you can put your thoughts on facebook so morning. facebook.com/c-span. mail is available too, journal @c-span.org. two subjects particularly dominate, especially when it comes to foreign policy issues. russia being the lead story, that aside from the story of the president speaking to reporters yesterday, taking a look at syria saying they don't have a strategy yet. if you go to the pages of the "new york times," same thing syria being its lead story. an analysis piece, the headline, obama urges call in the face of two crises. he writes about the two situations, which you can see on c-span.org. peter baker writes in both cases mr. obama took a strikingly different tone than his own dvisors. officials are having separate, if parallel debates on how aggressive to be with mr. obama seemingly acting as a brake on more robust action some advisers seek. administration officials are preparing for another round of sanctions against russia with european allies but they're unsure if the president will take them to the next level. mr. obama has been deeply reluctant to intervene in a bloody civil war. those are the thoughts from the papers. we'll read more as far as looking at individual stories on those two areas of the world. if you want to give us a call nd make your comments known -- again the essential media pages - the president did speak to reporters yesterday, saw it leading up to specific things we'll show you during the course of the morning. this one dealing with the strategy or developing strategy when it comes to syria. here's the president from yesterday. >> i don't want to put the cart before the horse. we don't have a strategy yet. i think what i've seen in some of the news reports suggests that folks are getting a little further ahead of where we're at than we currently are. i think that's not just my assessment, the biggest assessment of our military as well. we need to make sure we've got big plans developing. at that point i will consult with congress and make sure their voices are heard. but there's no point in me asking for action on the part of congress before i know exactly what it is is going to be required for us to get the job done. >> again, if you want to see the press conference it is on c-span.org. when it comes to public opinion, research center conducted a poll taking a look at issues. its findings are on the front page of "u.s.a. today." this is the question they asked, is obama tough enough. but the question is thinking about his approach to foreign policy and national security, do you think barack obama is. 54% saying not tough enough. about 36% saying about right. 7% saying they don't know and 3% weighing in saying too tough. again these challenges when it comes to syria and ukraine are the topic. sheila, you are up first from florida, democrats line, good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: i just praise god for this headline, obama urges calm in the face of crisis, because we don't wrestle against slush and bugs, against powers of darkness and no military action is going to help this. when the enemy comes like the floods, the lord will lift up a standard against him, and not by might, not by power, but by my spirit say the lord. host: james, independent line. caller: yes, good morning. there is no reason to go to iraq. these people live over there. they're going to fight. just like we fought in the civil war, caucasians to keep us enslaved. they kaled 750,000 people. that many people -- it's not near that many people being killed. these people are determined. they're not going to change their religion. they're not going to change their faith, they're going to keep on fighting, just like in america. america is not going to be changed being christianity. a muslim country cannot listen. cannot live under democracy. there must be law. this is what people are saying. this all started because the united states was paying these people during the surge. now, this could be why it was so easy for isis because they are going to continue -- host: james, james -- caller: who actually ran al qaeda out -- host: james can i ask you a question? james can i ask you a question? caller: yes. host: are you concerned about state wth of the islamic -- caller: they will be an easier target. you will have a government if they establish this. then you tackle. now what you're seeing, these people are not separating. you still have the sunnies. these people are still there. isis is actually not taking over the land. they're just joining the sunnis who are already there. host: next up democrats line. caller: how are you this morning? host: well, go ahead. caller: you know, the president got elected twice and he said he was going to end the war in afghanistan and iraq. i have a s being -- son that's in the military, in the air force. . says the troops are tired why do we have to be involved all over the world? why do we have to have democracy all over the world, or whatever we need to do? we worry about this, no wonder they hate our guts because we think we have to put our way of life ahead of freedom all over the world. host: oakland, california is next, charles on our deabt line. caller: yes, good morning, appreciate this. let me say what i want to say and i will take a response from anyone that will respond to it off the air. but i'm a vietnam veteran. i was a sniper in vietnam. we lost an awful lot of men over there. my point of what i really want to say is the fact that you know, this president has taken than any other president has taken. some of it may be related to the color of his skin. i wonder if anybody could answer the question -- host: what do you think about the foreign policy challenges we're talking about? how do you think the president should specifically handle these areas? caller: well, you've got john mccain and other individuals who no matter what the president says or does, and i keep pointing out, he cannot do anything militarily towards russia. that's a power structure. that's a nuclear weapon individual nation that are doing what they want to do and we cannot do anything about it. all we can do is try to unite this country. if we do that, then we will not be divided. right now this country is so divided, there's no way possible that we can stand. i really think that's a said situation when it comes down to one man in the white house who has put a dot, a speck into the white house that caused it to be deteriorated as it is. why don't we do one thing, which i think would be very important sir, why don't we call the white house the people's house. after all, the people formed this country on the backs of slaves and others, why don't we call it the people's house. host: ok, we'll leave it there. "new york times" highlights when it comes to syria, the role congress might have to play. bypassing congress might be difficult to justify, however given -- laying out the reasons after striking assad, mr. obama of voices row number also demanding a say, on wednesday a group of lawmaker wrote to john boehner and urged him to hold a vote saying mr. obama strikes "appears to be beyond the scope of the mission he laid out." they did not believe any of the existing war authorizations give mr. obama to conduct the long term campaign against isis and iraqi and syria. here's les from nevada. caller: good morning, thanks for taking our call. eyond that, it's nice to see finally got a bunch of these guys trying to all together. when we kind of got more traditional war but we actually have some sort of targets to go to instead of just get one target syria, one target in pakistan, we got some really bad guys and these are the terrorists, these are who we're at war with. host: mississippi up next. here's mary, republican line. hello. caller: hello? host: hi, you're on. caller: hi. i would just like to say that this is the only one and thing i've ever agreed with obama on. i don't think we should be jumping the gun and going in anyway. i think we better be paying attention to our own safety in this country because god knows how many isis members are in our country right now. i'd also like to say to the caller that called, once again, it has absolutely nothing to do with the color of obama's skin, it is the way he acts, it is the and he onducts himself, just goes against the grain. the way the white house has been and hisall these years, suit that he had on yesterday was an example of it, but it really doesn't make a difference. host: when it comes to foreign policy why do you agree with that? >> just like everybody else i think it's ridiculous. i do not think we can solve his problem. it is out of our hands, it is over our head. unless the rest of the world unites with us to try to solve this problem, we're not going to be able to do it. we don't have the money to do it. we're boring money to try to solve somebody else's problems when our own country is falling apart. host: the administration talks about partners in this. the washington post talks a little bit about the partners and some of the comments made. this is from the front page, many of the potential partners said they remain in the dark about whether mr. obama has in mind and some expressed impatience that the length of time it's taking to figure it out. there's more attitude to get involved, and last week's execution of american journalist said one senior official "no one has a conversation with us as to what it means. when these super powers reluctant in developing policy, it's not about the leadership, but having a coherent approach in the s" the ball is u.s. court. caller: i think what's going on is an important reminder that poverty creates instability. development is a key part of our national security strategy and i think our government needs to continue to protect the international affairs budgets. host: so you think it would lower this in your opinion? caller: yeah, i do. in general, i think global poverty is creating instability. if we were to focus more on that, issues like this would decrease. obviously there is a lot of general.but i think in host: jim in texas calling on our independent line. caller: good morning, how you doing this morning? thank you for having me. i just feel that the inappearance shows when we elected this man twice already. he just doesn't have a clue on what to do. it's not the color of his skin like the lady said, it's just the inappearance. all the fund-raising he's doing with the fat cats he said he wasn't going to mingle with, why doesn't he use that money to finance going against eye kiss. host: well jim, what do you think should be done? caller: i think we ought to do what bush did. what are we waiting for in for these twists to come over here and start blowing up back packs in malls or football stadiums or basketball stadiums? or a big crowd? is that what we're waiting for? this guy hasn't a clue. that's what you get when you elect a guy that can't even organize a parade in chicago! host: from orlando, florida. hello. caller: hi, good morning. i just want to say that i whole heartedly believe in what president obama's doing pause he's looking at the long term strategy of how we solve these problems. because if bombs were the simple answer to these problems we wasn't have this problem now. .m. kid would be decimated and isis itself wouldn't be pringing up. like the previous caller said, we also need to make sure we're looking at development in these countries. air strikes alone won't solve it. i want to hear what other things he would do. host: what other things do you want to hear? >> development, political structures, make sure we have a structure that includes minorities so they won't feel disinfranchised and be supportive of isis and other jihadists. host: story writing that it would begin testing the experimental vaccine on humans next week as the ep depp i think caused by the deadly vie risk continues to wrap west africa. host: robert, from texas, good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. the reason the president is having so much trouble with the middle east is because he doesn't have people that's going to work with him. and i know for a true fact that america, especially on the people are not reading this book called the bible, they're not reading it correctly because if they would, he andthout realize that jesus in the new testament are the same person. that's all i have to say. host: mary from alabama. caller: hello? host: hi, you're on. caller: oh, i'm sorry, i didn't realize. i don't believe the callers calling in this morning. they don't know what isis or i.s.o. is. they're barbaric. that's the only word you can say. we've got to get rid of them. and the cells that they've got in in this country, i live alabama. over in alabama we had one of the worst terrorists, he came out of a high school that came out of alabama. we've got young americans being brainwashed into this barbaric style of butcherry. callse what the president home land terrorists and slaughtered the soldiers in fort hood, he's coming out saying he wants citizens in isis. he's writing a letter from them. we've got a president that is not recognizing a terrorist structure in this world. at least bomb them so we can at least get rid of the cockroaches over there before we have anymore here. but we're going to have to deal with terrorists in this country as well. and have the f.b.i. look into them. when they're in alabama and minnesota, where else are they? we've got to do something. we've got to get our head out of the sand. host: not only was the topic of isis part of the press conference, the topic of russia, particularly concerns about pro russian forces going over to help separatists there. putin tests the west intention in ukraine, part of the discussion about russia came up yesterday during that press conference. here's a bit of that exchange. >> we are not taking military action to solve the ukrainian problem. what we're doing is to mobilize the international community to apply pressure. but, i think it is very important to recognize that a military solution to this problem is not going to be forthcoming. now, the fact that russia has taken these actions in violation of the sovereignty and integrity of the ukrainians has resulted, i believe, in a weakening of russia, not a strengthening of russia. that may not be apparent immediately, but i think it will become increasingly apparent. isolated also done is russia from its trading partners, its commercial partners, international business, in ways i