poll. people feel they have more tools as individuals but not sure big institutions government and business and their lives are listening as they have more ways to be heard. >> more talking but is anybody doing the real listening. >> revisiting the segment with candy crowley. we talk about bill clinton. when you talk about bill clinton, you smile. >> maybe not if you were hoping he would stay on message. i have to make a correction. i said the midnight runners. i said riders. it's runners. i said riders. it's runners. "cnn newsroom" carol costello begins right now. >> happening now in the "newsroom," a serious outbreak. 11 cases of e. coli sending disease hunters scrambling this morning. what looks like a funnel cloud sweeping through a high school graduation ceremony as caps were being thrown into the air. students and families run for cover. we'll talk to the guy who shot this video. a whole lot of people talking about the $130 thriller.

we have early buzz straight ahead. >> you don't have a fear of heights. >> i don't. i respect heights. >> walk on a wire. a feat 200 feet up high above niagara falls. we'll introduce you to nick. "newsroom" begins right now. good morning. thank you for joining us. happy friday to you. a medical mystery is unfolding for the centers for disease control as it races to find the source of a deadly e. coli outbreak. here's what we know right now. there are reports that 11 people have been sickened including the death of a 20-month old girl in new orleans. several southern states, louisiana, georgia, alabama and florida all reporting illnesses linked to e. coli. the biggest group is located here in atlanta.

home of the cdc. state health officials say the cause is unknown but they are partnering with the cdc as they investigate this outbreak. in louisiana, officials said rumors the new orleans cases were related to a local petting zoo are untrue. something that was confirmed by an infectious disease expert that spoke with wwl, our affiliate. >> i would doubt very seriously that this child acquired this from petting an animal in the zoo. if the same dna friingerprint i showing up in other places in other states. there have been cases of e. coli outbreaks that have been related to petting zoos where children have gone in and put hands in the mouth before the parent could wash their hand but those are really very rare compared with food-borne outbreaks. >> we reached out to the georgia department of public health and center of disease control to explain the latest of their

investigation and both refused our request. we hope to get them on in the next hour of "newsroom." a high school graduation in new jersey but it looked like the apocalypse. look at that. the huge supercell thunderstorm formed during the ceremony last night. hard to concentrate on the biggest moment of your young life when you have that monster looming over your head. no reports of a tornado coming out of this and no reports of injuries but we think there were a lot of soaked ground, tassels and diplomas. welcome, matthew. >> hi. >> so you're watching your sister graduate. when did you notice that the weather was getting bad? >> just as they were reading the names actually. the clouds started to spin like that. that's when i took out my phone. >> you whipped out your camera on your phone and you took these pictures. why didn't you run? >> it hadn't started raining or

anything yet. it was just kind of like in the distance and thundering and lightning. there was no rain or anything so it came unexpectedly. >> they were reading names of these graduation seniors. most exciting day of their young lives. what was reaction from them as they spotted this cloud thing? >> it seemed like a mix of joy because they just finished graduation and terror because they were fleeing the field. >> i just can't even imagine. i mean, you're supposed to be graduating going toward a hopeful future and then this happens. as you talked to your sister about her graduation ceremony, how did she describe it to you? >> she didn't seem like she didn't like it or anything. she said it was pretty unique and it wasn't -- it didn't ruin her day or anything. >> so it wasn't like a sign of things to come or anything like that?

well, i'm glad you're safe and thank you so much for joining us, matthew blanchard. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. there is new fallout from the recent leaks of classified information in washington. both the house and senate intelligence committees are vowing full blown investigations into the national secrets that are being funneled to the media supposedly. the fbi is looking into whether the white house is to blame. lawmakers from both parties say someone needs to go to jail. >> the leaks are very serious. it affects our national security. and they're wrong. we're going to follow the facts wherever they go. in a bipartisan way the senate and house will come together. we need administration to work with us in a partnership to find out where leaks are and how we'll stop these leaks and wherever the facts take us, that's where we should go and if someone whoever did commit these leaks, they should be held accountable. >> someone has committed a crime that is having serious consequences to our national security. so what we're arguing in a bipartisan way is we need to

follow the leads of the investigation to the leaker and make sure that leaker goes to jail much like what happened with valerie plame case. someone went to jail over that. this is a hundred times the magnitude of that. >> he says the nation's allies are nervous about trusting the united states and could withhold vital information. bill clinton says he's sorry. he's very, very sorry. the former president on the stump for president obama but hasn't always been on the same page with the campaign's talking points. in the past week clinton raised eyebrow when he praised the business success of mitt romney and he appeared to side with the gop theme when he seemed to express support for extending the bush era tax cuts. clinton sat down to explain with wolf blitzer. >> some of your critics have said, you know, former president is undermining the current president for whatever reason.

>> look, in 2008 when he ran for president and defeated hillary in the primaries, i did 40 events for him in the election. and in 2012, i have done these major fundraisers and spoken up for him whenever i could, i have told people repeatedly i think he's done a good job, a really good under very trying circumstances and better than some people give him credit for. i strongly committed to his re-election. and i just regret that -- you know, my instinct -- i don't think i should say bad things about governor romney personally to disagree with him politically. the fact that i was complimentary of his success as a business person doesn't mean that i think that he should be elected and president obama shouldn't. >> republicans have seized on the apparent conflict trying to use clinton's words against

obama and some suggest sabotage laying groundwork for a future presidential bid by his wife. in an hour and 15 minutes from now, president obama will make a statement on the economy. don't know what he'll say but stick around. we'll bring that event to you live. for republicans, the guessing game is under way. who will mitt romney choose as his running mate? vp buzz is getting louder today as they launch the biggest gathering of the year in chicago. delegates will hear from virginia governor bob mcdonald. his name frequently comes up in this discussion. also coming up, michele bachmann and rick santorum, new jersey gove govern yoor chris christie and herman cain. >> you rattled off a list of vip conservatives that will be here at this conference.

let's talk a little bit about the location as well. this is first time that ccap conference is in chicago. you are used to seeing it in washington, d.c. but guess what? they are mounting this take back the midwest campaign and where are they doing it? in president obama's backyard. this is the president's home state. it's not that far, maybe about a 20-minute drive away from president's re-election headquarters in downtown chicago. back to that list that you just mentioned a few moments ago, four of the names that we are paying close attention to, senator rand paul of kentucky, governor bob mcdonnell of virginia, the other two, obviously chris christie and bobby jindal of louisiana. why? you know why. those are four of the names on potential running mate list for romney. they will speak here firing up the crowd. another person we'll pay close attention to is rick santorum.

former pennsylvania senator and former presidential candidate. he announced this morning, this political action committee to basically further push his issues that he cares most about, faith, freedom, opportunity, he'll come here in an hour. we expect him to take questions from reporters and lay out his political future. could he set himself up for possibly 2016? certainly one of the questions we'll toss at him. >> can't wait. turning now to crisis overseas in syria, kofi annan is discussing the deepening urgency and growing evidence of a government crisis. a new soccer field, more

than 20 cable channels on tv painting classes, a library full of dvds and newspapers in different languages. sounds good. perks at a private school. that's what's available to terror suspects at guantanamo bay. remember president obama had different plans for that prison three years ago. >> it will be closed no later than one year from now. >> instead nbc news is reporting the government has spent millions of dollars in upgrades and those improvements could keep guantanamo bay open for several more years. there are 169 terror detainees at the facility and you and i spend about $800,000 per year on each and every one. the name is legendary. generations of this family has walked the type rope and just as famously cheating death and

sometimes surrendering it. a new challenge pushes the envelope yet again. >> reporter: an ominous sight. raging water over niagara falls crestline dropping 180 feet. imagine walking across the falls on a high wire. >> it's been a dream of mine for a long time. i'm one of those that always overachieve. i want to do better things. i want to do exciting things. >> reporter: call it exciting or crazy. he'll attempt to cross niagara falls on a steel rope two inches in diameter. no bigger than a tennis ball. the walk more than 1,500 feet long. 200 feet above the falls. >> clearly you don't have a fear of heights. >> i don't. i respect heights. it's not a fear. fear is debilitating where it is almost irresponsible where you

overreact and cause you to fall. >> reporter: he had a near fall across baltimore's inner harbor. he was able to steady himself due to years of practice. he comes from generations of flying wallendas. the family has seen successes and tragedies. in 1978, an attempted walk between two hotel towers in puerto rico. he slipped and fell to his death. >> he's my inspiration behind most of what i do. i do this for him out of respect for him. absolutely i think about him. i'll think about him as i cross over the falls for sure. >> wallenda always walked without a harness. but not this time. his sponsors are requiring he wear one for the niagara walk. why don't you want to wear the harness? >> you know, i think it's more about personal goal than anything. my personal goal is to do it without a harness.

