Really . They should come to newton, iowa. [chuckles] and this is what they would see in newton, iowa a maytag plant, where 2,500 people worked, now abandoned. This was the chrysler dealer, the chevy dealer, the Tractor Supply company. It helps explain why there is so much anger in the land. Im sick and tired of people going to congress and washington, d. C. , and making a living out of it while we starve to death. I believe we ought to make the tax cuts for the middle class permanent. We have now got both parties essentially telling a big lie, with a capital b and a capital l, to the public. Cut taxes. Cutting taxes. Make the tax cuts permanent. The Republican Party, as much as it pains me to say this, should be ashamed of themselves. This from Ronald Reagans old budget director, architect of the largest tax cut in American History . Its rank demagoguery. We should call it for what it is. Welcome to 60 minutes on cnbc. Im morley safer. In this edition, we look at two of the topics dominating the American Economic landscape jobs and taxes. First, we meet with president obamas socalled jobs czar. Then we visit a struggling town in the heartland. And finally, we take a look at a controversial income Tax Initiative in Washington State. In the first decade of the 21st century, big american firms cut around 3 million jobs in the u. S. , while adding almost as many overseas. No company went global more aggressively than general electric, the conglomerate that makes everything from refrigerators to m. R. I. Machines to jet engines. Yet as lesley stahl reported in october 2011, when president obama was looking for someone to help get americans back to work, he recruited a most unlikely candidate the republican ceo of general electric, jeff immelt. The mood is dark. People are pissed. Why not try to do better . Jeff immelt talked about his czarship at a gathering of g. E. Managers. You know, i grew up in cincinnati, ohio, and my parents are really rightwingers. My dad watches, like, five or six hours of fox news every day and stuff like that. So i called home and said, hey, just to give you a headsup, you know, im gonna be with the president , and hes asked me to lead this jobs council. And my mother said, well, you said no, of course, didnt you . [laughing] i said, no, mom, thats not what i said. [cheers and applause] thank you. When you were chosen, there was a lot of criticism. Yeah. I saw a headline that said, the job czar from hell. Mmhmm. Because of how many jobs g. E. Has outside the united states. Ive taken heat from the right and heat from the left, and its been uncomfortable sometimes for me personally to work with the president on this. And im proud to do it. What hes doing is heading a council of ceos, wall streeters, and labor leaders to help the president come up with ideas for immediate and longterm job growth. We need to create 300,000 new jobs a month just to get back to where we were before the recession. I think, lesley, there just needs to be a sense of National Urgency around jobs, that basically, if you just looked at how many hours a day do republicans spend on job creation, do democrats spend on job creation, does the white house, its nowhere close to 100 . Were not spending enough time on jobs. One of the reasons the president chose immelt as his jobs czar is because hes actually building new manufacturing plants in the u. S. He wanted to show us one this new factory in batesville, mississippi, where theyre making jet engines for the new boeing dreamliner. Does anybody know how many different parts go into that . Somebody does. Im not sure, if itsits not me. Its not you. In this engine, we probably have invested 1 1 2 billion as a company before getting the firstthe first sale. All told, he is adding 15,000 jobs in the u. S. , about half in manufacturing. Weve got whole new generations of jet engines, whole new generations of gas turbines. Were spending a lot inside the u. S. In louisville, kentucky, where g. E. s appliance park has lost about 16,000 workers, hes actually bringing jobs back from china and mexico, where wages are going up. You know, with the currency weaker, with wage rates inflation lower here than the rest of the world, we think the u. S. Can be quite competitive. What struck me is that the new plants dont hire a lot of people. You talk about hundreds instead of thousands. And i wonder, as you bring in new factories they are so automated. Youre going to have fewer people that do any task. In the end, it makes the system more productive and more competitive. But when you walk through mississippi, for every person that was in that plant, theres probably seven or eight in the supply chain. A lot of the jobs we saw were 13anhour jobs. Thats really not the ticket, is it, to a really vibrant middle class. We have a range. When we go out and recruit, lets say, hire 1,000 people at between 15 and 17 an hour, we get 50,000 applicants. So i think youve got to start somewhere, but we want to hire more people. Coming up, going with the market flow. 60 of g. E. s revenues is foreign. When i became ceo, it was 30. Now, i wish all our customers were in chicago. I mean, everything about the u. S. Is easier than doing business here. But this is where the growth is. Well have more with jeff immelt when 60 minutes on cnbc returns. Searching with devotion for a snack that isnt lame but this. Takes my breath away life with Crohns Disease ois a daily game of what ifs. What if my abdominal pain and cramps end our night before it even starts . What if i eat the wrong thing . What if . What if i suddenly have to go . What if . But what if the most important question is the one youre not asking . What if the underlying cause of your symptoms is damaging inflammation . 