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$1.2 Trillion Bill Sent To The President`s Desk; Latest Jobs Report Shows Addition Of 531,000 New Jobs; U.S. Falls Back From Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired November 08, 2021 - 04:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Infrastructure and you. It sounds like an old- timey school informational video, but that is the topic that leads off today`s objective coverage on CNN 10 and we`re happy to have you watching.
I`m Carl Azuz.
On Friday night, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a spending bill worth $1.2 trillion. It is called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs
Act. The bill had been passed by the Senate in August, so it`s now headed to President Joe Biden`s desk for his signature into law.
Getting this plan through congress has been a major priority for the President, so its passage is considered a legislative victory for him, but
it took months and several setbacks before the bill was passed even though it had bipartisan support in Congress.
The final House vote was 228 to 206, a majority of Democrats and a minority of Republicans voted for it though a handful of Democrats joined most
Republicans in voting against it.
There is a lot in this bill. Here is where some of the spending is going with the largest allocation of money in this graphic intended for upgrades
to roads and bridges. But if you add up all the funding for everything you see here, it amounts to $540 billion, less than half the total cost of the
$1.2 trillion law. So, there are a lot of smaller spending categories that factor in.
Some lawmakers were concerned this spending would add to the Federal deficit -- the amount the government spends that exceeds the revenue it
takes in. President Biden and the bill`s supporters have said it wouldn`t have a negative impact, but the Congressional Budget Office, which aims to
give non-partisan estimates on government spending and budgets says the bill will add $256 billion to the deficit over the next 10 years. Concern
about spending is one reason why the infrastructure bill got held up in Congress.
There is another separate spending plan that the Biden administration wants passed, it is called the Build Back Better Bill. It is focused on social
programs like government-funded preschool, lower-cost child care, money for low-cost housing, and more than half a trillion dollars in spending on
climate programs.
That bill`s planned cost is currently $1.75 trillion, but unlike the Infrastructure Bill, the social spending plan has no bipartisan support.
All Republicans oppose it and even though Democrats control both Chambers of Congress, they`ve had a number of disagreements over what should go into
the social spending plan and what it should cost.
Those disagreements held up passage of the infrastructure bill until last Friday.
So what`s next?
Well, Congress continues to debate the social plan and wait for the Congressional Budget Office to give estimates on what it would finally
cost, but the Infrastructure Bill is a done deal and the President says he`ll sign it this week.
Ten-second trivia: Which U.S. President signed a law creating the Department of Labor in 1913? Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft,
Woodrow Wilson or Warren G. Harding?
In the closing hours of his presidency, William Howard Taft signed the Department of Labor Bill.
The Labor Department issues a monthly jobs report looking at the state of employment in America and it has been on a roller coaster ride recently.
The initial jobs report for July, for instance, indicated the U.S. economy had added 943,000 jobs, but in August, 235 000 jobs were added when
economists expected hundreds of thousands more.
And September was worse with initial estimates at 194,000 additions, but the latest report with the numbers for October indicated an addition of
531,000 new jobs that exceeded economists` expectations.
Analysts say America`s decreasing COVID cases likely factored in here, so might have Holiday hiring and a government stimulus program that gave
financial aid to people who weren`t working also expired recently. Critics of that program say that prompted some people to go back to work.
More possible reasons for the rebound:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DUSTIN JONES, JOB SEEKER: There`s been a lot of different options.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): At a job fair in Charlotte this week, Dustin Jones was looking for a position requiring a commercial
driver`s license, or in an office.
Jones said he wanted a job that could hold if there is another shutdown due to COVID, and he was optimistic.
JONES: This is the best time to go job hunting. People are very desperate to hire, so as far as like qualifying, there is a lot of paid training on
the job.
TODD (voice over): The U.S. Labor Department wholeheartedly agrees with Dustin Jones. It says the U.S. economy added a whopping 531,000 new jobs
last month, about 80,000 more than economists had predicted.
RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: What this says to me is that the delta variant is ebbing, more people have been vaccinated and there is
a lot of pent up demand in the system post-COVID. People want to spend and people are getting back to work.
