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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

President Obama Discusses Economic Growth In America; Construction Crane Crashes Down In Lower Manhattan. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired February 05, 2016 - 12:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:31:46] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: I want to take you right to President Obama.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: As you're aware by now, America's businesses has created another 158,000 jobs last month. After reaching 10 percent in 2009, the unemployment rate has now fallen to 4.9percent, even as more Americans join the job market last month.

So, this is the first time that the unemployment rate has dipped below five percent in almost eight years. Americans are worth it. All total over the past six years our business has added 14 million new jobs. Seventy-one straight months of private sector growth extends the longest streak on record.

Over the past two years 2014 and 2015 our business has added more jobs than any time since the 1990s. Most importantly, this progress is finally starting to translate into bigger paychecks. Over the past six months wages have grown at their fastest rate since the crisis, and the policies that I'll push this year are designed to give workers even more leverage to earn raises and promotions.

So unemployment, deficits, gas prices are all down. Jobs, wages, and the rate of the insured are up. I should mention, by the way, that since I signed ObamaCare into law nearly 18 million Americans have gained coverage and our businesses have created jobs every month since. On that, all of them, full tine jobs.

So, as I said, in my state the union address. The United States of America right now has the strongest most durable economy in the world. I know that's still inconvenient for Republican stump speeches as their doom and despair tour plays in New Hampshire. I guess you cannot please everybody.

That does not mean that we don't have more work to do. There is softness in the global economy. China is going through a transition. Europe's economy is still slow. A lot of the emerging markets are challenged. So, that's all creating headwinds for a lot of U.S. companies who do business overseas. It makes it more difficult for us to sell exports. So, we've got to pay attention to this, and we have to take some smart steps this year to continue progress.

And we have to do more to make sure that the progress that we do make is broadly based, and impacting folks up and down the income scales..The budget that I send to Congress Tuesday is going to make sure that we can continue the progress. Topping down the American economy, by the way, does not make that progress.

My budget is going to offer more opportunities for Americans to get education and job training that they need for a good paying job. It will offer new ideas for benefits and protections that provide folks with a basic sense of security. Will create more good paying jobs, not by subsidizing the past, but by investing in the future, and that's why we're going to be placing a big emphasis on clean energy.

[12:3505:] Private sector solar jobs, for example, are growing 12 times faster than the rest of the economy, and they paid better than average. That's one reason why my budget is going to double our investment and clean energy research and development by the end of the decade. That's going to help businesses create more jobs faster. It's going to lower the cost of clean energy faster. It's going to help renewable power compete with dirty fuels across America in a more effective way.

Those are some of the steps that we're going to make sure out future is even stronger, future that is worthy of the hard work and determination of the American people. The progress we make going from 10 percent down to under five percent, that's a testament to American workers, American businesses, and the American people are being resilient and sticking to it. And my hope is that rather than hinder their progress, we're going to continue to help them make progress.

With that, have a great weekend. Enjoy the Super Bowl, I'm not telling you my pick, because the Bears aren't it. But I'm hoping for a great game. With that, Josh, is he back there? Josh, take it away.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You seem to imply you don't get enough credit well you again ...

OBAMA: Well, you know what, I'm going to -- let take a couple of questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:.Is that all right?.

OBAMA: Why not. You know, just what the heck. I'm in good mood. It's Friday. Throw it..

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:.OK, so you were implying yesterday in a joking way that you don't get enough credit.

OBAMA: Well, this is when I was talking about with the Warriors.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:.With the warriors..

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Warriors.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. So, were you, again referring, as you did just now, to Republicans and their message, which you could say could be expected during an election or were you also referring to the fact that the polls, like 70 -- 57 percent of Americans in polls say they don't think things are going well in this country. Why do you think that is?

OBAMA: Well, at the time I was making a joke with a basketball team, but there's no doubt that while we have made significant progress -- and I talked about this during the state of the union -- there's still anxiety and concern about the general direction of the economy.

