in the low to show room for the real headlines with none of the mersey are going to live out of washington d.c. now threat of a government shutdown becomes even more serious is now only one day away from meeting the budget headline and while we continue to follow the politics behind the budget talks we'll take a closer look at one section still untouched by both parties the defense budget and yesterday we gave you a few examples of how the shutdown here in this city is going to affect the lives

of average americans but they're able to take a closer look at how the shutdown my also affect our already bruised economy and then we'll take a closer look at another political conflict the u.s. versus the u.n. as the u.n. defends its three billion dollars chunk of the u.s. budget we'll see why so many right wingers aren't so keen on playing ball with the international community anymore and then in a rare moment we'll explain how a well known conservative has teamed up with the end of the and the a.c.l.u. the issue is prison reform soulseek with grover norquist and get his take on why this issue is so important for america and then could our troops stay in iraq past the withdrawal deadline according to secretary of defense robert gates that just might happen but can the u.s. afford to keep troops there any longer and what happened to obama's promise to end this war we'll cover all those stories and much more it's a night show but first our top story. one day away from the prospects of a government shutdown and it doesn't look like congress. any closer to reaching

a deal at this point the debate is over seven billion dollars and after the president hosted a meeting last night with john boehner and harry reid came out and said that neither a number nor a policy had been agreed to there's one thing that seems both sides are happy to see fly under the radar in this entire debacle the fact the defense spending is getting off scot free the fact that it's not even a part of the debate but once again consider the unthinkable untouchable sacred cash cow democrats really want to prove that this isn't about money for the g.o.p. but about politics think planned parenthood n.p.r. the e.p.a. you know why don't they offer the perfect alternative the haps away a bloated defense spending joining me from colorado with his take is david sirota radio host and political journalist david thanks so much for joining us tonight i think it's pretty clear that this really isn't about the money it's more about politics but you make an interesting point you say that it looks like both parties

have finally engineer to budget showdown that delivers the results the military industrial complex has been waiting for elaborate on that force. well there were the republican proposal is that pass a continuing resolution for a week for a social safety net study in the same bill that would it would pass for a year the entire untouched defense budget so what's the message that's coming from republicans it is that we want to cut more exclusively out of domestic social safety net spending because we're going to extend the pentagon budget carte blanche and take that completely are considerable for the rest of the year meanwhile a democratic president is out his major message about why would a government shutdown is to avoid the weighing payments pay to troops now the length troops would be regrettable definitely but in a democratic president saying this is the major primaries to stop a government shutdown would use doing is walking is already into the republican

frame which says ok we'll just take through the pentagon budget and move it out of the debate over spending and deficits so that all of the debate over cutting all of the debate over spending since is on a small portion of the budget deals with discretionary domestic spending so you've got basically both parties now working in tandem against and this is a key point against the will the american people because the latest survey by reuters just a couple weeks ago show that when the american public is asked what do you want to cut to deal with deficit the number one answer is the pentagon so under the cover of all this debate about a shutdown about the budget showdown about continuing resolutions because greece and the president and both parties are working to take defense spending what the public wants off the table and you would think what are the selling easy right now for democrats to come up with some kind of counter proposal to really prove right that republicans aren't doing is about the money that so much as there is about

politics about putting some of these programs for lower income americans cutting the programs that a lot of democrats hold dear but they're not doing that's if you think that it's deliberate or do you think that you know perhaps they're just too scary. i think that what we're seeing here is until is what she she was a terrible mother or what the sacred cow is in the budget in both parties you're right the democrats who come out right now and offer up twenty billion dollars worth of cuts to the pentagon old weapons systems all kinds of. welfare and you could do that right now but they haven't and the real question is why i don't think it's a matter of political fear i think it's a matter of their rats are just as money get just as much money and are just as in hock to defense contractors as the republicans are now do you think that you know republicans also just keep upping the ante here because they know the democrats are weak and i'll take the bait you know last week apparently there had been

a deal that was reached for thirty three billion dollars then it comes out that so john boehner wasn't happy with that plan he had to forty billion dollars so it seems like they just keep pushing and pushing and pushing. oh look the democrats are trying to negotiate with what are called the past legislative terrorists these are people who are willing to make the entire situation no matter what the democrats offer right if the ultimate republican position is to shut the government down it gets their goal anyway what incentive do they have to stop pushing they have no incentive to stop pushing so in some ways the democrats are in something of a problematic situation because the republicans are willing to go all the way to the wall what i think should be happening is that if the republicans are pretending to be really serious about spending at least out there that's their public rationale then the democrats need to come up with ways of calling the republicans bluff on the kind of spending that the republicans don't want to cut and the democrats so far have been willing to do that and i keep going back to they haven't