>> reporter: both his father and uncle support that goal. i think a lot of people will find that hard to understand. you say that because he's not used to training with a harness. >> he's never worn a harness in all of those years. >> it's personal for me in that i'm the guy designing this thing now so that it will get over the wire. >> reporter: the practice on this day without a harness goes well. he said a prayer mid walk and says he'll be doing more of that crossing the falls. >> i know there are angels around me and viewers that will watch that night that will lift me up in their prayers. >> wow. jason carroll joins us from new york. i'm curious about this harness. even with a harness, if he falls off the wire, how far down will he fall? >> you're talking more than 150 feet. if he was falling without a harness. with a harness it would catch him 10 to 12 feet something like that. as you can see from what he was saying there, he really doesn't

want to do and wear that harness when he does this walk next friday. it was hard for me to understand because i'm thinking you would be safer with it. in his mind since he's been training for years and years ever since the age of six without wearing a harness, he feels it might throw him off if he has to wear one which turns out he will. >> i totally understand that. it's not as daring a feat with a harness on. >> well, it may not be as exciting for some but you still think about it, you're still walking across niagara falls on that tiny little wire out there. for me, i would rather be safe knowing that if i did fall, something would be there to catch me. but i'm not part of the wellenda family. >> jason carroll, thanks so much. do you want your every move

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18 minutes past the hour. checking our top stories now, cdc investigators are racing to find the source of a reported e. coli outbreak in four southern states. 11 people have gotten sick including a 21-month-old girl that died in new orleans last week. imagine driving 85 miles an hour and not worrying about a speeding ticket. drivers on a stretch of texas highway may get to try that out. it would be the first road to be posted with 85-mile-an-hour speed limit. texas and utah are the only states with 80-mile-an-hour speed limits. 5,000 walmart workers have come together to fight for better wages. the organization united for respect at walmart is pushing for more consistent work schedules. the employees move comes as walmart tries to hold down expenses at its stores.

> paula abdul gets extra points points for dancing in high heels on grass. i think they did a good job. such a funny sight. do you like the idea of every move on the web being tracked by advertisers? advertisers sure love it. there's a battle brewing between microsoft and google over the practice. alison kosik joins us from new york with more on the soon to be released do not track option. interesting. >> here's what the do not track option is, carol. it's actually a web button on browsers that will come out soon. what it does is opts people out of data collection on websites. right now the proposal is being backed by big companies that make these browsers by the obama administration and 90% of ad networks like google and yahoo!. it's been major process getting these sides to agree on how it would work. microsoft says that it will make the do not track default setting in new version of internet

explorer meaning you won't have to opt in so automatically data will not be collected. guess what? google, which relies on advertising, said they would only agree to do this do not track if the default setting is off. remember, they stand to benefit because google and other advertisers want to know your surfing habits. that's how they can make money. carol? >> alison kosik, one more question though. even if you opt out of do not track because i know how that works with political calls that come in, it didn't work very well. can't they still track your information any way? >> that's a good question. technically yes. they can track you. remember, do not track is basically a web version of the do not call list. just because you opt out of having your information gathered, it really doesn't mean it can't happen. there's no real firewall to keep them out. one privacy researcher says even if internet explorer makes do not track default, google says we'll be able to do whatever we want any way. it would be a risky move because

you would be going against what the ftc requires but it doesn't make it impossible for them to track you. carol? >> figures. alison kosik at the new york stock exchange. this middle class mom wanted some answers from the obama campaign so we brought her words to obama's ears. and don't forget if you're heading out the door, you can take us with you. watch us any time on your mobile or computer. head to cnn.com/tv.

it's time for middle class talk back. a segment we kicked off last month to give middle class americans the chance to ask direct questions of the presidential candidates. today it is nana boone's turn. she and her husband have three children and are financially secure but they are fearful their way of life will disappear. today nana had a question for president obama. >> president obama if you are re-elected as president of our country, what do you have in store in terms of education reform.

we continue to see cutbacks in education, teachers are continuing to be laid off and classroom sizes are increasing, what can we expect that will be different if you're elected for a second term? >> we sent nana's question to the obama campaign. thank you for your question. president obama values good teachers and educators and is committed to keeping them secure in their jobs and the president wants to elevate the teaching profession by giving schools the resources they need to keep good teachers on the job and add more leadership roles and responsibilities for teachers and supporting local efforts to create evaluation systems based on more than just test scores and to promote teacher tenure and the bush era law meant to make schools more accountable by stressing standardized tests.

the obama campaign says governor romney would oppose small class size and allow student loan rates to go up. next week there will be a question for governor romney. a military chaplain performs a same-sex ceremony on a military post in louisiana and the congressman who represents that part of the state is not happy. he wants to make sure it never happens again. we'll talk to him next. tap... pinch... and zoom... in your car. introducing the all-new cadillac xts with cue. ♪ don't worry. we haven't forgotten. you still like things to push. [ engine revs ] the all-new cadillac xts has arrived, and it's bringing the future forward.

good morning to you. i'm carol costello. it's 30 minutes past the hour. president obama will be giving a statement at 10:15 eastern on the economy. that's in 45 minutes. he's expected to call on congress to pass a back to work plan proposed last year to upgrade our roads and bridges and to put more teachers back in the classroom. that will come your way at 10:15 eastern. 45 minutes from now from the white house and we'll bring that to you live. a 21-month-old girl is dead

and ten others are reportedly sick following an e. coli outbreak in several southern states. officials in louisiana and georgia say they are working to track the source which remains unknown at this time. good luck seniors. it's a tough world out there as you can plainly see. the supercell thunderstorm formed during a high school graduation ceremony in new jersey. the rain and hail started coming down just after the graduates through up their caps. luckily no one was hurt. another kind of storm brewing in louisiana. an army chaplain performed a private religious ceremony for a female soldier and her partner on post. happened last month. the news is just getting out now. the twist here, louisiana does not recognize same-sex marriage or civil unions although it doesn't look like this ceremony was either. here's what people who live around the base are saying. >> for them to break the law of the state it shows disrespect they don't care about the military. >> i'm happy for the people. i'm glad they get to be together with who they love.

