tv Martin Bashir MSNBC August 11, 2011 12:00pm-1:00pm PDT
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if you agree with me, it does not matter if you are a democrat or republican or independent, youave to let congress know. you have got to tell them that you have had enough of the theatrics, and you have had enough of the politics, stop sending out press releases and start passing bills that we all know will help the economy right now. that is what they need to do. a thnd they have to hear that f you. [ applause ] let me be specific. i will give you examples. you have to tell them to extend the payroll tax cut so that middle-class families will continue to have more money to spend. we passed this in december and the average family received $1,000 from that tax cut. and you need to get it again, because the economy is still weak. it is going to help you make ends meet. but it is also going to mean more customers for businesses, and it will increase demand, and
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it is right for the economy and i would sign that bill today if it came to my desk. [ applause ] tell congress to get past their differences and send me a road construction bill, so that companies can put tens of thousands of people to work right now building our roads and bridges and airports and seaports. i mean, think about it. america used to have the best stuff, best roads, best airports, the best seaports and we are slipping behind, because we are not investing in it, because of politics and gridlock. do you want to put people to work right now rebuilding america? you have to send that message to congress. [ applause ] send a message to congress to come to an agreement on trade
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deals that will level the playing field and open markets to our businesses. so, we can sell more goods to countries around the world. you know, we have got a lot of americans driving kias and hyundais, and i want folks in korea driving fords and chevys and chryslers. i'd like to see that. [ applause ] i want to see billions of products around the world stamped with three words -- made in america. those trade bills are teed up. they are ready to go. let's get it done. tell congress we need to reform the patent system. so entrepreneurs like the ones who developed some of the
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technology here can turn their ideas into businesses more quickly, so that companies like this one can better compete against companies around the world. we shouldn't make it so difficult. for somebody with a good idea to translate that into a business. tell congress we have hundreds of thousands of bright, talented, skilled americans who are returning home from iraq and afghanistan, and i have proposed connecting the veterans looking for work with businesses that need their skills. you have 24-year-olds and 25-year-olds who are leading platoons and handling equipment that is worth tens or hundreds of billions of dollars, and they come back here and they can't find a job? let's put them to work. these are things we can do right now. these are things that i have already proposed. we have worked out the glitches. the legislation is drafted.
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let's get it done. now, given the weaknesses of the economy, we need to do even more than that and over the coming weeks, i will be putting out more proposals, week by week that will help businesses hire and put people back to work. i'm going to keep at it until every single american who wants a job can find one. now, we do have to pay for these things. and in order to pay for these things, congress has to finish the job of reducing the nation's budget deficit in a sensible, responsible way. not just with more cuts this year or next year -- those cuts would weaken the economy more than it already is, and we have
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already cut $1 trillion in what is called discretionary spending. what we need is a long-term plan to get our nation's finances in order. that is the only way we can invest in places like this. that is how we can fund the research at the department of energy and fund the community college that trained folks to be able to work here and fund the frastructure and the technology to help us win the future by doing what you do, what families do, think about it. when things are tight, you cut out those things that you cannot afford, even if it is tough to pay for the things that really matter. you don't cut out the college fund for your kids. you stop maybe going out as often. you don't stop taking care of your parent. who needs care.
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you are cutting back to continue. the same principle applies to government. and by the way, in your own families, i'm assuming you don't just keep all of the stuff that you like and tell your spouse, you have to get rid of all of the stuff she likes or he likes. that would not work in my household. you don't just cut out the stuff that is important to you or keep all of of the stuff that is important the you and cut out the stuff that is important for your kids? the same is true for us as an american family. we cannot ask the people in this room working families, middle-class families to bear the entire burden. we are not going to balance our budgets on the back of middle-class and working people in this country. everybody has to do their part.
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everybody has to do their part. everybody has to chip in. that's fair. you learn it in kindergarten. that's what all of this fuss was about in washington. are we going to deal with our deficit in a way that's fair? that means closing tax loopholes for billionaires before we cut the college loans for young people. [ applause ] >> tax companies doing very well before you cut health care for seniors. it means making sure that the biggest corporations pay their fair share in taxes before we gut the investments in technology and clean energy that made this factory a reality. now, that's just commonsense.
