a tax, right. it is a tax. >> too late for the conservative "wall street journal" who blistered the romney campaign for looking confused and politically dumb. mr. romney promised republicans he was the best man to make the case against president obama who they desperately want to defeat. and so far, mr. romney is letting them down. joining me is senate republican leader mitch mcconnell, and few people in washington with a larger stake in seeing that mitt romney does well, than you do, because you want to go from the minority leader in the senate to majority, and how do you think he is doing? >> well, the race is very, very close. i i mean the best evidence is a tracking gallup poll who has it consistently close that the people are unhappy with the economy and they know that mitt romney is a job creator and he has a great chance of being elected. >> but his campaign has come unfear fire from the republicans as not being ready for prime time as we said and he needs a steady sort of more national hand in this.

do you have any complaints first of all about how they handled this whole supreme court tax issue, which is a major issue for you all? >> well, the better use of my time is to criticize the guys we are running against. i ooh em not here the critique the romney campaign. the president has a very, very poor record and that is why he does not want to talk about it. take friday's job figure for example and go back two years ago and the job figure was better and the president said we are turning the, we are turning it around. cle clearly, what they are doing is not working. that is what this campaign needs to be about. >> and yet, we did look at the figures for this year, and you know that there were great advances in job creation in the first quarter. it's been minimal in the second quarter. nonetheless, still job creation. when you average out the first six months, it is something like 125 or 130,000 jobs have been created on average. that's not too bad considering

where we came from, is it? >> it is terrible. we have 41 straight months now of unemployment above 8%. 41 straight months. candy, this is the most tepid recovery f it is a recovery from a deep recession in american history. the economy is just sputtering along and the reason for that in my judgment is because of what the administration chose to do. spend, borrow, pass this new obama care law with its penl the ti tax in it, and its mandate tax and all of this is slowing the economy down. >> let me ask you about the president's jobs plan that was introduced last september, i think. something, and this is what he is saying on the campaign trail and this was in columbus, ohio, in an interview with wnbc. >> rebuilding the infrastructure. the roads, the bridges and the runways and all of the things that could put the construction

workers back to work and lift the entire economy and then refocusing on manufacturing is the recipe for growth over the long term. >> so what's wrong with any of that? shouldn't congress at this point saying that the american people want this economy to be better and isn't it incumbent upon you all to find something that you can agree on in the long list of things that the president put in the jobs package and move it forward? >> well, we just pass ed the transportation bill so we are addressing an issue that we have made agreement to that transportation is important to the economy, but look, the way to get the private sector going again is to change the way that the government is treating the private sector. things like obama care, things like overregulation are causing companies not to hire. and we have got the fiscal cliff coming at the end of the year. you know, what we ought to be doing is to extend the current tax rates for another year with a hard requirement to get

through the comprehensive tax reform one more time. i negotiated with vice president biden, the two-year extension of the current tax rates with rein right now, and the president signed it. because he argued that the taxes going up would make the economy worse. we have a slower growth rate today than we had then. that would settle at least part of the problem. >> let me ask you though, because they are doing nothing because you are all at odds over what you should do, and is in fact, a lot of people arguing slowing the growthf of the economy here in the u.s. and d adding to the jobless rate which is pretty tepid. i want to play you something that is from the managing director of the imf. >> the threat, only the threat of the delay in raising the debt ceiling and of the fiscal cliff could weaken growth already later this year, and should they materialize because no agreement can be reach ed, the domestic

effects would be severe with negative spillovers to the rest of the world. >> so basically imf is saying that if you don't come off of this fiscal cliff and by you i mean congress, it is going to add to uncertainty, and there are certain things like obama care and regulations, fine and you won't get the democrats to agree on that, but something that congress could do is to do something about the on coming train that everyone sees coming, but yet, no action. >> what is going to happen is that the house is going to do is to extend the current tax rates this year, which deals with part of the problem. >> the president said he would veto it. >> but he shouldn't veto it, because he signed it two years ago saying that it would make the economy worse. look, the principle reason that we have an economic trough is what the government is doing to the private sector and the president is talking about public sector employees and that is 4.2% employment, and that is

