'This Week' Transcript: Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Reince Priebus

Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Reince Priebus are interviewed on 'This Week.'

ByABC News
August 2, 2012, 5:44 PM

NEW YORK, August 5, 2012— -- (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANOPOULOS: Good morning and welcome to This Week.

Olympic fever. As the world's premiere athletes compete in London -- the presidential campaign here keeps its fierce pace, with doubts on the economy.

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ROMNEY: The president has not had policies that put American families back to work.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: Tax plans.

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OBAMA: He's asking you to pay more so the people like him can get a big tax cut.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: And tax returns.

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ROMNEY: Harry Reid really has to put up or shut up, all right? So, Harry, who are your sources?

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STEPHANOPOULOS: The big questions, was Friday's jobs report a sign of hope or more of the same? Will Mitt Romney's failure to release more tax returns trump the president's failure to create more jobs? And how much of a splash can Romney make with his running mate?

We'll ask the party chairs. Debbie Wasserman Schultz for the Democrats, Reince Priebus for the GOP. And our powerhouse roundtable, with George Will, Ann Coulter, Van Jones, Steve Rattner and Jonathan Karl.

Plus, ABC News at the Olympics. All the latest from London.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: Hello again, and how about that Michael Phelps? What a stunning capper to his Olympic career last night, 18th gold medal, sealing his place as the top Olympian ever. We're going to have more on that coming up.

But politics first, and a face-off with the party chairs after a surprisingly packed first week of August. Debbie Wasserman Schultz here for the Democrats, Reince Priebus for the Republicans.

And Congresswoman Schultz, let me begin with you and begin with that unemployment report that came out on Friday. The good news, 163,000 jobs created. The bad news, unemployment up to 8.3 percent. That makes 42 straight months of unemployment above 8 percent. No president since FDR has been elected with numbers even close to that, so how do you respond to Americans who say that 8 percent unemployment just isn't good enough?

SCHULTZ: Well, we know that we need to keep pressing forward and continue to fight for new jobs and getting this economy turned around. But what we do also know is that we have had 27 straight months of job growth now in the private sector. This month, that Friday's job report, 172,000 new private-sector jobs were created. We have had a surge in the growth of the manufacturing sector. More than 500,000 jobs created in manufacturing. That's the first time that we have seen job growth in manufacturing, George, since the 1990s.

We're moving in the right direction, and the president has proposed the American Jobs Act. It would be great if my colleagues on the Republican side in Congress would actually care more about getting the economy turned around and working with this president to pass that plan and create the million jobs that would be created.

STEPHANOPOULOS: As you know, Congress has gone home, Congress has gone home. So that's not going to happen this year.

SCHULTZ: Well, we shouldn't have gone home before passing the American Jobs Act. They care more about defeating this president than they do about working with him to pass a balanced plan and continue to get the economy turned around. The ball is in their court.