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it should have bipartisan support. these are things that we could be doing right now. that is how we can jump start this economy. speed up the recovery, and get more folks working. while making sure that we get the fiscal house in order. we can do both. and i will be laying out more proposals in the days ahead, and i will keep after every idea and every serious proposal to help us to grow the economy until everybody who wants a job can find one. but i want everybody to understand here. the problem is not that we don't have answers. the problem is that folks are playing political games. we have a long way to go. we didn't get into this mess overnight and it is going to take time to get us out, and that is the truth. that is no excuse for inaction. it is time to puts a side
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ultimatums and time to stop drawing lines in thean you know, in the aftermath of this whole debt ceiling debacle, and when the markets going up and down like they are, there's been a lot of talk in washington right now that i should call congress back early. the last thing we need is congress spending more time arguing in d.c. [ applause ] what i figure is that they need to spend more time out here listening to you. and hearing how fed up you are. that is why i'm here. that is why i will be traveling to a lot of communities like this one over the next week. that is what congress should be doing. go back home, listen to people's frustrations with all of the gridlock. listen to how frustrated folks
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are with the constant bickering and the unwillingness to compromise, and the desire to score points even if it is at the expense of our country. if they are listening hard enough, maybe they will come back to washington ready to compromise and ready to create jobs and ready to reduce our deficit, and ready to do what you sent them there to do. you know, america voted for divided government, and that makes it tough. you know, you have one party controlling the house of representatives, and another party controlling the senate, so they have voted for, and you voted for divided government, but you did not vote for dysfunctional government. you didn't vote for a do-nothing government.
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you didn't vote for a government that where folks are just looking out for special interests. you didn't vote for a government that is beholden to lobbyists. we've get a lot of work to do, and the only way we will get it done is if everybody -- democrats and republicans -- find a way to put country ahead of party. that's what i am fighting for. i'm here to enlist you in that fight. you to hold everybody accountable, because if we can come together and find common ground, there is no stopping the united states of america, and there is no holding us back and we can strengthen this economy and we can put our nation back to work and we can lead the world in growing countries and we can make it through the economic storms and reach calmer waters stronger than we were
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before. thank you very much, everybody. god bless you. thank you. [ applause ] fiery speech from the president challenging the americans to really give members of congress an earful while they are on break. the president saying that he has put proposals on the table, including a road construction bill that he would be willing to sign as well as tax breaks for employers willing to hire vets and even challenging congress to get a trade bill together, and there you have it, the president is saying, listen, i'm doing my job here and i am putting these ideas here, but enough of the bickering in washington. the president says that there is not a problem with the country, but there is a problem with the politics. and that we need to fix it. so, again, president obama speaking in holland, michigan, at a plant and able to keep 100-plus jobs as a result of the stimulus. and thank you for joining me this hour for "newsnation." in our extended coverage, and in the meantime, our friend jonathan capehart is in for martin bashir, and he is up next. thank you, tamron. i'm jonathan capehart in for
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martin bashir, and we have been watching a fiery president speaking at a battery facility in holland, michigan. there is no doubt it is the topic of of the moment of job growth, and let's go to kristen welker who is joining us from the white house. and he talked about the need of congress should come back to -- kristen? >> hi, there, jonathan, right. he did. he talked about the fact that, you know, the one thing that everyone has been talking about here in d.c., should congress come back from their vacation. what you just heard him say is that the last thing we need is more bickering from congress. he wants them out there listening to people, talking to people, understanding their frustrations so that when they come back, they will get something done, and that is the point that he made today. and he said, that is what he is doing today in terms of visiting that plant there in holland, michigan, which was able to add 150 new jobs because of the stimulus money they received
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back in 2009. but, an important point, jonathan, the unemployment rate in michigan is 10.1%, and that is higher than national average and the president has gotten criticism from members of his own party even saying that he has not led with enough leadership right now, and you heard that today, he said he will be releasing proposals in the coming days and that is going to be coming from the super committee to identify more debt reduction, and he said he will put forth his own proposals and that is the first time we have heard of a time line, and he said in the coming days, and that is his way of saying he is in control of the situation. jonathan? >> well, we have just seen, kristen, a fiery obama, an unlike in previous weeks so is this is a preview of what is to come in september when he is back and congress is back from vacation?
