it to the american people in a very sort of rhetorically aggressive way and taking the case to the american people and basically hitting the campaign trail with it, anderson. >> and we will talk to democratic strategist paul begala and kevin madden, republican kevin madden, former spokesperson for mitt romney, but first, before we go to them on former governor of massachusetts mitt romney who laid out his plan for the economy as a preemptive strike. take a look. >> i know the president is going to give a speech in a couple of days, and i know what is coming. i have seen version, one, two, three, four, five. and they are not working. and the reason is -- [ applause ] i mentioned a moment ago that we are now using smartphones, not pay phones. president obama's strategy is a pay phone strategy, and we are in a smartphone world. and so, we are going to have to change -- what he is doing is to take quarters and stuffing them into the pay phone and thinking, can't figure out why it is not working. it is not connected anymore, mr. president. the pay phone strategy does not work in a smartphone world. >> well, governor romney's plan to cut corporate tax rates and cutting taxes on interest and dividends and slashing government regulations and eliminating the affordable health care act and clamping down on china's unfair trade practices and it would create 11.5 million jobs in four years and to be honest, it sounds like a lot and more than the last three years, but it is much different, because bill clinton and jimmy carter and president bush created about the same. but obama's response to the romney plan says that it is more tax breaks for the large corporations. and rick perry's is that -- we did some checking on mr. romney's experience that his private sector experience uniquely prepares him for a job creator. we checked on that. here is what he says. >> i don't think that barack obama is a bad guy, and i just don't think he has a clue. having never worked in the private sector and not having a real job, it is not a surprise he does not know how to create a real job. >> if you want to create jobs, it helps to have had a job. >> i understand how to get business going again. >> i have spent my life in the private sector creating jobs. >> i have spent most of my life outside of politics dealing with real problems in the real economy. >> and i spent much of my life in the real economy and by that i don't mean creating jobs and being saved, i did that myself. >> being in the private sector for 25 years and therefore knowing how the economy works and why jobs come and why they go and not watching the jobs being created, but creating jobs. >> create jobs -- >> create jobs -- >> it is time for someone who knows how to create jobs. >> that is the bottom line. the private sector experience gives him the know-how and he got specific in this fox news debate. >> when i was at bank capitol we invested in 100 different companies. not all of them worked, but i am proud of the fact that i learned about how you can be successful at enterprise and how we lose jobs an gain jobs and overall of the 100 businesses that we invested in tens of thousands of jobs net-net were created. >> keeping him honest that number tens of thousands is vague. when we asked the campaign for specifics to back it up, we got no reply. in addition, some of the investments of bain is a they invested in staples because they employ about 90,000 people, so should he be credited with creating the 90,000 or only a fraction? we are not experts in the field, but implying that he is investing in companies makes him better atuned to creating the jobs period. he says he won some and lost some, but never mentioned in his previous work in a private equity firm laying people off was a good business and businesses like staples, they were heavily leveraged when romney ran it. there is nothing illegalle or unusual about it, because that is what private equity companies do. but what he does not mention is that means cutting pensions and cutting jobs. seven years ago when running against u.s. senator ted kennedy, he boasted about jobs, he didn't say tens of thousands, but just 10,000, and the senator's campaign fought back with this. >> he took jobs away. >> i worked there 30 years, and i never dreamed that i'd lose my job. >> mitt romney says he helped create 10,000 jobs and the former works at s.c.m. in marion, indiana, say something else. >> if he is creating jobs, i wish he could do it here instead of taking them away. >> well, he and others lost their jobs after they bought the company and then institutes layoffs and then after the workers went on strike, bain closed entirely. and a couple of years later, american pad and paper went under costing even more jobs. mitt romney and bain took a hit to the reputation, but not the wallets as they pocketed $100 million in that deal. here to talk about it in the upcoming speech on jobs joining us is the romney spokesman in the 2008 campaign. so, if he was not touting that as one of the major selling points, how real is the record in the business world would it be? >> well, any candidate, and their background in business and professional life is important. mitt romney has made it a sen tepiece and st -- centerpiece is job, and it is much the way that an undertaker is a medical doctor. and so he created a company and got made him rich, and god bless him, and i don't know but you will more and more from workers who were laid off by mitt romney and