State of the Union (SotU) Sunday

July 6th, 2012
12:35 PM ET

SOTU Sneak Peek for Sunday July 8, 2012
There is no shortage of stories dominating the news this week, but what will be leading the headlines on Sunday morning? These are some of the stories we are looking at this week.

Team Romney’s Mixed Messages: In an interview earlier this week, Mitt Romney’s senior advisor Eric Fehrnstrom said that the GOP presidential nominee agrees with the Obama administration that the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act is a penalty, not a tax. “The governor disagrees with the ruling of the Court. He agreed with the dissent written by Justice Scalia that stated that the mandate was not a tax,” said Fehrnstrom in an interview with MSNBC. However, in a sit down interview with CBS, Romney said that the individual mandate is in fact a tax. “While I agreed with the dissent, that’s overtaken by the fact that the majority of the Court said it’s a tax and therefore it is a tax. They have spoken. There’s no way around that,” said Romney.

Independent Voters: As the driving force behind the race for the White House, Independent voters and swing states hold high stakes in the 2012 presidential election. With polls suggesting that last Thursday’s monumental Supreme Court health care ruling had no effect on how Independents feel about both President Obama and Mitt Romney, both candidates are aiming their political messages at unsure voters. “I want to work with anyone who believes we are in this together. I want to work with anybody who believes we’ve got to invest in our future,” said President Obama at a campaign even in Maumee, Ohio on Thursday. A recent CNN/ORC poll found that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney leads President Obama 51% to 43% in 15 battleground states.

June Jobs Report: Friday’s jobs report released by the Labor Department shows that the economy added 80,000 jobs last month, which is barely an increase from the 77,000 added in May. Economists surveyed by CNNMoney suggested that the unemployment rate would stay unchanged at 8.2% and at least 95,000 jobs would be added in June. As expected, the unemployment rate did stay unchanged at 8.2%, but African-Americans were hit hardest by the lack of jobs added, with unemployment in the Black community increasing from 13.6% to 14.4% in June. With this being the third straight month of weak hiring, the U.S. economy must add 125,000 jobs each month to keep up with population growth.

Guest Sneak Peek: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will join us to talk about the newest jobs report numbers, what is on the Senate’s agenda for the rest of the year, healthcare, and Senate races in swing states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. Also, Bill Bradley will be on to talk about his new book titled “We Can All Do Better,” which focuses on how Washington is run.

Much more to come, make sure to check back later today for our full Rundown and don’t forget to tune in Sunday at 9am & Noon ET.

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State of the Heart (SotH)