only the way you have job growth to create revenue for the government. everything that the administration has done,en us i direction. >> they would argue that the stimulus plan and everything that they have done since and investing in the infrastructure and getting the construction jobs done and hiring the teachers and policemen have kept this economy from being even worse over a longer period of time, and i think that, you know, again, we are seeing the same arguments that we have seen now for a year and a half. i sense out there in the country and now seeing from the imf what is really worrying people is that you do nothing. it is almost not the something that you do, but it is that you look up to capitol hill for some guidance and when is the last time that you sat down with the senate majority leader and said how can we do this? >> we have passed 11 different things that the president has asked us to pass in the last six

months. that is not the point. the point is this for two years the administration was able to do everything they wanted to. they borrowed. they spent. they had the government take over american health care all in place, and the question the american people should be asking is how is that working? now the president would like to do more of the same. we don't think that makes sense. why don't we try doing things that get the private sector which is the only way we will ever get out of the economic trough going again. >> we don't try, because you are in the minority and not this majority of the senate, and yet the minority in the senate can stop things, and yet the fact of the matter is that don't you and senator reid need to sit down and say, this is how we can help the economy and agree on? don't you do that? >> well, i have just indicated that we have passed a number of things. >> have you sat down with senator reid? >> everyday we talk about the way forward and passed a number of pieces of legislation that are important and helpful, but the primary problem is that the president would like for us to

keep doing more of what he was able to do in the first two years when he had total control of congress and the american people have looked at the result s of it and it clearly has not worked. >> let me turn you to the senate race races out there. sitting here today, and looking at the landscape, do you believe that you will be the majority leader next year? >> 50-50. i think it is a very close and competitive election. there are a number of places where we have opportunities for pick ups, and not many places where we have much chance of losing a seat. i think that at the end of the day, we will have a very narrow senate one way or the other. >> and looking at the virginia race and the massachusetts race. >> two close races. good candidates in both parties. >> you could lose as easily as you could win? >> well, yes, they are close races. we expect to win them both, but they are close races. >> as you look at the supreme court decision over the past week and the reaction it to and you read, i'm assuming chief

justice roberts' opinion on that, are you sorry you voted for him? >> no, i'm not, but i was extremely disappointed. the chief justice however did make it clear that the mandate is a tax and if i may make an observation about that, candy, the mandate tax, and 77% of it will be levied on people making $120,000 and less and interestingly enough, that produces more tax revenue for the government than the so-called buffett tax that the president tried to get us to pass to raise taxes on high income people. >> and yet 330 million-plus population in the u.s. or around in there, and we are talking about maybe about 3 million people according to the cbo how this would -- i mean the congressional folks, according to them, this would affect maybe 3 million people. that is not that much to get 30 million people covered is it? >> well, look, the question is

the law in entirety. the president said it would not raise taxes. it is. >> on very few people, you would concede it. >> well, it is important to those people, and they are middle income people. and more tax revenue raised from the income people, and more buffett taxes from the president who promise d not the raise taxs and it is driving up premiums and the cost of health insurance is going up and cut medicare over half a trillion over the next ten years and nothing in con shek shun na was passed with health care bill is working out. >> thank you, senator, and i hope you will come back. >> i will. and now with obama campaign adviser robert gibbs when we come back. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs.

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at the end. first of all, when you ask folks what are economic conditions like today. good, 27%. poor, 73%. when you say, how important is the economy to your vote, 92% say it is either very or extremely important to their vote. >> who are the other 8%? >> exactly. to their vote, and who would better handle the economy. romney 48% and obama 47%. and if the economy is not doing what you expect, but better, why are the numbers like that? >> well, we are coming out of the hardest economic time in our history. >> which we have been for four years. >> and typically coming out of the recession and the depth that we were in caused by a financial crisis which is what happened, it takes a while to dig out of the hole. we saw on friday that our economy is growing and we are adding jobs. the president believes that -- >> not enough jobs.

>> we are not growing fast enough and adding enough jobs. >> so what is the argument after four years, what is then the argument that re-elect me? >> well, candy, we have made progress, but we have a long way to go and this is going to be an election about two different visions, and you heard part of it here with senator mcconnell and hear it with mitt romney everyday. the best way to create jobs is to provide the millionaires and the billionaires with better tax cuts and take the regulations off of banks and wall street, and somehow we will see the jobs flourish for years and years to come, but the problem with that is that it is not a theory, and we tried it for eight years and it ended in this huge economic calamity and this financial mess. >> but the jobs are not flourishing now, and folks don't actually seem to think that the president would handle it better than mitt romney, and i'm trying to figure out what the sales pitch is here. >> well the vision is that we have to grow the economy like we did for years and years and for decades from the middle-class