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>> well, it definitely could be. again, he has gotten this criticism that he is not taking the reins here when we are seeing the volatility in the markets, and people in his own party saying that they have been disillusioned by him, and what you saw today was a very fiery president obama, and someone who is saying that i certainly am in charge of this situation. will he get some pushback? we will have to wait and see, and as you know, there is a lot of talk about his vacation to martha's vineyard and some people saying he should not be taking a vacation in the midst of this economic crisis. well, the white house says, look, no one would begrudge the president some time with his family and quite frankly, the office of the presidency travels with mr. obama and having said that, we have to see what the markets have done over the coming days to see if there is a change. jonathan? >> thank you, kristen welker, at the white house. thank you. >> thank you. well, while it is all well and good for the president to talk about jobs today, what does
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he need to do to create them and to keep his own job in 2012. we are joined by a fellow at the brookings institute, and my colleague at the washington post, and e.j., we have heard calls for a bolder president obama and specifically on jobs. ni nira tanden is quoted to say he can take his ideas a to the republicans and the american people will understand that he is on their side. should he do that, bring out a detailed jobs plan and let the gop shoot it down? >> i think he should, and i think that you may have seen the beginning of that, and by the way, good to be with you, jonathan. a lot of the democrats have been praying to little statues of harry truman and of course, harry truman in 1948 got re-elected running against the do-nothing republican congress and he sent up a bunch of proposal
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proposals, and they rejected them and he used the rejection as a campaign issue. you heard that today in holland, michigan, at the company when you heard of them promoting technology and innovation, he said we didn't go through congress to do it. then he talked about the things that congress needs to do and talked about road construction and the cut in the payroll tax, and so i think that you saw the beginning of obama turning the page, if you will, and he is sensitive to the attacks over the last week over leadership, and i think that the speech was a response to that. >> well, what specifically can the president do, because when all is said and done the congress controls the purse string, and the republicans are holding that purse string with a clinched fist right now? >> well, they are looking very carefully at what can government agencies do through executive order. to pump money out or take steps to speed up the pub ling alic a
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private investment, and they can do that and payroll tax cut is popular and many people want more spending on the roads and the bridges and the like, so they can bring pressure to bear to get at least some of the things done, but he doesn't get hurt if at least he is talking about it and really trying to fight for those things. >> e.j.dionne, my colleague from the washington post, thank you. and how big of a role did social media play in the social riots? ♪ panic on the streets of london ♪ ♪ panic on the streets of birmingham ♪ ♪ i wonder to myself . a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day
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take a look. >> you came here to listen to the people. >> no, no, i came here to speak and you will get to ask your question. hold on a second. hold on a second and i'll let you speak. hold on a second and let me speak. hold on a second. >> what are you going to do to save social security, and what are you going to do to strengthen social security, medicare and medicaid and without cutting benefits? >> hold on a second. let's get right to domenica, in des moines, iowa, we saw a heckler taking it to mitt romney today, and how fired up are the iowa voters? >> well, that one person was not indicative of the larger crowd. the larger crowd was much more supportive of romney, and you had somebody show up who had been kind of loud in the crowd a little bit earlier as well, but you know, look, you have to love retail politics, and love politic, and this is why iowa/new hampshire are so
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interesting because you really get to be that close to voters and anybody who wants to show up and who wants to talk and have their views expressed and the candidate has to deal with that, and how a candidate deals with that is going to be indicative of how they wind up doing. >> right. and tonight, it is fight night in iowa. eight candidates facing off in a debate, and who is going to take the gloves off here? >> yeah, i don't know who going to -- you know, a lot of people have a lot to gain, a lot to lose. everybody is going to the be watching tim pawlenty, and he had the opportunity to go after romney the last debate after speaking pretty strongly before the last debate, and look, he has had a lot of tough comments heading into this debate talking about the president obama as a, you know, likening him to a manure spreader in a wind storm, and talking about how to bring the hammer down, but then we sort of heard the campaign team backtrack on some of that yesterday, and say, look, he is not that comfortable necessarily in having to take those kinds of shots, and he is not that aggressive, so, you knnoknow, t
