we re not going to, in my view, continue the wage freeze on federal employees which becomes a signal to every employer in america to say to his workers, sorry, you re not going to get any wage increase this year. i think the republicans are on the defensive. i think the democrats got to keep pressing them and i think you re going to see more and more republicans defect and come up with something that s half way decent. senator, the politics of this, what s wrong with going home saying we tried to give you a tax cut, but the republic ans wouldn t let us? they wouldn t give up any revenue whatsoever. isn t that politically i mean, the big picture is to win back the house and senate and help president obama run the progressive agenda. isn t this a golden opportunity to turn to constituents and say once again the republicans stopped us from helping you? well, absolutely. from a political point, it is. but we re not just about politics. we ve also got to produce for the american peopl
isn t this a golden opportunity for the democrats to take the high road and say we ve got plain, and paint them as obstructionists? how aggressive do the democrats have to be during this recess? we will be very aggressive. we do have a plan. we ve been creating jobs with the recovery act and building roads and bridges and giving tax doubts businesses that hire people now, some over 5 million people as a result of the hire act. we know there s a lot more to do. huge hole has been dug. the question is do we want to keep going lowering the unemployment rate or turn backwards. i would just leave with you this, ed. right now, to add insultd to injury the republicans are filibustering a small business tax cut bill. they re unbelievable. that would give loans in small businesses. we re going to talk a lot about that in august. what about your state, michigan, high unemployment. i mean, this is tough. it s extremely tough. our people have been hit harder, longer, deeper, than anybody