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Youre either too far from the curb. Or too close to other cars. Its just a matter of time until you rip some guys bumper off. So, here are your choices take the bus. Or get Liberty Mutual insurance. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. See Car Insurance in a whole new light. Call Liberty Mutual insurance. In 2011, jeff immelt, general electrics ceo, agreed to become an advisor to president obama, his socalled jobs czar. But heres the problem when it comes to creating american jobs, its hard to compete with emerging nations like brazil, as immelt well knows. Brazil is buying more g. E. Products than almost any other country. Its no wonder they have a g. E. Company town 90 minutes from rio. You hear g. E. , and you think schenectady, new york, lynn, massachusetts. Petropolis, brazil . Its the world we live in today, lesley. This is where we have to be today to be successful. And they are wildly successful in brazil, where g. E. Is growing at a rate of 35 a year compared to 1 in the u. S. Immelt showed us around a g. E. Locomotive plant. If you go back 5, 10, 15 years, maybe we made 30 or 40 locomotives here, you know, lesley. Were now making 150. Here we can honk the horn. Thats the horn . So just push . Push down. [horn sounds] i need one of these in my office. G. E. Has become so global that more than half of its 300,000 workers are now overseas. We spoke to him on the floor of g. E. s jet engine servicing plant in petropolis. How much of your revenues, now, come from overseas . 60 . 60 of g. E. s revenues is foreign. When i became ceo, it was 30. Now, i wish all our customers were in chicago. I mean, everything about the u. S. Is easier than doing business here, but this is where the growth is. You know, its like a bucket of ice on your head. I dont think we have caught up to the reality of how much the world is consuming and how were slippin back. You know, i dont think it has to be all bad news. I still think theres lots of things we can do in the u. S. , but the customers are here. And thats just the way it is. G. E. Has 8,000 employees in brazil, and rising. At factory rallies here, immelt, as cheerleader, looks out at the future of the company. I want you to get up every day and want to beat caterpillar. I want you to hate the color yellow and do everything you can to make sure were winning and beating the competition. On top of expanding the locomotive operation here, immelt is building a new aviation plant and a new research and Development Center in rio. You have also made the case that by increasing investment in a place like brazil, it would allow you to bring more jobs back home. Now, thats counterintuitive. Look around this room. All of these components come from the u. S. How are you doing . But after following him around brazil, i wondered whether g. E. Was still an american company. Im a complete glalist. I think like a global ceo. But im an american. I run an american company. But in order for g. E. To be successful in the coming years, ive got to sell my products in every corner of the world. I mean, you may personally think of yourself as an american, but your customers are over there. You put your plants over there. You even put research. If i wasnt out chasing orders in every corner of the world, wed have tens of thousand fewer employees in pennsylvania, ohio, massachusetts, texas. Im never going to apologize for that, ever, ever. I love coming to these plants. Its great. You know, cause we actually see stuff getting made. Getting made. 90 exported from here. Thats exactly right. Immelt worked with the president to devise his 447billion jobs package. And he and his jobs council thats been Holding Meetings all around the country will give mr. Obama more proposals, such as reducing government regulations and spending more to retrain workers. If the republicans say the government shouldnt spend, how the heck are we going to get ourselves out of this . No, no, this notion that the government has no role has never been true in the history of the united states. You know, really, all of the commercial Aviation Industry has grown out of defense spending. All of the Health Care Innovation has grown out of the n. I. H. In his ten years as ceo, immelt has remade g. E. , selling off half the company he inherited, including plastics, insurance, and nbc. Oh, my god. Theyre selling nbc to a Company Called kabletown. With a k. At the same time, he has refocused the company on manufacturing, bulking up units like transportation, energy, and research and development. As jobs czar, hes urging his fellow ceos to double their hiring of engineers and devote more money to r d. At g. E. , hes triplespending on everything from medical research to green technology, including the building of a Solar Panel Factory in the u. S. , even as other American Solar companies are folding. Is this something thats incredibly risky for you . In g. E. , this is extremely low risk because we have Good Technology and we have scale. The crime for us is when we dont do things like that. We ought to be percolating 20 1billion businesses all the time that can grow inside our system. But even while he promotes american innovation, hes been accused of transferring technology to other countries, as in his recent joint venture with china where a new g. E. Computer system will go into a chinese airliner that could eventually compete with boeing. Its a way we can grow, and its approved by the