>> people have a right to do what they want to do behind closed doors but i don't think that's the right place for it. >> the military is awesome. i don't care if they're married to a man or woman or man to man or woman to woman it won't change anyone's feelings. they are still supporting our country. >> louisiana congressman john flemming represents that district. also on the house armed services committee. this story has him pushing to ban same-sex ceremonies at military facilities. he wants to ban them. welcome. >> hi, carol. thanks for having me on today. >> thanks for being here. this was a commitment ceremony. it wasn't a marriage. it wasn't a civil union. it was a commitment ceremony. so if your mind, what's the problem with it? >> well, there are several problems. first of all, carol, the state of louisiana does not recognize a marriage between two men or two women. it's unlawful to do that.

that passed into the constitution of louisiana by a vast majority of louisianans. >> this ceremony wasn't a legal binding union since the chaplain was a military chaplain and army approved it, pentagon cotold ust approved it, if it's not civil union and not a legal marriage, what's the problem? >> i think you have your facts incorrect. the base commander was not even aware of it when it occurred. the head chaplain had no knowledge of it. this was done by a chaplain and two individuals who did it on their own. there was nothing that went up the chain of command. no approvals. the state of louisiana the law does not provide for unions between members of the same-sex. now, as you point out, they characterize this as a marriage-like ceremony. perhaps a mock ceremony. the point is that a military base is not the venue for that. that is a protest and so forth

that should be done outside of that venue. our responsibility with regard to the defense of this nation is to ensure the readiness of our military members and defend this nation and not use it for social experimentation or trying to promulgate some sort of change in our society or customs of our society. so for that reason this is problematic and we passed a bill earlier this year in fact that is prevention of doing this. >> we did contact the pentagon and the pentagon did not have any problem with this. and the chaplain who performed the ceremony didn't have any problem with this. >> that's completely different. obviously the chaplain that performed it agreed to do that. >> what's the problem? >> the pentagon was not notified. the base commander was not notified. so they may say after the fact

they had no problem but it was not approved by any stretch of the imagination. the problem is basically, carol, that this is hardly the venue for a protest ceremony or mock ceremony. military readiness is extremely important and i don't think using it as a social test tube is appropriate. >> i guess nobody forced the chaplain to perform the ceremony. no one forced troops to watch. no one forced troops to come in and participate in the ceremony. i'm struggling to understand how this affects the military any way? >> that's not the question. the question is now we have a base commander who had to field questions from the media for a week which diverted him away from and distracted him and many other members of the service from their important duties to defend this nation. that's what is important in their jobs. not having to deal with this and many other episodes that may come down the pike.

>> the pentagon has no problem with this. i mean, the army chaplain may be dealing with it because of complaints from your office. >> that's what you say. i received no notification from the pentagon that this was approved in any way, shape or form. >> what's the next step? i mean, will there be -- i mean, what would you suggest they do? it wasn't a civil union and it wasn't a legal marriage. they were having a commitment ceremony with a chaplain that agreed to do it and i'm still struggling to know what the controversy is. >> i will try to help you with this, carol. i just personally and i think many of my colleagues and many americans and certainly many people in louisiana do not feel that a military base and using military members and facilities is a place for a mock ceremony. certainly if this were in a state where it is recognized

legally, that's probably acceptable. i think in the state of louisiana where it's not, using the base facilities for a mock ceremony or in some way to promote a social experiment is simply a bad use of this country's assets. we're at a time in which we have to defend this nation against potential terrorism around the world. we're having to deal with problems constantly. as you know. we don't need these kind of distractions from our military members. >> congressman, thank you so much for being with us today. we appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. >> alien fans rejoice. the puzzle is out. >> you have to stop it. >> we're not stopping anything. we're going home. >> science fiction fans get ready. we have a preview for you next.

if you were a big alien fan and who wasn't, you are more than likely ready in line already in line i should say for get your ticket to "prometheus." i'm excited to see this myself. >> exactly. this is already a blockbuster overseas. it opened there last week. although we're not going to see the numbers like the avengers or "hunger games" had. the film is expected to take in more than $40 millions this weekend. if you are a fan of "alien" movies this is seen as a prequell. the director behind the films is hoping to duplicate some of that same tension and terror and action. all of that in the original. the reviews have actually been

pretty good. a "showbiz tonighsho"showbiz tod it was paint by numbers. he liked it but didn't love it. if you have ever seen "alien" go download the original right now before you go see "prometheus." >> of course it's her story in the end, right? >> exactly. i'm actually excited to go check this one out. i'm not the big horror movie fan but i liked "alien" because it was well done. i'm anxious to see this. >> thanks so much. hyundai is following the lead. why these big name companies are hiring more employees.

if you made a list of countries from around the world... ...with the best math scores. ...the united states would be on that list. in 25th place. let's raise academic standards across the nation. let's get back to the head of the class. let's solve this.

mine was earned off vietnam in 1968. over the south pacific in 1943. i got mine in iraq, 2003. usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection, and because usaa's commitment to serve the military, veterans and their families is without equal. begin your legacy, get an auto insurance quote.

usaa. we know what it means to serve. 45 minutes past the hour. checking our top stories, health investigators are racing to find the source of an e. coli outbreak in four southern states. 11 people have gotten sick including a 21-month-old girl that died in new orleans last week. a graduation ceremony is interrupted by a huge thunderstorm all caught on camera. the storm formed during the ceremony. no injuries reported. earlier i talked to matthew blanchard who shot this video.

>> it hadn't started raining or anything yet. it was still kind of in the distance and thunderingen and lightning but no rain or anything. it came on unexpectedly. >> so they are reading names of these graduating seniors. most exciting day of their young lives. what was their reaction from them as they spotted this cloud thing? >> it seemed like a mix of joy because they just finished their graduation and terror because they were fleeing the field. >> matthew was there to see his sister graduate from high school. she did indeed graduate. keep your eye on your checking account. consumers are still getting hit by unexpected fees and not getting clear information about other costs in their accounts. that finding comes from the safe checking and electronic age project. despite the government's move to protect consumers from hefty overdraft fees, banks are finding ways to penalize customers. you could say the south is

in the middle of a hiring surge as big name businesses head to the region bringing thousands of new jobs with them. here's just a few of the companies. hyundai is adding a third shift plant to georgia and ge invested millions to reopen and revamp an appliance factory. poppy harlow has been all over this story joining me now. automakers have been doing this for year and now ge and caterpillar. what's next? >> i've been down to most of moos plants to see it firsthand. there are four main reasons why this is happening. a big one is that most of these states not all but most are nonunion states. right to work states. that typically makes labor cheaper for a company. secondly, the tax rates are incredibly competitive. i took a look this morning at all of the corporate tax rates in all 50 states.

if you look at alabama, kentucky, georgia, tennessee, mississippi, none of them have a tax rate over 6.5%. but if you look at illinois, minnesota, rhode island, pennsylvania, none of them have a tax rate below 9%. so you're talking about a huge difference here, more than 3%, typically when you compare the south, those states to the north and midwest. that makes it cheaper for companies to build there. also china actually is costing more to make things there. the labor costs in china are going up about 20% from where we were last year. that's a good thing for u.s. in terms of jobs and finally what i saw firsthand at the ge plant in kentucky, they are building water heaters there. that was a plant shuttered and idle and they would spin off that business totally but it became more expensive to make these things overseas and then ship them. they decide we'll make them here. big, heavy items. make them here so they are closer to transport to customers in u.s. rather than shipping them. they also told me and this is key, they won't make microwaves

or air conditioners smaller items in the u.s. because they don't cost as much to ship so they will be made in china for the foreseeable future. there is a big shift happening in the south. >> interesting. okay. let's put it all in perspective. manufacturing is improving. no doubt we'll hear that from president obama on the campaign trail. we're still nowhere near where we need to be, right? >> we're nowhere near. if we go back to 2000 and take a look at manufacturing jobs in the united states, we had over 17.3 million manufacturing jobs in the u.s. then. take a look at march of this year. we're just under 12 million. 11.9 million. we're still at a loss of 5.3 plus million manufacturing jobs. a lot of analysts say those are not necessarily going to come back. when we look at the improvement we've seen in manufacturing jobs, it's getting better than the recession but it's slowing. if you take a look at march, we added 42,000 manufacturing jobs but then if you look at april, we added 9,000 and may 12,000.