been willing to do that because his sacred challenge him on both parties is defenseless i definitely have been willing to do that and i don't think the president has been willing to do it either you know he's really been keeping himself out of this entire situation by injecting himself only over the last few days but you know this is still his party if he really wants to call the republicans block i think it's his place to do that but if we look at his entire fiasco what's going on you know the fact that it's really just working on all of our nerves i'm so sick of talking about a looming government shutdown every day not knowing whether it's going to happen or not then you know do you think it's really going to erode the trust that the american people have for the government even further i do and i think that you're right to point out president obama's role or lack thereof in this he's caught in a situation where he can't go to the country and talk about defense spending cuts first and foremost because he has proposed one of the biggest expense budgets in

american history certainly he just got us into a three hundred million dollar a week additional war so he's boxed himself in the congress is bought off by the defense and. and i think you're right when the public sticks so back and looks at this because we've seized people who go out and say certain things say a really nice party saying there should be cutting spending if you're the president say he's interested in a new foreign policy it's all about the vents and what they see is come times actually act where politicians have reverted back to doing what they do best which is opposite day they want to thank you very much for joining us and i think we'll have to see how this plays out to you know if the government doesn't need to track down in the short term i think people might blame republicans but if there is going to be this deep seated mistrust for the government that you know as a result of this i think then that means in the long term third publicans win because that's their entire ideology anyway so you really have to be careful here thank you so much thank you. so if the government does shut down that means about

eight hundred thousand federal workers the ones consider the nonessentials will be put out of work and not paid we already told you yesterday that means here in d.c. this missoni and will be closed the cherry blossom parade will be cancelled which might really seem minor but you tell that to the business owners that are going to suffer and we don't yet know if the government is going to shut down we don't know how long it will last if it did but the bottom line is that it won't be good news for the economy either way here discussing with me is edward harrison founder of the web site credit write downs dot com ever think you so much for joining us tonight like i said obviously there's a lot of uncertainty here but even let's say if the government shuts down for a couple of days or a week for a lot of americans right now missing that shaft is still going to have a big impact definitely you have to look at the human cost of this from the get go that's the most important thing you know people the actually depend on a salary whether they work for the government or they work for the private sector

so if you're not getting your salary then you have bills to pay how you pay those bills that's what people were asking themselves you know i thought the republicans were all about creating jobs right isn't that what they promised us in the midterm elections is not the word we kept hearing over and over and over again jobs jobs jobs this is going to have the exact opposite effect and you know if you think about it if you look at polling that's what americans really care about right now is jobs over the deficit so are they focusing on the completely wrong issue let's put it from an ideological spectrum i think what they're saying is that in each and every case we want to fight against any sort of government spending increase so when there's a possibility. that we're going to try to overall cut the budget and so ideologically speaking we're going to regardless of how small the issue is and we're talking about forty billion dollars within a four trillion dollars budget here we're going to fight and so over the long term that sort of agenda is going to. i mean government spending will decrease as

a result that's going to create jobs you know i don't believe that that's the case i think that this will have very negative short term effects if it goes on for too long and that was actually reduced so would be too long you know how long a shutdown actually have to last in order to slip back into recession well i would say if you look at it over a month or two month period then you start to see really negative effects you look at the f.h.a. which is financing thirty percent of the. the mortgages in the entire system you look at d.c. as the only market in the housing sector that has actually increased over the last two months all the other nineteen have dropped in the case shiller and you look at . trends for payments in terms of you know people getting their i arrest check back the i.r.s. is already said you know we're going to process the checks so that we get our money but we may not necessarily give you your refunds back and you look at all the

government workers that are everywhere within the economy they're not going to be getting their salaries so how many of them are here in washington d.c. exactly you and i were just talking about this how do you see really has. been you know the example there is so different from the rest of the nation not only in terms of housing prices but in the sense that we've really bounced back so quickly you know some would even say that it never hit so hard here is it ten other parts of the country the recession but here now d.c. would be hit disproportionately because there are so many government workers and you know you know a little ego often really makes america look like a banana republic ok you know if you look at this from say germany switzerland or wherever it may be you're thinking is this actually the way that the the leader of the free world is going to conduct its finances is this the way that. the people that are you know we're supposed to be that is the reserve currency of the world are going to conduct their finances you know you'd be just

a pawn. but i wonder if he would then you know how would the markets react to this i mean the second the government shuts down are they going to go crazy or is there going to be this kind of relative calm for a couple of days and then if it continues we'll certainly see spikes but i think the second part you're exactly right that you know if you look back we had a similar occurrence in one thousand nine hundred it's not the end of the war you know there are ways to make things function they won't function optimally obviously but you know if it happens for a week two weeks potentially there's not going to be necessarily any harm you know obviously the economic data reports are not going to come out so you know next week we'll see if the government shuts down are we going to see the jobless claims report come out and you know all the other reports like the trade report that's we've got to do next month but you know if it goes on then you have a big problem and then people want to start a war or is this going to be a default is the is the american in a tailspin into a recession you know what are the economic implications of that well let's hope

none of those things happened congress and. i don't know grow up wake up and get this thing ever thank you so much for joining us thank you. also a conference and i tell you g.o.p. have a history of targeting. what the public is now in charge they held a hearing today in putting u.s. ambassador to the u.n. on the hot seat what was said was. let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right. i think. on the well. we have the government says they're going to keep him safe get. their freedom.