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are dialing back how aggressive he might be, and michele bachmann will try to stay into be talking points ark and she is going to be the target, but we will see if anybody tries to target her, you know, with two days the go before the straw poll, jonathan. >> well, this debate is going to be interesting, but the big event is the straw poll on saturday, but eyes are already on sunday when rick perry rolls into town, and now suddenly michele bachmann is going to be at the same event? i mean, is rick perry making this straw poll a hollow exercise? >> well, i don't think he is trying to disrespect the straw poll, but trying to get attention, and sarah palin is going to be in town and so you have the non-candidates upstaging the candidates. and perry is saying i'm knocking on the door and here and he is going to be south carolina and new hampshire and coming to iowa, and he wants to be in the game. he knows all of the media
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attention is there, and when you do something like that where you say 'm i'm going to be out on t trail, then you know that the media will pay attention to that and that is why sarah palin will be at the state fair and over 1 million people will bt the state fair and that bus rolls up will create buzz, and that is what it is about. >> yeah, don't get me started on that bus, domenica. thank you. and watch msnbc for special coverage of the ames, iowa, straw poll. and next, more as sarah palin decides it is time to crash the party in iowa. stay with us. ♪ don't you forget about me introducing the schwab mobile app. it's schwab at your fingertips wherever, whenever you want. one log in lets you monitor all of your balances and transfer between accounts, so your money can move as fast as you do. check out your portfolio, track the market with live updates. and execute trades anywhere and anytime the inspiration hits you. even deposit checks right from your phone. just take a picture, hit deposit and you're done.
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>> the rides, the fried food and the butter cow and the grand old party. ♪ come on get happy >> but, wait! who is that gate crasher? ♪ a whole lot of love is what we will be bringing ♪ >> the whole palin family plans to arrive in iowa and do what? >> well, we are just in this place. >> well, there is one place to be, and it is iowa and the only place to be from the fairs to the preparation for the showdown tonight. but wait, isn't there someone missing a wink in the eye and star spangled ride and never fear, america? sarah palin has said she will arrive in iowa and one-woman bus tour and with quote efforts to
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restore america's founding principles. heartland, she is coming for you. >> they love their country in good times and bad, and they are always proud of america. >> you will remember that her bus tour came to a halt in early july in new hampshire just as mitt romney announced his presidential bid. another coincidence? i'm sure, but this time around, even palin'sm ployier fox news has questions about her decisions to make a sudden appearance in the hawkeye state. >> if there's a party, she wants to be a part of it, but does she risk being a party-crasher? >> well, that is exactly right. it is one thing to be a part of a party, but another thing to be part of an election campaign and so far she's done a better job of party crashing than party building. >> we should leave it there and
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also mention that sarah palin of course is a fox news contributor. >> that she is. and to help solve the mystery might we point to the one consistent feature on ms. palin's website, the donate button. it is still there. let's bring in our political panel now, krystal ball and david drucker after s, a staff t roll call, and seriously, what is she doing there? >> well, it is a shock with tons of cameras and political event and sarah palin is showing up. strange. >> like moth to a flame. >> the obvious answer is that she wants to be relevant and she can't help herself, and i would say you should never write this woman off. a lot of people say no way to run for president. >> i am one of them. >> i would not count her out, and there is no predicting what she might do come september, october, november. >> hmm, david, we know her political action committee continues to seek the donations, so we know what's in this for her, but does palin's trip hurt