out. continue the add opportunity and bring the american dream back and guarantee that if you work hard and play by the rules, you have a chance to get ahead and yourp children will have a chance to get ahead. again, we have tried the different philosophies before, and we know what tax breaks and tax cuts for the wealthy and the financial regulations off of wall street mean. they mean economic calamity and what we are dealing with now, and versus a vision where we add jobs and build out of the middle-class and people take responsibility and work hard and get ahead. that is what we need to do. >> even the republicans would, you know, that you think have this different version would say, we need to grow the middle-class and that is where the aim is. >> that is not the primary aim, because it is to give tax breaks to the very wealthy. >> that is what you think that the primary aim is, but -- >> look at the central plank in mitt romney's so-called economic plan and granted, this is, most of the economic plans and most of the plans are secret, but the one thing that he has flushed out is to take the bush tax cuts

which disproportionately impact millionaires and billion nars a and add to them. are we a bush tax away from a millionaire away from a flourishing economy keep the taxes low for the middle-class families and give them a chance. >> will the president do anything other than veto a bill that would keep the bush tax cuts for everyone intact? >> we should protect the tax cuts for the middle-class, and we should let tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires expire. >> and even though it is not that great and people say don't take the money out of of the economy and have a tax hike, you would do it for those making $250,000 and above. >> we need to protect middle class tax cuts and the best way is to let the upper level tax cuts expire, and let the wealthy begin to pay their fair share

and protect the tax rate that middle-class families have had for the past many years. >> so the president is committed to getting rid of the tax cut for those making $250,000 and above. >> make progress on the spending by doing away with tax cuts from people who don't need them and tax cuts that have not work and have them pay their fair share. >> a yes or no? the president is completely committed to this and won't allow it to happen. >> he is 100% committed to it. >> i want to play an ad that you have been running and ask you about it. or not. >> mitt romney campaigned as a job creator. >> i uknow how jobs are created >> but as a corporate raider, he shipped jobs the mexico and as a governor he did the same thing outsourcing jobs to india and now he is making the exact same pitch. >> i know why the jobs come and why they go. >> outsourcing jobs, romney

economic, it didn't work then and it won't work now. >> you all have invested heavily in the bain capital element of trying to convince people of what mitt romney is about. and yet, this particular ad got four pinocchios for the washington post as not true. and this is what fact check.org said. we have no evidence to support the claim that romney while running bain capital shipped jobs overseas and you have a similar ad out and why do you keep with that? >> well, factcheck.org should read the washington post who is the one who came up with the report that said looking at the s.e.c. filings that bain capital and romney were pioneers in job outsourcing. >> you say that romney was, but the point is that in fact mitt romney was not running bain. he had cut ties and gone off. >> that is also not true, because mitt romney was the head and sole owner of bain longer than mitt romney has admitted to

being the sole owner of bain. but understand this, because we saw it a little bit again this week. we have a guy who believes and has been a pioneer in outsourcing jobs, and quite frankly, he offshores most of his own personal investments, presumably to shield them from taxes. candy, i don't know about you, i pick a bank because there is an atm near my home, but mitt romney has a bank account in switzerland. >> and nothing illegal, right? you are not charging that he has done anything illegal with this? >> candy, nobody knows why he has a corporation in bermuda, and why he failed to disclose that on seven different financial disclosures and why he transferred it to somebody else's purview the day before he became governor of massachusetts. there is no way of knowing whether he has done anything illegal from bermuda to switzerland, and that is to release a series of years of their tax returns.

mitt romney's father was the pioneer of releasing a series of tax returns and the best way the figure it out if he is complying with the american tax law is to have him release more of the tax returns. this is a guy whose slogan is to believe in america, and it should be business in bermuda and that is what he is all about. >> a great line, but there is no evidence here that any of the fact check organizations that have found that a, he outsourced jobs or was president of bain when it happened and b, that he has done anything illegal. you have had a lot of advice from the democrats and folks saying get off of this particular bain thing, and there is obviously some polling that shows that in fact there's having some effect in some of the battleground states, but why continue. >> and this is based on a report of washington post. and go to washingtonpost.com and read the report. the reason we are talking about that is, is that it is important and create jobs here in america and bring them back from

overseas and do away from the tax breaks that ship the jobs overseas or invest in manufacturing here in this country. you know, we have created half a million manufacturing jobs and more manufacturing jobs have been created in the past few years than in the mid-90s and mitt romney said we should let detroit and the auto industry bankrupt. again, two different visions of the economy. >> i think that i have to end it there and i'm sorry, and i hope you will come back, robert gibbs, economic adviser to the obama campaign. and now before the election, problems and solutions. >> the president's policies have not gotten america working ag n again. >> businesses have created 4 million new jobs over the past 28 months. why not make lunch more than just lunch? with two times the points on dining in restaurants, you may find yourself asking why not, a lot.