there is this fear that there was a lot of ramping up as this recovery got under way and companies are pulling back a little bit. we're not where we were but there is this trend happening in the south and it's not just automakers. i saw it firsthand at vw building that billion dollar plant in chattanooga, tennessee. a lot of this comes down to these very lucrative packages for companies. i talked to the ceo of caterpillar when they decided to open that big, big plant in athens, georgia near where you are and why they chose that state out of 400 different cities that had bid for this. take a listen to why caterpillar says that is. >> because of the, i guess, the flow, the competitiveness we see and everything else going on with global trade we put those where the market is right here in the united states and i'm very happy about that. we looked at georgia in a climate that's very friendly to

expansion, and i would give georgia a lot of credit for a very competitive package. >> you can read through those words, competitive package means big tax breaks, right to work and non-union plants. these companies are having a hard time finding skilled labor. they are looking for people that can innovate on the factory floor and cut costs. >> poppy harlow reporting live from new york fours this morning. a couple of olympic swimmers are in trouble for posting their pictures online while they were holding weapons. we'll tell you what action is being taken against them. we take our showers with it. we make our coffee with it. but we rarely tap its true potential and just let it be itself. flowing freely into clean lakes, clear streams and along more fresh water coast line than any other state in the country.

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olympic swimmer nick said it was all in fun but people who run australia swim team they are not laughing. he and his teammate posted photos of themselves brandishing weapons. the postings come just weeks before the summer games begin in london. zain verjee is there, and so what's the big deal? >> reporter: well they got themselves into a big old mess because basically they were training in california for the olympics. let's go have some fun. we don't get to shoot in australia, we're in the u.s. let's go to a shooting range.

they took these pictures and posted them on facebook and twitter. people in australia were outraged. these guys are role models and these pictures are looking very much like southeast kids who kill and go on shooting rampages in schools so these two boys were ordered to remove the pictures from facebook and twitter, so now there's this big old investigation going on to decide whether they should be kicked off the olympic team or not. a lot of people in australia are rallying behind them and say look boys will be boys. they just had a little fun and a little bit dumb to do that and post it. they are hoping they will stay on the team. it doesn't look good. one swims a 200 meter in butterfly, the other does 200 meter free style. these are swimming champions but they may have got enthemselves into hot water at this time. >> we'll continue to follow that. you have seen "prometheus"? >> reporter: i really want to see "prometheus" this weekend.

we were talking a little about it just now. what's fascinating to me about "prometheus" is that he was the guy, carol, who stole fire from the heavens, and the greek god zeus got mad at him for fwigivi it to the humans so he punished him by tying him down and having birds peck his liver out. i couldn't resist sharing what the you. enjoy the movie. >> somehow i don't think so. i heard it's quite gory. there will be other things to feast your eyes upon. zain verjee, thanks so much. president obama will being giving a statement at 10:15 eastern time, just about 20 minutes from now. he'll give a statement on the economy. he's expected to call on congress to pass a back to work plan proposed last year to european union grade our roads and bridges and obama says to

put more teachers back in the classroom. that's at 10:15 eastern. that's 20 minutes from now. we'll bring that to you live. wes and interactive learning, plus, in-branch seminars at over 500 locations, where our dedicated support teams help you know more so your money can do more. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. our teams have the information you want when you need it. it's another reason more investors are saying... [ all ] i'm with scottrade. made with only milk... cream... a touch of sugar... and pure natural flavors. coffee-mate natural bliss. from nestle. add your flavor naturally.

♪ home of the brave. ♪ it's where fear goes unwelcomed... ♪ and certain men... find a way to rise above. this is the land of giants. ♪ guts. glory. ram. happening right now in the newsroom the economy front and center this hour. president obama making a statement in just about 15 minutes. he's expected to call on congress to pass a back to work plan proposed last year to upgrade our roads and brings and put teachers back in the

classroom. we'll carry that live for you. mysterious outbreak, four states, 11 cases of e. coli send being disease hunters scrambling this morning. graduation terror what looks like a funnel cloud sweeping through a new jersey high school ceremony just as the caps are being thrown into the air. students and families run for cover. we'll talk to the guy who shot this video. you don't have a fear of heights? >> i don't. i respect heights. >> walk on a wire. a feat 200 feet high up above niagara falls. we'll introduce you to nick wallenda. good friday morning to you i'm carol costello. just minutes from now president obama is due to deliver a statement at the white house. his focus, the economy. an issue resonating deeply with americans and looming large in this fall's presidential election. state of the union host candy crowley joins me now.

this is sort of a surprise news conference isn't it? >> it is and it's one of the beauties of being president is that you can come and call and produce news all at the same time by walking down the hall from your office. it's not been a great several days for the president, as a candidate. i can understand why he might want to do this. we saw those may jobless figures, which were not good like 69,000 jobs created, which is still a plus but not nearly enough and everyone was stun by them because they thought they would be double than that. we had the wisconsin recall race where the democrats lost and pretty roundly. i think when you're coming to the end of a week like that, he's getting hammered up on coral about all these leaks, it's probably a good time to come out and put your spin on things and put your case out there. so i suspect that this is about the past several days. >> he's going to present a proposal that he's presented before. do you think there will be a

bunch new? >> i think what this -- again, if we look at this because it's an election year so we have to look at it through that puerto rican -- prism or not. he'll reiterate, just create construction jobs, if you would only pass this infrastructure bill for me. so that also is sort of part and parcel of that and in addition he honestly, obviously thinks that's the way to go about creating jobs. he wants the bill but also part of his campaign to hammer on congress as kind of the do nothing congress. >> he's sort of running now not necessarily against mitt romney but against the republican party. >> sure. and congress has been something that he's been quite willing and started several months ago to say i just want them to do something.

he's, you know, writes these to-do lists for congress. he hammers them regularly for not passing things he's done and what is the message there? the message is i'm trying to create jobs but i need a helping hand from congress and that's a, you know, it's all about saying your message and then saying it again and again and again and that, obviously s-what you do if you want to win re-election and if you want to unseat the president. both sides do this. >> candy, you'll stick around. thanks so much. the president due to speak in about 12 minutes or so if he's on time. when the president begins speaking about his jobs proposal we'll care that four live. also we're covering all angles of the president's statement. in just a few minutes we'll bring in ali velshi and christine romans to talk the business side of the president's comments. >> the guessing game is under way who will mitt romney chose at his running mate. the veep stakes getting louder.

conservative leaders and activists launch their biggest gathering the year in mr. obama's backyard. that would be chicago. on stage at the conference former presidential candidates michelle bachmann and rick santorum, chris christie and one time romney challenger, herman cain. and there's a new organization aimed at defeating obama. patriot voice will mobilize 1 million people, 1 million conservative people to advance their causes and raise money for like-minded candidates. more on presidential politics. bill clinton said he's sorry, he's so sorry, the former president is on the stump for barack obama but he hasn't always been on the same page with the campaign's talking points. just in the past week clinton raised eyebrows when he praised the business success of presumptive republican nominee mitt romney. and he appeared to side with gop themes when he voiced support for extending the bush era tax

cuts. clinton sat down to explain with wolf blitzer. >> some of your critics have said the former president is unmining the current president for whatever reason. >> look, in 2008 when he ran for president and defeated hilary in the primaries, i did 40 events for him. 40 in the election. in 2012 i have done these major fundraisers, i have spoken up for him whenever i could, i have told people repeatedly i think he's done a good job, a really good job under very trying circumstances and better than some people give him credit for. and i'm strongly committed to his re-election. and i just regret -- you know my instinct, though, you know me, i don't think i should have to say bad things about governor romney personally to disagree with him politically. the fact that i was complimentary of his success as a business person doesn't mean

that i think that he should be elected and president obama shouldn't. >> republicans have seized on the apparent conflict and tried to use clinton's words against obama conspiracy theoryists say he's laying the ground work for a presidential bid for his wife, hilary. >> 51 pores still oppose the health care law. paul steinhauser or political editor is here. paul, it's not just conservatives who are against this law. >> exactly. let's break down that number that you just showed from our new cnn poll. there's that 43% who favor the law but of those who don't favor it, well look at this. 34% they oppose it because it goes too far. look at the bottom, 13%. i don't like the law because i don't go far enough.

