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just a few moments ago i spoke with gene sperling one of the president's top advisers. i asked him why we haven't seen and didn't see job creation last month. >> when you're coming back from a financial recession of this

sperling. i mean, very quickly, has he got his gander back again? do you think he's up and running for the forthcoming election battle? >> if you're someone like me meeting with him every day, you don't feel like he's ever lost it. i mean, there are times when if you want to do what's right for your country, you have to try to strike compromises. you have to try to take the temperature down and work and try to reach the grand compromise and the grand bargain. that's part of governing, part of being responsible. but he's never lost his fundamental view that led him to run for president in the first place, which is we have an economy that has not been working for middle class families for a long time, even before this deep financial crisis. and he is here not only to help dig us out but to chart a new course where we're seeing shared prosperity again, and not the middle class feeling like they're getting left behind because our economy is serving and our government and our politics are serving the special interests and those who are most well connecte

as director sperling just said, the president has a $450 billion jobs bill. my theory of the case here is that we do not have the short- term problem. we have a long-term economic problem. i am a bit of a prop comic. i dug this out of my files yesterday. it is a 150 page report dated december 1999 looking forward to the next 10 years to 2010 about what the stock market might hold. it is from lehman brothers. there are many predictions. they did not predict their own demise. that is not the only bad prediction in this fantastic report. they predicted microsoft would become the world's first trillion dollar company. they predicted gold would be $1,500 per ounce. no mention of apple. one mention of china. they said the u.s. budget surplus would continue to build throughout the decade. my favorite lehman brothers prediction is that the u.s. economy will be even stronger in the 2000s and we would see 4% growth and stable growth and we would be off to the races. clearly, that has not happened. even before the great recession, this was not a great decade for growth.

we're joined by the director of the national economic council, gene sperling. gene, thanks very much for coming in. >> thanks, wolf. >> is it fair to call tonight's proposal that the president will unveil an economic stimulus package? >> i think it's fair to say, as you said, that there will be sense of urgency. that urgency comes from the american public itself. we've got 9.1% unemployment. we've got an economy projected to not grow anywhere near as strong as it needs to to get the number of americans back to work, to get customers in to small businesses so they can expand and hire, and the president is going to make very clear inaction is not an option. no is not an option. we as a country can take bold action to arrest this situation, to jump start job growth, to jump start growth, to give more moment tell to this economy. and we can do this in a context that we also make clear that in the long term we'll get our deficit and debt down. those two things together are exactly what our economy needs to get growth and momentum in the short term and the type of co

i mean, that was clear as mud from gene sperling.know, i'll give the president and gene sperling their due. they want to separate this because they want people to focus on the jobs part and they say a week from monday, they're going to come out with how it's going to get paid for. but i think there's another reason that they are not telling it because i think a lot of it is going to be the same old stuff which is closing tax loopholes on things like corporate jets, raising tax rates on the wealthy. it didn't fly before. it probably won't fly this time. and that's probably the weakest part of what he had to say last night. i loved the idea of him saying let's have the little short term stimulus for long term budget cuts and if those were spending cuts, i think a lot of people might buy on to the idea but if it's just going to be more of raising taxes on the wealthy, i don't know why it would succeed in september when it utterly failed in august. >> sure. now, chris, you know a thing or two about presidential debates and you've been at

spoken to some people on the hill who know about that meeting that while david plouffe and gene sperling, the two people who came up and briefed, you know, made the best case they could, you know, it was not -- it was not a happy -- it was not a happy meeting for the reasons that you said. there are conservative democrats in the senate who don't want to support it because of -- they don't like the idea of a big bill, you know, doesn't sound good. they've had too many big bills from the president, they're worried about it. then you have the progressive caucus on the other side saying no tax cuts at all, please. >> mary landrieu's got a problem with it because it goes after oil companies. louisiana senators always, always protect the oil industry. that was predictable. we could see that coming. what other problems do they have with what other democrats in the is that the? >> well, last night i had an interesting conversation with kay hagen, the democratic senator from north carolina. she was elected in 2008 on the ticket with barack obama. barack obama won north carolina by less than half

president obama's top economic adviser james sperling, eugene robinson and david remnick. after the break, politico's top story. first, let's go to bill karins with the weekend forecast. bill. >> good morning, everyone. we are getting the pictures in from all the devastation in pennsylvania and new york. the country's latest billion dollar disaster took place yesterday. clean up is going to be massive. thousands and thousands of homes under water. thousands of people evacuated. the river is crested. the damage is done, especially in southern new york. a whole town had three feet through downtown. hopefully people will be back in their houses through the upcoming weekend. as far as what we are dealing with, showers around d.c. and baltimore. not the heavy torrential rains like yesterday. three tropical systems, hurricane katia is going to push away from new england today. nate and maria to worry about. nate looks like it's going to be mexico's problem. the storm i'm worried about that we have to watch for the southeast united states is tropical storm maria. this is forecast

