of new federal reserve stimulus measures. the economy added just 66,000 jobs in may under half of what was expected. that unemployment report friday suggests about already tenuous economic recovery might have lost steam. with the fed officially charged with maximizing employment and controlling inflation, those bleak numbers have lawmakers and analysts wondering if the central bank will act to jolt the economy. if you'd like to talk to mark zandy, the numbers to call, republicans -- democrats -- and independent callers, 202-628-0205. we have geno on our democrats flin newport, rhode island. good morning. >> caller: good morning, everybody. during the carter administration or after there was 22 manufacturing jobs in this country. this has been reduced to half that number.

12 million manufacturing jobs have disappeared. now, they're not going to come back and all of these schemes like solar energy and so on have ended in dismal failure. now, i have a suggestion that's run contrary to everybody's thinking. i suggest, you know, social security hey a 2.5 trillion trust fund. why don't we reduce the retirement age to 60 paying people full benefits? so there will be a couple million people retiring and there's millions of young people out there ready to take their jobs. what do you think of that suggestion? >> women that is unorthodox. most people are thinking along the exact opposite line in terms of raising the retirement age. i mean, the social security trust fund is running into increasing difficulty. you know, as the population ages. here's a very important statistic for you. the largest single year age

group are, more of these folks than any other age, is 53 years olds. that's the teeth of the baby boom generation. of course, the baby boomers are already starting to retire. it's a really large group of people and they are starting to take down social security and it's putting a lot of pressure on that. so i'm not sure that's the direction i would go. you know, i understand your perspective in, and i think you're focusened on the right things but i don't think lowering the retirement age would help social security or the broader economy. the other thing to consider, obviously, is that people are, in general, they're living longer, and healthier longer. now, that doesn't apply to every demographic group, but for many it does. so we need to consider that, too, when making policy. >> illinois, michael on the independent line talking with mark zandi. good morning. >> caller: good morning. i have a comment and then i'd like his response, mr. zandi's

response to my comment. now, i started out in banking in the mid-1980s and i think the marginal tax rate at that time for upper income people was either 50% or 70%. i don't know when exactly reagan reduced it, but i was in the top 2% of wage earners at that time. i was making over $50,000 a year at that time, because the bank managers were so frightened and the owners of paying taxes, they gave the money out in bonuses and pay increases, and that's why we had a vibrant economy. you've got all the money concentrated in the hands of the few, and they don't borrow, except maybe on a revolving line of credit for their businesses, but other than that, they don't need any money. so you can lower the interest rates down to zero. you can have them suck up all the wornless bonthless bonds in

country, and i just don't think it's going to go anywhere. we need to raise the taxes and tell the bits community, the wealthy, that if you put your money in jobs, then we'll cut your rate, and if you don't, then you can pay 70%, and then we'll use the money on jobs programs. that's what i think. >> well, very good comments. appreciate them. there are some -- some research coming out that sdm suggest -- does sthaugt higher tax rates on very high income households would don't a lot of economic damage. i think it's fair to say that all else being equal, we'd like to see lower tax rates for everybody. ip think that would be good. in fact, i think we can do that, if we focus on the so-called tax expenditures in the tax code. those are the tax credits and deductions and other loopholes that reduce revenue and make the code a lot more complex and less

fair, and a lot of those benefits go to higher income households. if we could reduce the tax household expenditures we could generate the revenue. much of the burden would fall on hiring house hods but reduce tax rates for everybody which i think would be in the best interests of the broader economy. so i hear what you're saying, but -- and there is some evidence to suggest what you're saying is true. that higher tax rates on very high income households may not do a lot of economic damage to the economy and generate tax revenue. but i think a better way to go would be to scale back deductions and credits in the tax code. the hurt mostly on hyper households anyway, they benefit from the loopholes and lower tax rates for everybody, particularly low are and middle-income households. from an economic standpoint, a better way to go. >> mark zand zandi joins us --

