a possible government shutdown right around the corner so who will this hurt well take a look in the mirror because it's not just the government that's screwing you here who is legally getting out of paying millions in tax dollars. and the u.s. has been here before a place where top economic giants are trying to make over the global economy we're going to have a live report on bretton woods two point zero. and as these economic leaders meet the question on everyone's mind remains what in the world is going on with our global economic picture we're going to try to have some answers for you and of it.

good evening it's friday april eighth five pm here in washington d.c. i'm lucy catherine of and you are watching our t.v. and we begin this newscast with just seven hours left until our government of essential runs out of money and there will be economic social and moral consequences all because of the partisan bickering by the men and women we elected into office for regardless of how this budget fight and there's a bigger problem on the horizon which is how to keep this nation afloat at a time when our deficit and debt spirals out of control and our leaders have said that america must must ready themselves for quote shared sacrifices which apparently means cuts and education clean drinking water cops on the street and the list goes on. now corporate america will not have to make the sacrifices to see the wealthiest individuals and corporations in this country more and more ways to beat

the system when it comes to paying their share that means paying just a fraction of the tax rate that most others do at the expense i would argue of this country's economic future so why are these corporate giants getting away with financial murder well archy's christine for south has that story. if you will the economy with innovation with jobs and yes with wind but it turns out not with tax dollars general electric one of america's oldest corporations is also one of america's most creative at least when it comes to doing taxes a new york times investigation found that in two thousand and ten g.e. reported worldwide profits of fourteen point two billion dollars five point one billion of which came from its operations in the united states but its tax bill in the u.s. was the euro in fact g.e. claimed a tax benefit of three point two billion dollars according to g.'s website the

company pay what it owes under the law and g.e. is right thanks to heavy lobbying legislation passed allowing companies to keep much of their profits overseas or tax rates are lower and it's not alone google also benefits from laws passed here in washington because it keeps its money here in ireland near its dublin headquarters well the corporate tax rate in the us is thirty five percent it's just twelve percent in ireland from their profits are sent to its remuda subsidiary a mailing address where the tax rate is zero if the practice bloomberg news reporter jesse drucker says is common the question is does it make sense for a company that created intellectual property to really us and as a majority of its employees in the u.s. does it sound a graph of all of the. it's profits overseas trip it will be a box of bermuda it's a question many are asking especially in the midst of an economic crisis economists

estimate that the u.s. is losing between sixty and ninety billion dollars in tax revenue but corporations say the tax rate here should be lowered the argument is if they bring home cash from overseas or given a tax break to do that but that will enable them to spend cash in the economy now but u.s. companies are already sitting on a record pile of cash almost control human dollars according to the federal reserve jordan asked about with national people's action says lawmakers wrangling over the budget are missing the point and it's not a budget crisis but a revenue crisis the fact the matter is government some state and federal level are not raising enough revenue. his organization protests against what they see as corporate greed bank of america in two thousand and ten actually got a tax refund of six hundred sixty six million dollars that's on top of their two thousand and nine refund of three point five billion dollars the. odds you don't forget think of america was given billions in taxpayer dollars in the bailout

corporations are now campaigning for a tax holiday like the one in two thousand and four it allowed corporations to bring back profits from abroad at a tax rate of only five and a quarter percent resulting in a two hundred sixty five billion dollars cash injection it was called the american jobs creation or the most interesting examples coming out of that tax holiday was through a packard which brought home fortunate half a billion dollars under the holiday that same year announced it was lying off more than fourteen thousand people perhaps because most of the money was used to buy back shares of its company it's not creating jobs helping these guys i was like green jobs are just lining their pockets can this be then especially with tax day right around the corner to be gradually the government but the government provide services that people use and enjoy every day. whether they realize it or not things like road repair for the most part the government also done some work to earn it like firefighters. respond to situations that you actually need and those of you

who say your tax dollars are going down the toilet. well some of them pay to make one in this one will go away from the sources and that's not the only kind of waste removal the government pays for they also pay to get rid of your guard. every day services increasingly funded by those making the least well companies making the most use the system to get around it christine for sound r.t. . well as washington's lawmakers remain at odds over the budget there with the shutdown looming just hours away we're trying to ask a question of who will be blamed for the financial and political gridlock that's shutting down washington free now for more is c.n.n. motley president of less government and john rocker a former new media communications manager for the democratic governors association welcome back in one. sitting i'll start with you what are the implications