maybe the tens of thousands were created in india or china he was bashing in his speech. he has set himself up, anderson, as someone who is quite vulnerab vulnerable. and remember, mike huckabee who won in iowa won because he accused mitt romney of looking like the guy who laid you off. and a lot of people said, yeah, he does. >> and kevin, you are the spokesman, and are these attacks on romney anything new? the attacks of bain, are they new? >> well, it is coming down the world view, and what governor romney will tell the many primary voters and if he were to earn the nomination and find his way into the nomination, he would say that his world view of understanding the private sector and admittedly what goes right alg wro and wrong in the private sector is important to put together his blueprint to turn around the american economy. we can't rely on people who have just government experience who only know about government paycheck in order to create and fix and create an economy that can get, that can put american people back to the work and can be turned around again so that we are creating jobs. ultimately, this has to come around people who are in small businesses and big businesses and businesses that have succeeded and failed in order to make sure that we are a back to create ing t creating the jobs so that americans have more of the jobs. >> but kevin, sometimes in business what goes right in a business is not what goes right for a private equity firm. what goes right for private equity firm is making a big return on the investment which means cutting costs and laying off workers? >> well, at the heart of it is the free market. what happens is that many of the companies like bain capital and other folks with private sector experience like governor romney went in and tried to turn around the companies that were inefficient or bloated or not producing profits and not expanding and what you have to do to make hard decisions. sometimes the hard decisions are to make the company more efficient and sometimes it requires some of the companies to get leaner. that is one of the important things that we know about the private sector, but ultimately at the core of what governor romney tried to do and the core of many of the entrepreneurs try to do is to create jobs and make their companies better. that is what governor romney will try to leverage with the american economy is that we are not efficient and not creating jobs and how can we go to experience of the american entrepreneur and get people back to work, because over the last three years the approach of the obama administration with more spending and taxes and regulation have not produced jobs. that is a critical world view here. >> and paul, let me ask you about this, with the details coming out about the president's jobs plan $300 million in new spending and $300 million in cuts? >> well, we have to wait and see how it is targeted and where it is target. the very fact that the president is doing it is good news. it shows that he is dialed in to the most important issue facing the country and unlike all of the other candidates except for, well, governor perry is still in office and bachmann is, but he can do something about it and more than a member of congress or a governor can, but the key is will he be targeted on the m middle class. that is where he wants a point of departure with kevin's old boss mitt romney, and it is a world view, and he is right, the focus is on the heart of the middle-class. he believes that is what drives the economy and business needs more customers and you get that by helping the middle-class. >> well, paul, you could argue that if the details are right that jessica is detailing tonight that it is a revenue-neutral plan, that should be music to the republicans' ears and do you believe, paul, that it is in the republicans' best interest to get this thing passed? >> i think it is in the best interest, but they won't see it as such and here is why. there are all kinds of republicans and some truly deeply want to help, and i know they do, but there are others who frankly understand the political physics which is if america fails, republicans succeed. mitch mcconnell has said that he wants to make the president a one-term president, and john boehner said that some of the policies might cost jobs and he said sobeit, and michele bachmann said, it might be good, and rush limbaugh said he hopes that the president fails and several republicans and a lot of them who frankly don't like to see the economy fail if it means they succeed politically. >> and kevin, republicans, if it is a revenue-neutral plan is that something that the republicans can get on board in this climate? >> well, anderson, it is going to remain to be seen if it is more of the same with the president. he is good at providing lofty rhetoric and going before congress to offer poll-tested nuggets or sound bite in a speech, but very bad at the practice of producing jobs and putting americans back to work. it sounds like just more government spending. i think that on the cut side, i think that the government, and many of the republicans up on capitol hill are going to believe that we can go further when it comes to finding the wasteful government spending, and that is the kind of wasteful government spending suffocating the american economy and with high-def it it hi high-deficits and the president has had three years to produce something tangible to produce jobs, and he hasn't, so i expect