over at the white house for today. briefing. white house press secretary jay carney joined by education secretary arne duncan. >> my fault. i was in a meeting with the president. so it's -- his fault. no. it's not. we apologize for the delay, but we are glad that you're here, and welcome you as ever to the briefing room for your daily briefing. as i think was advertised, i have with me secretary of education arne duncan on my right and to my left, director of the consumer financial protection bureau, rich cordray. they're here to talk to you about student loans and college costs. they participated in a roundtable just earlier this afternoon that was led by the vice president with a number of presidents of collegie ins and

universities to provide students with more transparency as college costs to help them make very important financial decisions. soap what i'd like to do is, first, turn it over to secretary duncan, and then director cordray. they'll talk to you about th this -- these issues. this bucket of issues. if you could direct questions to them on their issues at the top, amp which we'll let them leave and i'll be here to take your questions on other subjects. with that i give you the secretary of education. >> thanks so much, jay and thanks, all of guys, for giving u.s.s opportunity. postsecondary education is the ticket to the economic success in america. never more important to have a degree tore certificate unfortunately never been more expensive. the bv b administration is wo working every day to keep college affordable helping students better manage their debt after graduation and extend and make permanent the american tax credit and create new

inceptives for states and institutions to keep k069s from escalating and complete incleegs and provide students and parents with information to make smart decisions so they can know before they owe. a financial aid award letters intended toly out thouch will cost them to attend school. as you know, these letter ps often look different, contain different information and often fras frankly do a poor job how much a student aid receives in terms of grants and scholarships and how much to borrow in terms of student loans. this not only makes it difficult to figure out how much college will cost, it also makes comparison shopping almost impossible. we have the best system of higher education in the world. over 6,000 higher institutions 6 higher ee eer education. that makes no sense to me. we have to empower students and

parents to make a good choice and that's why we're working hard on designs an easy to use form that standardizes this information and makes the true cost of higher education much more transparent. we plan to haven't it available in the beginning of the upcoming school year, this fall, and hope ituntarily adopted by the higher education community. it is not rocket science bought trial of common sense. in advance that we're pleased today to announce leaders from ten universities that have alreadyvoluntarily adopted from the proposal, providing much greater transparency for projected families and students and these ten university presidents wep just met with, it's a fantastic group and i thank them for leadership, courage and commitment and those ten colleges by themselves represent over 1.4 million students, fully 5% of the hiring community. very significant players at the table today and a huge amount of energy and enthusiasm in the

room. all of these institutions pledged to provide every incoming student for the 2013-14 school year with easy to understand information as part of theiren in aid package, and that includes these five elements i talked about first. how much one year of school will cost them. secondly, financial aid options to pay for this with a clear distinction between grants and scholarships which do not have the to be repaid and loan which is do. the net costs after grants and scholarships are taken into account. fourth, estimated monthly payments for the federal student loans. the student will likely owe once they graduate, and finally, critically important information about student results, including comparative information about default rates, graduation rates and retention rates for the school. we've worked very, very hard on the access side. that's a big step in the right direction. the goal, however is not access. the goal is completion. having this important information provided by clearly

and transparently will help students and parents invest wisely and make the best, most informed it decision possible about where to enroll. that's the fundamental point here. today we're calling on all 6,000 college, university presidents, from across the country to make the same commitment as those ten leaders did toy tom provide this easy to understand financial data about their higher education investment. director cordray and all the folks on his team at cfpb have been amazing. i want to thank them for their commitment and leadership taking on this important work and now turn it over to rick to tell what you they're doing to help parents, students and consumers know before they owe. thank you, arne. higher education is a critical part of the american dream as all of you know. i'm sure it's been true in your lives. for many students today this treem can only be realized through borrowing.