politically for the democrats if the government goes dark who is going to proclaim the democrats are going to shut down the government because they will not accept a one point six percent cut in current levels of spending they will not accept a three point three percent cut in the spending of the deficit they will do something three percent cut in the deficit level of spending they'll shut down the government over that i think you get the democrats are in trouble i'm here great i think the democrats and for them the solution i think what we're seeing more and more news coverage is americans are blaming republicans for the shutdown they're seeing that the republicans or democrats are trying to get the tape time and time again with the most basic of card rises that we try to get you go more than half way republicans want me in any of those directions so when i have to ask i mean isn't there a bigger question at hand here which is why is it that the men and women we elect into office regardless of what letter they have at the end of their name can't seem to agree on basics basic legislative maneuver and all they can't fund a government or the democrats we in the show they're in the rule the roost in all

three branches of our senate and presidency last year they didn't write a budget the only reason we're arguing about this is because the democrats when they ran everything didn't get a budget for this year we're trying to clean up the mess and the democrats led last year there is a one point six five trillion dollar deficit therefore they're going to shut down the government because the republicans want to cut sixty five billion that's absurd what that's absurd party was in office only had a surplus within the white house the republicans in the house and senate. in the last when in two thousand and seven the last year the republicans wrote a budget in the house and senate and a republican president signed it the spending was two point. seventy three trillion dollars in just four years it is now three point eight two the democrats running the show have increased spending by a trillion dollars a thirty three percent increase in just the last four years this is not a revenue problem this is a spending problem we won't back off sixty six billion dollars of approach dollar increase in the last four years and you see the bigger question is about moving goal posts it will be a million dollars in four years what's been true in dollars in four years is trying

to make sure that we have negotiate in good faith because half of the the one of the two parties in congress when i was working hard to try to make a solution it's hard to get both parties on the same side it's hard if you look at the average american the average american isn't listening to these kinds of discussions they're not reading every single detail about who's offering what plan and who's saying yes or no it's you who i mean at the end of the day it looks to me partially i think both parties are going to come out with giant black marks on both of their eyes because it's going to look like the men and women that we elect into office are not going to be able to get things done so how do you and i'll stay with yours i mean how do you convince voters that. it's not just the ineptitude of our politicians in general but i think it is their backyard the greater problem in this one the public are going to face coming after this shutdown is do we stay true to the tea party which is that increasingly extreme wing of their party members of the house i mean or do we try to serve the americans that were elected to serve and so they want to cut out of the tea party which they're more than welcome to do they're going to go with the shutdown which tea partiers support but the americans don't

even have to say that the tea party isn't some abstract thing i mean voted tea party aligned with members of congress into office eighty seven freshmen republicans in the house recent important tea party is running is driving the train because they drove in from last november i agree with what is driving the train the problem is that you mention republicans that are fighting with those tea party oh i don't know if i just add to their detriment the reason that the reason the g.o.p. numbers have fallen in the house since the election is because we face a one point six five trillion dollar deficit and they're cutting sixty six billion it's a joke in the room where i could. well no this and it was even bigger joke is that the democrats won't cut that much which is which makes them look patently absurd art of touch with reality and they have no idea what's going on with the american people basic economics and what's happening in this nation you're going to raise a printer and the democrats have been willing to cut it's just that the goal posts seem to continuously people moved on on the republican side and they've come to the table they said we were going to do x. y. and z.

and then suddenly the conversation changes absolutely and really the real joke here is how people like speaker boehner is going to deal with the political implications of this when you're talking about his lieutenants like eric cantor like kevin mccarthy who are in the wings trying to undercut him with this kind of tea party maneuvering how is he going to move to grab versus what is very interesting harry reid who won't put the poetry first of all who wants more absurd john boehner who wants a kid sixty six billion or harry reid who's defending the cowboy poetry thirteen we both agree that cuts need to be had but the problem is that we don't the problem is that we are one point six five trillion dollars and you won't cut sixty billion the problem ceding is that because the going to bring to the table time and time again either rely on social agenda kind of items we can win it but it exists where we are right where he or or that because cut in the things we need to be doing right now we both agree we need to be creating jobs right now we need to make sure that we're kind of what we do don't need to be doing when i was cut even to two thousand and eight mccain advisors said that the job he was not had service that the cuts that

