Nightly News   |  November 04, 2011

Obama talks jobs, economy at G20

At the G20 summit in Cannes, France, President Obama focused his message on jobs and the economy, in Europe and the United States. NBC’s Chuck Todd has more.

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This content comes from a Full-Text Transcript of the program.

BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor: numbers were on the agenda as the president held a news conference in Cannes , in France , the site of the G-20 Summit , where the main topic was the economy in Europe and here in the US. NBC News chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd is traveling with the president.

CHUCK TODD reporting: Wrapping up his two day trip to France for the G-20 Economic Summit , the president argued Europe must solve it's debt crisis on its own or the US recovery could falter.

President BARACK OBAMA: If Europe isn't growing, it's harder for us to do what we need to do for the American people , creating jobs, lifting up the middle class, and putting our fiscal house in order.

TODD: The president urged the world's other leading economies to follow the US lead, by passing new growth measures like his American Jobs Act .

President OBAMA: In the United States , we recognize that, as the world's largest economy, the most important thing we can do for global growth is to get our own economy growing faster.

TODD: The president took issue with calling his plan the " S " word, stimulus, but was pleased the collective focus of the G-20 wasn't on austerity measures this time.

President OBAMA: We didn't have a long conversation about stimulus measures. We had a discussion about what steps could be taken to continue to spur economic growth , and that may not always involve government spending.

TODD: The White House believes this summit was a success for two reasons. One, they were able to force the Europeans to spend their own money on a bailout fund, not rely on international help from the US or Chinese. And, two, they were able to shift the global economic conversation away from austerity measures . Chuck Todd , NBC News, Cannes, France .