i just do not believe doing nothing is going to be an option for them. >> gene sperling, director of the national economic council. thank you very much for joining us tonight, gene. >> thank you. thanks a lot. >>> joining me now, robert reich, former labor secretary in the clinton administration. he's now a professor of public policy at the university of california at berkeley and the author of "aftershock." thanks for joining me tonight, bud. >> good evening, lawrence. >> this is a fighting president going out in the rose garden this morning with that speech. there was nothing conciliatory there. it seems to me he is confident enough in these positions that he's outlined and their voter appeal. that he's going right over the head of congress on day one and willing to actually ridicule and make fun of the speaker in his announcement of what he wants to do legislatively. >> this is a new barack obama. this is a feisty president who is in an election year contest right now. i would have predicted, lawrence, that the big battle to come was over medicare, republicans want to cut it, mayb

gregg: that's right, gene sperling. one of the president's top economic advisers, take a listen to jenna's conversation with him. jenna: what is the message coming from the white house? what do you have to say to americans that see the headlines today of no net job growth and are scared and struggling? what do you say to them? >> i think what they should know is that, first of all, almost all economic experts do think our economy is still expanding, that we have created over a million private sector jobs this year, that we are actually ahead of where we've been from the last recession in terms of private sector job creation. but more importantly, that they know that this president doesn't think that this is anywhere close to enough and that whether it had been 50 or 70 or 100,000, we have to get a much more robust recovery going to dig ourselves out of the deep hole we inherited. and i want them to know that their president is deeply focused on this like a laser beam, is going to stay on it every day and that we need al

the director of president's economic council gene sperling. thanks very much for coming in. lots to discuss, not a whole lot of time. let's go right to the issue of social security. a lot of reform ideas. but didn't touch social security at all, why? >> the president made clear in his remarks today that he does consider one of our great long-term challenges to protect the sol solvency of social security and make sure it is there, a progressive rock solid benefits to come. but long-term solvency over 57 years within, he wants to work with democrats and republicans. this plan is about making sure that as we have a powerful plan for job creation and growth, with the american jobs act, we also have a plan for long-term confidence we are getting our fiscal house in order. living within our means and bringing our debt down is a percentage of our economy. that's what this plan does together. that's what our economy needs at this moment. >> republicans saying the president punted effectively as well when it comes to medicare and medicaid. the other major entitlement expenditures whi

no new jobs, so one of the president's top aide z, he did speak out, gene sperling, a short time ago on fox and tried to give a preview of what the president's going to do next thursday. take a listen. >> he's going to put forward very meaningful proposals that would have a very significant impact on the economy and job creation in areas like tax relief for workers and small businesses, in the areas like jobs for rebuilding america, in areas like strategies to deal with those who have been unemployed for a long time through no fault of their own. >> reporter: the problem for this white house, of course s is the president has talked about every one of those issues that gene sperling just mentioned for over two and a half years now right through the line. he's had various tax cuts, he's had various ways to try to stimulate the economy whether it be green jobs, whether it be the shovel-ready construction projects which the president acknowledged a couple months ago were not so shovel-ready. all of this is ratcheting more pressure on this president as he lays out that new plan next thurs

and the current recovery as director sperling said is not a strong recovery, it's been abnormally weak. and it's weak even without and hopefully this won't happen, but some sort of financial shock to what we're seeing in europe right now. and to the extent that the new stimulus can boost the economy, one of the, one of the economic firms director sperling mentioned was the macroeconomic advisers which is a very well-regarded consulting firm. they said they think the stimulus would pass, they also thought sort of stealing growth from 2013 and 2014 which sort of gets back to my point that i think we really have a longer-term economic problem, not just a short-term problem. so i'm interested to hear what our panelists say about how the current stimulus and current other ideas from republicans will play into this economic problem if it's, indeed, a longer-term economic problem. so i guess we'll start with andy first. >> let me just pick up where jim left off in terms of both talking about this in the short and long run. and let me just offer two contexts for this discussion. one, i love th

gene sperling at the white house, thanks. >> still to come, the other side of the jobs bill debate.tor will join us live. if republicans can work with the president's plan. two men who nearly died on 9/11 talk about how they survived and how they've coped ten years after the towers fell. you're watching "american morning." [ woman ] jogging stroller. you've been stuck in the garage while i took refuge from the pollen that made me sneeze. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms. so lily and i are back on the road again. with zyrtec® i can love the air®. new splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweetener with b vitamins, the first and only one to help support a healthy metabolism. three smart new ways to sweeten. same great taste. new splenda® essentials™. >>> top stories. new york and washington on alert right now for a possible attack ten years to the day of 9/11. a senior administration official saying they are looking for at least three people, one is a u.s. citizen and the plot may involve car or truck bombs. >>> millions of american