more lofty rhetoric and a lot of platitudes and not a lot of action. >> paul, you are shaking your hand? >> well, one man's wasteful spending is a firefighter risking his life for my former neighbors or a teacher going back to school today. when you get to the specifics and the president will and should, and i think that americans in the middle and not id log eologues like me and kev and they say, cut spending like kevin, good point, but then you say lay off the cops and the teachers and to make it harder for fema to respond to an emergency and they are not so much in favor, because they want them to be there to help them through the storm. >> it is going to be easy to see if he can marshall public opinion about more spending, paul. >> and reminder that the president will speak at 7:00 eastern time thursday, and we will keep them honest at 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. eastern. let us know what you think about this tonight at anderson cooper.com. and the fire images are inkredable from the fire lines in texas. and gadhafi is fleeing libya, and the question is where is the boss? new clues of perhaps where he may be. 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[ falcon screeches ] as paul mentioned earlier a lot of people are hurting in texas tonight. massive wildfires are burning largely out of control and more than 700 homes are destroyed and thousands have been forced to flee and two more lives lost today. the largest fire near austin has spread across 30,000 acres which is twice the size of manhattan here in new york and it has burned half a town and destroyed a state park and shows little signs of letting up. the -- are calmer than yesterday, which is welcomed news, but the problem is too little to fight these flames. joining us is mary hicks head of the texas forest service. when we spoke yesterday, you said you had never seen anything like this, and what it is like today? >> well, it is calmer today, anderson, and the wind is dying down help us to get more of a handle on what is going on. the texas forest service supports the local fire department which is volunteer and that means they work for free and they have left their communities to battle these blazes for more than 290 days in a row. >> 290 days in a row? >> that is correct. that is almost a year. it is hard to believe that these people, they are the heroes out there. >> i mean, how do you keep up with that kind of a pace? because this is grueling, grueling work, and you are digging and dragging underbrush, it is really tough? >> well, what they do is that we called support in from all over the country and we have had firefighters come in from all over the country and every state has come in to help us, and every 14 days we get a new bunch in. so, that's saved us. >> have you -- i know you have assessment teams going into the neighborhoods who have been scorched by fires, and what are they finding? >> we do. i talked to several of the crews on the ground, and the assessments are going good, but they are walking through the subdivision, row by row, and street by street, and they are putti putting stakes on the ground to mark off the homes that are completely gone and the ones with damage and get a handle off what is there, and they are finding out that they have missed some, that slab that used to be a shop really was a home. it is devastating out there. >> and you point out that a lot of these fires, they are not started by nature. >> no. no! a lot of the fires, all of these fires are caused by people. what is unusual is that we are seeing things that start fires under normal conditions, i mean, that would not start fires under normal conditions like safety chains on trailer, either too long or not hooked up at all and drag along the pavement which causes pieces of metal to break off and lands in the grass along the road and it is hot enough to ignite and cause a devastating wildfire. >> i had no idea about that. so wait, a chain dragging along the road can ignite a fire? >> i know. we have all seen it. we have done this and i tried to drive up on a flat, because i said, i don't want to stop here and i want to keep going to get to the service station or get somewhere else, well normally, that would not cause a grass fire, but we are seeing it, and we have seen three or four of them just dragging, you know, on a rim. causes that metal to cause sparks to start the grass on fire. >> mary kay hicks, we appreciate your talking to usb and aga, an our best to you and all of those in harm's way. you hear that the dry land is no exaggeration. take a look at this. you can see the fire line moving in a few seconds and the line skre stretches back as far as the eye can see. the state park in awetustin and 6,000 acres burned and more from david mattingly. >> reporter: this woman has not seen her neighborhood since she left it behind in a cloud of smoke. you know what is there for you? >> absolutely. >> reporter: i am going with her to see if there is anything left. she has confirmed the worst. hers is one of 24 hours destroyed by fires in a neighborhood outside of austin, texas. the only question is will there be anything to salvage. >> my heart is pounding. it is pounding so hard right now, because i -- i don't know how i'm going to react when i actually see it and stand in front of it. >> reporter: a short walk down the street reveals friends and neighbors burned out as well. >> katy and brian's house. >> reporter: and then the moment