think will be very difficult to recover. we will continue to stand firm with our allies and partners that what is happening is wrong, that there is a solution that allows ukraine and russia to live peacefully. but, it is not in the cards for us to see a military confrontation between russia and the united states in this region. host: just to show you the washington post this morning saying that u.s. officials saying privately for the first time they consider escalation tantamount to a russian invasion, president stopping short of using the word after the news conference. henry from michigan talking about foreign policy challenges or the obama administration. henry, from michigan, hi there, go ahead. caller: good morning. i'd like to see the president actually bolster our international commitment because the situations in iraq and syria are actually problems for the arab league and the surrounding turkey, ke jordan, iran, saudi arabia. those countries need to step up to the plate to solve this issue. this is not president obama's, or the united states problem alone. the problem in ukraine is actually a nato problem. so nato needs to get together, form an international coalition, go to the united nations, and if need be, vote ukraine intonateo, o nato can go in to set up bases to help the ukrainian military so they can repair a future. is is not an obama administration problem alone. the simple minded confederates in the republican party who hate president obama, will never be satisfied with what he's done. -- so the nemies president is doing the right thing. host: the president heading to nato to talk about these issues next week and the "wall street journal" opinion's section, a former reporter who covered the middle east writes in an opinion piece, time for the saudis to stand up. part of what he said when it omes to the saudis saying -- here is frank, phoenix, arizona. frank, from phoenix, good morning. caller: good morning. i've seen a lot of the media on russia, and they're involved in the middle east, but i've heard little debate on china's involvement in the situation. anybody's to know opinion on how china is playing a role -- host: what's your opinion on congress's role? -- ir: my personal opinion on't think it's proper at all. inaudible] i don't think it's been addressed. host: mike, good morning from massachusetts, democrats line. caller: good morning. all i want to say is i don't think isis, whatever you want to call it, ukraine, ebola, they're not solely a u.s. problem. these are international problems and should be addressed by the u.n. it is, then we don't become involved militarily. if we ever did, i'd be suspect for other reasons for why we are. host: do you think the u.s. needs to take a lead in these problems? caller: we should be working with the other nations. that's what the u.n. was formed for. to address these international problems while we can be a leading force. but just diplomatically, not militarily. absolutely not. host: buffalo, new york, here is charles, independent line. caller: good morning. i'm concerned on two fronts. irst of all, the role of our president in terms of the international crisis, probably there's more of one that should set policy. ke the previous caller said, the american people aren't quite ready for another boots on the ground initiative in any place in the world. unless we want to employ the draft. we have to share that kind of determination across the board. that's it. host: from "the new york times" this morning, a look at the status of the benghazi inquirery, that select committee was formed. here's a story saying that the committee that was formed in may could take much longer and leaders are budgetting for as much as $3.3 million, greater than the entire budget of the house intelligence committee. he said he would set the hearing .or september to review other than that, there have been few signs of progress. republican attention is likely to shift sharply to mrs. clinton. the secretary of state at the time of the deadly assault and possible presidential contender or 2016. also adds that last week he hired the retired as the army's former top lawyer to be the committee's top counsel. walter from texas, hello. caller: hello? host: david, from illinois, independent line. caller: yes, hello. host: you're on, go ahead. caller: yes, i was just wanting to make a couple comments here. i was kind of upset with the president's speech when he said don't put the cart before the horse. we don't want to put the cart before the horse for the simple fact that this is twice now that he's had that attitude. once in syria when hillary clinton wanted to harm the rents to keep eye kiss out. and the second time was not taking on isis before they came into iraq and were killing all the christians and stuff. i just thought that was kind of a ridiculous comment that he would make. for the other caller that called in, it's not the color of anybody's skin, it's about prething our country and our kids. and that's all i have to say. host: from twitter, shock and awe schaub the strategy. we'll hear from alexander next, republican line. caller: yes, i'm a long time listener. -- mment this morning inaudible] he has to man up and be a president. e acts like a kid. inaudible] host: the wall street journal, side by side headlines, the headline, back in demand, especially with g.o.p. keapts welcoming him up to the mid term election. story in pennsylvania -- caller: hi, good morning, i think the president's challenge is the media, you know. whenever the president has to call a press release, press conference basically just to tell the media to reign in all of the comments about going to war, that tells you how the president's way of making up their own story as they go along. i know this is the age of secrets, and when he said they don't have a strategy they just ran away with that. why should he tell everybody what the strategy is. if he's going to war, do you want your enemy to know? caller: what you heard quite often was fanny may, saying it's planning to sell its headquarters, the sub head of this story saying the mortgage finance giant plans to consolidate its operation elsewhere in the district. lower, if you were to read it, said in additional to the 3900 wisconsin avenue headquarters, the brick complex across from the school, fanny mae owns buildings at 4250 connecticut avenue and wisconsin avenue, all will go on the market according to the spokesperson. they have leases that are sent to ex entire at 4,000 and 2115 isconsin avenue. here's the last call on foreign policy issues for the odd minute stration. ray from texas, republican line. caller: yes, hello. thank you for c-span. i'm calling basically to offer my opinion about what's going on. it looks to me like president obama is an amateur that got into the big leagues and doesn't know what he's doing. that part of it is not about his skin color. and i think a lot of the voters on the democratic side voted for him specifically because of his skin color. they're is same ones that are calling c-span now saying it's hateful and racist to disagree with president obama. host: when it comes to his foreign policy approaches, what do you think about the current actions that he's taken? caller: i'm concerned about what hillary clinton did as secretary of state that might have caused a lot of problems we're having. the same people who voted for president obama are going to be foolish enough -- they voted for him because he's an african-american, which i'm actually proud that we have an african-american elected, i'm just not a fan of his policies. i'm afraid the policies hillary clinton used got us to this point. you can't exonerate her constantly and then blame bush for what she did six years ago. she was in power, she should have handled some of this stuff before it got to this point. host: we will change gears, so to speak, and talk about the economy. on matters of the economy, want to tell you about our news maker program. you can see it sunday, also view it online. >> on the question of whether we were right or not, we don't know. i think in some important ways we will never know. so, for some parts, some provisions of the affordable care act established new streams of money that one can identify separately. so the affordable care act has established credits to help people buy insurance through exchanges. those credits didn't exist before it was put into place. so we can ultimately assess how much money is being spent on those credits and compare that to what our projection was. but still very early for that, this is the first year. now, the enrollment in the insurance exchanges this year is very close to the projections that we made earlier this year, and in fact our projections from a number of years ago. but this is just the first year. so we don't know what enrollment will be, we don't know what the cost will turn out to be. other provisions of the affordable care act may change us to preexisting programs like medicare. well in some ways we will never really know what affect those provisions had because it would have happened otherwise. they changed the payment rates and payment mechanisms and so on. but we'll know in the end whether medicare costs more or less that we predicted it would cost after it was passed. but if veterans have to be different than what we expected, if it comes from the affects of it, or the misunderstanding of what would happen before the a.c.a. is not something you can readily understand. >> but still in your latest, that it will reduce the deficit over the next 20 years, i guess. two decades, compared to if it didn't exist? >> we have no reason to change that assessment. but neither can we do a new estimate of that again because they have now been in place for four years and its provisions are interbetweened with other provisions of the preexisting law. host: here to talk about the tate of the economy, pedro nicolaci da costa. your colleague of the journal writes about the release of g.d.p. numbers showing an upgrade in the second quarter. tell us what that means. >> well, 4.2% sure sounds like a good number. if we are actually growing at that rate on a consistent basis, we'd be zooming along at a much faster clip than people think. but of course if you look at the longer run, that was really a pay back for a negative reading we had in the first quarter, so it does give us a sense that at least it was a marginal, positive revision, gives us a sense that the first quarter decline was an anomaly and there is a bounce back. but it doesn't tell us very much about how resilient the recovery is likely to remain over the second half of the year. that's what people really are curious. >> so, what factors went into this increased number? what do people look at? >> really a boosted investment to a certain extent and inventories. but really, you know, this is just minor technical adjustments in each piece of data that the department of commerce receives sort of in between. even though we have very adamant discussions about each quarters indicator, that as these numbers get revised, the level of accuracy from the first reading to the last one. it takes three years, so you're talking about numbers that will get revised rapidly. we'll see where the consumption holds up and so far it has. so if that continues to be the case, we can at least expect it to remain in where economists expect. >> if you can trace it back to investment, what does it say about businesses and how they feel about the economy? guest: well, that's been one of the spots of the growth picture that's been missing in action. we've had a very weak recovery. in fact it's the weakest recovery since the great depression. that's in part because businesses that were basically hit really hard by a deep recession have remained reluctant to invest. so we haven't really seen this sustained pickup in that. it's good to see that it is at least stabilized. but we need to see more of it if we're going to seek assistance. host: you talked about the previous quarter and the serious dip it took. what was the result of that? >> well, blame the weather. i say that jokingly, but we did have a harsh winter and so that apparently did take a sharp hit on consumption, so that's primarily, and on hirings, that's primarily what people have blamed that on. so the rebound is just a product of a basic statistical averaging of the two quarters. really what people need to be looking at now and will be looking forward to is the next jobs figure. to see if the employment gains -- essentially we've had growth but job creation has surpassed what people expected it to be given that level of growth. so people want to see is that sustainable. we've seen it drop down to 6.2%. we've seen employment rate of 200,000 jobs and up. >> if you have questions about the condition of the economy and want to ask our guest about it, ere's a chance to do so. before you came on we were talking about world events. russia, syria, all across the world. are there parallels between what happens during the world and what happens here domestically since we've seen the 4.2 figure? >> i would say speaking to economists, their level of concern is very high that even though they have this fairly rosie growth outlook for the rest of the year, there are a number of question marks, most of which you covered in your previous segment. you've got serious tensions in about every corner of the world you look. you have syria and iraq as sort of joint problems now. you have a potential russian incursion into the ukraine. and all the potential impact that that might have in europe. you have a eurozone economy that's already kind of stalling, so that's one of the factors that leads to a low level of confidence in the sustainability of the u.s. economy's growth, that all of the turmoil going on overseas. >> that look of confidence in the corporate sector, in the consumer sector or both? >> i think it begins at the corporate sector because those are the folks making longer term decisions. it also affects the banks, lending, confidence there. ultimately if consumers feel we're going to enter another military conflict, which until president obama kind of pushed that a little bit yesterday. it looked like we're about to get more involved in syria. so if that's the case, we don't really know what's going to happen. host: let's go to our first call. here's john from ohio for our guest. he's on our democrats line. john, good morning, go