figuring out how to paper for college can be daunting. it's often the first major financial decision that a student will make. one that will affect her for the rest of her life. unfortunately for many families, the process is often complex and confusing. it's hard for students to compare college costs, evaluate financial aid options and figure how debt they can afford. we have heard from thousands of student loan borrowers who tell us they simply didn't whaunds they were signing up for. many of them chose private loans before exhausting their federal loan options which you cheaper and protect them if they run into troubleship resorted to credit cards and other high-priced loans and all tuchb borrowers got in the way over their heads. recent lip we announced outstanding student loan debt crossed the $1 trillion dollar mark. eclipse the credit cards as the leading source of household debt outside of mortgages. the stakes have never been higher forefamilies to clearly understand the costs and risks of student debt.

we're still recovering from the worst financial crisis since the great depression. while a college education can be a gateway to better job prospects, taking on too much student debt can have real consequences. students need to know before they owe. the consumer bureau's goal across consumer markets is to give people the confidence and peace of mind that the financial world is not full of tricks and traps that will ruin their lives. we want information to be clear, and easy to understand, so that consumers can make wise financial decisions for themselves and their families. today's announcement is an important step for that goal. we're grateful to secretary duncan for being a strong partner in the initiative to develop a financial aid shopping sheet that enables students to clearly see their aid options to pick the package that works best for them. we're pleased to receive support today from college presidents presenting some of the largest universities and university systems in america. we're committed to ensure that their students understand their

financial aid and student loans, and the cost of college. we look forward to continue working with them to create a system where students can climb the economic ladder and live their american dream. thank you. >> with that we'll take your questions. >> thank you. to either of you what can you do to monitor the universities that are going to impose these standards to make sure they're imposed properly and you talked about encouraging other students to get onboard in addition to asking them to do so today what will you do to get nor school loans -- >> these aren't standards pshgs just transparencyy. basic data. how much are grants, how much are loan, grad ways dates. what will you pay at the back jend we just think america's young people and their families deserve to have really basic information about this huge decision they're making. we think there's going to be a tremendous appetite out there.

yom think universities have anything to hide. just troifing that transparency we think will enable families to make better decisions. we're going to work really, really hard. great leadership. major systems who have already signed on. our goal, have 100% of universities sign and as we go into the fall. >> shannon. >> could you respond to the student loan bill jl saying democrats have not responded to their proposals that this legislation -- [ inaudible ]. >> obviously all of wants to get this done and before july 1st. the president's worked xroid narply hard, traveled the country. the vice president has worked xroid namply hard and 2r5678aled the country. i've done the same. it republican, getting serious about that, that's fantastic. we fully home congress will solve this in a bipartisan way. >> does that mean you're open to ap compromise offsetting the cost? >> it's my job to negotiate, but our goal is to have it fixed by

july 1st. that's critically important. for so many not just disadvantaged families, thinking college is not affordable. it's for rich folks. that's problem. we can't afford take the step in the wrong direction. we freed keep account stafford rates low and we're committed to doing that and expect the republicans to work with us and get it done. not talk about it but to fix t. april, jackie then jake. >> circuit duncan what programs are you saying that will not be on the table to be considered to help fund this -- this -- >> again i don't think -- it's not right for me to negotiate from the here. up to congress for the house and senate to work together and to get this done. by the end of the month. so -- >> so you're saying, thing likes the nutrition programs, than supports efforts that the east wing -- >> it's not a serious proposal. not one we'll take serious. but if it's serious, we'll

entertain it seriously. >> for mr. cordray, mainly, it may also apply to you, secretary duncan. the house republicans are using a lot of the appropriation bims to cut back on spending in some of the areas that constitute what the administration would consider its achievements today. for instance, the ad corporations go deeply on the cotc, cutbacks for the sec. what does this mean for enforcement and implement ampgs the dodd-frank law, and if you have anything in terms of the appropriations for your department and race for the top and any other thing i'd like to hear. >> if you don't have resources it's harder to enforce the law. the cfpb, we're not appropriated and that's appropriate. those agencies have been taken out of politics for many years and someone some cases over a search rip. it's important for tours do our job protect thing american