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with me now mark zandi, chief economist of moody's, and doug holtz-eakin, and cnn congressional correspondent dana bash. let's straighten out this economy thing. i want to have you all tell me the most worry somethithat we g of the economics job report and

say, okay, we can survive this. start with you. >> 80,000 jobs is pretty disappointing. if we stick at 80,000 and that is the reality of what is going on, unemployment will rise and we have 8.2% unemployment and that is worrisome aspect of the report. there were some things positive, hours worked increased. businesses will ask workers to work longer hours before they hire. >> that is a precursor to new jobs. >> yes. and any pickup of activity will translate into more jobs, and we got a big increase in wages which is encouraging. i noticed that wage growth had been slowing, but it is not the case. it is solid. >> and douglas? >> well, those points are right. one of the disappointing characteristics of the recovery has not been just the jobs, but the lack of income growth, and that has hurt the households to spend and strength of wages is a very important part of the report. the troubling issue is that the report came on the heels of the

reports that showed manufacturing slowing and the service sector slowing and to the extent that unemployment is a lagging sort of ind icator tht we could have further trouble down the road. i'm worried about the outlook for that reason. >> i tried to get robert gibbs to tell us how the president play plays this at this point, because people look and say, we thought we'd be so much further along and how do the romney folk folks play this and any sign that it is working and any evidence that what the president is doing is working? >> well, the romney folks, their message is not so much the reagan, are you better off now than you were four years ago, but what we witnessed four years ago the high expectations and the soaring rhetoric and as sarah palin says the hopey changey thing. >> the consumer confidence. >> what happened? >> it is that the expectations were set so high and that is what the romney campaign wants to hit big time going forward. having said that, there was some

criticism, sort of friendly fire from the republican editorial boards and you showed some of the quotes to mitch mcconnell. that's a concern. because mitt romney should be doing very well against somebody with 8.2% unemployment and the concern is that especially given the fact that the calling card is business acumen, and why isn't he doing better? >> and let me read you something from brian cropp and i don't know if you know him, but he is on the corporate board of executive managing here, and this is what he had to say about a two-tiered job market. we continue to hear from the companies that it is a two-tiered labor market for people who have been employed with professional and technical skills, it is decent, but for the rest of the workforce, it is still very difficult. is that accurate to get two americas when you look at the american jobless rate? >> well, to say that there is two americas is too strong. it is always the case in expansion, some skills and

sectors do better than others, and we are seeing it. high school people have done better, and that is not unusual. and the challenge is to have enough economic growth so that the people at the moment have a low-skilled job can get in and get the experience to allow them to turn into the other part of american, but we are not seeing that. >> i am sympathetic to that description, because if you have education, and gone to college and skills, you are okay. if you look at the unemployment rates for people with college degrees and lots of skills, it is quite low. no problem. and those folks who don't have skills and education are getting creamed in this economy. that is true. >> but here is the key to the income. they may have jobs, but not getting college or skilled level incomes out of this. >> and that feeds into the political divide of the two americas, candy. president obama has historically struggled with the uneducated voter or the voter who doesn't

have the high education, and he struggles with the lunch bucket voter, and this feeds right into that. >> i want to push back on the point of people expect iing thi to be better than it is. the reality is that after a financial crises like the one we went through and it was a devastating crisis and looking at the string of financial institutions who are no longer with us, you always have a weak economic recovery, and this is the history all of the way back to the 400s, and we have made improvements. >> and you would know that because you know stuff like that -- >> and the president and the advisers have pooh-poohed that research and said early on, no, no, we can get out quicker and sold it politically they could get out quicker, and they were probably wrong. >> well, doug, we will get out quicker typically quicker than in history, because in history, it is decades before economies recover, but we will get out faster and we are three years or four years after the nadir of

all of this, and to say we have created 4 million jobs in a couple of years is an improvement, but you are right, candy, i'm talking about an economist and not a person on the street who is nailed by this. >> and we are in the fast food nation, and with twitter and everything else, information is go ing fast. >> and after the break, we want the uk about the the solutions. and later, solving washington's problems may be easier than you might think. >> it is not a quick fix, but it begins essentially by people telling you the truth. north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing generations of cleaner-burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self-contained well systems. and, using state-of-the-art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment. we're america's natural gas.

