Obama Prepares His Jobs Plan Speech For Today; Trial Of Michael Jackson's Doctor; Texas Wildfire Spreading; White Cross Left On Man's Lawn
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, kind sir. Hello to you, and hello to everybody out there. Too few jobs, too much debt, too little action from Washington, depending on your politics and the way you see things. Maybe you think it's just the wrong action out of Washington. In any case, it is the big story today. Today is the big day for President Obama, that long awaited jobs speech on Congress. It was planned for last night, of course you know the Republicans were debating last night, had to be moved to tonight, the president's speech. So now, here we are just about six hours away from that speech. He's expected to propose more than $300 billion in new investments and tax breaks to be offset by cuts and tax increases elsewhere. Also, $100 billion or more could go for infrastructure, you know, roads, bridges, airports, schools. The president may also call for an infrastructure bank providing for low-cost loans to get projects off the ground. He's also expected to push for an extension in the payroll tax break that almost every American worker now gets, and he may propose new tax breaks for employers who hire veterans and the long-term unemployed. The White House says none of this ought to come as objectionable to Republicans.</s>JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: All of these ideas are bipartisan in nature. The kinds of things that Republicans and Democrats have broadly supported in the past, and therefore, given the fact that they are paid for, given the fact that the economy needs help and Americans need help, Congress should act right away and get it done.</s>HOLMES: Now of course, debt has been a part of the conversation and you remember that super committee? Well we saw the first meeting, the very first one of this bipartisan Congressional super committee. Now, their job is to come up with about up to $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction by Thanksgiving. Now, you know this is broken down by six Democrats, six Republicans, so if they just vote along party lines here, nothing's going to get done, so somebody is going to have to vote with the other side, or who knows, maybe they'll vote unanimously on whatever they come up with. Yes, right. So, with all that as the drop, and the president's speech coming up, like I said in about six hours, let's bring in CNN's Christine Romans for us in New York and the White House correspondent Brianna Keilar. Ladies, good to see you both. Brianna, let me start with you. Are they coming up with something, the president announcing something he thinks can get passed or is he announcing something tonight that he really thinks is going to get the economy going?</s>BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You know, certainly this is something the White House wants, T.J., and says would have an immediate impact. But the fact is there are obstacles in Congress, and the White House and House Republicans don't see eye to eye on what we're expecting from this proposal. Just a couple of things, infrastructure spending, you'll hear Republicans already talking about how some of the things in this bill are stimulus, which has become a bit of a dirty word, of course, and House Republicans are opposed to that. There is also, as we understand it from Democratic sources familiar with the president's speech, that one of the ways he will propose paying for this is in part with delayed tax increases. Now, you know that Republicans are not going to be onboard with that. But what you also have here at the White House pointing to other things, tax cuts to payroll, tax cut, an extension of that and allowing as well to go to employers. And the point they're trying to make here is that they essentially feel anything they put forward House Republicans will say no to. They're literally sending up a bill next week, this is what White House press secretary Jay Carney said, they're putting this in the legislative form, and the message there, T.J., is, hey, we've even written it for you, here it is. But reality is this, T.J, even talking to Democrats on the Hill, there's no expectation that Congress will pass one singular comprehensive jobs plan like the president will unveil tonight.</s>HOLMES: Oh, hey, that's interesting how you put it. Christine, you here her say that, hey, we're making it easy for you, we even wrote the dog gone thing, all you've got to do it pass it. But Christine, is that enough money, $300 billion?</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That's a good question, because you know we've already spent twice that much on a stimulus that critics to the president's plan would say it didn't work. The White House came out a couple years ago and said, you passed the stimulus and spend all this hundreds of billions of dollars, we'll be able to keep the unemployment rate below eight percent. That obviously didn't happen, it's one of the reasons why, I think, the White House is not coming out with a targeted number for how many jobs they expect to create or what they think it'll do in the economy. They're going to leave that to other respected economists to the side so they can't hang that on them again. One of the things that's interesting about this is it's also the buying of the goodwill from different sectors that are getting hit here. You've state and local governments that have been hit really hard in terms of state budget cuts and having to lay off first responders, teachers, people who work in schools. So, if the president can come out with some targeted relief because of holes in state budgets, that could be difficult for Republicans to turn down, couldn't it? You take a look at just school personnel, for example, 85,000 jobs lost in schools just this summer. Since 2008, when the crisis began, you've lost 290,000 jobs in American schools. That means pretty much every family out there has noticed in their school district maybe something's different. Now you're paying to be on the football team, or now you've got five more kids in the kindergarten class, or you don't have as many kindergarten classes or something. So, it's something that you can resonate, the question I think for the president, T.J. and Brianna, is can the White House team put something together that the Republicans can't afford not to pass, otherwise it looks like they're just saying no for the sake of saying no.</s>HOLMES: OK. You know, Brianna, one last thing to you. What is this going to look like? This is one of the grandest thing the president can do, get both Houses together, it's going to look very presidential, it's going to lo0ok important quite frankly. There's an expectations gain, all right, Mr. President, you've us all around the TV, you've got all the senators in Congress people sitting there, you better say something important. So, are they going to be able to meet those expectations this evening and is there pressure, do they feel it, to do so?</s>KEILAR: There's a lot of pressure, there's a lot of anticipation, and T.J., that's because what does an address to a joint session of Congress look like -- look like? It looks like the state of the union. This is a big deal, it's a huge spectacle, and this could be -- or it's really expected to be a pivotal moment for the president. You heard Christine talking about the buying of the goodwill of different sort of sectors. A lot of this has to do with the buying of the goodwill of the American people and trying to convince them, the president will try to do, that he understands, he cares, he's trying to do something, and he's trying to point out the House Republicans are the ones getting in the way. Of course, this is the battle that will be going back and forth. But bottom line, this is a big deal, it's a huge spectacle.</s>HOLMES: All right. Brianna Keiler, Christine Romans, ladies, always good to see you both. I'll chat with you again, soon. And to our viewers, if you don't know by now, the president talking tonight, 7:00 Eastern time. You can get the coverage from the best political team on television, starts at 6:00 Eastern, 3:00 Pacific, with the president speaking at 7:00, and he will be done in time for you to catch kick-off the NFL season. Now seven minutes past the hour. Now, give you some other news taking place today. Jury selection getting underway in the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray. He of course the cardiologist charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Michael Jackson. That's with 450 potential jurors set to report for the selection process, they're going today and Monday. Jackson, you remember, died on June 25th of 2009 of an overdose of the anesthetic drug, Propofol. Prosecutors claim Murray used a makeshift I.V. drip to administer the drug in a way that violated standard care and ultimately led to Jackson's death. And the huge wildfire near Austin, Texas. This thing keeps on spreading. Two people are dead, nearly 1,400 homes destroyed. The fire is only 30 percent contained at this point, so far has blackened 34,000 acres, forced 5,000 people to evacuated. This fire is one of a number that have been burning across Texas which is in desperate need of some water. They are dealing some terrible drought conditions -- historic drought conditions in that state. Meanwhile, other folks dealing with flooding, they've got too much water, catastrophic flooding. This is the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee. And you have people evacuating by -- about 100,000 of them had to evacuate. We're going to be taking you live to Pennsylvania for the very latest. Stay with us.