consumer in the marketplace. a hazardous place. they often end up in trouble. we've seen that, help lead in the mortgage market to the financial crisis and that's why we're working to fix that. >> anything specific how enforcement would be affected? >> well, given that the proposals you're talking about don't affect the cfpb, i'm not in a position to gave specific. it's basic common sense if you don't have the resources to enforce the law you're not going to enforce it effectively. that's part of what's contemplated here. >> you look at the ryan budget, you see a couple -- potentially, a couphundred thousand to good start. you'd see potentially hundreds of thousands lose access to pell grants and take a step backwards. one of the things i was proud of, received a 60% increase,

young people with ax to pell grants and going to college. anyone who arg gurs we need less access to college, that's that the right thing for children, our communities or for our nation weeshgs cutting off our nose to spite our face. i continue to passionately, education is an investment. not an expense. you're seen our administration push on every level. proposing a race to the top for higher education. obviously, this is about shared responsibility. we have to invest in the federal level. the high risk, this past year 40 states cut funding for higher ed. 40 states. 80% of country. shue that good for where we want to go? i know these are tough economic times but we need to invest and make sure more young people have ax, not less. we have to get there and the jobs of future will go to the countries where they have the

knowledged workers. either here or overseas. that's up to us. that's in our control. >> why are tuitioning skyrocketing so much and what's become of the administration's -- previous proposals by the administration to try to clamp down on this by threatening to withhold federal funds if tuitions kept riseing? >> pretty simple. the biggest driver of increased tuition is states cutting back funding. that's the biggest driver, and so where states, you know, continue to invest, where we can challenge that, then we continue to challenge universities to be efficient and to be more effective and productive and to use technology, but our goal for race to the top for higher education is threefollow. one is to incentivize states to continue to invest. secondly is to incentivize universities to keep tuition down, and many places are doing very creative things in tough economic times, not everybody, but a lot, and finally i say this can't just be about access. it's got to be about completion, so universities are building cultures around completion where first-generation college-goers and english language learners

and pell grant recipients are graduating, we want to use race to the top resources to incentivize that behavior. we have to play. states have to play. universities have to play. >> a quick followup. when you talk about some of the creative solutions, are you referring to the program recently profiled in ohio where they are selling off this lease to all of the parking and privatizing the airport and -- >> i don't know that that specifically. universities going to three-year programs, going to no-frills campuses. universities doing really interesting thing, introductory class eds that half the students fail, doing really creative things with technology, driving down costs and increasing passing rates pretty substantially so there's lots of work, you know, universities are doing in a creative way to control costs and to make sure students are staying in there. we have to take the best practices to scale. we have to make that the norm rather than the exception. >> mr. secretary, along with the accurate sticker price initiative, has there been any commitment by these university

leaders to control their costs, keep their costs down, because would i imagine that there's maybe an incentive to not participate in something like this. you can make hoodwink students into paying a little bit more. >> so, i think if folks are out there trying to hoodwink students, you know, we have the bully pulpit, and where folks are doing that, we intend to be very loud and very clear and, again, we have 6,000 institutions of higher education, and we have the best system in the world and what we haven't had is enough transparency. transparentsy is a very, very powerful leverage. our young people are smart and savvy, and if some university thinks they will get by hoodwinking people i think that's a losing strategy. >> is there a commitment from these universities to control their costs as part of this plan? >> many of them are doing that in a creative way. people in very different situations. some states we have, you know, maryland has done a pretty good job of funding education. california has struggled. not every institution is in a

similar platform so it's very hard to hold everyone to the same standard but asking everyone to become more efficient and economical, you have real leaders who are there doing that. and what we want with transparency, good actors will get rewarded. people will vote with their feed and bad actors lose business and we think that's okay. we think that marketplace needs to play in ways it hasn't before. >> steve? >> senate republicans, mitch mcconnell, house republican leaders, are really complaining that they have offered up four different ways now to pay for the student loan fix, all of which they say are in the president's budget or things the president himself has proposed, and they can't get a response back from the white house. is that something that they should expect this week? how long is it going to take for the white house to sort of figure out -- >> again, i think it's our collective goal to have this done by july 1st, three weeks, three and a half weeks, whatever it is, and we're glad folks are taking this very seriously now, and we hope and anticipate moving forward in a bipartisan way, you know, by the end of the month, absolutely.