a charmer in here broadcasting live from washington d.c. coming up today on the big picture a. new web site makes twenty four seven live streaming news towns like to do about the ongoing financial hard unlimited high quality videos for download. and stories you may never find the name streaming. the political. posts aren't.

you guys welcome to shellings tell me i'm going to show we part with our guests to stay on the topic now i want to hear audio just go on to you tube video response more of a twitter first part of the questions that we've posted on you tube every monday and on thursday the show long response is. let your voice be heard. the un has long been under attack by right wingers in this country and these days america's budget woes have become the perfect opportunity to bring that debate back into the spotlight u.s. ambassador to the u.n. susan rice was on capitol hill today defending the international organization and of the three point five billion dollars that the obama administration has requested for it and it's a school two thousand and twelve budget but she was facing a very tough crowd and a very tough chairwoman on the house foreign relations committee. the u.n.

we all agree is far from perfect but it delivers real results for every american by advancing us security through genuine burden sharing we should pay for un programs and activities that advanced our interest and our values if other countries want different things to be funded they can pay for it. but also interesting timing searing that president obama just got the u.s. involved and yet another war this time in libya also part of an international un effort joining me or our studio in new york to discuss this is scott horton contributing editor on legal and national security matters for harper's magazine scott thanks so much for joining us tonight let's get one thing straight here ok be you when it's about one tenth of one percent of government spending what the government is asking for here with the obama administration is so now it has been very clear that this isn't really about fiscal responsibility when the u.n.

is getting attacked especially by people like you leon reflected in. absolutely it's a trivial sum of money and terms of the us budget and in fact assist think about it you know government shutdown being threaten the in our appropriation being cut p.b.s. being attacked let's blow our payments to the united nations this is exactly the playbook that you took to congress in one thousand nine hundred seven and push forward so it's a perfect repeat it's republican red meat it has the appearance of addressing budgetary issues but that's not what really is going on i also find it laughable that she says that we should only have to pay for the programs we like and everyone else should only pay for the programs they like that it defeats the entire purpose of an international organization right but one thing that susan rice even said today is that might end up costing us more money if we do that because then we'll

be the ones footing the bill for certain issues that only we hold dear. well i think that's exactly right i think one point to the ambassador rice made very effectively is that the u.s. speaks with a very loud voice at the united nations that's certainly been the case since barack obama became president i think we see it with the resolutions dealing with libya but many many other things too the united nations is carrying part of the foreign policy agenda of the united states and in fact one thing we see over and over again is that nations that are skeptical about us initiatives nonetheless are prepared to sit back not exercise a veto and let the u.s. go forward now if the u.s. says it's not going to pay its share of the levy of the cost for the u.n. we're going to see that u.s. leadership position and the united nations fade away and i think that's the big concern that ambassador rice and the president have both articulated is it just

a leadership position that's going to fade away or is this really going to change things you know on a major level when it comes to foreign relations because look at you know the war that obama just got us involved in in libya this was his entire excuse was that this is something the international community wanted something at the u.n. security council voted on and he actually held that above what the american people wanted didn't even let congress know dani. but that's what that's right and in fact the u.n. was used in a sense to try and bypass congressional approval which is a strange maneuver year but i think that also points to you know the tactical advantage the u.s. gets from having this green light from the security council and the support of kits i mean the certainly the security council standing behind the operations in libya is supported by the efforts to clamp down on and seize libyan assets the the united nations is behind peacekeeping operations around the world food supply

operations in areas where there starvation the american public by a two to one margin favors this and wants to see these activities funded and i didn't see any support really for there were asleep ones proposal which is a sort of cafeteria plan we view the united nations as a cafeteria and we'll go pick up the things and put them on our tray as we want them that's really impractical the u.n. can operate that way you know this is one critique that we often hear when it comes to the u.n. coming from american politicians and it's something that we definitely heard today as well a hearing is hearing and it's that the u.n. is biased towards israel we actually have a quick to say just how many people mention that. in effect through americans historically ally israel to the wolves we are frustrated and tired of the u.s. using israel's routinely introduces resolutions criticizing condemning israel