If you have looked at some of the surveys, people feel better about their circumstances, their finances, but they're not sure about the future, and part of it is there's still a pretty big carry-over from the devastation that took place in 2007, 2008. If your home value drops in half or you lose a job that you thought you were secure or your pension suddenly looks vulnerable, you are going to remember that. And so a lot of people still feel that.

And they're right to recognize that there's some longer-term economic trends that we still have to tackle. That the economy is more dynamic and it churns faster and the pressure on companies to maximize short- term returns oftentimes at the expense of long-term investment, the lack of loyalty sometimes to workers who built those companies and were threatened to be laid off, the fact that wages and incomes up until for the last six months haven't gone up as fast as corporate profits have or benefits at the very top. All those things people feel and they experience.

And so, even though they know things are better, they're worried where are we going? I think -- so I think that the argument I'm making here and will continue to make during the course of this year is we should be proud of the progress we've made. We have recovered from the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. The worst in my lifetime and the lifetime of most of the people in this room, and we've done it faster, stronger, better, more durably than just about any other advanced economy.

Had we adopted some of the policies that were advocated by Republicans over the last four, five, six years, we know that we probably would have done worse, and we know that because a lot of European countries adopted those policies, and they haven't yet gotten to the same place they were before the crisis.

So, evidence, facts are on our side, and this jobs report gives you one more indication that the facts are on our side. I think that it is important for us then to understand how do we take the next step and make people feel more secure and feel more confident about the future. And that's why investments in indication and job training are going after the high costs of higher education, making sure that issues like paid leave and family leave are put in place. raising the minimum wage so that if you're working full-time, you're not in poverty.

[12:40:12] Making sure that we're investing in transportation, infrastructure and clean energy, going after the jobs in the future, investing in technology. All those things are a recipe for continued growth and increased security.

And as far as I can tell, those who are running down the economy and adding to the anxiety don't seem to have any plausible coherent recipe other than cut taxes for the very folks who have been doing the best in this economy and somehow magically that's going to make other folks feel good. Or alternatively they argue that the reason you're feeling insecure is because immigrants or poor people are taking more and more of your paycheck. And that is just not true. The facts don't bare that out. That's not where the weaknesses in the economy are. That's not what's depressing wages for middle class families or making them more vulnerable to disruptions in this economy.

And I want to keep on making that argument during the course of this year. We should feel good about the progress we've made, understanding that we have still got more work to do. It's sort of like, you know, I'm 54 now, so I have to work out harder to stay in shape, and, you know, if I'm feeling good in the gym, I want to acknowledge that what I'm doing is working.

Otherwise, I'll go out and have a big double bacon cheeseburger or something because I'll think, well, this isn't working. If it's working, then we should be staying on that same path. That doesn't mean that I'm where I necessarily want to be. It doesn't mean that I stop, you know, doing some hard work to get where we need to go. All right?

I was only going to make two. I'm just going to take two. So, all right. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President. How can you improve work force participation levels because as much as people talk about the recovery, so few Americans now relatively speaking in the job force, especially compared to 2008, and if you wouldn't mind, sir, can you at least comment on the $10 per barrel fee that we've heard so much about?

OBAMA: On the first question, part of what was good in this jobs report is the fact that the participation rate, in fact, didn't drop. That wasn't the reason why unemployment dropped. More people are entering into the work force. They feel more confident, and they're finding work. But what is true is that we're still at a point where the labor participation rate is lower than it has been historically.

Some of that's explained by demographics. The population is getting older, and so you would expect that there is some decline, but it's not fully explained by Americans getting older. Some of this is still the hangover from what happened in 2007, 2008. And this is part of the reason why we have to keep our foot to the accelerator in terms of doing the things that need to be done to keep the economy growing and keep it strong. We should not let up from the progress that has been made so that the labor market continues to tighten, people will feel more confident that if they go out and look for work, that they can find it.

There are particular cases where some folks have just been out of the labor market for a long time, and may not be equipped for the jobs of today, and that's where we've got to target some special efforts. I get a lot of letters from middle age workers who got laid off. Aren't confident about their current skills, and so have not yet re-entered the work force. They need to get retrained, and so that's a special group of folks in their late 40s, early 50s, still far away from retirement, but feel like they can't adapt.