i feel a real sense of urgency. >> are you going to be negotiating with them, or is the white house going to be negotiating with them? >> congress has to do this together. we're happy to help and participate and we need republicans and democrats to come together, if on nothing else, they can come together on education and do the right thing. we fully anticipate and expect this to be resolved in a good way and this problem to be fixed for 7.4 million americans this would impact if it doesn't get fixed. we anticipate by the end of the month having a good resolution here. >> yes. >> one of the republican proposals is to raise the federal employee retirement contribution. is that something that you would propose in this economic climate? >> i don't think it's appropriate for me to get into any specifics here. again, the goal is to get this done in a bipartisan way that makes sense over the next three, three and a half years. >> senator mcconnell said there hasn't been any outreach from the white house on this. is that true? >> i don't know all the details. a lot of respect for senator mcconnell, and if he's very serious, we want to sit down with him and speaker boehner and

get this done. >> fred? >> thank you. >> yeah. concerns the cfpb's role with higher education, and it seems to be with regards to student loans, but republicans have said -- senate republicans have complained in the past already that the agency sort of has too broad, too vague powers. it's affecting college costs, does it speak to that at all? >> i don't think there's anything broad or vague about our powers. these are very specific problems that regular families face across this country, problems in the mortgage markets, problems with credit card debt, increasingly as we've seen and discussed today, problems with student loan debt. knowing what the prices and risks are before they make decisions so they can make better informed decisions and as secretary duncan said those are decisions that will make the market work better. everybody who supports a free market should want consumers to be well informed, able to compare, able to make choices.

that's what we're working for across all of these markets, and i think it's something that the american people support. i think it's something that they deserve, and i think they have a right to expect basic consumer protections on all of these products that are so important to their lives. >> go ahead. we'll take the last one. >> mr. secretary, obama -- [ indecipherable audio ] now high level officials are meeting next week at the third annual u.s./india dialogue in washington, d.c. what role will your agency play? >> so we've had -- you and i have talked before. we have a great working relationship with my counterpart in india.

he's a man i think of tremendous courage and vision. we have challenges here. challenges that india faces dwarf -- make ours look relatively simple, but i think there's a chance to provide a much better education for hundreds and hundreds and thousands of young people in india, and whatever we can do to help as they build the next system of community colleges, scale up what's working as american institutions start working in india, we want to be a great partner. i believe a rising tide lifts all boats, and the more young people across india are getting a world class education, that's a great thing for your country and for ours as well. >> do you believe that there will be some major kind of initiatives that you will be announcing something major? >> i think we'll come back to that next week. premature now. >> want to thank secretary duncan and mr. cordray. i'll remain to take your questions.

let everybody get out the door while i survey the field. clear my throat. and look to the associated press. >> can you confirm the drone strike in pakistan and comment on what the assassination would mean for the al qaeda organization and your fight against it, and secondly for u.s. relations with pakistan? >> i can tell you that our intelligence community has intelligence that leads them to believe that al qaeda's number two leader al libbi is dead. i can't get into details of how his death was brought about, but i can tell you that he served as

arc did a's general manager responsible for overseeing the group's day-to-day operations in the tribal areas of pakistan, and he managed outreach to al qaeda's regional affiliates. his death is part of the degradation that's been taking place to core al qaeda during the past several years, and that degradation has depleted the ranks to such an extent that there is now no clear successor to take on the breadth of his responsibilities, and that puts additional pressure on al qaeda's post-bin laden leader zawahri to try to manage the group in an effective way. this would be a major blow, we believe. al libbi's death is a major blow to core al qaeda, removing the number two leader for the second time in less than a year and further damaging the group's morale and cohesion and bringing it closer to its ultimate demise