>>> on the democratic side, president obama heads to the battleground state of pennsylvania today, us what senior adviser david plouffe ran the president's 2008 campaign. mr. plouffe, good to see you, good morning.
>> thanks for having me, matt.
>> lisa myers just talked about the situation involving herman cain so i want to get you on the record about this. you don't work for him but you know a lot about politics and campaigning. do you see any scienary yoi under which herman cain can return to prominence on the gop side of things right now?
>> well, matt, as you mentioned i have been involved in presidential campaigns but not republican primaries so i'm certainly not an expert there. i'm sure herman cain 's asking advice from a lot of people. i'm certainly not one of them. what's clear is this is a very unsettled republican primary and voting is going to begin in iowa and new hampshire. what the president is focused on is delivering tax cuts for the middle class and trying to help this economy.
>> let's get you back to your comfort zone and talk about what the president is doing today, headed to scranton , pennsylvania , to push for an extension of the payroll tax cut. the republicans have already said this is dead on arrival , in part because they don't like the fact that it's paid for on the backs of the wealthy. now, you know the track record here is not good. republicans have succeeded in blocking these things in the past, so why is the president wasting his time on an effort that's probably not going to work?
>> well, we think it is going to work. remember, there was a payroll tax cut equal to about $1,000 for every middle class family in america that we passed with republican support at the end of 2010 . there are some republicans who supported this. many of them have voted for it in the past. the request he is now, with the clock ticking, are we going to raise taxes and that's what would happen. if we don't extend this working tax, every american would see their taxes go up. in this economy we can't afford it. the way this is going to get paid for, the vote that will happen in the senate this week, a tax cut for 160 million americans paid for by asking a little over 300,000 millionaires to pay a little bit more.
>> the president goes to scranton today to make this case. i want to talk about scranton as a location. according to "the new york times" unemployment in that city is about 9.7%, the highest in the state. the food bank there served a record number of meals on thanksgiving, even the democratic mayor of scranton , christopher dougherty hoped for more federal help under this democratic administration, and it hasn't come. his words, "four years ago it was about hope. now it's about his record," referring to the president. how does the president look the people of scranton , pennsylvania , for example, in the eye and say, "i know we talked about hope and change. it hasn't really worked out. i need more time."
>> well, obviously i would take issue about that. change is ending the iraq war , having economic and tax policy centered over the middle class , change is delivering health reform . we've delivered on a lot of commitments the president made to the american people . the economy is obviously far too week. the president's the first person to acknowledge that and that's why he's fighting so hard to deliver the people of scranton , americans all across the country, tax relief. we have to reduce our deficit, make sure we're smartly investing in things like education, research and technology but right now, we have to do some things to jump-start the economy. that's what the president's focused on, cutting taxes for workers, for small businesses, putting construction workers back to work in scranton . those are the things washington needs to be doing to help people in scranton and all across america.
>> david plouffe , thank you for your time this morning. i appreciate it.
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