Obviously there are young people, high school drop-outs, folks in both rural communities and inner cities that just have -- came of age right in the middle of this terrible recession, and haven't gotten attached to the labor market yet, and so we've got to make special efforts to figure out do we get them into job training programs or community college and allows them to get some skills.

So, there's a wide set of strategy that is we can take on that. But it's going to require overall, though, a strong labor market for them to feel like it's worth it to make these -- to make these, you have to make these efforts. And we want to keep making sure that the labor market is as strong as possible.

[12:45:31] With respect to oil and energy I'll probably make a larger speech about that and the directions that we need to go on this. The basic proposition is that, right now gas is 180, and gas prices are expected to be low for a while for the foreseeable future. That overall can be a good thing for the economy.

But what is also important is that we use this period where gas prices are low to accelerate the transition to a cleaner energy economy because we know that's not going to last..Every one of us have seen cycles where gas prices were down and then they pop back up and the idea here is that if we say to oil companies, which by the way, got a significant benefit when we in omnibus allowed them for the first time to export oil.

Up until that point, domestic or oil producers couldn't export. So if we say to them now, all right, oil companies, we know that you're having to retool. We know the prices are low right now. You're allowed to export, but what we're also saying is that we're going to provide -- we're going to impose a tax on a barrel of oil imported, exported. So that some of that revenue could be used for transportation. Some of that revenue can be used for the investments and basic research and technology that's going to be needed for the energy sources of the future.

Then, ten years from now, 15 years from now, 20 years from now we're going to be in a much stronger position when oil starts getting tight again, prices start going up again. We will have further weaned our economy off of dirty fuels. We will not have just made environmental progress, but we'll also have a much stronger economy, a stronger infrastructure. We will be creating the jobs of the future, and I think we'll look back and say that was a smart investment. That was a wise decision for us to make.

But the point is its right to do it now when gas prices are really low. They will be low for quite some time to come so it's not going to be a disrupting factor in terms of the economy.

All right? OK, guys.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well they something?

OBAMA: Of course, they always say something. I only said two questions, but I hope you guys have a wonderful Super Bowl party.

All right? Thank you, guys.

BANFIELD: And with that, the president cedes to Josh Ernest, the White House press secretary. That's not something we're used to getting, just an ad hoc news conference like that. Our Michelle Kosinski bringing up a very good point.

This may be good news that unemployment is down to 4.9 percent, and that's the lowest rate in eight years. But, you know what, 57 percent of Americans say the economy is not going well in their estimation. The new jobs this month 151,000, the projection, however, was at CNN Money, 197,000. So, 50,000 short of the projection.

And also, about 100,000 below last month's job creation. I want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Ashleigh Banfield here at CNN. Joing me now u Senior Washington Correspondent , Jeff Zeleny and CNN business correspondent, Alison Kosik.

Allison, I want to draw everyone's attention to the DOW. Because as I've been watching the big board the day has been intriguing when those numbers were announced, we could see a very sharp downward curve that the DOW had a really rough couple of hours. And here we are approaching 1:00, and the president was speaking, at 11:30 things started to uptick. We're still 157 down, but walk me through the markets and how they react to this kind of news.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: So, Ashleigh, Wall Street has this very skewed mentality, and in this case this good -- this was a good jobs report. That the way Wall street sees it as good news is bad news. Let me explain why. Because although up until we got this jobs report, which, by the way, is strong, it looked like the slowing global growth, the worry that other countries that are having issues is very time that could spill over here.

[12:50:02] The thinking was that that would compel the Fed to postpone another interest rate hike next month. But what Wall Street is seeing now is that the stronger labor market is suggesting that the Fed maybe thinking differently now that March can't be ruled out, that interest rates could go up again.

So, the other part of it is, you know, all is not perfect in the economy. Yes the job market is strong, considering where we come from. But you look at what's been having in the financial market. They're unstable. January, Ashleigh, is actually coming off its worst month since 2009.