ahead. caller: yeah, i was hoping that u guys could understand to economy versus the war. now back when the war originally started, it went into iraq, whatever, they set up all those contractors, ok? i believe those contractors are there, they were contracted for different things, working and also mercenary work. i believe those guys are isis. to re set up to go to war war, e government go to go to war, go to war. we have no money, guess who gets to take over? billionaires. this is what i believe is all , they're eye kiss. est: that's a pretty conspiracy theory. we enter a period of war starting after 9/11 we went into afghanistan then we went into iraq. we had a fairly tepid but sustained recovery between 2001-2006. we also had a pretty large housing bubble that crashed and we talk about the financial crisis as a product after that credit boom bust. but surely if we had not spent all the money on the war we would have been in a much better position to stimulate growth once the crisis hit. even though we kind of separate the two issues, i think there is a connection between war and the economy. host: carol, michigan, on our republican line, hi. caller: hi. host: you're on, go ahead. guest: hi carol. caller: oh, hi. in regards to the economy, i don't think president obama is doing a very good job. in regards to what i was listening to about the war, i would rather be fighting these people over there than have them coming here and having them to fight us here. host: why specifically do you not think the president is doing a good job? caller: well, look at the economy. it's recovering at a very slow pace. there's more people out of work been. ere has ever and democrats and president obama with all their regulations for small businesses, no one even wants to open up the small business. they can't afford to hire people because they can't pay further health care. i think with him as a president he's totally incompetent. caller: so, i mean, it is true that president obama has presided over a fairly weak recovery. how much of that, you can lay at his feet is kind of a political judgment. he certainly inherited a very weak economy but the further away you get from the crisis, the harder it is to blame the prior administration for the lack of economic growth. the president tends to blame a congress that's obstructing him. that line of argument only goes so far with voters because of course they see the president as a leader and they would like him to find a way to work with congress to get his measures through. so yeah, it's been a fairly week economic growth. as for regulation stifling growth, i would say it's not the primary factor. we just have a really weak economy and consumers that are in deep distress. the previous caller talked about bill anywheres. inquality is a factor. it's become a cliched story, but the entire narrative about the middle class getting squeezed does bare out in the figures and that has led for an economy that relies about two thirds on consumer spending. that has made it difficult. host: what's the expectation for the next unemployment figures to come out? guest: so i think most economists expect it to hold steady or dip slightly to 6.1%. so there's not an expectation of a sharp decline. but again, we've gone from a crisis peek of 10% that was hit in october 2009 to 6.2%. now fed officials and other policy makers think it's still not normal, and there's kind of many signs of under employment like people who are employed part time would like to work full time, et cetera. folks at the fed would say full employment is probably closer to around 5.2-5.5%. but as they get closer to that, they have a starting discussion about when to raise interest rates so that's been a prominent factor. host: democrats line. caller: yes, i would like to talk about something that you haven't been talking about in the past. our country is divided, and the reason why it's divided, you media, if t winged you drive across america, you will notice that. what's happened, our voters and our people are being misinformed. when you turn on these media broadcasts -- host: that being said, we're having a discussion about the economy. do you have a question? aller: yes, yes. people vote against their own interest and your guest, i agree with your guest when he said what's happening, the president is doing a good job and he has a very dead idea, your guest here. i think we need more guests like that. host: ok, thanks. caller: well, i appreciate the compliment. i would say as far as media, the ones encouraging things about media and reporters, while there is a divisional divide and huge proportion of americans who don't have internet access, the internet does level the playing field as far as obtained information, especially in the younger generation. there's the potential for more misinformation because there's a lot of information on the web. if you do try to educate yourself and you rely on solid sources, you can find the information for yourself. you don't have to watch whatever the tv shows you every night. it can look for yourself. host: your colleague writes a story this morning, banks crank up the loan machine. he federal deposit corporation balances rose to $8.11 trillion. what does that mean to you? >> well, it means that things are good, right? one of the points of said you y, there's also -- don't want banks to overextend themselves. certainly with the tendency we've seen thus far is excessive restraint by the banks and an overcautiousness because they got burned by the crisis, i think an increase in lending would count as another positive side. host: confidence in it. consistently we heard the banks aren't lending, the banks aren't lending. caller: not only that, but not lending to people with solid credit scores too. host: kevin from california, thanks for holding on the republican line, hi. caller: good morning, how are you? host: good morning. caller: my question is about education. i'm a student, taking on a lot of student loans. my question to you, if you don't mind please touching on education, where you see the student loan factors going and how the economics will affect the way students are treated coming into the future. caller: thanks for your question. as someone still paying off his student loans, i can certainly relate to the question. i graduated many, many years ago. so, i think that the student loan system, it's kind of a chicken and egg problem. does education become more expensive because financing is available. i'm not really sure how to solve it. other countries struggle with it. europe has more public financing for education. but then you have a lot of students coming from europe to universities here, so there is an attractiveness to the university system here. i will say this, it certainly burdens an economy and the individual student when you get out of school and you start your life in the red. so, you know, it would behoove policy makers to come up with a system that at least, you know, kind of relieves some of the burden on students. because people are coming out with a lot of debt. and students aren't really that well informed when they're 18 or 19 and they're first starting school. they really have no idea of the burdens they're taking on. it's not something i have a ready solution for but certainly something on the economy, there's indications that it slowed the rate at which young people buy homes, et cetera. people are taking longer to sort of get their life started. they call it household formation. basically called getting out of your parents house and getting your own. host: we hear the term bubble apply to a lot of different sectors. could that apply to the student loan sector? guest: it could. we're coming out of a crisis that was related to one of the most massive bubbles we ever experienced, both in bank lending and mortgage lending in particular. so, you know, there are bubbles and there are bubbles, right? there are bubbles that if they pop, the thing is the mortgage market is so enormous that the popping of the housing bubble had an enormous economic impact. student loans, you know, the amounts are big and the default rates are rising, but does it have as broad an impact as the mortgage market? no, because the mortgage market is something like 14 times larger than the student loan market. big difference in fine and potential impact. host: our guest here to talk about the economic outlook here in the u.s. david up next from new jersey, democrats line. caller: good morning. i'd like to ask the gentleman this question and explain to the audience. correct me if i'm wrong, but historically, at the fed window, if a business or a bank were to borrow money, historically again, when rates were around 6%, for every hundred dollars they had to pay about $2.50. now they're paying about 25 cents. so to me, common sense would say now's the time for me to rebuild roads, bridges, highways, schools, infrastructure when it's 25 cents to borrow, as opposed to when it will cost me 10 times more. i'm just baffled we have a republican congress, because the republicans do control the congress, they can do anything they want to do, democrats can't stop them. that's the money. congress controls the money. so republicans right now are saying i'm not going to allow president obama to do anything, which basically means that six years ago when he took office and they decided that we're not, this is going to be his waterloo, for six years they have held this country back to 25 able to grow on the cents on the dollar. it's insane that c-span is not calling the republican congress on their game. it's more insane we have somebody from the "wall street journal" as opposed to maybe the financial times, but the "wall street journal" that is controlled by rupert murdoch. caller: so i would say, first to the point about the fed, there's definitely a case to be made for investing and infrastructure. there's a case to be made for ramping up public spending when the economy's weak. and as your caller pointed out, president obama has consistently blamed an obstructionist congress for his inability to get the policies through. at the same time, people do count on their president to lead basically get enough public support for his measures that whatever opposition he has he can get the measures through. that's been something he's been unable to do. your caller certainly has a point that low interest rates are yet another reason why we should be investing in infrastructure and public investments, certainly a sound economic argument to be made here. host: dave from florida, republican line. caller: good morning, thanks for taking the call. i just wanted to ask pedro, get his take on inflation. with the fed artifically depressed and the interest rates, and the current national debt that we have, it's hard really to get a feel with the inflation rate will look like going forward. if you would speculate a little bit, what could happen if it ramps up too quickly and would be the best case scenario? caller: absolutely, thanks for your question. since i covered the fed primarily, it was my bread and butter, i watch it like some people watch the stock market, every tick. so inflation, the picture is actually very benign in the united states. the fed is happy to see that inflation is not falling further below the level that it wants to reach, which is 2%. the reason the fed doesn't want to see inflation fall, even though it seems like a good thing, that usually means the economy is depressed and that wages are falling, consumption is falling. that sounds good, but it's not great. at the same time, there's no sign that even though we've increased the balance sheet, expanded the money supply, there's no sign inflation is about to take off, you know. there's no sign that wages are growing at any rapid pace. in fact we want to see more wage growth because that's been part of the stagnation, people feeling worried about their salaries and their jobs. i remember speaking to someone, an economists at the american economics association conference in 2010. the fed was ramping up its balance sheet at the time. and i remember asking him, how could this not be inflation? i grew up in brazil and you hear these numbers, four trillion balance sheets. that sounds inflationary, these numbers are so high. this economist said we should be so lucky to get some inflation. at the time, i was skeptical, and here we are almost three-and-a-half years later and we have still not been lucky to get the inflation that would be consistent with job growth to recoup the losses we had during the recession. you talked about a growth in the gross the mistake product. "the hill" is the deficit will come up to 500 billion eventually. put the numbers together. what does it mean as an economic picture? the deficit numbers have been encouraging and they are highly dependent on growth because growth turns into jobs, which turns into tax receipts. as the outlook for growth improves, the budget picture as essentially leveled off from what we thought was a much more, kind of, catastrophic looking trajectory if you projected some of the recessionary period of spending you had into the future. now that spending that went along with catching up with the worst of the great recession has receded. the budget picture is starting to look more benign. nicolaci da costa with us. good morning. thank you for taking my call. i have a comment and a question. when we look at the economy, you have to agree the economy is based on multiple factors. it is not like -- based on one single factor. blame the status on the president of the united states. it also falls squarely on the --t of the -- i'm sorry congress, which is controlled by the gop and they have been self-proclaimed obstructionists. they openly told right-wing folks that they would stop, schmitz barack obama might have. -- accomplishments barack obama might have an with a wefunctional congress, connected the economy to be better than it is today. i would say despite the problems he has faced with this congress that will do nothing, he has been able to accomplish some pretty amazing things. he has turned the economy around, especially since major indicators like the market have seen record highs and we have had record profits in markets right now. under barack obama businesses have made record profits. four times what they have in the past. we have also seen numbers that have been increased multiple year over year. that has not happened