i flew on air force one with president clinton had long discussions with larry summers and gene sperlingafter there was talk about doing something with investing social security trust funds in nongovernment bondses away of growing the rate of return -- maybe personal accounts. we were looking at different things, all interesting. men monica lewinsky happened and the president collapsed. the reform never happened. >> greta: as i understand -- those are targeted at younger people not people getting the social security now or in the next 10, 15 years. if we allow young people to opt-out and have private accounts now, how in the world are we going to fund social security? we need their money in the income stream. great, we let them opt-out what happens with those on social security now, where do we get the money for them? >> that is a big problem now. when i was advocating for personal accounts, as i did for 10 years. we were running a 3% surplus. we were collecting three percentage points of social security tax more than we needed. what my plan was to take that 3% we didn't need and let you

i read place today that the white house, that gene sperling at the white house called warren buffett for permission from him, almost like they work for him in order to use his name on this. >> that's pretty interesting. you have to wonder who works for who. buffett has been helping the banking system out recently, because he invested five billion dollars in bank of america which helped the administration indirectly, they are all working to the. the buffett tax has some appeal. his name has a lot of value connected to it. almost like a good housekeeping seal of approval in a lot of people's minds. he's this friendly omaha investor. that's what they attached on there. >> greta: is he feeling burned? there's a lot of eye-rolling among people across the spectrum, middle or upper middle class or rich about the fact that he acts like he can -- he has 50 billion dollars, co-give 49 billion dollars to the government if he wants and -- and still be a very wealthy man. >> he is in a different league being a billionaire. he's been public about giving a lot of money to charity. not everyone's si

also speaking of the american jobs act, white house aides including david pluf and james speak sperling are briefing democrats, bob casey, expressing skepticism about trying to tackle the whole thing at once. i want to bring in jean cummings from bloomberg news. watching and listening to speaker boehner, he's in a non -- i would say confrontational way, is essentially calling the president's plan doa. >> absolutely chuck. he's soft spoken but laying down pretty hard lines here in this speech. taking taxes off the table all together including taxes that republicans have supported in the past is really pulling the rug out from under the president. $240 billion of this package is tax cuts. some of them existing cuts that just need extensions so that republicans have voted for them before and certainly didn't call them gimmicks. so he really is changing the battleground here. >> i was going to say, i heard from democrats already saying thgs the ultimate moving the goalpost and of course they are being very cynical about this. they see this as only some sort of november 2012 ploi, can you im

there's gene sperling, the president's economic adviser walking in as well. he's a member of the cabinet, the director of the economic council. once he's tout will be a moment or so before the president himself is introduced by the deputy sergeant at arms of the congress. gloria, $450 billion, that's what we're told that this package that the president will announce tonight will cost. and republicans no doubt quickly will say this is just more of the same old, same old. the economic stimulus package that they say didn't work two years ago. this is not going to work now. >> right. >> either, and they will dismiss it. >> to follow up on what david gergen was saying. the republicans are going to say it's too large. the folks at the white house understand that the republicans are going to say that, but they also have a democratic constituency they are trying to speak to as well, wolf. so i think what they are optimistic about, what jessica was talking about what, they are optimistic about is getting the say extension of the payroll tax cut for employees as well a

it was he and gene sperling and stephanie cutter that went down there to brief senate democrats.ent better. >> that was after we heard quotes saying maybe we'll take this piecemeal, there is a big resistance. i think the white house may expect they're going to get this bit by bit. but they don't want senate democrats saying that openly. they want a show of unity. >> but it's a larger structural problem that i think team obama has, most rank and file democrats don't believe this white house fights for anything. they don't believe this white house stands for anything. and so it's a larger structural problem that no memo will fix. >> and it's the little things. so, for instance, the speech date thing, the fact that the president caved on that. it was symbolic. emblemat emblematic. and then, forb instance, one da david axelrod says no, we're not going to negotiate this piecemeal. and then three hours, we'll take it. >> it's the slow drips that democrats are saying you know what, i don't know what this white house -- >> stop working with these guys. they're not working with you. >> ex