Look at GDP. That's the economic growth in this country. It's basically muddling through. Let me show you how much. The economy grew only 0.7percent between Octobers through December. That is the slowest pace since the first quarter of last year when the economy only grew at 0.6percent. Now, mind you, we had bad weather in 2015. Weather was blamed on that, but the question is why did the economy at the end of last year only grow at 0.7percent when, hmm, the weather was warm? So, all is not perfect. You look at overall growth last year, it was

only 2.4percent. That matched 2014. So, what does that say? That says growth in the United States was stagnant from 2014 to 2015 if you base it on that one data figure. Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Well, max doesn't lie, Alison Kosik, and that's why you are in this moment with us. And I'm going to go to Jeff Because you can take math, Jeff Bellamy, and you can add politics to it, and everything changes.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: No question, Ashleigh. I mean, one central figure of this presidential campaign is President Obama. He is not running for office again, of course, but his record and the record of this economy are a central player in this campaign.

And the president coming out today to report these jobs numbers is very significant to me. After covering the White House, covering this president for eight years, he seldom has done this. But by doing this, he is trying to rebut some of the Republican argument. That the economy is not doing well. He is trying to -- you heard him say himself he is not talking down the economy, not running down the economy. He believes that's what Republicans have done.

But the challenge here is this for Democrats. Democrats will inherit this economy. No question about it. The jobs numbers are so much better than they were seven, eight years ago. Unemployment is half what it was, but there is still the feeling out there that the economy has not fully revived. So, that is the challenge for these candidates.

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on the Democratic side, by embracing this economic growths but still understanding the challenges that voters and people are feeling out there. But I think by the president coming to the White House and reporting these numbers is a sign that he is trying to add his voice to this and remind Americans who may be listening to this presidential campaign that things are not as bad as you may be hearing on one side of this aisle..

So, and interesting moment here, running campaign trail in New Hampshire where Hillary Clinton will be behind me in just a second. All these candidates are watching these numbers very carefully. Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: All right..Jeff Zeleny, live for us in Manchester, thank you for that. We are also -- and Alison Kosik, thank you as well, do appreciate you watching the DOW for us from New York stock exchange.

We're also in Manhattan watching something that happens here this morning that frightened a lot of people. A deadly crane collapsed. It happened on the lower part of Manhattan. Well over 100 firefighters and first responders racing into action. I'm going to give you the pictures from above. You will not believe what it looks like to see a crane that is blocks long after it crashes down to the streets below..

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [12:57:58] And the results are --.want to welcome back our viewers in the United States and all around the world. There is this breaking news right now coming to us from Lower Manhattan. A massive and towering construction crane came crashing to the street below this morning, brushing the building on its way down and also smashing parked cars that were parked all the way down an entire city block.

The pictures are just astounding and the results are as well. At least one person was killed who was sitting in one of those parked cars. There are several other people who were badly hurt in this accident.

CNN's Miguel Marquez is standing by live in Lower Manhattan, and the mayor has already been to this location. Tell me what happened?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This was a crawler crane. It wasn't a crane attached to a building but a crane that was rolled in or driven in about a week ago. This is the scene here on West Broadway. That's just halfway down the crane. It goes back to the left another block and then all the way down to the right another block. Several cars crushed. That one person, as you mentioned, who was injured was in one of those cars that was marked along the way where this crane came down.

The winds were very high when this crane was being lowered this morning. It was 565 foot crane, and they put an extension on it. It's was working on an existing building, they were putting air conditioners and generators on top of that building. It had already done some work it was being lowered this morning because the winds were so high. It's also snowing very heavily.

All these under investigation now as to how the crane, as it was being lowered, came down and crushed several cars damaging four buildings as well, but fortunately it could have been a lot worse. There are concerns about a gas leak because of how hard this crane came down, but they've been checking throughout the day, and they say so far no signs of a gas leak. Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Well, thank God that the workers had already begun clearing some of the traffic below. This could have been so much worse. Miguel Marquez for us live in Lower Manhattan. Thank you for that.

[13:00:08] And thank you, everyone, for watching. I'm going to turn the mike over to my colleague Wolf Blitzer who starts right now.