it's not liberal enough. what do americans want the supreme court to do? take a look at this number. you can see here about a quarter, just under a quarter want the supreme court to keep the entire law the way it is. a little over a quarter want the man tate that controversial individual mandate overturned and about four in ten say overturn the entire law. carol, here's one thing you can bank on. regardless of how the supreme court rules it will have an impact on the race for the white house. why? because health care and this controversial law definitely is bringing out strong feelings either in favor or against the law by voters across the country and it comes up all the time, candidates speak about it all the time. >> there's another interesting number out of that poll and how the people feel about the supreme court justice and how they will make their decision. >> not as favorable as you think. maybe the supreme court not as favorable in the mind of americans as you would think. very interesting numbers. >> no. actually said most americans

think the supreme court justices would make their addition based on partisan lines not necessarily, you know, what they are supposed to do. thought that was interesting. >> it just goes to show the partisanship in this country reaches the supreme court which you think would be immune from that. i guess not. nothing is immune these days. >> paul steinhauser live from washington, thanks. >> right now we're keeping a close eye on the white house where president obama is about to speak. he's going to comment on the economy, an issue deeply important to americans and, of course, casting a long shadow in this fall's presidential election. the president expected to be behind that podium in ten minutes. we want to set the stage for the comments and their significance. wolf blitzer is in our washington bureau. hi, wolf. >> he's been trying to make it clear that congress is the problem right now, that there's legislation that's pending that could stimulate the economy, create jobs, and i suspect we're going to hear from the president some strong words on congress

needs to do something over these next five months between now and the election, not just sit around and talk, waste time but he's going to try to encourage them to go pass some legislation. my own suspicion probably not going to happen all that easily, maybe something on the margins but substantive legislation not going to happen. let me bring in candy crowley. candy, in this kind of political environment it really would take an extraordinary development to bring these two parties together right now. we saw that in 2008 just before the election when it looked like the economy was about to go over the cliff. there was a recession that could have been a depression. then all of a sudden john mccain stopped campaigning for a few days to come back to washington. it's going to take something like that, i suspect to get congress to move. >> right. let's hope it's not something like that. i think you're exactly right in

the comparative which is right now these sides are deeply dug in policy wise and politically. and the republicans are going to come out and say wait a second, the house has passed 030 some bills and the senate won't act on them. you're going to hear the same arguments even as the president pushes. i want you to look, folks, it's not my fault, it's congress's fault. so this is the pattern they have been in, as you know, for at least a year. there's no signs that it's going to break unless they have to move. and even when they do have to move we talked about how the bush era tax cuts are expiring at the end the year, huge spending cuts also are expected to go into effect the end the year. even that, most people suspect they will just push on down the line maybe pass something temporary and let the new congress come in and deal with it. so nobody is expecting, and this includes the lawmakers themselves and the white house, nobody is expecting anything huge, as you say.

maybe some stuff around the margins might pass but nothing huge in terms of the big debt deal, anything like that, because we're six months out from an election and it's just, the two sides are really hardened. >> i think you're totally right. let me bring in ali velshi into this conversation. one potential factor, game changer, if you will that could force dramatic action in congress would be if the eurozone, and we'll hear from the president on what's going on in the european economies right now, if there were some really awful, awful development that would have enormous spillover ramifications here in the united states, set the scene a little bit. give us some background on how bad the situation is in europe right now. >> you know, we talked about this before. as candy says the parties are hardened here in the united states and their economic position and many analysts say they can only tinker with things

on the margins. three external factors that are most worrisome are in united states is slowdown in china and india because they are consumers of our products. the situation in iran which caused oil to spike and oil was down $82 a barrel. that was pushed off into the future. the most important is this continuing european crisis, particularly if spain gets near default or needs a bailout and greece continues not to solve its problems. this is a major issue. why? because china -- we talk about china as our biggest trading partner as a whole europe is as big an economy as the united states is and as we have been recovering in several fronts in the united states we found our consumers, those people in europe who buy our goods have not bought. so i'll give you a good example. general motors and ford which have seen a remarksable resurgence in the last year are suffering in europe because europeans can't get credit like we couldn't a few years ago and are not buying as much. concern about europe dragging its heels and not coming to a

solution to fix its crisis is becoming a very real problem at home and you've seen the sentiment, wolf, in europe about throwing out leaders because the economy has not improved. president obama who has been watching this economy slowly improve since he took office in the beginning of 2009 is now very, very concerned that that sentiment will come ashore in the united states and people will blame him for something that is going on in europe and causing our economy to slowdown. >> stand by, i want to go capitol hill. kate bauldwin is standing by. there will be reaction from republicans in the house and the senate. >> i think, wolf, be i believe it was candy who mentioned this earlier. you can almost predict and i could almost lay out right now what you can expect to hear from republicans in both the house

and senate as well as the reaction from democrats. regardless of the president coming out now not much has changed in the relationship between congress and the president in the last few months. the president has been pushing this to-do list and leaving washington and taking the show on the road to talk about these five items that he thinks that congress can act on, should act on, that can offer some help, some economic -- spur some economic growth in the interim while they are talking about the big questions, big economic questions facing our country. but there's no movement up here on capitol hill. republicans think that the president is pushes these items and talking about the economy and blaming congress in order to shift focus from what they call his failed economic policies of his presidency. democrats support the president's five-point to-do list but do acknowledge they believe it is modest. if you're talking specifically about the to-do list, i believe

it was last month in may house speaker john boehner was asked about this to-do list and his response was that he thought that the president was playing small ball, and why he said that is they are already starting to talk about this fiscal cliff at the end the year. the president they say is talking about these, you know, smaller issues possibly. that's of course the republicans perspective. well they are trying to deal with the fiscal issues, this fiscal cliff that's coming at the end the year but still while they are talking about it there's not a lot of movement of how to break the logjam and get past the partisanship in order to reach agreement. the to do items that the president has laid out have gone nowhere up here in capitol hill. when you talk about the clean energy investment that's on the president's to-do list, as an example house republicans unveiled a proposal of a package of bills not having to do with clean energy, if you will, but actually having to do with producing more domestic oil.