since clinton. how can you sit here and blame barack obama for what is going on and say the market is horrible when factors point in the other direction? make soundot economic sense, and i would like you to explain why you ignore the market numbers. guest: thank you so much. i do not ignore the market numbers. i do not say the economy is in bad shape at all. we hit a record almost every day on the markets, although some worry that is not sustainable. it is a highly political judgment on who you blame economic growth on, or lack thereof. you could give the president credit for a recovery that has been sustained. it is one of the longest recoveries we have had, and it started in the summer of 2009. it happened despite headwinds fiscalngress, tightening, the so-called fiscal cliff and sequestration we said at this table discussing last year. the economy has managed to grow. thefed has gone -- president has gotten a lot of help from fed policy on low-interest rate. anyone can have a different model as to how big of a role each factor plays, but the fact is that the economy is doing ok, but it is not doing fantastic. host: is there a specific effort by the white house you could point to that would lead to current economic times, if it is improving, or is it more of a fed policy because of buying the debt and things along that line? guest: it should be a little bit of both. the fed was an ally. when chairman bernanke was the fed chair -- he is a republican first appointed by george w. bush, and here he was making the democrats case to the congress. the republicans would say look at the debt and the deficit, and ben bernanke within the deficit might be a problem in the long run, but in the short term do not cut spending to quickly because you will ruin the economy i am trying to help with low rates. the obama administration gets credit for that push back. is it sufficient? i do not know. point, if theer's democrats are dissatisfied, where is the political rallying cry? where is the activism? where is the effort to win the senate in the midterm? i do not know. guest: joe. north carolina. joe,endent line --host: north carolina, independent line. had a 12e said we million new jobs, but when the crisis hit we lost 10 million, so you are still 2 million behind. as far as the government propping up the economy, a false economy is still a false economy. if you take the proper -- the false economy away, what you have at the end of the? -- at the end of it? byt: you mean propping up specifically what? quantitative easing, giving money out, and your dollar years ago was worth the dollar. and now it is worth $.50. there is no reason to inflict plane to get economic growth. if we could make the situation we cannot people, if allow the bottom to fall out of the depths of a recession, most economists across the political spectrum agree that is a fairly good thing to do. now, you do not want government to beef permanently involves -- to be permanently involves in all levels of the economy, but some level of support is appropriate when things get bad. carol is asking the question off of twitter -- didn't obama increase the debt? obama did not increase the debt. did, and spending increases almost by natural triggers during a recession because more people are on unemployment benefits, but government spending on social programs increases almost automatically, but the devil is a picture has been improving. -- deficit picture has been improving. host: arthur, go ahead. everyone blaming president obama for the situation of the economy, and this happened long before obama. , andis what he inherited when he decided -- when he he would help the the banks out, and the american auto companies out, everybody wondered why he was doing this, why is he saving these different companies? that, then thene companies got better, and our economy got better. guest: well, it is true that the bank bailout that were very controversial at the time did help to save the economy, and whether they were done in the best of ways, there is a lot of dispute. whether we should not necessarily save the banking sector, but keep the support for banks that were seen as the cause of the crisis in some ways. so, the bailouts were certainly controversial. now, as i was saying earlier, there was a case to be made in the case of the banks and the auto sector that you could not let the sectors go to tatters. your caller is correct. host: this is louise from fredericksburg. hello. caller: i wanted to talk about how i think the entire financial system is rigged and i want to speak specifically about 30-year mortgages. from what i understand on the fha website, where it originally started in 1934, you either came to the table with 50% and the bank loaned you 50% payable back in three to five years, which is a great deal. what happened now is we are stuck -- we are in a grind of a 30-year mortgage where you are 7/10 of youraying mortgage is all escrow taxes, insurance, and interest. you actually do not get your principal paid down. thato this for 30 years, is a pretty heavy grind, but when you attempt to pay your mortgage down, you discover that your hazard insurance is now 10 years or forever if you bought a ande between 2001 and 2009 it is forever almost. one time when we first originated the mortgage, i bought a house in 2008, and it was understand -- understood five years, a the fha mortgage insurance. i attempted to see if this could be taken away because obviously five years has passed, and when i did this, i discovered in 2010, the congress with their great wisdom, decided we should be paying for 10 years, or until we reach 70% of the lowest borrowing cost to the fha. which means if you paid $30,000 down on a house, whatever you borrowed, you will go from there down to 70% of the value of the house. host: louise, thank you. guest: i really do not know the .etails of housing the longer maturity to -- mortgages, your -- the more interest you will pay. you can still get a three to five year mortgage. a lot of people think it is beneficial to put less money down. the mortgage industry, would you describe it as stable? the mortgage industry has recovered. it -- housing took a little bit of a hit one bond yields were sent a full or centage point higher than that hit mortgage rates. wobbling, buten recovering recently. people do not expect the recent price gains we have been saying, around 10%, to continue. they expect those to moderate. that is departed the economy that the fed itself has described meeting careful watch -- and needing careful watch. would you say it is stable in the building, or overall? guest: overall. you get mixed signals with new home sales and existing, but a housel trend was -- the price drop was more severe than it was in the great depression. that is one of the comparatives where we actually did worse. after a few years of recovery, housing bounce back, and now it has kind of stabilized, kind of flatlining. people wonder whether the recovery will continue or not. host: this is from spring hill, florida. democrats line. niels joined us. are you there from florida? caller: yes, i am. host: go ahead. caller: i was just wondering -- everybody predicts on washington whether it is good or bad. it is changing the negative fashion. go overseas,ons and it makes it harder for us. i was when and if you take that into account when you -- wondering if you take that into account when you do your predictions. to say theresn't is built-in optimism from welcome -- wall street -- i like to say there is a built-in optimism. they are basically salesmen. you have to take forecast with a grain of salt, certainly. i love coming on c-span because i get to contrast the rose innes of the wall street analyst that i speak with to them much more concerned and worried tone that a lot of americans are feeling. i went to the fed's conference at jackson hole over the weekend bankersot of powerful gather, and a small group of activists -- they actually got to talk to janet yellen and other fed officials about jobs and interest rates, and one thing adc resident told me, -- a d.c. resident told me, it was a compelling and sad story about home and -- unemployment and a waltz -- homelessness. she said things might be fine on washington, but not my see -- not on my street. pedro da costa. brian in ohio. in november, two thousand eight, apparently the united states according to the utopia,, was this vast everything -- according to the republicans, was a vast utopia and when barack obama was elected president it turned into a giant craphole. here in ohio, that is what the economy has turned into. ever since mitch mcconnell said we were going to get rid of barack obama after one term, the business people in this part of the country have taken mcconnell's words to heart, and they have turned northwest ohio into a giant, for lack of a ole.er word, a crap h ever since then, factories have been closing, people have been laid off from ones that have not closed, and you have republican same no more extensions on unemployment -- saying no more extension on unemployment, there are plenty of jobs out there. guest: it is hard not to be discouraged by the political polarization of this country. it is hard to think about what would we like to rule the company -- country as a whole was such decisiveness. you hear it all the time with the republican, democrat, and independent lines. it is certainly true that the president came in with his vision of promise of trying to unite, and it has not happened, so it is discouraging. it is hard to bring together views that are so seemingly opposed, but i'm not really sure what the solution is there other than people just sitting down and coming together. host: before you leave, i want to get your thoughts on wages in the united states. cbo director doug on door was a "newsmakers," and here's little bit of what he had to say on wages. [video clip] >> wages can catch up slowly. thatecovery is so long rather the traditional patterns apply is not so clear to us or other analysts and that is part of the challenge that we and other people face in making projections, the we tend to recover only one firms are finding that we are trying -- when firms are finding they are trying to hire more workers and cannot get more work to the existing wages. fill in theda costa story on wages. guest: i was going to come to that point. it is why the fed thinks they can keep interest rates at zero for this another year because what they call economic slack -- idle workers at still want to work but cannot find a job -- that get it in the current 6.2% unemployment rate and 5.2% to 5.3% unemployment rate that would be considered normal and healthy, that represents that gap and until you start putting that gap, wages will not be cut. it will continue to be an employers market. you will always get someone else that is willing to or cheaper in the jobs and you get the downward spiral of not necessarily getting a pay cut in your current job, people who lose their jobs and to lower-pain efficiency early on -- lower-pain positions -- lower-paying positions later on. wages have been pretty much stagnant for the better part of three decades and that is a big problem. host: pedro da costa covers the economy and wall street for "the wall street journal turco thank you for your -- journal." thank you for your time. we will look at campaigns with two pollsters. later on, our america by the numbers series and we're looking at challenges and opportunities for young adults in the united states. all of that as "washington journal" continues after this. ♪ on the c-spand networks -- tonight on c-span, native american history. saturday, live, all day coverage from the national book festival science pavilion. saturday evening, a debate on scotland's upcoming decision on whether to end its political union with england. with robert" chapman, who shares his approach to interpreting laws passed by congress. "in-depth," with former congressman ron paul. saturday, all day coverage of the national book festival. speakers,ere's -- -- andews, and call him you recall-ins. tonight,an history tv thesa documentary about 1969 apollo 11 moon landing. saturday, general sherman's atlanta campaign. law andight, election the supreme court case of bush versus gore. c-span.orghedule on and let us know about the programs you're watching. call us at 202-6 26-3400. or, e-mail us at comments at c-span.org. join the conversation. like us on facebook. follow us on twitter. presentmonth, c-span debates on what makes america great, evolution, and genetically modified foods -- spotlights with veterans health care, student loan debt, and campus sexual assault. perspectives on global warming, fighting infectious disease, and food safety and our history tours with sights and sounds from american historic places. and let us schedule know what you think about the programs you're watching. 