New jobs data, same old Republican problem

>>> show." republicans are dragging their feet to get a tax cut deal with the american people . those republican delays are putting our economic recovery, i think, in some serious neighborhood, dangerous, very dangerous. the good news is though, the latest employment numbers came out this morning. the economy added 146,000 jobs in the month of november. the unemployment rate hit a four-year low. it inched down to 7.7%. here's the bad news. america lost another 7,000 manufacturing jobs last month. overall the job numbers are better than analysts predicted, but republicans refuse to compromise on policies which will bring back even more jobs next year. they are risking our nation's economic recovery. here's how speaker john boehner 's today.

>> increasing tax rates will hit many small businesses that produce 60 to 70% of the the new jobs in our country. that's the whole issue here.

>> once again. it's all theory from boehner. no guarantee on that. democratic leader nancy pelosi says it goes beyond the fiscal cliff debate.

>> our economy is moving forward, but it could be growing at a faster rate. the republican leadership had taken up and passed some of president obama 's job initiatives including the american jobs act and had passed the middle income tax cut .

>> let's cut to the chase . one of those congressional members is lying. either the republicans are right on cutting taxes will add jobs or the president's stimulus policies are fueling the economic recovery in this country. joining me tonight to sort out the facts, david cay johnston , offer of "the fine print." let's start with the job growth . unemployment hit rock bottom near the beginning of the -- under the bush administration . this is changing the color here is when president obama took over in january of '09. who is responsible for this turn around?

>> the president and it would be a better turn around if the republicans had allowed a bigger stimulus. we'd have many more jobs.

>> you'd make the case we didn't spend enough on the economy?

>> we wasted 40% of that on tax cuts for small business , which is inherently savings and not stimulus. it was a real policy mistake. is this historic?

>> we're going in the right direction. we're not creating as many jobs as we need for the population growth , but it's astonishing we're recovering the way we are and if the republicans would stop creating the uncertainty, remember the uncertainty by not making a deal, we'd see the numbers improving very dramatically. let me ask in terms of the stability. these are numbers. does it look historic? it doesn't. but when we were down here, we were on the verge of tipping over. our whole economic situation, our financial situation, in that regard --

>> obama has managed a bad hand very, very well. he was dealt an incredibly bad hand and it's surprising it didn't get a lot worse than it did.

>> this shows the unemployment rate under president obama 's administration. which of the president's policies have helped the most in this?

>> . well very crucial to this has been his decision to get congress to extend unemployment benefits surprisingly. because when people have the money are spending it back in the economy. every 50th person you meet statistically only has food stamps today as income. and that's the result of these years of the republicans policies. so having unemployment and extendsing benefits next year would be important to bring the number down and having businesses hire more people because they have customer with money.

>> if congress failed to pass the recovery act, the center on budget and policy priorities says we have added almost 1 million more jobs because of the stimulus package . why are the republicans fighting stimulus spending now? why? is it they don't want to see president obama succeed or do they believe spending more money is not the right thing to do?

>> i think both of those are true. they do not want him to succeed. there's no question about that. they are certain spending more money is wrong. we need to be fixing our infrastructure and creating jobs and making the economy run better, but they are trapped. they have sold the public on the same idea that we once had sold to us that the earth was the center of the universe . it's dogma. they can't abandon their dogma.

>> john boehner says cutting taxes on small businesses will help create jobs. is he right?

>> no. nobody creates a job to get a tax cut . you create jobs when you have more customers with more money to spend on product and services. it's getting money throwing through the bottom 90% of the economy.

>> we're seeing record levels of long-term unemployment right now. this is the angst in the economy. even though it's dropped to 7.7%, millions of people have been out of work for 27 weeks or more. long-term unemployment benefits expire on december 29th . this is part of the cliff. it's going to be a tough holiday for a lot of families across the country. last week, we got to point out that the congressional budget office was reported we could add 300,000 more jobs by extending benefits. it would cost $30 billion. now will republicans agree at least to extend the unemployment benefits or do they just not see any value in doing that. because they are just opposed to it.

>> they only need about 25 republicans to step over to agree to do this. and you're seeing grover norquist grip fall apart. this is a really important thing to do to improve the lives of young people . one thing to keep in mind, it is younger workers who are being hurt the most. the job games are heavily among 55 and over. we don't want to have a society where we get cynical young people that there's no woint in playing by the rules because you won't get a job any way.

>> why not go over the cliff? if we go over the cliff, we're talking solving the financial problems. but we run the risk -- i think we might dip but it won't be anything like the first chart. what about that?

>> i think that that may well be a good idea. it's risky, ed. there's some risk as to what will happen. but the fact is the government would then have all of this revenue. if it spends that revenue to create jobs and regardless of what the republicans say, government creates jobs all the time from school teachers like your money to people like my brother who was a ditch digger and could get to work because he was cleaning out after a storm. we need a whole lot of jobs created. if the government gets all the revenue and we push it out the door, that will help the economy grow.

>> we had an excellent economy under president clinton at those rates. what are we afraid of?

>> more jobs were created in the eight years of bill clinton than the 20 years of reagan and the two bushes. eight years.

>> david cay johnston , thanks so much.

>>> there's a lot coming up in the next half hour. stay with us.

>> are you proud?

>> you bet i am. we're going to do more too.

>> the koch brothers money is hard at work in michigan. where union-busting republicans are ramming right to work into law. we'll go to lansing, michigan, for the latest.

>>> the push to pass the violence against women act is on. but fox news just doesn't get it.

>> i think it skirts the issue that women are victims of violence all the time.

>> should have guns.

>> or make better decisions.

>>> and the supreme court announced today they will begin hearing cases on gay marriage . tonight professor of constitutional law jonathan turley on this historic civil