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anybody in the gop field at this point or just a distraction? >> well, it does not hurt anybody, and the big gate crasher is rick perry giving a big speech in south carolina and running off to new hampshire and showing nup ining up in wateri sunday. sarah palin needs to stay in the news, and she is wanting to stay in the news and nothing more than that. >> and also, another candidate not in the race, but maybe in the race, rick perry who is set to make some kind of an announcement and he will be in iowa sunday and now michele bachmann is at the same event, and who is the real gate crasher here? >> well, in terms of having an actual chance of winning the gop nomination, rick perry is the bigger gate crasher. his positive intensity scores are the highest of any of the candidates, but interestingly though, the biggest question for the gop electorate is can they
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nominate anyone who will have an appeal to the independents and have a chance to win the general election and if you look at rick perry where the positive intensity is high, and the ratings with the independents are so low, that is to me an indication they will not nominate anyone who can challenge president obama. >> and gate crashers aside, let's talk about who is actually partase pating in the debate of the straw poll, and how do you expect the debate to shift after saturday? >> well shgel well, we will se r herman cain has legs and tim pawlenty has legs. and will michele bachmann propel herself beyond iowa. all of the predictions are premature, because the real voting does not start until january most likely, but this is a sense of where the race is now that it is no longer early and in the thick of it, so we are looking for pawlenty's performance and cain's performance and clearly, do mitt
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romney, and does jon huntsman or any of them figure into it being that they are not competing for iowa? >> good note to end on. krystal and david, thank you. and america is the land of super fries and super bowl, and now that the congressional members have named a super committee to fix the debt crisis, some are enwondering in is the oxymoron of all time. nancy pelosi announced her pick, javie becerra of california and john clyburn and chris van hollen, is this whole thing a non-starter? we are joined by jim from the policy advisers. if none of the members will consider raising taxes for any reason whatsoever, is this an exercise in futility?
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>> it is quite likely that if the republicans continue to insist that you can't have any increase in revenues that as part of the deficit reduction package, the joint committee will stalemate. i think that the real key there is not so much the members appointed, but the people on both sides who have been appointed there, and a number there that if a decision is made by the leadership, and in particularly the republican leadership to give up the stance they have been taking of absolutely no discussion of revenues, give that up and have a serious debate about balanced package of revenue increases and spending cuts, there are people on the committee who could actually try to make that kind of oingagreement happen, but th are no signs yet of speaker boehner or minority leader mcconnell have decided it is time to change their position and agree to support an effort to reach a balanced approach. >> yjim, what happens if the group cannot come up with a serious agreement to deal with the debt and deficit?
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what happens next? >> under the debt limit legislation just enacted if they don't produce a plan that is enacted that will reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next ten years then in january of 2013, and that is a key, january of 2013, you would start to institute a series of across the board cuts in spending, and evenly split between defense and non-defense. >> jim, some people are questioning the constitutionality of the super committee, and is there, and do we have to worry about the constitutionality of this? >> well, i don't think so. i think that if you get a recommendation from the committee and passed by the house and the senate and signed by the president, that meets a constitutional test. you can certainly ask the question of whether setting up a committee like this and requiring congress to have and up or down vote is a wise way to make legislation, but i think that if the house and senate pass a bill and it is signed into law that meets the
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constitutional requirement. >> jim horney, as always, thank you. and coming up, what is in your wallet? a lot less after this troubling stretch on wall street. stay with us. welcome back, jog. you've been stuck in the garage, while my sneezing and my itchy eyes took refuge from the dust in here and the pollen outside. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms. it's the brand allergists recommend most. ♪ lily and i are back on the road again. where we belong. with zyrtec®, i can love the air®. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team.