are going into this tea party budget right now were cut so hundred thousand jobs that that's a fraudulent we can't lose seven hundred thousand dollars that's a fraudulent never and that's the bigger fight that's really looking at here which is going to be whether or not when we raise the deficit that's selling. do we have any indication that these same sort of lines are going to be drawn in the sand next month when the congress will have to happen without much more serious issue absolutely look this is we are not being serious about the deficit right now the democrat party is a joke thirty three billion a one point five trillion is a joke. cowboy poultry festivals planned parenthood which by the way the american goods or even americans want to cut the funding to it's a racist abortion mill and so cutting social spending is also part of the go to war and it's cutting spending and we need to reduce the deficit we need to reduce our levels spending and whether you like it or not putting puts money to planned parenthood is cutting spending john i want to end with you if the same sort of partisan divides get in the way of us raising the debt limit what are the potential

consequences for the american people next month i think the consequence of american people are just as dire as they are now we're already seeing with the polls put forth by the tea party republicans we have eight hundred border guards away from the border because of this kind of budget cuts we have hundreds of thousands of jobs in jeopardy we have tens of thousands of teachers jobs in jeopardy this is really crucial for the american people right now and help help and come to the table and both of you i mean how do you sell the message the american people that that anything is going to change in this i think we all do we know that the american people can see who's acting like adults right now who's coming to the table and saying we need to meet halfway we need to make compromise happen it's hard but democrats are doing it and we're going to have loads of clothes he said with the cuts will kill suddenly thousand people i don't think that's an adult assessment of the situation right well a lot of a lot of divisions both in our studio and unfortunately on capitol hill we'll see how it all plays out so you're not the president of less government and. former communications manager and democratic governors association i think but you're a place where people do seem to be asking at least some of the big picture

questions is at a major conference now underway in new hampshire and threatened woods you may recall that back in one thousand nine hundred forty this was the birthplace of the world bank and the american dollar as a reserve currency and now it's a place where a think tank backed by george soros has brought together big names like nobel prize winning economist joseph stiglitz and former us federal reserve chair paul it over to quote a remake of the financial order well joining us now live from bretton woods is artie financial correspondent lauren lester lauren thank you so much for being here now tell us what does this think of the historical significance of this gathering and what are they really trying to achieve here. well mystical significances as you mentioned this was back in one nine hundred forty four where united nations the allies in world war two gathered to try and did put together an international global framework for the economy and that was a time when countries and hit very badly with the great depression they were practicing beggar thy neighbor policies and this was the first time they came

together to establish kind of a global order when it comes to the economy and to finance and a schoolgirl order came at a time when the united states was a great when the united states had the most power you could argue and therefore they became the the reserve currency the u.s. dollar at that point became the reserve currency the international monetary fund. was put into place the world bank was put into place these leaders are the leaders of countries around the world these are economists some of whom you mentioned and the brought together by a think tank that has been funded by george soros international billionaire investor and they're coming here with a different purpose they believe that that framework is no longer valid they believe that the world has changed and needs to reflect that in its international financial policies and they're coming together to discuss a new framework and that's what this meeting is supposed to be about which is essentially just getting underway right now so could you say that it in theory this is sort of about moving away from from the united states domination as a global economic leader is it about sort of looking at the next replacement or is

it about trying to figure out the ways in which we could keep the united states in the role that it traditionally held well it kind of it will depend on how it comes out in the conference but looking into the thinkers that are here and what george soros and ideas that he and some of his close associates such as joseph stiglitz are progressing it really sounds a lot like moving away from the united states in a prominent position and really having a financial system that is reworked to reflect a world that has changed significantly where the united states is no longer. global power it is a unit polar world this is a multi-polar world and developing nations that are growing that have. astley increased influence in the world need to be taken account into international policies the great countries brazil russia india china and those are some of the missions that this think tank talks about and why this framework needs to be we work that they need to examine how to incorporate more of the changes of globalization and trade and a currency that better reflects the world today than it was forty four years ago

that does sound definitely like a move away from the united states as being in the lead role in the lead position and you see this i think that clearly in the at the very kind of terrified reaction by conservative bloggers to this conference where they essentially blame george soros of trying to recreate the world and undermine america's position knocking it down a peg or two as this huge threat to america and america's position in the world so i think in that reaction you can really see that people feel that in america some because of the exactly we're talking about a move away from america's dominance but i have to ask me back after world war two and we saw the original bretton woods summit take place i mean this is different countries coming together to actually agree on massive changes and in the system this is gathering here again it's nice that they called it for p.r. purposes bretton woods two but it's really just thinkers it doesn't have the backing of policymakers the hind it and so do you do you get the sense i mean is