into israel bias that the u.n. tends to exhibit a u.n. continues to be used to propagate anti israel bias. how do you say do you think that the u.n. has this inherent bias towards israel or an anti israel agenda or is this just that issue that you know honestly we can't stomach any kind of critique on. as i think it's hard to speak of it's hard to speak of the un as a single institution in this area certainly we don't see that bias coming out of the security council which is the branch of the un that speaks with the loudest and most powerful voice there are other branches of the u.n. which i would say pay a disproportionate amount of attention to israel but i wouldn't say the criticism that they bring is certainly uniformly negative part of the problem is that when un special rapporteur tours address issues involving israel and palestine they don't get the cooperation or involvement of israel i think that's one of the problems

behind the goldstone report and i think. certainly richard goldstone very bravely spoke up and recently acknowledged that he may have made some mistakes in the report he issued but i think he also made very clear that a lot of it came from the fact that israel wouldn't cooperate with the united nations these this whole approach effectively is a dialogue and a dialogue requires two parties. thank you very much for joining us and you know i think another interesting thing is we often hear so much from these politicians that the u.n. threatens american sovereignty but as you and i just discussed the fact that the u.s. plays such a huge leadership role in the u.n. really makes all of those arguments completely moot so while we are us like that it is having fun with it thanks so much. so let's take a closer look i want to politicians who's led this charge against the u.n. for years artie's killing for gives us an inside scoop on how this cuban american and current chairman of the foreign affairs committee has come to power. you know

how we can make this an even better to her fans she's dog a defender of democracy this is really let me hear from you mr berman if i may trigger foods she's a ferocious. and a rustling in the new chairman of the house foreign affairs committee the more radical right wingers or. porton positions within the republican party and managed to acquire strategic positions within the foreign policy machine and often today when it comes to dealing with common threats world leaders are met with an open hand from president obama and a clenched fist from. a cuban exile who came to the us as a child following the cuban revolution in one nine hundred fifty nine. really rust laden won her seat in congress twenty years ago in a campaign centered on freeing terrorist orlando botch responsible for the bombing of this cuban airliner that killed seventy three people.

at large in florida thanks great part to the efforts of. the now we can imagine what it will be like with them actually setting the agenda with the committee that is setting the legislative was in her three months as chairman roslyn it has. new china we must maintain firm ties with our allies and enemies must be clearly identified i hope that this administration can tell who's who for her allies she has expressed unwavering support this is the most desired congresswoman congress person. today she is somebody who has unreservedly supported israel in all of its most violent. really genocidal acts but for those she perceives as enemies like china it's all tough talk if the

president repression continues the beijing games will indeed become the genocide olympics critics say rustler annan has a double standard on human rights denouncing photos and giving friends a free pass she cancer cell phones and wire. but there's really no consistency if you look at her politics if that were the case then she wouldn't be advocating for the neglect of the palestinian people and the usurpation of democracy for people in honduras she's also taking a tough stance on the united nations i think that it's a place that's made. after two years of obama style multilateralism the chairman has made it her mission to limit the un's power we're . going to treat this in the street and there. were really.

sure any that were. also on her chopping block the administration's two years of building economic and political partnerships with countries like russia has russia not been providing nuclear technology and assistance to ran for decades has not provided missile assistance to all ran for decades even as the. u.s. depends on russia's support for u.n. sanctions against iran republican aides say that unlike her predecessor eager to defer to the white house by matters of foreign policy with a tough stance like hers obama faces in trying to reset relations with strategic allies like russia and china and ford artsy washington d.c. . ok it's time for show and tell on tonight's program now last time we wanted to know if you thought that obama should make

a few changes in his administration so we asked if he thought that obama should switch out v.p. joe biden with hillary clinton for the spot on the twenty twelve election and here's what some of you had to say on twitter alberto marquez replied yes i thought she should have been obama's running mate last election on facebook i heard from aerobraking us who said he certainly could but it won't matter since he's going to be voted out and alexander catarina sounded off saying hillary clinton wouldn't change the outcome of the next election joe biden is not a liability as long as she is part of the team state secretary obama's capitalizing on her popularity and we even got a video response from. her. the worst. time consumer. reports are true. as always we thank you for your responses and we want to see more of those you tube video responses from you all at home and here's our next topic of

discussion for you yesterday we told you that fox news and glenn beck are breaking up that's right although glenn beck the show will run until the end of this year and many sources are buzzing about who might replace him after that so we want to know who you think is going to take that spot to tell us who do you think should replace glenn beck in his five pm slot you can tell us on twitter facebook and youtube and who knows your response just might make it on air. we're taking a break but i have in our next half hour he thinks that muslims shouldn't be allowed to live in the u.s. we'll call out the conservative radio host ahead in our tool time segment an issue the left and right can agree on prison reform and i will discuss the need to overhaul the prison system here in the u.s. with grover norquist the president of americans for tax reform. you know the story of the siege so. you think you understand it and then you.