this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. i tell mike what i can spend. i do my best to make that work. we're driving safely. and sue saved money on brakes. now that's personal pricing. with you mark zandi and chief economics analyst at

moody's, and also douglas holtz-eakin, and cnn correspondent dana bash. i have talked to folks, and they have said that the truth is that there is not a whole lot that the president or the fed can do to make a major change in the state of the economy and that we are looking at a new normal with above 6% unemployment for the outyears as they say and maybe a decade or so to come. do you go with that? >> no, not me. i disagree totally. i think that the economy is on the precipice of strong economic growth, and the companies have reorganize and restructured to reduce debt and gotten cash. it is not a matter of the they will expand, but when. and you were talking about this with senator mcconnell, we have to nail down the fiscal cliff and it is makeing the business people nervous and why they are not taking the step to hire.

>> are you feeling the same? >> well, in the '60s and the '70s we took series policy steps that led us with chronic inflation, and then we changed directions and i agree with mark that we are doing better. you don't round up the regular cast of characters like casablanca, and you cannot have the fed push the economy much and we have seen the temporary targeted policies in the last couple of years and it is time that we haven't done, serious tax reform and serious entitlement reform, and this is how we are going to do the business and live your lives and do your thing. >> dana bash, with your years on capitol hill, what is the percentage of this? >> zero. between now and november, it is not. >> i'm talking about the fiscal cliff before the election. >> correct. and listening to you all talk, my wheels are turning how easy it would be for congress the

give some confidence to employers to give some confidence to wall street by saying, you know, we will come together and decide for example how we are going to deal with the bush tax cuts that are going to expire at the end of the year. they are not going to do it, no way, because those are political clubs that each side is using to hit the other with and they think in a strong way before november. it is actually sad, but a cult of the political fact. >> and i don't think it matters before the election, because nobody on the planet believes it is going to happen. no business person. >> before december 31st or the next three months and keep things how they are -- >> no, generally business people are expecting to get it together before it matters and that is before the next debt ceiling hits which is february or march. so maybe next year the tax rates rise, but that is maybe the catalyst for generating the solution here. >> this is a dangerous way to think. it is in fact going to matter if they get it before the election,

because equity markets are nervous about the ability to get it done and the dividend rates from 15 to 45 and this economy does not need more problems. if you get to the end and let the taxes go up, the only way to get through it successfully is to have the markets believe that there is a deal out there to bring it back down, and they don't believe there is a deal anywhere. >> and rightly so at this point. i want to say one thing and one thing i was thinking about, because doug, you were the economic adviser to john mccain. >> yeah, i remember that. >> and one thing is when the whole financial market collapsed in september of 2008, you saw his poll numbers collapse with it, and you never recovered. >> no. >> and so they just go hand and glove and they have historically, but even more in current times. >> but then why we are not seeing the same thing actually with the president, as -- i mean, there is a continuing crisis in households even if we think overarchingly the economy is on the way to growth, as you

think it is. both of you think it is eventually. so why has the president been able to sustain his popularity really? he may become and obviously not the election, but he may be the first president to be re-elected with that kind of 8% unemployment rate basically. >> and in 2008 john mccain held in there and even though the economy was not doing that great and the republicans owned the economy at that point, and we had oil prices at $140 a barrel and the economy suffering from a distress and hardly a great summer, but he did find until there were clear indications of bad news, the risk of the president is further bad news out of europe or the global slowing or the impact of the fiscal cliff. if there's a notable downturn, you will run into that scenario. >> may i say two things. people realize how bad it was. it was really bad and people are not forgetting that, and that is one of the reasons that the businesses are not hiring, because they can't get over the nightmare and it is vivid in the nightmare and also, good things

are happening in the economy. the stock market is 10% away from the previous all-time high and the housing prices are rising again and we are not creating jobs fast enough, but we are creating them. >> and thank you dana bash, and douglas holtz-eakin, and mark zandi. thank you all for being here. and coming up, what is a presidential campaign without a bus tour? en choose one of 7 ents plus dessert! four perfect courses, just $14.99. come into red lobster and sea food differently. delivering mail, medicine and packages. yet the house is considering a bill to close thousands of offices, slash service and layoff over 100,000 workers. the postal service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains $5 billion a year from post office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. house bill 2309 is not the answer.

