HOLT:
Mike Viqueira
, thanks.
NBC News
analyst
Howard Fineman
is also
Newsweek magazine
's senior
Washington
correspondent.
Howard
, good morning. It's great to see you.
Mr. HOWARD FINEMAN (NBC News Analyst):
Good morning,
Lester
.
HOLT:
Republicans
have been mocking the president saying what happened to that summer of recovery?
Mr. FINEMAN:
Yeah.
HOLT:
You've seen the unemployment numbers, 9.6 percent last week. In the past the president has said, 'Look, it took us a long time to get in this mess, it'll take a long time to get out of it.' Now he's saying, 'Well, at least we've stemmed the bleeding.' What is he going to say as he goes on the road to placate people who are still out of work?
Mr. FINEMAN:
Well,
Lester
, I'd like to say that being a political reporter here is rocket science, but it's not. When
Barack Obama
came into office the
unemployment rate
was 7.6 percent; it's now 9.6 percent. And eventually is now. For people in places like
Cleveland
, where I was last week at --
this is the time
he's got to say 'I'm going to act further than I have.' It's not a good bumper sticker,
Lester
, to say "it would have been worse had I not been here." The president needs to say, 'Here's what I'm going to do next,' which is the infrastructure spending, the
business tax
cuts. He's got to have some things to say on the campaign trail this fall and he's going to start this week.
HOLT:
But the campaign trail is the point. It is an election year, and that taints everything. He's going to talk about small
business tax
cuts, something
Republicans
would typically support, but they're not in this case right now. Are they going to basically oppose everything?
Mr. FINEMAN:
Yeah, I think so. I think -- everybody's criticized them for being the party of no, but right now the party of no looks like it's going to win big in November. This -- you're right, this is something
Republicans
would normally be for but the president's relationship with the
Republican Party
is completely poisonous and nonproductive. So the president's going to go out there and talk about these things, but the
Democratic Party
strategy is much different. It doesn't really feature
Barack Obama.
It's hand-to-hand combat in each local district. Personalities in the district,
House
stimulus spending has been spent in a particular district.
That's what
they're going to focus on. You won't see national ads featuring the president. You won't see national advertising about the
health care law
, which people are skeptical of. You won't see it about financial services reform, which people are skeptical of.
HOLT:
Right.
Mr. FINEMAN:
It's all going to be local.
HOLT:
But you talk about hand-to-hand combat. There's already evidence of some
Democrats
are trying to save their own skin, running away from the president, running away from
Nancy Pelosi
, basically trying to save their seat. What will Democratic leadership do to try to get all their folks on the same page? What's the mantra?
Mr. FINEMAN:
Well, it's not going to be on the same page. It's going to be, you do it locally, emphasize your own personality. Emphasize the parts of the stimulus plan that resulted in actual jobs and actual projects in your district. That's going to be one feature of it. Attack the
Republicans
. But I think the
Democrats
understand that spending a lot of time talking about the
Bush administration
is just not going to work. It's been 19 months now, the
unemployment rate
has gone up.
The Democrats
have to go on their own and go local. And the other thing that
Democrats
are going to do is look to those districts they can defend. Rather than prospect in districts that they had no business holding
in the first place
, they're going to retreat, make the perimeter smaller, and try to defend with money and individual advertising those districts that they have a chance to keep. Because what the
Democrats
don't want is to lose more than 40 seats. If they do, they lose the
House
.
HOLT:
Right.
Howard Fineman
, good to talk to you. Lave a good
Labor Day
.
Mr. FINEMAN:
You too,
Lester
.
HOLT:
All right, it is 7:08. Here's Natalie.
NATALIE MORALES, co-host:
Lester
, thanks.
NATALIE MORALES, co-host:
And for more on the current jobs situation, let's turn now to Labor Secretary
Hilda Solis
.
Madam Secretary
, good morning, and happy
Labor Day
to you.
Labor Secretary HILDA SOLIS (US Secretary of Labor):
Happy
Labor Day
, Natalie.
MORALES:
As we just heard, it is all about the economy right now, and the biggest indicator continues to be those unemployment numbers. As we heard on Friday, sitting still at 9.6 percent, the
private sector
gained 67,000 jobs, the
public sector
lost over 110,000 jobs. I know that those numbers were somewhat expected, given the layoffs of the temporary census workers. But,
Madam Secretary
, can you honestly say that the situation really is improving?
Sec. SOLIS:
You know, if you look back where we were when this president took over, we were losing well over 740,000 jobs. In the last eight months alone, each month we've added about 90,000 jobs on average. So we're actually putting
private sector
jobs back. And the report that I saw tells me that we saw growth again in construction. There were about 19,000 jobs added there. We also continue to see an increase in
health care
careers, IT, technology. and obviously in manufacturing. We know we have to do more, but this is a good -- this is a good effort on the part of the administration and I'm sure the president, as you know, will be speaking more about that later in the week about some other developments to help improve the economy and create jobs especially with the
private sector
and
small businesses
.
MORALES:
That's right
. As we mentioned, the president traveling to
Cleveland
in fact on Wednesday where he's expected to unveil a variety of measures designed to stimulate the economy including a $100 billion
tax credit
for businesses. But there are many
small business
owners who continue to remain worried about the tax increases.
The Bush
tax credit
expires at the end of this year. So will the president be -- what will the president be proposing then to help ease their concerns and to encourage
job growth
?
Sec. SOLIS:
Well, he's also going to be talking
later today
at our visit to
Milwaukee
about infrastructure and the need to create jobs in that area. We
lost so many jobs in constructuringand in the trades area, and there's a proposal that he'll be talking about later that would provide for front loading, at least for the first six years, about $50 billion for highway, high-speed rail, transportation projects that we really need to concentrate on. That will put people back to work immediately. These are projects and efforts that have bipartisan support that we know could possibly get support in the
Congress
and the
Senate
.
MORALES:
And there's been some talk as well about perhaps a secondary
stimulus package
when money from the first stimulus plan has yet to be fully spent. Do you think that a secondary
stimulus package
might be necessary in order to help speed the recovery?
Sec. SOLIS:
I don't think we're talking about second stimulus. What we're talking about is looking at some projects that are already out there. Right now in the
Senate
they're -- we're waiting the vote so that we could pass a
tax credit
for
small businesses
and open up more lending through community banks. That's so important. Everywhere I go, that's what -- the theme that I keep hearing over and over again. And obviously the infrastructure effort is something that's ongoing in
Congress
. I -- having been a member there, I know how important it is to continue funding because we know that that provides jobs immediately. And most members of the
House
and the
Congress
, as a former member, we all agree that those things put people to work. They help our economy and they also help to put people there in good paying jobs. So I would say that that's really the focus of where this administration is going. And as I said earlier, the president will talk more about it later on in the week.
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