TODD (voice over): Twenty-two million jobs were lost when the pandemic hit in March of last year, but since then, 18 million have been gained, a
rebound of about 80 percent.
The leisure and hospitality sector of the U.S. economy which was hit hardest during the pandemic recession is still about a million and a half
jobs short of its pre-pandemic level, but analysts say the latest job numbers indicate a healthy rebound for that sector.
MARK ZANDI, CHIEF ECONOMIST, MOODY`S ANALYTICS: Leisure and hospitality, that`s where obviously we saw some really big gains, but you know,
construction, manufacturing, professional services, healthcare all added very significantly, so all very encouraging.
Really the only part of the economy that didn`t add to jobs was government.
TODD (voice over): And analysts say certain demographics of people who re- entered the workforce recently are fueling this surge.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Women were hurt especially badly early on in the in the pandemic as you can imagine because of the child care crunch, and I
think we`re finally seeing women catch up.
TODD (voice over): But overall, the American economy is not free and clear of the pandemic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have supply chain problems that are leading to inflation and shortages. You have consumers worried about the price of gas
or the about the price of groceries.
TODD (on camera): And at least one analyst is warning of what he calls a potential hard landing in the housing market. Mark Zandi of Moody`s
Analytics points out, there`s a shortage of affordable houses in America. House prices have skyrocketed in recent months.
If interest rates go up to combat inflation, higher mortgage rates could really hurt demand for houses. It may not derail the economy, Zandi says,
but homeowners could see some real declines in their house prices.
Brian Todd, CNN Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: It`s that time of year when you hear a whole lot about getting that extra hour of sleep as the U.S. falls back from Daylight Saving Time to
Standard Time. That happened on Sunday, it means it`ll be dark outside an hour earlier, but it also means there will be more light outside when we
get up in the morning.
Calls to stop observing Daylight Saving Time seem to be louder in the spring when Americans have to move their clocks forward one hour and lose
that hour of sleep. But one thing that`s kept us springing ahead and falling back every year is the fact that there`s been no agreement yet
which time to choose year round -- Standard Time or Daylight Saving Time?
How did all this start anyway?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: So why do we change the clocks ahead one hour in the spring and back one hour in the fall? Well, it`s actually to
reduce the electricity consumption by extending the daylight hours.
TEXT: Why do we change our clocks?
GRAY: In the U.S. we change our clocks at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March. That begins Daylight Saving Time. That`s when we spring ahead.
On the first Sunday in November, we change our clocks at 2:00 a.m. again, that`s actually just going back to standard time.
Believe it or not, this started with an idea from Benjamin Franklin.
Franklin did write an essay suggesting that people could use less candles if they got up early and made better use of daylight. In 1918, the Standard
Time Act established time zones and Daylight Saving Time, but not all states participate.
To this day, most of Arizona and all of Hawaii do not change their clocks.
Over 70 countries across the world observe Daylight Saving Time with notable exceptions of China and Japan. In 2007, we actually changed the
date of when we set our clocks back an hour to the first week in November. This helped protect trick-or-treaters by giving them an extra hour of
daylight. One of the other lines of thinking was that we would have a better voter turnout on election years.`
Experts say each time you change your clocks, it`s always a good idea to change those batteries in your smoke detector and always look forward to
fall when you get that extra hour of sleep.
AZUZ: For 10 out of 10, an art exhibition that just wrapped up in Egypt is really one of a kind. It is unique because of its background. I mean you
won`t find this anywhere else.
The exhibition was called "Forever is Now," and it featured large-scale sculptures and installations by 10 contemporary artists. Some of their
works appear to incorporate their ancient background more than others. The whole goal was to blend the past and the present.
Well, some might not think it`s worth the Monet to then go to a show like that, they might not Da Vinci the purpose or revere the modern methods if
they believe in O`Keefe-ing or leaving the pyramids Cathelin. But for those who go Chagall into thinking the past and present rock well together, well,
they`ll see that just like with the pyramids themselves, there is a point.
Before we leave we would like to point to our viewers in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. Shout out to the students of Bucharest Christian
Academy.
I`m Carl Azuz for CNN.
END
