MSNBC "Hardball with Chris Matthews" - Transcript
Interview
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Democratic Congressman Gary Peters of Michigan is a member of the financial services committee.
Congressman, give me a case for why the Congress comes back next week.
Are you saving jobs, creating jobs, or what?
REP. GARY PETERS (D), MICHIGAN: Well, I think we"re both. We"re certainly saving jobs and making sure that the economy gets going so that we can move forward. And the bill that we"re going to be voting on is going to be keeping some critical jobs, particularly teachers and education. We"re at a situation right now where 140,000 teachers may be laid off. Or some can be brought back, which is very, very important for us.
Long-term from an education standpoint, we want to make sure that our children continue to get the quality education necessary for them to be successful in the future. And if we lose those jobs, that"s just going to be another further hit to an economy that is still very fragile. We"re starting to see some positive growth, as you know. We did have, on a positive note, 70,000 private sector jobs growing.
But we need to make sure that we continue this progress forward. To step back would be very, very damaging to the economy.
MATTHEWS: I was listening to FOX News network coming in the car this morning. And I heard some questions raised that whether the extension of unemployment benefits was keeping the unemployment rate high. Is there any connection? Or is that crazy?
PETERS: That"s crazy. There"s no question about it. Unemployment helps families that are just struggling to hold onto their houses in order to put food on the table. But it"s also an economic stimulus, because one thing that economists all agree on is that every dollar of unemployment paid represents about a $1.60 of economic activity.
And, certainly, in a place like Michigan, right now, with over 13 percent unemployment, the money is critical, not only for those families, but critical for our economy as it"s slowly starting to improve. We"re seeing the auto industry recover. Slowly but surely jobs are being added.
But to have people who are completely without resources to keep their families together would be catastrophic. So, it"s a critical stimulus for the economy.
MATTHEWS: OK. Here"s the problem, Congressman. Now, the latest polling shows that people blame President Obama more than they blame George W. Bush for the economy. Isn"t that going to be a problem coming in in November that the party in power is now paying the price? Whatever you inherited, the public is now blaming you.
PETERS: Yes. And we got to keep focused. You know, certainly, we want to remind people that when we came into office, when I came as a new member back in January, this economy was hemorrhaging 700,000 jobs a month were being lost. We were frightened.
Now, we have, actually the last seven months, we have added to jobs. We"ve got to continue that. And that"s why we"ve got to push things like small businesses. We"ve got a small business lending bill, for example, that the Senate Republicans are holding up. It"s something that is absolutely critical to create jobs--
MATTHEWS: Yes.
PETERS: -- in a critical area which are small businesses, and the Republicans are arguing about how many amendments. We"ve got to forget how many amendments are on a bill and we"ve got to focus how many jobs are related to this bill.
MATTHEWS: Thank you, Congressman Peters, for coming to us from Michigan. That"s for being with us on a Friday.
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