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>> now the london where today prime minister david cameron spoke to parliamentt after calling the members back early from the summer recess. cameron said that in the wake of this week's chaos, the government will look into disrupting the use of social networking on sites such as twitter and facebook if they are thought to be criminal in nature. indeed, he said that the government will review whether it may be possible to stop suspected rioters from spreading online messages. >> everyone watching these horrific actions will be struck by how they were organized by social media. free flow of information can be used for good, but it can be used for ill. so we are working with the police, the intelligent services
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industry to see whether it is right to stop people communicatings via the web sites and services where they are plotting violence and disorder and criminality. >> and you may find it odd that cameron is looking to attack social media after he used it as a tool to vault him into the current political position, and if shutting down social networking or the internet over fears that it is used to organize to bring about civil unrest sounds familiar, it should. >> egypt has cut off most internet and cell phone service s. >> breaking right now, a nationwide curfew is in effect, and internet and mobile service has been cut off. >> rioting in the streets of cairo, and the government cutting off internet and text messaging across the country in a bid to silence dissent. >> yes, when things hit a boiling point in ejipt egypt, s
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unemployment benefits has dropped, and maybe a sign of slow improvements in the job market. and fewer u.s. homes were foreclosed in july and the foreclosure listing firm says that foreclosure listings fell from a month ago and auctions of homes seized by banks have also fell, and they say it is not a improving market, but processing delays. that is cnbc, business worldwide. back to you, jonathan. >> thank you. we are told that a house divided cannot stand, and fdr said that fear is our only enemy and jimmy carter warned of a crisis, and bill clinton felt our pain, and now president obama has the daunting challenge to say that the best days are not behind us, and we are once again can become the great nation. and it is the topic of a group by steven beschloss, "adrift."
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how did america find itself adrift and what is your prescription to correct that? >> well, there's an important sort of to look at the country, what has happened over the recent years, and i mean education is slipping, and innovation is down, and the middle-class is struggling to hang on, and many of to job th have left our shores and not come back and these are real pr problems. rather than the politicians focused on fixing j ining thing mired in bipartisan politicians. this is a time when we need a public to put in place politicians and leaders who are there to really need to be at work to fix problems. >> the reuters poll says that 73% of americans believe that the country is on the wrong track and almost half think that the worst is yet to come.
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how much of this falls on president obama, and have past presidents led the nation back to greatness? >> well, it is a failure of leadership and starts with the president, and of course, he came in an extremely difficult time with perhaps the most partisan congress that we have seen in our lifetime. you know, this is a climate where he's talked about bringing americans together, and about common purpose which is something that we try to explore in the book, and why that has been so important throughout our history to drive our success, but i think that it's at this point, i think that it does not simply fall on the president. i think that it falls on the dysfunction that exists throughout washington. >> and now, stephen, do you think that the americans are down on their country, because we are a voracious consumers and basically the country does not make anything anymore, and is this a matter of pride? >> well, i think that you are right that we are a nation of consumers, and we have gotten accustomed to having things and well, if you don't have a job, you can't buy those things, and
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you know, this is a economic problem that really didn't just happen. i mean, it has been evolved over the last 20 or 30 years with the decline of jobs with the moving offshore and kind of globalization has created an environment where, you know, china and india and other countries are prospering, and they are doing better, and the united states has been coasting. and we have failed to have really the strategic leadership and the strategic thinking that would allow us to prosper. >> well, i will put you in the oval office in the big chair there and what is the one thing that you would do to fulfill the strategic thinking or leadership mantra that you laid out there. one thing? >> well, of course, everyone is talking about the jobs. but i think that one thing i would pick would be looking at immigration policy. i mean, immigrants have been absolutely critical to the country's success historically, and we have the best and the brightest and they come and they stay, and they get degrees, and a lot of them end up with ph.d.s
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and disproportionate numbers of the population and they can't get a green card and they leave the country. we need them to helpp t the bes coming in. >> thank you for having me. to a disturbing report to the centers of disease control and prevention on the estimated hiv disease in the country between 2006 and 2009. the report brings to light two troubling aspects of the hiv-aids epidemic. first, the annual number of infections is holding relatively steady at about 50,000. great. that it's not rising. bewildering it hasn't decreased over the last decade. more alarming, the report's further confirmation that the hiv-aids epidemic is the equivalent of a five-alarm fire in the african-american community with young gay black men bearing the brunt. i'm joined by dr. donna mcree, associate director for the convince of hiv-aids prevention