u. S. Government. Its in an important market around the world, and it creates 400 jobs in the u. S. Let me be more specific. Are we in any way giving the chinese a technology that they didnt have before, that depletes our Competitive Edge in the future . No, look, youre afraid of china; im not. We see them as a big market and a big opportunity. One thing immelt is promoting that the president did not include in his jobs package is lowering the Corporate Tax rate from the current 35 , even though Companies Like g. E. Rarely pay that much. One of the things that g. E. And you get hammered for is how little taxes g. E. Pays. Its not quite zero, but its pretty low. You know, weve had an extraordinary couple of years. We wrote off 32 billion during the financial crisis. I think that we should have basically the same tax policy that germany, japan, the u. K. , everybody else has, which is a tax rate in the mid20s and no loopholes, zero. The u. S. Has the most antiquated tax system. And that means some people are going to pay more taxes, and some people are going to pay less. But i guess the big question for most people is, would that create jobs . Thats a fair debate. You know, personally i think its going to create jobs. But our companies are not spending. Theyre not investing in a way that would create jobs. And big corporations are sitting on billions and billions of dollars. Theyre just sitting on it. Companies should invest in the united states. Its still the worlds biggest economy. And if Companies Just are going to sit on cash, theyre going to lose. Theyre gonna lose, because only the people that are going to invest their way through this crisis are going to win. Immelt is also supporting a tax holiday for Global Companies to get them to bring back home more than 1 trillion in profits theyre keeping overseas. He says businesses would start hiring, even though they didnt when a tax holiday was tried in 2004. When it happened last time, it didnt. Right. So theres plenty of evidence that says that im not right about that. In other words, do i know how many jobs its going to create . I dont. But it cant intellectually be any good to anybody to have 1. 2 trillion outside the u. S. Shouldnt american corporationsdont they have some kind of Civic Responsibility to create jobs . No . My name is not above the door. I work for investors. Investors want to see us grow earnings and cash flow. They want to see us be competitive. They want to see us prosper. He wishes the public felt the same. I want you to root for me. You know, everybody in germany roots for siemens. Everybody in japan roots for toshiba. Everybody in china roots for china south rail. I want you to say, win, g. E. Do you not see any reason that maybe the public doesnt hold american corporations up here in the highest. I think this notion that its the population of the u. S. Against the Big Companies is just wrong. Its just wrongminded, and when i walk through a factory with you or anybody, you know, our employees basically like us. They do. I saw it. They root for us. They want us to win. I dont know why you dont. Since our report first aired, jeff immelt has remained a lightning rod for some critics. But immelts brand of realistic optimism continues unabated. Coming up, tough times in the american heartland. I wonder when you look forward now, what you think about rehiring people. When we hire somebody, were definitely gonna need them. Were not gonna hire one person until we need two or three, and were probably not gonna hire two until we need four or five. The economic struggles of newton, iowa, when 60 minutes on cnbc returns. I was just looking at your Credit Report site. Do you guys have Identity Theft protection . [ male voice ] im sorry, did you say identity distribution . No. Protection. Identity theft protection. You have selected identity distribution. Your identity will now be shared with everyone. Thank you. No, no, no [ click, dial tone ] [ female announcer ] not all Credit Report sites are equal. [ male voice ] were good in here, howie. Yeah, have a good night, brother. Experian. Com members get personalized help plus Identity Theft protection. Join now at experian. Com. With enrollment in experian credit tracker. The economists who decide such things say the recession ended back in june of 2009. But dont tell that to communities struggling to get back on their feet. In october 2010, on the eve of the midterm elections, scott pelley went to the american heartland and found that little had changed. Anger was the order of the day. [thunder rumbling] what surprised you the most about this recession . I think the depth of it and the length of it. I think what surprised me the most about this one is, it just doesnt want to end. You know, the economists say that the recession is over. Really . They should come to newton, iowa. [laughs] dave mcneers Advertising Company is like a lot of Small Businesses its getting smaller. Maxim advertising in newton, iowa, puts its customers logos on nearly anything, and business had only grown for 22 years, until 2007. And what was all of this . This was filled maytag, maytag, maytag, maytag. Maytag invented its washing machine in newton. 5,000 people worked for maytag here, but newton lost all of those jobs. Maytag was bought out, and by 2007, the factory was closed. Many of the jobs went to mexico. No one knew it then, but these were the opening days of the great recession. Now layoffs that started with corporations are cascading into momandpop shops. How many employees did you have at the top . 22. And today . 10. Do you remember the first person you had to lay of