so that's where their focus is. so the battle lines remain the same. we have to hear what the president says and we'll be looking for reaction right after that. >> you'll get a lot of reaction. jessica yellin is in the briefing room getting ready for this briefing. jessica it's supposed to start about now. they haven't given us a two-minute warning yet? >> no, no two-minute warning. he should be coming out any moment. my guidance -- they haven't put out his remarks yet. he'll be here shortly. my guidance is when he does come out he'll speak for less than ten minutes, and, you know, he'll as we've been reporting sort of hammer congress to try to get some of these measures past as soon as possible. but it's no secret that in this election year the president and the campaign are trying to run against congress because they feel congress is blocking them because republicans don't in the view of many democrats want the

economy to do better before the election. of course republicans say that's not the case. but i do think that what you have seen is that after these jobs numbers came out last friday, it was sort of a wake up call here at the white house that they have to turn up the heat again, they sort of let it, let it down in the last two months after they saw some positive jobs growth numbers. they want to turn up the heat again on congress to get some of these measures done. the president, as you know, has not had a very good week. not only those bad job numbers. but after the wus recaisconsin where he's seen these surrogates go off message and concern about europe as well, potential crisis in europe that could come home and have ramifications here to make the economy worse, these are deeply concerning to the white house so what you're seeing the president trying to take a proactive stance, calling on congress to do something so

that he's engaged and being forward moving in a sense and so the white house trying to take control of our conversation, if you will, instead of being the recipient of all our talk and all our hand wringing about what will happen next, wolf. >> and your guidance, jessica, is that after the president makes his opening statement maybe ten minutes or so he'll take a few questions from the reporters, is that right? >> that's my understanding. i wouldn't call it a full blown press conference but a few questions is what i understand is likely to happen. again, though, you never know. so i'm told to expect a few but we'll see. >> i would assume he would answer a few reporters questions. he's in a press briefing room and that's what reporters are expected to do when the president comes into the briefing room, ask questions and the president is expected to answer some questions. i hate it when the president comes into the briefing room and

make a statement and escape without answering questions. i don't library that. that's just me. all right get ready because i think he's going to be coming in any moment. let's bring in christine romans who is watching this unfold. the economy, a lot of forecasters projecting a 2% annual growth rate now. that's really not enough to create a whole lot of jobs. that's basically maybe enough to tread water and not start losing jobs but if you're going create jobs you need a lot more than 2%. >> you do. the head winds right now are telling us the u.s. economy could slow from this level. the growth could slow down a little bit. here's why. we've been waiting for europe's problems to reach our shores. we now have the first evidence that that's happening. u.s. exports to the eurozone are down 4.7% from january to april. that means midwest manufacturers, apparel companies, anybody who is selling something to europe is selling less and that means they have less impetus to hire

somebody in this country and certainly not ramping up hiring plans from now to the end of the we're if they think europe will continue to slow. that's a big problem. the big difference between the last time the president laid out this package of things that he wanted congress to do, as you know, his to-do list for congress and today. europe's problems have reached american shores, and the job situation is very, very critical. you can talk about the war on women whether there is one or isn't. you can talk about student loan interest rates. you can talk about all these little things that affect american families and constituent, but the big thing is still jobs and the president is under incredible pressure to find a way to make sure the job situation gets morrow bust, the u.s. economy stays morrow bust as europe's problems worsen. >> because a lot of folks really don't necessarily fully appreciate how interdependent the united states economy is with the european economy and then when you add what's going on in china, a huge market over there, if there's going to be a

slow down in economic growth that can have an impact on economic growth across the board. we're less than two weeks or so from the g-20 summit in mexico where most of these big powers, all these world leaders are going to be getting together, and certainly the economy is issue number one. >> oh, yeah. you look at europe in particular. china is a huge economy and growing very quickly. there are concerns about how it's slowed down a bit. you look at europe. the eurozone is our largest customer. this is the largest destination, single destination zone for u.s. exports. so if you got members of the eurozone who are in recession and there are several of them. that's just not good for people who make goods and hire people in this country. it goes far beyond the interdependence of the banks and financial crisis and financial situation. it comes down to american workers making things going to

europe and i mean that is a real problem. you can see these in these numbers that those exports are slowing. this is all staring the president in the face with five months to go. the question here that's so interesting is this is last year's package of solutions for problems that are last year's problems but also this year's problems with new twists. so the president has got to show -- he's got to show some leadership to get some of these things, some of these things addressed. the political savviness is we're talking about jobs for teachers, firefighters, construction workers, to do things for infrastructure spending at all americans would benefit from. so politically these are things that you would think, you would think you can't really go against hiring more firefighters, i guess, but nothing is getting done in washington, right? nothing is getting done. >> nothing getting done on a significant basis. all right let's take a quick break. we'll wait for the president. he's about to walk into the

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. we're awaiting the president of the united states. he's about to walk into the

press briefing room in the west wing of the white house, make a statement on the economy, what he wants congress to do try to pass legislation to create some jobs. and the president hopefully will then answer a few questions. all of our reporters and analysts are standing by. we have full coverage right now, jessica yellin, kate bolduan, candy crowley, ali velshi, christine romans, jessica yellin is in the white house press briefing room. jessica, they just announced that the president would come in to the briefing room a little whilg. this was not on his schedule going into today. >> no it wasn't but they have been making clear that after those jobs numbers that came out on friday which were a surprise to the white house, that he was going to step up the offensive on congress and make it clear that they want more action to push forward. you remember he first propose this jobs bill back in september of 2011. and very few elements of it have actually passed. so this is not only an effort to

jump start, you know, their agenda on the economy but also let's be honest, push forward on their election agenda. he has a new ad out this week as part of his campaign effort called jobs and it includes a message to congress to get going on the jobs bill. so, we can see it as all of a piece, no doubt, and we will hear from the president pushing congress to do more to get this measure passed. this isn't the only issue that deeply concerns him as we've been talking, they are also keeping an eye on the eurozone and trying to warn the american people that this is a potential looming crisis and something that the american people should be aware is out there and could threaten the u.s. economy down the line as well. so we could potentially hear something from him on that, not sure in his opening statement but i wouldn't be surprised if he gets a question on it, wolf. >> all right. stand by. everyone stand by. we're still waiting for the president. we'll take another quick break

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we have a two-minute warning? all right. so we're awaiting the president.

we just received the two-minute warning. the president will be walking into the press briefing room and will make a statement on the economy. you see the reporters there in the briefing room. they are standing by. they are getting ready for the president. as we await the president let me bring in carol costello, a few other stories we're watching right now. carol, what's the latest? >> good morning. here's a couple of stories we're keeping an eye on this morning. health investigators racing to find the source of an e. coli outbreak. 11 people have gotten sick including a 22-month-old girl who died last week. for republicans the guessing game is under way who will mitt romney choose as his running meat. the veep states buzz is getting louder. on stage at the conference former presidential candidates michelle bachmann, rick santorum, chris christie and

herman cain. santorum announced the organization of a new organization aimed at defeating obama. short fallout from the recent leaks of classified information in washington. both the house and senate intelligence committees are vowing full blown investigations in to the national secrets that keep being funneled to the media. the fbi is looking into whether the white house is to blame. not a labor union but 5,000 walmart workers have come together to fight for better wages. the organization is pushing for more consistent work schedules. walmart is trying to hold down expenses in order to cut prices. okay. hopefully the president will be behind that podium momentarily. let's throw it back to wolf blitzer. >> carol, thanks very much.