this just a p.r. stunt do we think that this could potentially lead to actual concrete changes or is it more to get folks like us to pay attention to the conference i mean listen even in meeting but this that our whole baker is you don't often see a lot of action that comes out of so i can imagine that more will come out of what is a talk shop in definition there is not policy that is expected to come out of this there are people that are influential influential in making policy people like former federal reserve chairman paul volcker well you remember was instrumental in obama's legislation in his natural reform with the volcker rule of course larry summers who was obama. top economic adviser until recently so there are people that are involved in making policy but this is not a policy conference and when we can if we can compare the two if you think that the g twenty and i.m.f. world leaders gathered to make policy and still don't make any girl examining exactly margin imagine anything would come out of the think tank but you're right i

mean right and woods is a very nice name and it's the same set in that that happened at that conference in the forty's that this is not a policy conference and it is not the nation getting together to dictate that it all. again archie will be at the conference all weekend long and one will be reporting live through this sunday april times all right well joining me now for more on bretton woods and the global financial system from westport connecticut is peter schiff use the president of euro pacific capital peter thank you for being here now you know we have some of the biggest names in the economy gathered at bretton woods trying to remake the global economic order so they say but do you get the sense this is nothing more than a fancy birria old funeral sendoff for the u.s. economy. well i don't really know what they're going to discuss i know what they should be discussing the problem for the global economy is the dollar the dollar serving is the reserve currency and that is the problem because the dollar has no intrinsic value on its own you see prior to the dollar becoming

a reserve currency gold was the reserve and gold has intrinsic value you cannot simply create gold that is sitting there it costs a lot of money to find it in extract it from the ground and so it's scarce and it has real value but you can print money out of thin air as ben bernanke is doing in the united states is abuse the privilege of issuing a global. reserve currency and we are exploring exporting our inflationary irresponsible monetary policy all around the world and we are poisoning the global monetary system so the only solution is to jettison the dollar and to reason blaise goal as the reserve or the currency so that they would no longer be feel so they would be backed by something of legitimate value and central banks would raise interest rates without having to worry about the impact that that would have on their currencies versus the dollar because part of the problem is interest rates are too low and that is fueling at that bubbles and and misallocations and

distortion of resources but the reason they're love is everybody's afraid of crashing the dollar and the reason the united states is able to run these huge budget deficits is because the world is lending at the money and the world would not lend us all this money if the dollar were not the reserve currency but you know the reality is that folks are not talking about moving back to the gold standard in fact we're talking about yet another round of chronicle the whole thing q e three so what in the world makes you think that people here in washington and people over any arc well somehow wake up and be the absolute economic impact of continuing to print consenting to print without any thought of the consequences but i don't think they're going to say i did i said what they should be talking about i mean there is . so there's such a lack of understanding among the hierarchy or the elite about economics people actually think that a cheap money is good is debasing their currency is good look at the japanese they had this huge earthquake and tsunami and they added insult to injury by debasing

their currency instead of letting it rise which would have reduced the cost of rebuilding after they wait now they're making it more expensive so you have this conventional wisdom that is wrong and there's also this wisdom out there that the world needs to prop up the american economy so we can keep consuming what they make but that is why the global economy is so weak that is the source of these imbalances we can't afford all of the products that the world is that selling us the world would be better off consuming those products themselves rather than vendor financing americans who are too broke to pay them back in our government spending a tremendous amount of money and we're spending money and it is depriving the rest of the world of the money that they need to grow their own economy. explain for our viewers i think want a very concrete terms what would be the consequences of printing yet again as i'm going to this quantitative easing around three what can americans expect in their own life change what what would be some of the actual on the ground consequences

well the cost of living is going to rise the reason or oil is that one hundred twelve dollars a barrel today the reason commodity prices the are being hit it could get to it by the reason prices are rising and the cost of living is going up is because of q.e. two and excuse me that took place before doing one when the government creates money to pay its bills it causes prices to rot and there's two ways the government can paper its bills they can tax it iss and literally take money away from them and then spend it or it can inflate they can print money and spend it and steal the purchasing power from its citizens. as peter schiff president of euro pacific capital now the u.s. state department issued its annual human rights report today hitting hard at china and iran going to as well and all the regular usual suspects but the report came at a sort of interesting time in world history right amid the arab spring awakening or citizens across the middle east to talk to brutal regimes in many cases only to be silenced with bullets and missing from both the u.s.