202-626-3400. join the conversation. like us on facebook. follow us on twitter. >> "washington journal" continues. until the campaign and we have been looking at the elements of campaigns, and we will learn about the science and work of polling. we have two guest joining us. joining us here in studio is doug usher, with the group purple strategies. and from philadelphia, kellyanne conway, a pollster and strategist. to both of you, thank you for joining us. guest: to her for having us. guest: good morning. host: there was "a washington articlereet -- that said about your j- doug usher, what you think about that? it is true, and is becoming a little more high 538 areas sites like shining a light on the profession. there are cases where things go wrong, and that was the case in the eric cantor case if you months ago. host: kellyanne conway, what would you add to that? i agree, and i would hope there is more great transparency .ndustrywide and scrutiny frankly, there is not enough it's -- of similar scrutiny and transparency with many of these media polls that would apply right, left, and center in the mainstream media. in these academic polls -- sometimes little-known colleges and universities have a poll talking about the iowa caucuses 1000 miles away two years before the caucuses and people trust the polls sight unseen because they are not done bipartisan pollsters. hope, wouldket, i kick any of us out if we were not good at our craft, but there is not any accountability. wrongjor networks got it in two cycles. yet they are still standing. they still invest tons of money in their own polling. part of the lack of accountability there is because people look at them as news sources, so they are unbiased and objective, but all the news sources have a horse in the race. the major papers will endorse a candidate. the networks. the cable stations certainly show a preference for one party or another in some of the coverage. i'm for transparency and accountability, but industrywide. usher, for the consumer, how should the consumer approach it, what should they way in terms of what they trust or not? guest: is buyer the where, and in this case it is products you do not money for, public polling. i think we see more folks, voters, consumers are taking a look at the polls, and more newspapers are reporting on it because as they cut staff it is easier to report on polls and hard campaign reporting. the posterlook at themselves. it is hard to know the track record, but as you learn the profession and start to follow these things, you get a sense of who is good and who is not good. second, and more important, you take a look at the sample size, the methodology, the approach honest, yound to be cannot trust any single poll. every poll has errors. that is the nature of the beast, if you will. to be able to look at multiple polls and sift through the different polls is really the smartest thing to do in the consumer political polling. host: the numbers are on the screen if you want to call and ask our guests about polling in the science of polling. kellyanne conway, what would you advise people who consume polls? what are you looking for? i camecaller: -- guest: today because i'm a huge fan of online the public to learn more about polling. you did fine people selecting the polls that agree with her point of view already and touting those polls and if there is a poll that does not agree with that point of view, all polls are wrong and cell phones are a problem. if i could contribute one major thing today to the science of polling, pedro, it would be weighting inmuch the science of polling. ands talking to a principal they said you're the only firm that will not do weighting and it is a remarkable statement. why is it a problem? we already know it is difficult to reach certain people -- younger people, people of color, urban voters, and higher income households sometimes do not want to talk to pollsters. so, if you're only getting -- let's say you get 12 people in that segment and you are weighting up to the 62 you need to be representative, that is terrible and i think his criminal in polling. i would actually urgent your viewers to start asking not just about the methodology, cell phones, telephones, online, robo calling, but how much has the data becauseed the it is a cheap, easy way of mass-producing polls in quicktime, and it is why so many time and it isck why so many of these polls, particularly on the republican side are erroneous. usher, kellyanne conway talked about weighting, but maybe a layman's explanation. guest: you want your sample to of the entireive public and in a perfect world you get a sample of the population is obviously not the whole population. it is too expensive. you get a small, statistically valid example of the population and your plan, your effort is to get to be as representative as possible. if you know the electorate is latino, 52%18% women, 54% women, down the line, you want the sample itself to look like that. in the end, even in your best efforts, those numbers will come in -- will not come in exactly right. -- waitlightly wait up or down. it is like putting siding on your house -- you've done all the work, but you need the final finish, and the question is whether you need aluminum siding to cover up your mistakes. i think kellyanne conway is right. i would say i disagree and never sayg weighting, but i would with limited parameters. at me clarifyest: the entirewith mountain -- margin of error. if you do a nationwide poll of 1000 voters, the margin of error 3%.lus or minus it means that 19 out of 20 cases, had you asked the same poll, you would get the same 3.1 points in either direction in 19 out of 20 cases. there is that one out of 20 cases where it is not going to be correct, number one. number two, if you have that engineercentage martin -- margin of error, we will wait three in one or the other. wait, butnever avoiding over-waiting. i think some of the firms that are way too busy, have way too many clients at one time are anded to mass-produce polls andhington journal the -- weight them. when you do polling, it is a way to look at the electorate in the case of consumers or corporations. people often ask, how can you tell what a population's opinion is if you only talk to 1000 300 million, and the answer -- -- 1000 out of 300 million, and the answer is it is a multiple. i use a metaphor of when you go to the doctor -- they take a sample of your blood. they do not take all of your blood. i think we're all confident with the way things work when they go to the hospital. is not as critically scientific as it is with medicine, but that is a way for people to get their head around the idea that we take a sample of the population and use that to extrapolate. int: let's start with jerry oregon on our democrats line. you're on our guests. caller: thank you very much. i notice you folks never mention the fact that when we try to decide whether a poll is accurate or not, and who pays for it? don't you really believe that the most important thing for us to look at as consumers is who is paying for this? because it seems to me, just my observation, that nine out of 10 times, if it is a republican poll, the poll is going to come out very much in favor of republicans, or if the democrats do it all, the same thing. -- do a poll, the same thing. i have noticed that a lot of isitical stuff coming out nate silver is being quoted as being this or that. would you make a comment on his remarkable record, particularly in the last election? ms. kellyanne conway, do you want to start? guest: sure. first of all, i do not think who paid for the poll is the most important thing to view. i think the science, the methodology is the most important thing to you because it is often behind a hidden screen, and you do not have access to it. if we connect up a shiny thing it is to peel back the screen a little bit. it is a -- is it important to know who paid for it? yes. in a free-market system, if a pollster only produces results favorable to him -- his honor client, the free market will squeeze them out because it is impossible to always have a republican favorable poll or a democrat favorable poll. i do see them sometimes, and more and more, sir, those partisan polls, if they are outlier polls, meaning they seem out of whack with much of the they stand out as such and it seems like someone has a conclusion in search of evidence. it is that we want these people to winning, let's go find the evidence. i think posters have been called on that in the last couple of cycles, and we have had clients that do not like the results when the poll comes back and they get upset, but i tell them i am a pollster, not a plastic surgery -- i cannot guarantee what your nose will look like after the surgery. i perform the surgery, and you live with the result. at me say one last thing on that polle greatest value of a is not to tell you whether you're going to win, but how to do it. it is really the strategic insight that you gather from a poll -- where your vulnerabilities, obstacles? ug and ithe work that do do will never see the light of day because people are hiring us for proprietary strategic information. i would argue that you should pay close attention when media outlets, who seem to have a horse in the race, whether they on the right or the left, they, withholding, and you saw that in 2012. there were where -- there were way too many people that knew mitt romney would win all of the electrical vaults, i say sarcastically, and he won one of the nine swing states. that was on the conclusion that we did not think obama was going to win, and we will find polls that show that. quickly about nate silver -- i think the man is brilliant, and he has a tremendous amount to contribute to political polling and sports polling and he shows there are variables other than just the public impression or opinion they go into the dynamic. the most important thing that he shows, really, is that you cannot just presume trends from before will continue. that past is always prologue. you have to give people credit to tell you who they are, how they believe, how they might vote, and not presume that we are static and to know that we are more dynamic thinkers and doers then i think sometimes the data might suggest. host: mr. usher. guest: less the second question first -- i think the value that nate silver has wrought, and the development -- has brought and the development with "the new york times," is the power of analytics, not just the polling, buttery thing you know about the region -- with the electorate looks like, other variables you can look at. it is true for us in the work we do for corporations. for corporate polling, when she'd not see as much about, but has a little bit of a political -- which you do not see as much about, it has a little bit of a well, theyand as have a daily grind of consumer work they are dealing with. polling helps to put together a strategy to get you from a to b . in terms of partisan polls, and i do not do partisan polling anymore -- i did it for a number partisan and now we do and nonpartisan work in addition to our corporate work. i think for the most time they do it -- for the most part they do a terrific job. problem is polls that are released publicly tend to be the most optimistic. the issue is not that partisan posters only give results, it is that they only lose the results that are good for their client. that is the problem. >> let me hear from you --host: let's hear from jerry. thank you toer: c-span, it has been a while since i've been out of college and i used to be a good public talker. i had a question on the last presidential election and how much the polls influence the election. and it seems that the democrats took a lot of the electoral vote, especially on the east coast. republicanske the were getting the votes, but there polls might not have been up to speed. pollsch influence did the play? host: mr. usher? guest: i will say for -- few things, jerry. there are times when the polls can drive a race. this is particularly true in primary elections. people will use polls not released publicly, navy to release publicly, but in some -- maybe two released publicly, but in some cases to clear the field or show their viability. it can affect the viability. it does not have been a presidential election often, but it happens in senate races, gubernatorial races, what have you. i would say i am not convinced that the polls affect the outcome in a presidential election because there are so many resources at play in so many different actors that i do not think any single poll or polling itself will do that much to affect the outcome because there are so many information sources. i would say -- this made her something that we have heard already today -- that i do think that -- mirrors something that we have heard today -- i think some republicans or posters on the republican side lost their way at the end of the 2012 race, and it is essential to be completely honest about prospects, and we did the purple pole, so we heard polls from both sides. what i heard is that republicans were fully confident they would win, and hearing them say obama is pulling out of virginia, giving up three weeks before the that ind when i heard thought people lost their way and bought into groupthink. there are times when democrats do not do well and republicans do very well in polling, but 2012 is an example of where once i did their candidates wrong. host: we will hear from kellyanne conway in a second. ms. conway, go ahead. guest: the only republican -- i was the only republican poster that said president obama would be reelected, not because i wanted to him, -- wanted him to be, by the way, but it is because what we saw. happens in the romney campaign in 2012 with respect to polling was a presumption of who the electorate was going to be in these major swing states, including ohio. all of this has been made public. the idea that african-americans were not going to turn out the same level in 2012 to reelect president obama as it into electricity to obama to the presidency was incredibly presumptuous and it turned out to be wrong because it was based on this idea that well, the economy is not great, and no president has ever been reelected with the economy so poor, the unemployment rate so high, and it completely misses a whichblic opinion dynamic is that african-americans in ohio were going to support president obama a second time to maybe in connection to how they thought the economy was come but any number ofn to different factors. so my women, young people, independents -- groups he was able to rely on in 2008. the just is simple. bowlers should not presume the electorate -- that just -- jist is simple -- bowlers should not presume who the electorate is. if you're only using lists of past voters, you are not allowing for new voters. you are not allowing for the fact that made people that have , they areble voters really mad, so they will stay home, or really upset with the performance of the republicans, so they will stay home, and analog are reliable because he or she is making a statement. that the to presume electorate knows a specific of an issue that is new to all of us -- if you support or oppose campaign finance reform, going back into the rack to try to fight isis -- maybe people do not know enough about that. it to presumption. state the fact, give the forrmation, and then ask their opinion pat i am not sure that all of this has been cured going into -- opinion. i'm not sure that all of this has been cured. i think these rosy assessments do not take into account all of the ways that voters look at ofas and viewing the power incumbency, which was missed by the republican pollsters. the fact that you are there -- many americans say will give you a four-year extension unless they are given a reason not to. host: knoxville. he'll. -- bill. answersthat basically the question i was going to have. i aml say that ms. conway going to use that, list user, a election use -- loser. and gokes you stand up the wrong way -- how does a wave come together? we had a recent election. i am a democrat, the republicans had a wave and on election day and slept everybody -- swept everybody. how does the wave come together? host: ms. conway, why don't you start? guest: it is a great question and i am sure doug has views on this. 2010 was a wave for republicans. 