MR. GREGORY: Republicans have said he has not been bipartisan in this process. Is he now prepared to sit down with Republican leaders to figure out what, precisely, could be passed?
MS. JARRETT: David, he has been prepared since day one--in fact, he has sat down with the leadership the members of--on the Republican Party, both the House and the Senate. And in fact, bills in both the House and the Senate contain provisions that were suggested by the Republican Party. So nothing's changed about the president's approach. I think the question to be asked and what we learned from the Massachusetts victory is that people are sick and tired of Washington not delivering for them. And so the question is really, will the Republican Party become--be willing to come and work with us? A silver lining is Senator Brown said yes, he's looking forward to coming to Washington and working with the Democrats, and we're hoping that that provides new leadership within the party.
MR. GREGORY: You raise Massachusetts and you raise this question of priorities. This is what our recent polling found in terms of what are the priorities of the American people? And on top of that list is not health care; in fact, it's job creation. That was first on the list at 38 percent. There's health care at 12 percent, fourth on the list. Why keep pushing for health care in the middle of a recession when the American people don't seem to put that at the top of the list?
MS. JARRETT: Well, you're assuming that it's a choice between either or. The president, from the day he was elected, has made job creation and the economy a first priority. Let's, let's just remember where we were a year ago, David. We were losing 700,000 jobs a month. We were in the middle of the worst economic meltdown in our nation's history. Our financial system was on the brink of collapse. We had the largest federal deficit in our nation's history. And what's happened over the last 12 months? We're no longer losing 700,000 jobs a month. We've cut that number by--to less than 10 percent. We've turned the economy around. We are moving forward in the right direction.
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MS. JARRETT: Well, I actually disagree with everything you just said. Let's, let's take a look. We have pulled it back from the brink of disaster. That was our first and primary goal. The president took some bold steps that were not necessarily popular, but that did stabilize the financial system. This is a long haul, David, and we are not satisfied--having any American who wants to work unemployed is something that the parent--the president takes to heart each and every day. This isn't something that's going to be repaired in one year. We're going to have to push forward. But that doesn't mean we give up and that doesn't mean that jobs haven't been a top priority from day one.
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MR. GREGORY: The president came into office promising change. In his first year, what has he changed?
MS. JARRETT: Well, I think what we've seen is a, a dramatic difference in terms of how the United States is perceived around the world. I think that the president has been able to travel across the world and to establish relationships with world leaders that lie--lay a foundation for keeping America safe and, and making us a partner around the world so that we can tackle challenges collectively with other world leaders. I think that he has pulled back the economy from the brink of disaster. That's an enormous amount of change when you consider where we were a year ago, right on the economic brink. And he's adding discipline in government to try to get control of our--over our fiscal house. So I think we've seen enormous change.
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