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Obama Promotes Jobs Plan; CNN/Tea Party Host Debate; GOP Contenders Square off Tonight; Smackdown over Social Security; Greece Puts Global Markets on Edge; GOP Candidates Face Off Tonight; Talking with the Taliban

Aired September 12, 2011 - 11:08   ET

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

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The president of the United States there shaking hands after his event in the Rose Garden. The president taking a few minutes there. This is a fascinating test of how much grassroots support the president can gin up right now, speaking to the American people, of course, speaking to an audience in Washington, but mostly asking you watching at home around the country, pick up the phone, hire a plane, a skywriter, if you'd like, the president said, to support his jobs program.

It's about $450 billion. A lot of it are things, as the president said, things Republicans have supported in the past, tax cuts, especially. Some things in there, though, you heard the president talking about school construction, you heard him talking about summer jobs programs, those are things Republicans call stimulus deja vu and they do not want to support again.

The politics in a moment.

Let's get to the economics of this plan first.

Ali Velshi with me here in Tampa.

Nothing new there from the president.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Correct.

KING: When he talks about job creation, I was struck, at the end. You've seen the independent analysis. Some say it will create 500,000 jobs. Some say a million. There have been some that say even $1.9 million.

VELSHI: That's right.

KING: You would think the president would say pass this because it will create 1.9 million jobs...

VELSHI: He is...

KING: Is he gun shy about the numbers?

VELSHI: I don't know treat you are going to get this president or this administration to talk about the number of jobs that anything is going to create because they still continue to be burned by the fact -- and Dana mentioned it -- that the -- that this administration said that stimulus, the reinvestment act will bring the unemployment rate down to 8 percent. We're above 9 percent. We didn't get close.

And I think that this is the problem, that we've got these -- the unemployment rate is a lagging indicator.

KING: Right.

VELSHI: It's very hard to -- to have an impact on that in the near future. And it's going to be very hard, even if this, what the president proposes, passes in some form and succeeds, it may be a year, it might be 18 months, before we start to see this. We're in a dire situation. So you're absolutely right. And I know you made that comment when he said it. He's not going anywhere near a number.

KING: So, Christine Romans, if -- we were talking about this before the president spoke. A lot of this is to keep things in place, keep payroll taxes from going up, give states some new help when the stimulus expires to keep teachers on the payroll or policemen on the payroll.

When the president talks about this will help create an environment for job creation, by the neighbors, by the policy, by the levers he's pulling in the economy, is that true or is this just keep the patient stable?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, and a lot of conservatives, Stephen Moore from "The Wall Street Journal" and others, will say, look, if you run the ball down the middle of the field and you don't get yardage three times in a row, why do you keep running the ball down the middle of the field, you know?

I mean that's what is the conservative perspective on this, to tell you've tried all this, Mr. President, and it did not create an environment that led to job creation.

What the other side of that story is that, look, if we don't do this, then what happens?

I mean the 7.8 percent unemployment rate when the president took office ballooned, right?

And now it's holding there at 9.1 percent. Republicans say it ballooned because of the president's policies. Democrats say -- and economists, quite frankly, say it's just -- in spite of what the president has done it's still too high.

So this is the fundamental debate that continues. And I go back to Ken Rogoff, who Ali and I interview on the subject a lot. He is the expert on financial crises. It's going to take some time. It's just going to take some time. And politics, quite frankly, is in the way of that right now.

KING: And so John Avalon, it's a fascinating political moment. And this was the president -- he didn't really, given his political standing now, but what he -- in the last campaign, when he was elected, people talked about this unrivaled grassroots network, the ability to communicate through text messaging and e-mails.

Now he has the bully pulpit. You just saw him there in the Rose Garden, a very political backdrop. I don't mean that in a disparaging way. Smart for the president to put a diverse group of people behind him as he makes this case that we need this money.

The question is, when he flips the switch on the grassroots organization, does it have the juice it once had?

JOHN AVALON, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, then it really does become a test of the bully pulpit. And to some extent, he let that campaign network atrophy in the opening years of his administration.

But this, really, I think is about doing more than speaking to the political base. You know, the American people are frustrated because they're out of work. And they're frustrated because Washington doesn't seem to be working. So by putting forward a balanced, bipartisan plan of things that Republicans and Democrats have been able to agree with in the past, the president is really upping the ante.

And then it really does put pressure on the Republicans, as well.

Can they, politically, oppose a plan that would create incentives for companies to hire returning G.I.s?

I mean there -- there's a cost to that kind of simply opposition approach, as well.

So this is a high stakes political moment. It will be a test of to the president's muscle. Whether folks do pick up the phone, call and e-mail, because this is a plan that has a bipartisan lineage. And the president has been criticized for not leading aggressively enough in the past, over delegating to Congress.

Well, here's a specific plan with a bipartisan basis. So and it really becomes a question of whether Republicans will be able to accept yes for an answer. And if they simply oppose tax cuts for the first time because they come from the president, I think people will see through that.

KING: So 14 months, the president says, to the next election. That's why he says there should be a climate for bipartisan cooperation now, especially, especially on an issue as urgent as creating jobs for the American people. They, in the last 14 months until the next election. About eight-and-a-half hours until the next presidential debate.

How much does the urgency, the fact that, yes, it's 14 months, but this Republican presidential campaign is at an interesting and perhaps even a pivotal moment, in the sense that you have Perry, Romney. And then what question is what happens to the rest of this field? When they all say, no, Mr. President, you have it wrong?

How much does that complicate the discussions that have to happen in Washington, whether the president can cut a deal?

The question there is a Republican House. But on this stage here in Tampa today, I do not think anyone is going to stand up and say, you're right, Mr. President. Let's get this done.