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at the cdc. the epidemic has hit alarming numbers in the african-american community especially young, gay black men as i've said in the intro. why is has happening? >> first of all i want to thank you so much for having me and having this opportunity to talk to you about hiv. it's something we don't want to be relegated to the back pages and not talk about. the new data recently released particularly with what's going on with young black men who have sex with men is very important because data shows between 2006 and 2009 there was a 48% increase in new infections among young men who have sex with men, that's young black men who have sex with men. >> we have the chart up in. >> yes. and that's very important for us to focus on. not only that, but one of the things you said in your opening remark was about the stability, and what we're seeing is relative stability, that is, despite the increasing number of
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people who are living with hiv, we haven't seen an increase in new infections. but those numbers that we just mentioned for young black men and also the disparities that we see affecting african-american communities and latino communities are important to note. >> doctor, let's talk about a touchy subject in the little time we have left. that's stigma. the stigma attached to being gay or even having hiv with the black community. how much of that is playing into these alarming rates? >> well, certainly stigma is one of the issues. he were talk about what we believe having an impact on these rates, we talk about individual behavior being one part, but the individual behavior occurs in the context of a difficult social and economic environment. weren't of the social factors a you mentioned, is stigma. weren't of the best ways to have an impact on that is talk about it, just like we're doing today, to make it normal. an hiv test should be something as normal as an individual going in annually to get their blood
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pressure checked, cholesterol checked. knowing your status is important. the sooner you know your status, the sooner you can be linked to appropriate treatment and prevention and the sooner you can take steps to protect those you love. so talking about it and normalizing it is the first step. increasing awareness. that's why today is torrent, too. >> and increasing among young black men. the numbers are also high for latinos? >> you're exactly right. there are communities that are disproportionately impacted including latino communities. 20% of the new infections in 2009, even though they make up a smaller portion of the population and when we talk about african-americans we're talking about 14% of the population and 44% of the new infections. so significant disparities exist in ex-nick minority communities and what's important, this is a completely preventible disease. we talk about those numbers and we talk about the entire
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generation that's negatively impacted. we need to become aware of it. we need to understand the facts, and we need to take steps to protect ourselves and others and that's very important. it's going to take all of us an everyone. >> the way to do that, as you said before, know your status. doctor, thank very much. we'll be right back with "clear the air." [ whistle blows ] oh!
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[ male announcer ] with beats audio and flash, you can experience richer music and download movies straight to the new hp touchpad with webos. and now it's time to "clear the air." the chatter in political circles is that with the economy and turmoil, president obama shouldn't go on vacation next week. that he should hang around washington and toss out ideas and plans to put americans back to work and get our hobbled economy back on track. but with congress in recess and not expressing any interest in returning to the capitol what purpose would that serve? none. the whole idea rings hollow. here's has i want the president to do -- go on vacation.
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relax, if you still know how. recharge, if you can. i know it musting wearying to wake up in the morning with all the crises on your plate knowing r republicans are hell bent on stopping neg you want to do and discouraging to members 6 your own party questioning your willingness to stand up and effective niz as a leader. shut all that out while you and your wife and dlaurs are in martha's vineyard, but come back ready to fight and lead. you have plans for job creation? let's hear them in september. the gop might declare them d.o.a., but, no, the american people are with you on the general approach pap new poll out today from cnn shows that a majority of americans want the tax cuts for the wealthy to expire. they want a combination of spending cuts and tax increases to help the nation dig out of
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its very deep debt hole. this the balanced approach you advocated for in the debt ceiling negotiation, but the battle isn't over. the american people want to know exactly where you stand. so tell them. do so with specifics in the same way you did in michigan moments ago and stare down the republicans and naysayers in your own party standing in your way. thanks for watching. matt miller is in for dylan ratigan. take it away a. great hour ahead. the tale of two countries looking at the u.s. and u.k. in turmoil. a hard look at obama's leadership under fire plus a video you won't want to miss. the show starts right now. today's big story
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