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time for a check of today's top stories, and another day of extreme heat for much of the u.s. at least 30 deaths are being blamed on triple-digit temperatures. to make matters worse some 300,000 people are without air conditioning because of power outages and weather forecasters

are expecting cooler temperatures over the next few days. >> secretary clinton says that president bashar al assad's days are numbered. clipton cited the strength of opposition forces and high level defections from the assad regime. clinton is in the midst of a 13-day stop which includes afghanistan, france and many european countries. heavy rains have killed many people in russia. heavy rains flooded homes while people were asleep. people survived by climbing up trees and rooftops. some 12,000 residents are displaced. in jordan a political debate gone wild. the man on the right in this picture is a member of parliament. he throws his shoe and then pulls a gun on the man on the left who called the lawmaker a thief and accused him of buying votes. the two were eventually separated and no one was hurt. it has not gotten that bad here yet, but sometimes it is pretty

tense on capitol hill, and senator bill bradley shares his thoughts on how to get the nation back on track next. great shot. how did the nba become the hottest league on the planet? by building on the cisco intelligent network they're able to serve up live video, and instant replays, creating fans from berlin to beijing. what can we help you build? nice shot kid. the nba around the world built by the only company that could. cisco.

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former new jersey senator bill bradley is the author of a new book "we can all do better" which i will a agree with on general principle. he talks about politics and how the government runs or doesn't run e depending on your point of view. i asked him about his inspiration for writing this book. >> well, last summer when tb debt limit debacle took place and when we were still in two wars and when the middle income people were still facing stagnant incomes. i, as a citizen, said what can i do? so i decided to write a book and my hope and my desire was to give people hope that we have faced difficult problems in the past, and we have overcome them. i wanted to remind them that the political institutions have the capacity to deal with the situation and also to remind

them of something that we frequently forget, and that is that there is a good innocence the american peop -- good innocenness in the ame people, and there is a selflessness of which american policy can be built. >> and on the show, we have had a number of senators and congressmen who come on and what they speak to is a system that is broken. i mean, a complete sort of meltdown. first of all the budgetary process which is at the heart of what they are supposed to be doing, and that not a quick fix. >> it is not a quick fix, but it begin begins by essentially people telling you the truth. it begins by -- >> isn't that deadly for a politician to say to the american people, we are going to have to raise -- and a lot of people say to me, it is not just the taxes on the rich that has to be increased, but taxes on everybody who has to be increased, but who says that? >> well, nobody is saying that right now, and somebody has to say it and one of the points i try to make in the book is that if we are going to succeed, we have to face our problems

squarely, and the deficit is one problem. that requires taxes on a lot of people and not just the wealthy, and entitlements, defense, but the real issue is that we need more people working in america, and we need higher incomes for americans. and that requires a couple of step steps to take, and i outline them in book as to outline how in the short, mid, long term to get the e kconomy actually growg again and the middle income people believingupward mobility will return, and america will be what it once was. >> in short term, give me the quick rendition of what you think we can do in the short term. you're right, i think the dream itself has died for so many people believing, oh, my kid's going to do better, we're all going to be doing this, that upward mobility that you talk about is gone. >> it's pretty clear. first, if we're going to want people to work immediately, what i say is we should say if you hire a worker and don't lay anybody off, the federal government ought to pay 30% of that cost for two years.

term limit to $50 billion, first -- limit it to $50 billion, first come, first serve. not one dollar would be spent that didn't create a job. next, look at corporate america today. there's $1.8 trillion in cash and liquid assets on the books of corporations today. >> sitting there. >> sitting there. if 20% of that was used to hire workers at a minimum wage of $49,000, unemployment would be 5%. how do we get them to do that? if you talk to ceos, they say uncertainty about the future. a need a rainy day fund and not enough demand. you deal with uncertainty with the deficit reduction, out years, not now, dealing with the issues that i mentioned earlier. then if you're able to do that, you stimulate demand with a massive infrastructure program. $1 trillion over five years. and you say, well -- >> bridges, roads, schools, that kind of repair and building you're talking about?