2014 does not look like a wave to me. the difference is as follows, if you can nationalize elections, so every candidate has to run their own campaign. everyone is really focused on some of the same issues -- the government is too intrusive, expensive. obamacare is really bad, i am worried about it. in 2006, for example, the democrats will very much able to -- after george w. bush was elected, they were able to see the issue is not national security and terrorism, it is barak and afghanistan -- and q and afghanistan. .ou can build a wave waves are difficult. i do not see one in 2014 because all the key senate races that have honest polling really show everyone stuck at 45%, 46% on a good day. the question is what a shoe each of those races is going to push -- what issue in each of those races is going to push someone? everyone already knows what obamacare is. i think it is not a way. host: mr. usher? guest: i think there are three factors you need for there to be a way of looking at the last 20 to 25 years. the first is that it needs to be a midterm election, which we have right now. the second is the party in power, the president's party needs to have serious challenges is opinion that is favorable for the other party will very much against the party in power. the third factor is more structural factors. in the house, there are real opportunities. in 1994 u.s. a lot of opportunities because you had a lot of folks, old southern democrats, not necessarily that old, but democrats from southern districts that had not voted publican and they were right for taking over. in 2006, you had the opposite -- folks in swing districts that had gone to republicans that were ripe for takeover for democrats in the wake of george w. bush's late-term swoon. on the senate side this year, you have some opportunities and a lot of democrats up for election and if there is any way that will build. side, you not have that. you have republicans maximizing what they can get if you look at the underlined dynamics of the -- underlying dynamics of the individual seats -- they can gain a handful, there is not that much territory. i do not think you will see a wave on the house side. in terms of a wave, i think kellyanne conway is correct. if you watch the next couple of months, you will get an indication. you will see a -- not see another way, 50 secret santa on the republican side -- 50 seat advance on the republican side of. george. republican line. i was a resident of pennsylvania and i have been in kentucky for 15 years. i saw on the news that the governor colbert in pennsylvania is losing by 25 points against a democrat contender, however, now, this governor said he is going to extend medicare now because he is losing so bad, and i was wondering if that will lack of popularity in pennsylvania? i am going to keep my eye on this poll and see if i can find anything out. also, the polling says that 51% of the women -- no, excuse me -- 51% favored the democrats, and 37% only favor republicans in the women voting. host: color, thank you. mr. usher? guest: sure. first of all, george, you are in kentucky, you have a great way -- race to watch that. race, thereylvania is always a race or two on either side where the figure will be competitive early on and then becomes clear that it is not that competitive here i think in the -- competitive. i think in the case in pennsylvania, it does not look like a competitive race. on the other side committee look at ohio in the senate, democrat ed fitzgerald, this seems to be , hasong candidate early on had personal troubles, which make his race look much more problematic. often, you start, you feel an incumbent like the governor of pennsylvania should be strong, and you think in ohio, a swing state, a democrat should be strong, but you look at individual candidates, both come out, and you realize it is a race that will not be that competitive. kellyanne conway, in pennsylvania, go ahead. guest: that is right. colbert is in battle, problems -- probably one of the most embattled republican governors. when you do something so close to an election that you have been reluctant to do before him, voters get skeptical, if not cynical because they believe you're trying to get votes, and in this case female votes. i also believe the governor has lost his advantage in contrast to the democrats, so he might depress republican turnout. he would need to explain why he changed his mind and decided to expand medicaid under what the obama administration is expecting for governors who have agreed to expand medicaid, and their are more than a few republicans who have. they make this point. something doug said -- candidates and campaigns matter the most. wave or no wave, polls or no polls, you need quality candidates that connect with voters and do not have foot-in-mouth disease, and not just the absence of saying something controversial, but the ability to say something compelling. he mentioned ohio, the governors race. john kasich is going away with it. john kasich, scott walker, scott corbett, they were all elected and are in difficult -- different positions. campaigns matter. i wish i was as powerful and important as to both imposters are, but campaigns and candidates really matter. host: james from new jersey. independent line. go ahead. about: i have a question governor christie hugging president obama after the hurricane. i was wondering if the polling showed that had any impact. i just spent a week in britain and there is a lot of talk about the scottish independence vote, and i was wondering if your guests could comment on the accuracy of the polling on the question of scottish independence. usher, usa either of those? you for some.take i will leave scottish independence to those that know more about it, but i will say to governor christie, at that moment he was doing what was needed for his state. the question is what effect did it have on the polling -- pulling for what? it was far ahead of any race he had to worry about and it was an important moment for new jersey. i think it was the case where a politician, in this case an elected official, was doing what was expected of them, to do what they could what was the best for the people of the state. what that affect them in a presidential campaign? frankly i think there are other issues that will affect them that are more significant than hugging president obama, but in own peoplelping his and doing the job he was elected to do, i think it was both smart and it shows the truth -- that governor christie really wants help,deral government's and president obama was delivering it. it was two elected officials doing their job. , would yous. conway theypollsters finding that be asking the question -- would your opinion change because the governor out the president? the on the way you would answer the question is how it affected president obama's reelection chances? it happened so close to election day, how does look when a leader goes to new jersey to help hurricane victims. the answer is usually it helps very much. part of what james from new jersey was asking was how did that affect mitt romney? people in the mitt romney campaign blamed governor christie for hugging the president and i thought that was incredibly unfair. i do not think that governor of new jersey getting the president of the united states to help after the hurricane is somehow why mitt romney lost eight of the nine swing states nowhere near new jersey. i think his question went to that. there is no question that we as americans expect our presidents and our governors, republican or democrat, to be fully present and on the ground when a tragedy such as that strikes. i cannot imagine anyone with any type of common sense would accuse president obama craving for votes by going to help hurricane victims a couple of days before the election. i think it did help with those that were on the fence saying what they thought to see leadership, the kind of leadership they do not see right now in him, frankly, if you look at the polls. i thought governor christie was unfairly blamed by the romney campaign for the president gaining in some of those swing states. campaignsart of our series you're watching this week -- we're looking at the science of polling the two guests. conway,d from kellyanne a pollster and strategist join us from philadelphia, and doug usher, from purple strategies. columbia, missouri. republican line. hello, jeff. caller: how are you doing today? host: fine, go ahead. i think what is really needed for our election is tv voting stations, like what we c-span, what we can learn more about the candidates for federal, state, and local -- one station for also a you can make intelligent decisions about our candidates, all run by c-span,rs, just like maybe even a little better, so that we can get quality candidates. i would like to hear your opinion on that. thank you. host: doug usher, when you are pulling someone, the level at which someone is informed, does that play in tune with you talk to? guest: i think it is important not just to speak to the most informed voters. people,broad range of as are people that have come to the polls that have never voted before and might not know that much about the candidate. from a polling perspective, i think it is important to know what people know and understand what people do not know. most important is to use your polling, your public opinion research to develop a strategy that gets to 51% by combining those who know the most and those that are most intense and are your supporters in turning them out combine with those that might not know that much to give them the kind of information you need to help frame the questions you are asking when you go to the polls so the answer to the question will be your candidate. host: how do you choose your samples? guest: what we try to do in the purple pole is get a sample of likely voters based on a number of screening criteria, and --pite kelly and --caller: kellyanne conway's victim, we do combination ofa past turnout and data, leaving a lot of room for flexibility as they gather the data. one thing i want to know about what the caller said -- i believe there is a lot of information out there. there is a nonpartisan information, a lot of websites. this is a time when there is more information than ever about the candidates. one problem that he is pointing to that is right is it is hard to know who is providing the most accurate information. there was a time when your newspaper would give the voting insert and you trusted one or two of your local newspapers and and get theen it up information. now when you search online for election information you're just as likely to get a sponsored parties find as you are to get an unbiased source of information. there is a lot of information, there just aren't that great filters. we do much of the same. it's all like my company is very similar to dog and most and most -- doug pollsters. independent list brokers by people who do this as a business, keep collecting information about who is voting -- who is not not every it who is not. but not every state is created equal on that. we apply a number of screening questions where we make you, the respondent, comfortable to tell vote, will vote, not sure. one thing i saw 2012 is that somebody is telling you nine months in florida election that they are not sure, they are being honest. front of an election that they are not sure, they are being honest. you don't just hang up the phone , you keep them on the line. keep on going with the screening questions. find out what they think about politics on a scale of one to 10. how interested are the on the issues? do not vote because they do not have the time, may because they are not interested in the candidates on the issues, or because they do nothing there vote counts. give people a comfortable out so they can point at the system rather than that themselves. we were involved in a runoff election, and there was a runoff between two candidates, and our candidate came in second, but eventually won. most candidates will not pay for a full eight and we did, because we were only asking four questions. if we were asking greeting questions about a runoff in the middle of july where they are already think they voted in the original primary, than we are not doing the right people on the phone. you need all of the screening questions. you cannot take the list, insert the name and start doing the paul. you have to respect people enough, and the dynamism of each them what they intend to do this election cycle. host: bob in lincoln, delaware. caller: good morning. ms. conway answered my question about the polling. that is what i was calling about. thank you very much. next caller, shirley in tallahassee, florida. caller: i'm delighted to see that you're having both sides of this. s perspective. playynamic that comes into with all of the different mediums that you can get information on polling and policy and different perspectives. the 2012e nonpartisan, project out of rutgers, we have thatlose the gap project also creates a dynamic and a different medium of how it is you can be certain information as a relates to candidates, policies, and party politics. in our local elections, i recently did polling and phonebank calling for three of our local candidates about 75 on my list. 35.sponse of about that there is a sophisticated electorate that it seems that we are still somehow dynamicabout an older of the numbers and the data mining that we are not being given as the general public. we have a governor's race against an incumbent governor who was called a tea party governor, and now we have a primary candidate who was a former republican governor. florida is third in the nation with the dynamic of demographic as the particulars where we a state, i hear about ohio, pennsylvania, we hear about kentucky, but not about florida. can i ask you a follow-up question? those are going to be dynamic races. i think surely brings up an important point, which is the there are lots of things that go into a race beyond the polling. isre hone bking, there not reached to voters, there is getting