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American Morning

Bush Addresses New Unemployment Figures

Aired November 02, 2001 - 10:42   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Still waiting at this time for the president. He's been meeting earlier today in the Oval Office with the Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao. And momentarily we will have comments from the two of them that have just come out of the White House. Those comments will be on videotape.

But as we wait for that, we should remind you the markets right now have been trading for almost an hour and 15 minutes now. The Dow off slightly -- off just about a couple of points, two points on the negative side. And the S&P, you see on the screen, down almost down 5 points. And the Nasdaq down about 10 points at this time.

The significant thing about these unemployment numbers, though, has to do with the jump that it took: up to 5.4 percent, up from 4.9 a month ago. It's a 1/2 percentage-point increase, which is the largest jump we have seen in 21 years.

Here's the president and the treasury secretary a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're discussing the new unemployment numbers. And it's not good news for America.

The attacks of September the 11th have deeply affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. Not only has it shattered the lives of those who have lost life, the attacks have threatened the livelihoods of American workers.

I think it's very important for the administration and Congress to work together to extend and expand unemployment benefits to those whose lives have been affected by the attacks.

And we need to work together to prevent further loss of jobs by passing an economic stimulus package that, in fact, will cause the job base to firm up and expand.

I believe we've got the ingredients of a good package out of the House. I urge the Senate to work quickly to pass the bill, to get the bill in conference, to show the nation that we can, in fact, deal with the aftermath of this tragedy.

My administration will be actively involved with helping to get a package moving. We stand ready. The secretary of Treasury is prepared to take an active role to expedite the process, and we're prepared to take an active role to make sure that an airline security bill comes out of conference as quickly as possible.

I want to thank the House of Representatives for a good and constructive debate, for the passage of a good piece of legislation, and I look forward to working with members of the Senate and the House to reconcile any differences, and I believe the differences are small, and I believe they can be reconciled quickly so that I can sign an airline security bill.

It will say to the American people that we are doing everything we possibly can to recover from the aftermath of September 11.

I'll be glad to answer questions at the next -- your next opportunity to see me.

Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: The president there in the Oval Office with the Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. I'm not sure if there's anything at the end of that, but we've lost the audio in the feed, so apparently we will not hear any question and answer. maybe the president will talk a bit later on that.

Talking about airline security legislation passed last night in the House. The White House favors that legislation to put the controls of screeners under federal supervision, but not to make them federal employees. And there was a whole lot more in that measure. The president saying the House and the Senate need to get together on this and forge a compromise. We shall see that in the near future.

Also, the Senate yesterday indicated that it may take up this economic stimulus package next week. So a lot more on that as well.

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