gene sperling is director of the president's national economic council. >> the president's task tonight make clear to the united states congress and the american public that, when comes to getting jobs growing and our economy getting stronger, "no" and "nothing" are not options. that we have to take bold action to get more momentum in the economy, more demand, more customers, more jobs. and we have to do it in the context of having greater long term confidence in our fiscal situation. that's what our economy needs now. >> holman: indeed, mr. obama will go before the congress at a critical time, with unemployment still above 9%, and new applications for jobless benefits up again last week. the president's plan, dubbed "the american jobs act," will arrive here as legislation next week. with tonight's speech, mr. obama hopes to show what he's willing to do to jolt the economy. but white house officials say he'll also urge republicans to join him in solving the country's economic woes. >> we've had a lot of bad breaks >> he's going to put forward an american jobs act proposal tonight that's

as far as the president's new debt reduction proposal, gene sperling is from the national economic council's top economic advisors, he will join us live at the top of the hour. we are covering the whole world. what better place to do it from the united nations. you should be here in new york. i know you would like hanging out with these world leaders as well. >> i would like that. you and i be sa side by side, well make it a date wolf. >> next year? new york. >> thanks, wolf. see you in a couple of minutes. >>> meantiming with listen to this -- >> if your family was destroyed by evil, i think that you would all try to do the same thing and be there for your family. >> this man, lost his entire family. his wife, his two young daughters during horrifying home invasion. now dr. william pettit is sitting through every single last detail all over again. as one man is set to die for the murders, another man, this one, getting his day in court. coming up next, why the defense is arguing, as he says he never intended to kill anyone. live forness connecticut, on the case, next. wer cholesterol. [ m

we'll get a preview from one of the top economic advisors, gene sperling.tive from south carolina very active in the tea party movement, christy nome will be joining us with a very different perspective. i'll get her reaction and see where the tea party supporters stands on some of the specifics the president will unveil. no doubt there's an urgency the president will convey later tonight an urgency to try to get the economy going once again so more jobs can be created. as important, brooke, as the political fallout from all of this is, the economic fallout for real americans, the 14 million who are unemployed, the millions more who are underemployed, have part-time jobs or jobs where they're making a lot less than they used to make or those who have given up even looking for jobs, it's all really, really critical. we'll see if the president can inspire democrats and republicans to work together in the coming weeks and pass this legislation. we'll see what happens. i think it's fair to say, and i'm sure you will agree, the stakes now for the country -- forg

we'll hear remarks from white house economic advisor gene sperling and then house majority leader ericed chairman, alan greenspan, testifies about u.s. tax policy. >> last week f.b.i. agents searched the headquarters of the solar manufacturing company after it filed for bankruptcy. tomorrow morning a house panel holds an oversight hearing to an energy department loan made to the company. that loan was part of the 2009 economic stimulus package. live coverage gets underway at 9:30 eastern on c-span3. and later in the day also on c-span3, a hearing examines refinancing or restructuring home mortgage loans that are in financial trouble. the c.e.o. of the mortgage bankers association, david stevens, is among those testifying. live coverage starts at 2:00 p.m. eastern. that's from the senate banking subcommittee on housing. >> the c-span networks. we provide coverage of politics, public affairs, nonfiction books and american history. this month look for congress to continue federal spending into november, including funding for recent natural disasters. keep tabs on the deficit committee, as

. >> john sperling, retired. one thing i haven't heard much about this morning or this afternoon is the faith based communities. this is an untapped resource that is baking for opportunities to serve and not only to reintegration, but also to employee for veterans. this is where you're going to find the doctors lawyers, schoolteachers, active guard reserve people. you're going to find veterans, retirees, et cetera. it seems like this is an untapped resource. just like ia-64 family sign-up is sunday, asking what they can do a nice fall program to help with working with the walter reid -- the new walter reid wounded warriors, et cetera. i like to ask all of you to consider this contact resource, especially when you consider the u.s. chamber that can be integrated into the community. >> i think you make enough ending point. you know, three years ago when i got my wife by the throat and lifted her to feed off the deck and then got arrested for domestic violence because i was a sick individual. i educated myself on a

go after this collection of pay-fors that looks like rich people and oil companies, and then gene sperling arrives today and says if they want to do it some other way, that's fine. they want the politics, but they don't care about the policy. >> i mean, i think i said this with the debt ceiling too, i believe that they want a deal because they think a deal is what the american public who are still persuadable and undecided about the election want. >> despite all polls to the contrary. >> do you think i'm wrong, though, andy? >> i think they do want that -- >> yeah. >> i think they've failed in terms of convincing independents with what he's been doing. >> right. >> so it's not as if he's holding firm in one level of the direct rate. he's losing everything, so it does make you think he should reconsider a little bit. >> but do you think independents have just, they're tuning the president out, or are they still persuadable? is. >> i think 14 months before an election nothing matters, you know? it's kind of like your lehman brother predictions. someone wants to do predictions. 14 minutes bef