we expect him to be walking into the press briefing room within a matter of only a few seconds. they told us about two minutes ago he would be walking in. we assume he'll be walking in momentarily. the president will be making what is described as a ten minute statement on the economy and what he wants congress specifically to do. we expect that he'll also refer to the economic turmoil, the crisis in europe right now, especially in greece, spain, italy, portugal, how that potentially could spill over in the united states on the u.s. economy, deep concerns here that what's going on in europe could have a dramatic impact in terms of the economic recovery, jobs creation, making what is not necessarily a great situation potentially even worse, a lot worse potentially in the united states and jessica yellin, as we await the president let me bring new to the conversation a little bit, the president, you know, you have to assume that everything he does, we only have five months before election is done also within a political

context. >> that's right. they know that this is a bad hit, the jobs numbers they got on friday were a bad hit because people are starting to just focus in on the election right now. most people who are voting, just zooming in right now and so the president trying to take the lead and reframe the discussion, if you will and try to tell americans that there is still time to do something to turn around the nation's economy and in his view what it is push forward on both the jobs act that he proposed in september of 2011 and also on this congressional to-do list we've heard a lot about. one of the measures they think can make a big difference is, for example, this refinancing package that they put before congress which could help they believe so many homeowners. there are a number of items, i know you've gone through them, we won't go into detail, he will, but their main message is that the u.s. is not helpless and he believes that it's up to the folks on the other end of pennsylvania avenue to work with

him to get more done because there are other factors that are out of the u.s.'s control that can impact our economy, namely the crisis in europe. so the u.s. needs to do more to protect itself now while it can from these outside events should they happen. of course, now republicans have a very different take and they insist that they've passed other measures that the democrats won't accept and so there you have what we call gridlock. but here the president trying to both push forward substantive measures but also make an election year point that he's trying and he's being stymied by the republicans and i think that's what you'll hear him say today as well as make a point about europe being a threat to the u.s. because of the economic crisis over there, wolf. >> all right. jessica, tanned by. we were told the president was going walking out within two minutes. obviously has not happened. candy crowley is watching all of this unfold with us as well.

candy, we'll get reaction certainly from the republicans in congress very quickly but you know who is watching this most closely who be the mitt romney campaign including the republican presumptive nominee, they will watch it and react, i assume very quickly as well. >> sure. and they, one guess is that they will react pretty much as hill republicans will because they are now getting the messaging together with mitt romney appointing some folks or bringing on some folks that were liaisons to the hill on both the senate and house side. so i think you'll see pretty much the same reaction which is, you know, we have tried these things before, they point to the president's housing proposals and plans that were passed and said they've done little good or not enough good, certainly. so now he has another housing plan that we're going to pour money into that doesn't address the problem. so you can pretty much, we can

play kabuki theater here because everybody will play their parts. we need to watch the president talk about what's happening overseas in the european union simply because this may be an attempt to brace the public. they were surprised by those job numbers last month and they don't want to be surprised again. if something goes terribly wrong in europe more than it has and affects the jobs here wants to be out front and warn folks this maybe coming. there are things out of control and one of them is europe. i think that long is interesting to watch. it sound from yes, sir okay's reporting that we'll hear the same proposals that have been out there for some time and he has no, absolutely no expectation that congress is going to take him up on it. i think the language about europe will be very interesting to watch. >> i'll be watching together with all of our viewers especially on the eve within the next two weeks of this g-20

economic summit that's taking place in mexico. ali velshi is watching all of this very closely for us. you know, the pollsters say the most important questions they ask voters out there, the country moving in the right direction or the wrong direction on specific issues. when it comes to jobs and the economy which of course is the dominant issue in this race, you know, a few months ago there were 200,000 jobs a month being created then 150, then 100 and last month 69,000 jobs. that's clearly not the right direction. that's the wrong direction. it continues in that wrong direction that bodes ill for the president's re-election campaign. >> keep an eye on that door and stop talking when he comes out. what candy said about deflecting attention to europe. the president has very little influence on job creation and less influence on what goes on in europe but the reality is this is 20 months of job creation for the president. this was going record that he was going to run on. all he needed was about 100,000

jobs a month between now and alaska to be able to say to republicans every job lost on my watch because of a recession i didn't create has been returned. now that actually is in jeopardy because, in part, of what is going on in europe. so now he has to come out there and say our mission was working, europe is messing things up for us. china and india to some degree are messing things up for us. he has to deflect some of the responsibility because he's been riding high on the idea, job creation the most important thing in this economy has been doing well. 20 months of job creation in the private-sector as opposed to the government sector which is actually more important. the president now has to find some pivot point to say we have been the job creating administration, we almost got every last job that was lost under our watch recreated again and he may still do it. that's what he was running on and this last three months -- >> here he comes. let's listen in. >> good morning.

i just want to say a few words about the economy, and then i'll take some of your questions. today we're fighting back from the deepest economic crisis since the great depression. after losing jobs for 25 months in a row, our businesses have now created jobs for 27 months in a row. 4.3 million new jobs in all. the fact is job growth in this recovery has been stronger than in the one following the last recession a decade ago. but the hole we have to fill is much deeper and the global after shocks are much greater and that's why we got to keep on pressing with actions that further strengthen the economy. right now one concern is europe, which face as threat of renewed recession as countries deal with a financial crisis. obviously this matters to us because europe is our largest economic trading partner. there's less demand for our products in place like paris

parparis paris or madrid means less manufacturing in places like chicago. the leaders understand the seriousness of the situation and the urgent need to act. i've been in frequent contact with them over the past several weeks and we know there are specific steps they can take right now to prevent the situation there from getting worse. in the short term they got stabilize their financial system. part of that is taking clear action as soon as possible to inject capital into weak banks. just as important leaders can lay out a framework and a vision for a stronger eurozone. including deeper collaboration on budgets and banking policy. getting there will take some time but showing the political commitment to share the benefits and responsibilities of an integrated europe will be

strong. with respect to greece that has important elections next weekend it's in everybody's interest for greece to remain in the eurozone while respecting its commitments to reform. we recognize the sacrifices that the greek people have made, and european leaders understand the need to provide support if the greek people choose to remain in the eurozone. but the greek people also need to recognize that their hardships will likely be worse if they choose to exit from the eurozone. over the longer term, even as european countries with large debt burdens carry out necessary fiscal reforms, they've also got to promote economic growth and job creation. as some countries have discovered it's a lot harder to rein in dchts and debt if your economy isn't growing. so it's a positive thing that the conversation has moved in that direction and leaders like angela merkel and francois hollande are working to put in place a growth agenda alongside

responsible fiscal plans. the bottom line is the solutions to these problems are hard but they are solutions. the decisions required are tough but europe has the capacity to make them. and they have america's support. their success is good for us. and the sooner that they act and the more decisive and concrete their actions the sooner people and markets will regain some confidence and the cheaper the costs of clean up will be down the road. in the meantime, given the signs of weakness in the world economy, not just in europe but also some softening in asia, it's critical we take the actions we can to strengthen the american economy right now. last september i sent congress a detailed jobs plan, full of the kind of bipartisan ideas that would have put more americans back to work. it had broad support from the american people. it was fully paid for. if congress had passed it in

full, we would be on track to have a million more americans working this year. the unemployment rate would be lower. our economy would be stronger. of course congress refused to pass this jobs plan in full. they did act on a few parts of the bill, most significantly the payroll tax cut that's putting more money in every working person's paycheck right now, and i appreciate them taking that action. but they left most of the jobs plan just sitting there. in light of the headwinds that we're facing right now i urge them to reconsider because there are steps we can take right now to put more people back to work. they are not just my ideas, not just democratic ideas, they are ideas that independent, nonpartisan economists believe will make a real difference in our economy. keep in mind that the private-sector has been hiring at a solid pace over the last 27 months. one of the biggest weaknesses

has been state and local governments which laid off 450,000 americans. these are teachers and cops and firefighters. congress should pass a bill putting them back to work right now. giving help to the states so that those layoffs are not occurring. in addition cities in housing bubble burst we got more than a million construction workers out of work. there's nothing fiscally responsible about waiting to fix your roof until it caves in president we have a lot of deferred maintenance in the country. we can put a lot of people back to work rebuilding our roads, bridges, schools. work is to be done, there's work toeshs done. the housing market the stabilizing and beginning to come back but there are still millions of responsible homeowners who have done everything right but still struggle to make end meet. so as i talked about just a few weeks ago let's pass a bill that gives them a chance to save an