report and the mainstream media coverage is our own role questions about our own role in supporting these regimes and talking about egypt saudi arabia offering yemen three now to discuss this and much more is the legendary norman solomon he's the founder of the institute for public accuracy and the author of many books including this one here made love got war close encounters of the americas or fair state thank you so much for being here it's really quite an honor oh thank you i don't actually want to focus on this human rights report but i want to talk about is why there seems to be so little honest discussion in the media in our country when it comes to the reality of our foreign policy so for example we don't talk about how the united states actually supported the mubarak regime until it becomes so close that the regime falls we don't really talk about yemen i mean there are some reporters doing an investigative reporting and and sort of showing how our operations there are undermining both the security of the people but office supporting the regime but again there really isn't any incentive to see him support

for honest discussions about this but i think your tour will sort of very well those who control the past control the future those who control the present control the past and the capacity to rewrite history and to be silent about inconvenient aspects is really crucial to so for instance if we look at the u.s. support for various regimes in the middle east it's very convenient to omit that support when they fall out of favor or they're about fall overboard because of a rebellion by their own people i think there's a very symptomatic problem which is certainly true in the united states and elsewhere in the world. there when you have government and media so closely tied together in the deceptions and the tap dance is coming from government is reflected in the media for two of our extended sort of sum it up by quoting the great journalist who worked in this town for many decades i have stone very independent who said all governments a lie and nothing they say should be believed well he wasn't conflating all

governments they don't write the thing extent but you can't take or shouldn't take anything they say on faith and to the extent that mass media are doing the bidding largely of the media in terms of messaging then you can't really trust media too much either and this is something you got into an enormous and easy but since then we've had this huge explosion in social media and social networking sites and alternative blogs and sort of the internet and so i wonder shouldn't all that have changed at the base shouldn't that have sort of allowed the actual message to come through through the gate keepers who are seemingly fairly trying to you know sort of keep the floodgates you know i think e-mail the unit social media have helped in that you might say the ecology of the media has diversified still in all you know the mainline media the most powerful networks print outlets and so forth cast a very large shadow and you might say more diversified media outlets are trying to shine a light in different places so this is

a struggle really for the capacity to get information from different sources it's really stunning and i mean i think this is true again whether you're talking about the major countries such as the united states china russia france britain they've abused in very deceptive and destructive military actions and at the same time there own media have a largely been willing to parrot the line and it's the reliance on official sources by media that has so damaged people's capacity to act in a death. craddock well informed way i think grassroots in those countries well focusing back on the united states and we we've seen very little questioning in my opinion of the intense and how this military operation in libya is actually can get played out and so i wonder if you can compare contrast to the propaganda. issues that you've raised in the buildup to the iraq war and vietnam and now libya you

know well there is a continuum whether the vietnam war today in terms of libya afghanistan and so forth where the assumption often implicit is through the media that uncle sam has a halo over his head and he's trying to do really good sometimes he screws up but basically the usa has the best of intentions now if there was no oil in libya or a rock and the main export say was cucumbers i don't think the u.s. would have invested billions of dollars in military actions but that is part of the equation that's often left out when the news media explain events to us what's wrong with this picture that i mean we've seen how we were misled and lied to essentially in the ramp up to and the continuation of vietnam we've seen this in iraq they've been i mean we're made easier is a movie based on find a very famous guy meredith why has nothing changed the system why are people not willing to ask the tough questions and sort of look beyond the spin that where were

forced out well that were made easy a movie based on my book was shown nationally and twelve countries mostly in europe but not in the united states on any major network and it's just a very big i mean it's a painful reality in terms of. us coming to terms with our own country the shadow that is very different than what we'd like to tell ourselves and i think that's an ongoing challenge i call it in terms of policy and media coverage and sort of a repetition compulsion disorder where we're in that pattern and new work comes along the details are different but the paradigm underneath is often the same one. i hope that you keep calling attention to these issues and keep writing because we really do appreciate your work and i think you think it was norman coleman founder and president of the institute for public accuracy unfortunately that is it for now for more on the stories we've covered please go to our to dot com slash usa and check out our you tube page it's huge and back home special artsy america on and as always feel free to follow me on to.