people to share on facebook, sure on social media. the early types of analytics that help you bring that forward. unfortunately instead ofand stan watching the game on the field, everyone is watching the scoreboard. and the problem with the scoreboard is that no one can agree what the score is. fans, baseballll fans, and match it if you had everyone play in the same stadium and you had four different scoreboards. cap do not look at the what is going on on the field. when people are doing, but what resources will are bringing to bear on mobilizing voters. what analytics they happen play -- have in line. play. guest: any smart campaign listening should grab s hirley. voters are sometime skeptical but they are much more smart and than are sophisticated lot of folks in the political for. give them credit go to all, not to they become conscientious objector tears. they become upset with republicans, with president what she is tapping into his incredibly important goes to the heart of polling and other pieces of the industry that you have been covering this week on c-span. you have to credit the voter, the individual voter, for being much more savvy and sophistic gated. that does not mean they know every jonathan tittle of economic policy. but it does mean that they are availing themselves of the multitude of information and they are applying that to each race individually. only a fool would ignore florida , after florida decided the presidential election by less , and hasvotes in 2000 been a bellwether state in many different ways since then. the more north you are in florida, you're really in the deep south, because you get so many folks who want to live in the northeast. place whereida is a the smartest political strategists make sure they understand the dynamics b. everyone is watching with peanut chews what is going to happen there this year. it will be a fascinating race, and we are all watching. host: i want to get a response to twitter. jim asks how you are dealing america cutting records landline phones -- the cord on landline phones. guest: i will say that that is a serious issue, the idea of cutting cords, the idea of cell phones makes it extremely difficult to have high-quality polls. need to understand was there is a glory time for holes, when everyone in through their landline and long distance calling not cheap. it was the late 80's, the late 90's, and into the mid-2000. hard to get a proper sample of voters, and that you need to reach them across medium . there just aren't the same availability of respondents by their landline as there used to be, it even when you factor in cell phones, the telephone is , voice interaction is going by the wayside for younger voters. i think it is making polling extremely difficult. host: d.c. the same shift? -- do you see the same shift? guest: no question. back indial 12 numbers the day, now you have to dial 40. people have their set, they screen calls, they do not pick up. i do think there is tremendous benefit to polls if properly done and scientifically sound. a major touchstone to what a representative sample of americans or folks in a certain county think and what they feel. i assure you that elected andials -- officials candidates are not just looking at those polls to say am i going to win, they are looking to get some information and some advice from their constituents, consumers, voters. they want to hear from you. your voice matters to them. the fact is if you want to participate in democracy, and so the poll, take 10 minutes because someone is listening to your opinion and it matters. host: democratic line, go ahead. caller: i would like to know why the republicans claim that obama is not a very good leader. i would like to know why they would back a republican party that sabotages everything for of benefit of all mayor america, but they claim he was the problem. we have been talking about specific races, but what about holes that ask about president's credibility, or his job with the economy, are those polls conducted, and in the same manner is it surely would -- julie with those races? guest: if you take a look at the incentive in terms of what the poll result of what people looking at, everyone looks of the national polls. congressl numbers of look at the polls of their electorate. if you're a house member that has a very republican electorate, you're not going to worry about whether president obama's numbers up or down. -- the opposite is true with someone who is a very democratic district to the nationals can give you a picture , president obama is in the 40's on approval, which is not great but not a disaster. the problem is when you look at it, it is tough for a consumer of polling to look at the national polls and really understand what incentives are leaving democrats and republicans to act the way they are. rating is disapproval a disaster. i can understand the caller and other people who want to defend the president and blame republicans. always being is asked questions, and usually cannot finish a sentence without saying republicans eight times. his disapproval rating is creeping up, which is more important than the approval rating. right, left, center polls, his disapproval rating is for the consistent. it is a domestic economy, and his foreign policy, it is all of that. i will end by saying this, forget about republicans are is democratic candidates who cannot get far him.gh away from there are senators who are campaigning who want him to move away or change his policies. you cannot just look at falls smiss -- you cannot just look at the polls and dismissed them because you do not agree, or they do not go with your opinion. host: before i let you go, es your own organizations, what polls do you trust? entrust -- and generally trust the larger news organizations who have been doing it for a long time. but if i'm trying to figure out what the real number is on a specific question, i start by looking at as many different ways of looking at the question and look at as many questions as possible. today,ow, in the world we have five standards to look at -- high standards to look at. guest: i agree. the more polls you like that you can see how they are conduct did and not just on the horse race questions but on what americans say are the important issues. is motivating say their vote. not just who to vote, but why to bother at all. ofould caution the viewers becoming too enamored of the so-called verbal polls. an increasing number of states heavily,icting them which means folks out there doing them on the cheap may have to pay some penalties. the reason those are not as , it is different than getting opinions. for for our life people talking to live people. it allows the respondent to have a conversation which is the way they talk about public policy and consumers and politics in their lives. look at campaigns this week, we have been looking at polling. and doug conway, usher, thank you both for your time. up in our final segment, it is the america by the numbers serious. we look at challenges and opportunities for young adults. ♪ >> this weekend on the c-span networks, tonight on c-span native american history. then on saturday, a live all-day coverage from the national book festival science pavilion. on sunday, the discussion from bbc scotland. then q&a with judge robert katzmann. on c-span2, tonight, in depth with ron paul. saturday, national book festival from the history and biography pavilions. and then on sunday, after with william burroughs, talking about his book the asteroid threat. on c-span3 tonight, a nasa documentary about the 1969 apollo 11 moon landing. general sherman's atlantic campaign. sunday, a look at supreme court ofe bush score -- laws gore. versubush vs. c-span presents debates on what makes america great. evolution, and genetically modified foods. spotlight, including global warming, voting rights, writing infectious disease, and food safety. america's history to her, showing sights and sounds from america's history. what you think about the programs you're watching. washington journal continues. host: it is our america by the number series, and we look yet data and try to make it applicable to you at home. by tom snyder, and jennifer brown learner. -- jennifer brown lerner. what are you looking for in this kind of report? guest: we wanted to paint a portrait of him adults in the nine and days but we got together a group of statistics across the statistical agencies , andwork with young adults lt paints an overall tortur portrait. host: you found out that the overall college enrollment rate increasedyear-olds from 26% in 1982 41% in 2012 labor force participation rates from 20 to 24 euros decline from 77% in 1982 71% in 2013. more young people have completed high school, which enables them to go to college. but on the other hand, looking at the labor force statistics, there has been a decline in participation. this is affected all racial and ethnic groups. the incomes for young adults has substantially. host: people are being educated, a hard timeng finding jobs. isst: i think what this helping us understand is that we continue to have a job square is scales mismatch. where not training young people with the knowledge, abilities, or credentials they need to enter the labor market. businesses are having a hard time finding entry-level workers with the technical skills they need but also with the employer desired traits. the time management, the communication, and all of those skills. at this point in time we are seeing a mismatch between the training we are providing and the jobs that are available. host: nuances that help you adapt to corporate life. to be a better job seeker. how do you present yourself as a potential employee that will make you palatable to employers in the jobs that are available? that 84%r report found of young females and 80% of at least a have ingh school education and 2 2013. guest: are some other things that might pertain to labor force statistics. isoung adult in high school much less likely to have job experience of high school than years ago. like could be a fact or for -- betion for their first a factor in preparation for their first job out of high school. host: if you want to ask questions, we have divided the lines by ages. --to 24 we talked about people getting education and college education, what is helping more students stay in school and finishing college degree? lots of communities are taking the time to build comprehensive solutions not only in high school but have smooth transitions into secondary education and the work force. we are seeing a number of communities put greater thicknesses on career exploration and career opportunities. they can think beyond the best pathway beyond high school to transition into that. we are also seeing on average education really focusing on thinking about what it means to students to big college and career bound. focusing on the skills they give people need to be successful, and making sure they can personalize solutions for students to gain all of these types of skills. host: all of that comes at a cost of your study to examine the college cost and provides a graph of war are be reset home. guest: what they are seeing is the net cost pertaining to college degrees are going up, specifically this looks at cost for freshmen, and it is up 24%. tohas gone up from eckstein 20,000 -- and has gone up from $16,000 to $20,000. on the other hand you can see there is an increase in that cost for students in all income groups. host: and they are still paying for those loans after they get education. high cost of college is becoming an access issue, and is it becoming unaffordable? we are seeing a loss of .upported bringing down cost education is becoming more and more out of reach, and that is not the direction that the labor market statistics are telling us we need to go. we need to get more people for secondary training so they are ready for the jobs that are available. guests are here to talk about edits to your questions. ohio. from guest: i'm seeing the gaps in skills and available jobs. teachingh school still home service.d not that that is bad, but to those not the skills needed today. guest: i think your lights, i think the role of career and technical education is in theingly important .-12 many programs ar we are seeing stronger school ships thatpartner allow students to treatment facilities that are somewhere to the ones they would use on the job. guest: there are large wage graphs between people of different degrees, and that might be something students will want to consider when they are choosing their major. you youi was wondering, mentioned the number of enrollees has gone way up. how many people are actually graduating with degrees that are not part of something were you will not get a job? like sociology and those things that people don't need? guest: about 34% of all 29-year-olds have a college degree. there are numbers of people with degrees. is true that people who have the less marketable majors have lower incomes but the incomes are still on average higher than those with just a high school diploma. should targeted sociology -- guest: there is great information out there at the center for workforce information. i do not think it is about what your major is, i think it is about giving young people the opportunity to think about what is the knowledge, gills, and abilities that you need? for a lot of feels there is an -- fields there is acquired technical training that you need. ability for a young person to transition into post secondary education and earn credentials as a vehicle to their success of labor market. -- is critical to their success in the labor market. caller:? wish i hadnity -- i the opportunity to get the orce.s or the job f i just finished my degree, and do not have a job. i have atmospheric science and degrees.science on average people with the stem degrees are getting higher salaries, but people on them lloyd. it's yours to take time to find positions. in the longer run we find that they are coming away with good jobs on average. the research shows exactly what tom says, on average the stem degree recipients have higher wages, we are seeing that this is where we have high need, but again this is about the opportunity to take the information we have in terms of waiver market to sticks and the type of skills and training for the jobs available in any region. that information is not always especially to young adults and recent