>> i think it's got to be more specific. it should be 50 high-priority project. the problem with shovel-ready projects is whoever -- whenever a mayor has it, they do it. it doesn't help the country. we need to do it for all the people. we need nationally significant projects. and you say, well, how do i get the money for that. well, if we already reduced the deficit in the outyears, the chinese have already lent us $1.4 trillion, and i think they could be anchor investors in that trillion-dollar infrastructure fund. >> you say in your book that government is not the problem. yet so many people don't trust government. they think it's broken. how do you restore trust enough so that people will look to their government as making good decisions rather than, oh, that's -- >> i think it's by telling people the truth. that's what i think. and yeah, i mean, we know that the tea party thinks the rollback government is the answer. but we also know that government

is central to our lives. you ever go to the airport and fly? it's the federal aviation administration that makes sure it's safe. you ever take medicine? fda. you go to national parks? in addition to social security and medicare, i mean, the highways of this country, the mass transit systems, the coast guard, i mean government is the foundation of this country. politicians unwilling to deal with entitlements and taxes, we cut the things that are the foundation of the country like infrastructure, education. >> americans elect was a group that wanted to start sort of an online -- get itself on the ballot and have an online alternative elect primary that would put somebody on the ballot in all 50 states. it failed. as so many third party efforts have. why? >> americans elect was not a party, it was a process. it was like "field of dreams."

if you build it, they will come. the people behind it wanted enzovation and democracy. -- innovation and democracy. nobody came. why? nobody knew about it, first of all. second, i think the parties acted to prevent people from running. submitting themselves to the process. and however, it forms a very good foundation for potential congressional party in 2014. >> former senator bill bradley. thank you for stopping by. the book is "we can all do better." how can any of us argue with that? >> you, me, anybody. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. up next, campaigning on wheels. ns... in alabama we had more beautiful blooms... in mississippi we had more good times... in louisiana we had more fun on the water. last season we broke all kinds of records on the gulf. this year we are out to do even better... and now is a great time to start. our beatches are even more relaxing... the fishing's great. so pick your favorite spot on the gulf...

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presidents have lots of headaches, but transportation is not one of them. air force one, marine one, and of course the beast. that heavily fortified presidential limo. so what's with the bus? [ cheers ] >> in his first bus-capade of the general election season, the president rolled into 11 stops in two states over two days. dubbed "ground force one," this blacky about people oth is one of two buses costing $1.1 million per outfitted in tennessee, built in canada. you doily noted. >> i've never seen an uglier bus than the canadian one. he's traveling around on a canadian bus touting american jobs. >> and senator mccain knows his buses. his straight talk express was among the most notable in campaign bus history. not for its creature comforts. in 2000, reporters were cheek to jowl aboard the straight talk. it was a moving fire hazard.

but a wildly successful campaign gimmick because it featured a candidate who never stopped talking. in '08, john edwards bus, main street express, broke down on an icy iowa road. it has us wondering whether there is such a thing as prekarma. the mitm mobile made its appearance. this time around, regime s farther down the road. >> favorite stop so far? >> that's a no win. >> no! >> they're all my favorite. >> probably the most successful bus tour ever, 1992, bill and al's excellent adventure. eight states in an eight-bus motorcade that took them to the white house. a bus is the ultimate campaign prop in a ride that offers endless norman rockwell-ish photo ops, diners, markets, stores, the feel of the bus oozes americana. on a bus a guy who regularly

flies "air force one" and "marine one" can trorelate to r people. >> the best vacation as a kid, my grandmother and my mom and my sister, we dratraveled around t country on greounduses and trains and stayed at howard johnsons. >> and that's why the wheels on the bus go round and round every time an election comes round. thanks for watching. i'm candy crowley in washington. head to cnn.com/sotu for analysis and extras, and if you missed any part of today's show, find us on itunes. search "state of the union." "fareed zakaria gps" is next for our viewers in the united states. this is "gps," the "global public square." welcome to all of you in the united states and around the world. i'm fareed zakaria. on today's show, the presumptive president-elect of mexico,

enraeon war, drugs, the economy. can mexico be the next emerging market star? before that, aour truly global public square. we've assembled a panel to talk about the many international problems -- syria, egypt, iran, europe, and more. and on this july 4 week, we'll also look at america from the outside in. also, who creates jobs? is it the 1%, or is it the middle class? we have a debate, a fascinating debate between two 1%-ers. finally, tanks for the memories. a somewhat beautiful ballet by 50-ton ballerinas. ♪ first my take. some believe the affordable care act, sometimes called obamacare, is popular only because americans don't understand it. there's some truth to this. studies show the core prosi