average of $3,000 a year by refinancing their mortgage and taking advantage of these historically low rates. that's something we can do right now that would make a difference. instead of talking a good game about job creators, congress should give the small business owners that create most of the new jobs in america a tax break for hiring more workers. these are ideas that, again, have gotten strong validation from independent, nonpartisan economists. it would make a difference in our economy. and there's no excuse for not passing these ideas. we know they can work. now if congress decides, despite all that that they aren't going to do anything about that because it's an election year then they should explain to the american people why. there's going to be plenty of time to debate our respective plans for the future. that's a debate i'm eager to have. but right now people in this town should be focused on doing everything we can to keep our

recovery going. and keeping our country strong. and that requires some action on the part of congress. so i would urge them to take another look at some of the ideas that have already been put forward and with that i'll take a couple of questions and i'll start with karen, who is with reuters, but as we all know is about to go get a fancy job with national journal and we're very proud of her, so congratulations to you, karen. you get the first crack at me. >> thank you very much, mr. president. you could tell the american people what role the united states is playing in the european debt crisis and also do you think european leaders have a handle on what's needed to stem the crisis, and finally you talked about a number of ideas that you've already put forth to shield the american economy. do you plan to give a speech or layout additional ideas now that the crisis is really escalating? >> well, a couple of things. first of all, the situation in

europe is not simply a debt crisis. you got some countries like greece that genuinely have spent more than they are bringing in and they got problems. there are other countries that actually were running a surplus and have fairly responsible fiscal policies but add weaknesses similar to what happened here with respect to their housing market or their real estate markets and that has weakened their financial system. so there's a bunch of different issues going on in europe. it's not simply a debt crisis. what is true is that the markets getting nervous have started making it much more expensive for them to borrow and that then gets them on a downward spiral. we have been in constant contact with europe over the last, european leaders over the last two years. and, you know, we have consulted

with them both at the head of government and head of state level. i frequently speak to the leaders not only in formal settings like the g-8, but also on the telephone or via video conference and our economic teams have gone over there to consult. as i said in my opening remarks the challenges they face are solvable. right now their focus has to be on strengthening their overall banking system, much in the same way we did back in 2009 and 2010. making a series of decisive actions that give people confidence, that the banking system is solid, the capital requirements are being met, that various stresses that may be out there can be absorbed by the system, and i think that european leaders are in

discussions about that. and they are moving in the right direction. in addition, they are going to have to look at how do they achieve growth, at the same time as they are carrying out structural reforms that may take two or three or five years to fully accomplish. so countries like spain and italy, for example, have embarked on some smart structural reforms that everybody thinks is necessary. everything from tax collection to labor markets to a whole host of different issues. but they got to have the time and space for those steps to succeed. and if they are just cutting and cutting and cutting, and their unemployment rate is going up and up and up, and people are pulling back further from spending money because they are feeling a lot of pressure, ironically that can actually make it harder for them to carry out some of these reforms over

the long term. so i think there's discussion now about in addition to sensible ways to deal with debt and government finances, there's a parallel discussion that's taking place among european leaders to figure out how do we also encourage growth and show flexibility to allow some of these reforms to really take root. now, keep in mind that this, obviously, can have a potential impact on us, because europe is our largest trading partner. the good news is that a lot of work we did back in 2009 and 2010 have put our financial system on a much more solid footing. our insistence of increasing capital requirements for banks means that they can absorb some of the shocks that might come from across the atlantic. you know, folks in the financial sector have been monitoring this

carefully, and i think are prepared for a range ever contingencies. but, even if we weren't directly hit in the sense that our financial system still stayed solid, if europe goes into a recession that means we're selling fewer goods, fewer services, and that is going to have some impact on the pace of our recovery. so we want to do everything we can to make sure that we are supportive of what european leaders are talking about, ultimately it's a decision they got to make in terms of how they move forward towards more integration, how they move forward in terms of accommodating the needs for both reform and growth. and most important thing i think we can do is make sure that we continue to have a strong robust recovery. so the steps that i've outlined are the ones that are needed. we've got a couple of sectors in

our economy that are still weak. overall the private-sector has been doing a good job creating jobs. we've seen record profits in the corporate sector. the big challenge we have in our economy right now is state and local government hiring has been going in the wrong direction. you've seen teacher layoffs, police officers, cops, firefighters being laid off. and the other sect josh that's still weak has been the construction industry. those two areas we've directly addressed with our jobs plan, the problem is that it requires congress to take action and we're going to keep pushing them to see if they can move in that direction. okay. jackie. where did she go. there she is. >> thank you, mr. president. i would like to ask you what a couple of other people said about europe.

do you agree with former president bill clinton who said in the past that the europeans policies that you've described here today are much like those of the republicans in this country, calls for austerity that would take us in the same direction as europe. do you agree with that? the republicans for their part said you are simply blaming the europeans for problems that have been caused by your own policies. so i would like to you respond to boston those. and also tell us precisely how much time you personally spend on the european situation. >> any other aspects of the question? [ laughter ] first of all, in terms of the amount of time i spend -- look, i think it's fair to say that over the last two years i'm in

consistent discussions with european leadership and consistent discussion with my economic team. this is one of the things that has changed in the world economy over the last two or three decades is that this is a global economy now. and what happens anywhere in the world can have an impact here in the united states. certainly that's true after the kind of trauma that we saw in 2008 and 2009. and if you think about the situation in europe, they are going through a lot of things that we went through back in 2009 and 2010 where we took some very decisive action. the challenge they have is they have 17 governments that have to coordinate. 27 if you count the entire european union, not just the eurozone. so imagine dealing with 17 congresses instead of just one. that makes things more challenging. but, you know, what we try to do is to be constructive, to not

frame this as us scolding them or telling them what to do but to give them advice in part based on our experiences here in having stabilized a financial situation effectively. and, you know, ultimately they will have to make a lot of these decisions and so what we can do is to prod, advise, suggest, but ultimately they are going to have to make these decisions. now in terms of characterizing the situation over there, what is absolutely true, this is true in europe and true here in the united states, is that we've got short term problems and long term problems. and the short term problems are

how do we put people back to work, how do we make the economy grow as rapidly as possible, how do we ensure that the recovery gains momentum, because if we do those things, not only is it good for the people who find work, not only is it good for families who are able to pay the bills, but it actually is one of the most important things we can do to reduce deficits and debt. it's a lot easier to deal with deficits and debt if you're growing because you're bringing in more revenue and you're not spending as much because people don't need unemployment insurance as much, they don't need, you know, other programs that are providing support to people in need because things are going pretty good. now, that's true here in the united states and that's true in

europe. so the problem, i think president clinton identified is that if when an economy is still weak and a recovery is still fragile, that you resort to a strategy of let's cut more. so that you're seeing government layoffs, reductions in government spending, severe cutbacks in major investments that help the economy grow over the long term. if you're doing all those things at the same time as consumers are pulling back because they are still trying to pay off credit card debt, and there's generally weak demand in the economy as a whole, then you can get on a downward spiral where everybody is pulling back at the same time, that weakens demand, and that further crimps the

desire of companies to hire more people. and that's the pattern that europe is in danger of getting into. you know, some countries in europe right now have an unemployment rate of 15%, 20%. if you are engaging in too much austerity too quickly, and that unemployment rate goes up to 20% or 25%, then that actually makes it harder to then payoff your debts, and the markets, by the way, respond -- when they see this kind of downward spiral happening they start making a calculation if you're not growing at all, if you're contracting you may have more trouble paying us off so we'll charge you more. your interest rates will go up. and it makes it that much tougher. so, i think that what we want both for