graduates. that is an opportunity we have to think about how do we get more information to the fingertips of people who need it most in terms of making decisions around majors and degrees. you have some of these employer and you do not have the ability to say i agree communicator -- im a great communicator. giving young people the opportunity to demonstrate skills that are not necessarily academic in nature. earn a badge and teamwork or communications to demonstrate that these are skills you have? and how do you create an authentic assessment that allows for you to demonstrate that you have these sets of skills? what corporate skill would you tell someone starting a job tomorrow to emphasize? guest: communication in written and oral form. that is the number one skill that employers are looking for across all fields. urse, having technical training is important, and to demonstrate that through communication is equally as important. a caller from lincoln, nebraska. my generation has such a high student loan debt to income ratio. i lucky enough to have a job where work for the federal government, but my job does not pay enough for me to pay back my student loans. not only does that affect my credit score, and effects my ,bility to go further in my job but i also cannot pursue secondary education because i y transcript because i am in default on my student loan. and yet i have a great job my but it does not pay enough for the cost of living and for the student loans i had to encourage to get the job i have -- to have.to get the job i i incurred about $80,000 for a degree in english. guest: the average student loan burden is increasing. loan 66% of students had a , and that went up to 68 in 2012. it has risen from $21,000 to $25,000. your greens is that the higher end of the range, but on average about $25,000 worth of debt. more parents are taking out loans as well. the percentage of parents with a about 20%, up to $27,000. there are many issues related to her education finance. that is not necessarily my area of expertise and i think on average we know that we are doing a disservice to young people, protect differently those in the 18-24-year-old population in not taking a serious look at the policy we have around higher education finance. caller: good morning. invested in my education, and losing my job i went to look a new position. i was only found to be overqualified. i found a lot of people in their finding this to be an issue and many are finding need to go back to school for new degrees and possibly move back with their parents. i started a company. what do you have disabled people now burdened with and having to -- toabout the retirement say about people now burdened with debts and having to worry about their retirement? obviously this gets at the issue we were talking about before about thinking about our economy and terms of the job skills mismatch. are we training people for jobs available, two people have too much training for those jobs? we really need to think about that as a regional and local problem. i do think the 18-24-year-old population is feeling this a lot more than the older population. part about greatest this generation is the entrepreneurial spirit, and a lot of people are taking the risk of starting their own business and seeing how successful they can be. i wish you the best of luck in your endeavor. at unemployment rates? males,particularly for it is very high compared to other groups. they are facing a lot of challenges in finding jobs. i agree with miss lerner and terms of education being a big asset on find a job. . is education absolutely the status quo for becoming a success? guest: this is a tough question because you have success stories highbill gates who has a school diploma and some college, and then you have others who are winning nobel prizes. what we're talking about now and how we need to change the rder toation is in o be prepared to enter the job market you need to have the core academic skills of reading, writing, and math that everyone needs preview needed to be trained in technical skills of the field you want to go into, and you need these employer desired traits, the communication and teamwork. we are very credential-based, and the question is to the credentials allow you access to the jobs? in some ways they do, and in others we need to think about it we have the right types of credentials for the knowledge, skills, and abilities we want to young people to have? host: you talk about technical skill s -- a journalism degree is a liberal arts degree and it is trading for a field. -- training for a field. example, i use my own i majored in communications and urban studies. super engaged in everything i was learning and reading, and i gained a huge set of skills, to elderly around critical thinking, the ability to organize information and the ability to work in teams and then transitioned to be a teacher, and i actually did need some technical training around classroom management. on average, everyone is getting a set of technical skills, whether or not they need them through formal education or on-the-job. anything to add? time: you will see over that people who have these college degrees will eventually find good jobs and be able to move up. those skills that you learn through a liberal arts education can be useful. i majored in history, and writing well was a great contribution to my career. this is our america by the number series. our next caller from california. get a: is impossible to job unless you speak spanish, and it makes it twice as hard. anything to add? a lot of people would call that a technical skill. the ability to be fluent in another language is great and makes you marketable. it talks about your ability to communicate with a broad range of people. necessityin a for every job out there and could use a research perspective. caller: thank you for taking my call. from the perspective of an academic advisor at one of the largest colleges in the country. happened with those students is that a lot of them do not have those soft hills of documentation or teamwork. i've done job interviews with young people where you can hardly get them to develop some kind of eye contact. is that they do come in with the skills, and they may not even make it into the employment because they do not have the soft skills during the interview. we need to be careful with saying what the needs are now, because to be properly trained it will take upwards of two years, and then at the end of that it may become obsolete. difficult for us to figure out what is going to be evene for years from now, though now is when you are getting your education. when nurses were in critical need, and you went for nursing, and became inundated everyone came in. you best advise someone to improve those soft skills? caller: with my students i always tell them to get involved. and it committed to college it and challenge because people come to campus and then go home. they need to get involved, do things in the community. there is no hard and fast rule that we can teach you how to think critically or how to develop those skills, you pick them up as you become more exposed to different scenarios, groups, people, and organizations. those jobhink prospectiveithi employers need to be something that students take on board. you cannot just rely on your resume. many of the and adults will be approaching the labor market for the first time and they need some assistance in developing those job interview skills. i want to thank the caller, roger does in important job for young people in terms of providing academic and career counseling. a lot of young people do not have the opportunity to direct with folks like you. medicine major investment by -- that is acould major investment by institutions. guiding them toward any of these opportunities. we are seeing an increased need for career exploration and career opportunities. opportunity for multiple factors to work together to create opportunities for students to foster skills that we have been talking about. while that takes an investment i great number of partners the payoff is immense. caller: i have a question. expensive -- so expensive. business ofe of a churning out degrees, they do not care about you getting a job, they just want your money and want you to jump through urdles. if we're spending that much m a listhould we not have of here are the jobs with a good wage? it is all about who you know. 1.i would like to make is to help people with the tools onosts, we have her website -- on our website talking about he cost of going to different colleges and the discounts for different income ranges. there may be potential values in your area or else where that we encouraged it is to take advantage of to look for lower cost to shins and that meet .heir needs about college is helping you get a job? student support services, you hope institutions of higher education are able to invest in them, but they're expensive and and more challenging. there are many opportunities r educationinsti , like workforce investment boards. host: diane, in michigan. caller: hello. i am addressing both miss lerner and mr. snyder. i think the job you're doing to help the young people in this country is very important. you're doing a great job. however, i think some of the suggestions are like a drop in the bucket. as far as helping students find a college where they might get some discounts or some help with their scholarships. it is a fax, and has been for years, that if your parents or parent has anywhere near a decent job and has been working hard all their life, you do not qualify for anything. you may qualify for a few things if you have a really tops -- reallyt i enlarge by andudent, but i student cannot get the help they need to finance college. i have two grown children, one is an engineer, one is a teacher with two masters degrees. she is making about $45,000 a year, this is her fifth year. over 35 thousand dollars in student loans. we are hoping her with that because we worked all our life. we have a decent income. pay bywas able to working 12 hours a day seven days a week and taking graduate courses to pay off his student loans. but everyone is not able to do that. host: thank you for your experience. averages about $25,000, and many students have larger loan balances which can be a challenge. we do know that the incomes will be higher over time, but will be a challenge to pay the money back. we know that the parents are taking on loans as well. i do want to the besides -- i do want to emphasize that there are locations out there for all different students of all different incomes. host: i see your chart here. guest: there is a significant for peopleantage who came out with their , there is agree significant income gap and then that expands. marie, in connecticut. caller: good morning. my question is why is there such ssing inece mi education of survival skills? so many other things need to be taught. guest: i think what you're self advocacy.s self resiliency. when we talk about our nations , we arenerable youth talking about family circumstance, income, race, ethnicity. need to think about what students need to be successful, how do you train teachers to be able to impart those skills to students, and how do you assess students on those skills? we structure our education system. what does it mean to be college and career ready? went to look at the technical skills, and we are in the process of developing a rate of assessment that are going to see how well students are doing toward what we define of the skills. i was laid off in 2009, and i got a two-year associate's degree. is hard to do job because i wondered aryans, which i am an older person -- because they want experience, and i am an older person. you cannot get a job without experience. to offer aloyers are strategy where if they needed person, they could help someone tell that spot rather than people who go cannot get a job after taking on that debt. give them experience while they are going to school. host: what is your associate's degree in? caller: maintenance. school did not cost me anything because i had the dislocated workers act. guest: we are seeing it in communities, not of this sale we would like you but partnerships between businesses, institutions -- educationtation which are creating worker five r pipelines. it does take legwork on the part immunityssus and colleges, and we are seeing some incentives from the federal government to build these partnerships. ?ost: anything to add guest: he mentioned the displaced workers program. federal government dollars that allow people to return for additional training so they can enter a new field. they typically focus on the older workers that need the retraining skills. lots of people were able to get retraining in these high needs fields. at the community level and what have been great for communities to have the information to say to folks that the top five areas in which we need people are these. these are the degrees that will you more palatable. building that into our education system is something we need to work harder at. host: if you want to see the information provided by the national center for educational statistics you can go to our website and look at those charts. tom snyder and jennifer brown lerner, thank you. it for our program today. another edition of the washington journal comes your way tomorrow. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] >> president obama will be traveling out of town for several fundraisers. the press secretary will hold a briefing with reporters at 11:30 a.m. we expect to hear more about remarks thet the president made yesterday. we expect clarification during today's press briefing which is slated for 1130 a.m. eastern. we will have that alive for you on c-span. the american history tour continues tonight. hornll look at lowell big and the attempts to take land that had previously been promised to native americans. that led to the conflict known as custer's last stand up. >> when you come out west they want to turn the sioux and cheyenne and arapahoe and the blackfoot and the crow into christian farmers. sitting bull is not going to scratch and claw at the ground with a hoe. crazy voices not going to surrender his pony to a plow. they are hunters. they are warriors. that is their vision. mid-1870's, there is a stock market crash of the banking system rolls over.

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