sixty one point six trillion dollars that is the amount of money the u.s. has promised but certainly does not have to pay so if the u.s. keeps relying on credit just when will the empire foreclose or foreign policy and expansionist foreign policy. whether you agree with me or not it will because we're out of money there you go as someone who wants to save some money so was it rand paul to the rescue work of congress be to profit with kickbacks to part with current foreign policy. similar a story current topic not a historical topic but yes even one hundred fifty years later we'll take a look at how the arguments of the past can be seen all over the present day usa.

it's wednesday june eighth i'm lauren lyster here in washington d.c. and you're watching our t.v. now we know that the united states is facing a one point three trillion dollar deficit we hear about all the time but a new analysis shows the situation is actually worse than it sounds in part in part because of the way congress gets to do their accounting five trillion dollars worse for last year alone an allin this amounts to more than sixty trillion dollars and unpaid financial promises now the government doesn't have to take into account what's owed to seniors that are in and retired employees and the official federal debt that's why we always hear that the official federal debt is fourteen point four trillion dollars but even with that number the u.s. national debt is now expected to exceed the size of the u.s. economy this year a first since world war two and that's according to the treasury report which

originally thought this would happen in two thousand and fourteen now the government can't agree on how to deal with this but for more our earlier i spoke with heather sermo from four hundred forty group public relations and caroline hellbent professor of politics at occidental college and i asked them for their thoughts on a big picture this big excuse me big picture solution for getting the u.s. out of this situation and getting us to be able to pay its bills here's what they had to say. what is easy to understand is compare what's going on at the government to what could go on in the household if you reach your debt limit you can't just easily raise your own ceiling which would mean you say we can take on more credit card debt the credit card companies won't let you do that but for whatever reason united states has set a precedent where we can raise our debt ceiling indefinitely and keep on borrowing and we're making money and that's just not good fiscal policy in reality is are the foundation of our economy can only sustain so much we already have cracks and the

ceiling is going to start falling on us whether you agree or disagree with you how is the government going to pay the twenty four point eight trillion dollars that goes for medicare or the twenty one point four trillion dollars that those partial social security will not be done to raise the debt ceiling sure well that's why we have these negotiations going on right now we have a medicare plan from representative paul ryan that we are debating right now the republicans and the house have come behind it and we're having a debate on that right now and those are good solutions and the democrats voted on back but it's not a popular solution with the american people so i want to switch over to professor holden to ask you what do you see as a solution to this big problem because there are many good point that have been pointed out that you know point the fact that the government can't be on like this . well lauren first i think those numbers are because they don't take into account the fact that g.d.p. will grow they'll have economic growth will have more revenue will have a greater population there will also be alterations in these programs with that

said the structural deficit problem has been a problem now for nearly a decade it emerged about ten years ago it's a merger of various points but most recently about ten years ago and we know that the primary driving factors are three things one are unfunded wars two we have shifted away from taxing the wealthy their fair share i argue fair share but there's no doubt we've shifted away from taxing them at previous rates and three corporate taxation has shifted so we simply haven't been bringing in the same amount of revenue all of this compounded by the fact that we're in an economic downturn so you address those issues and you alter existing programs and we get out of this problem i last had or something about that because one of the reasons that the debt is now expected to reach the level of the g.d.p. year is believed to be because of bush tax cuts that were extended by the obama administration that we saw in december so how can you argue that extending the republicans want to continue to do is a good thing it isn't hindering its debt situation that you say is a problem well look we have to cut programs we have to make changes we have to make

reforms we have to look at our life really a different way and i would argue that even personally make some sacrifices perhaps we need to raise the retirement age to seventy. to raise taxes though i mean is there no way out of this without raising another solution that paul ryan also has in his plan is means testing which means that if you make over a certain amount of money you shouldn't have to rely upon medicare you should still pay into the system but you don't need to get that and yet right now we give welfare so to speak to millionaires we give so security to millionaires a professor i'll make can the country afford not to raise taxes. well i don't think we can afford to i would argue restore taxes back to their previous levels we were wealthy individuals used to be taxed at a rate of about ninety percent fifty years ago we're down now to actual rates of around twenty percent that could go up quite a bit i think and there wouldn't be pain i mean the fact that that wealth increase

for the top one percent increase seven percent during this economic downturn while the rest of us are suffering that speaks to me that the wealthy can afford that and i would very much agree with how they are that we need alterations to these programs we do need needs based programming for both social security and medicare so that we're not basically supplementing millionaires we also need a public option for health care to bring those costs down we also need the prescription drug plan we need the government to be able to negotiate with big pharmaceutical companies and republicans put that in when they instituted the girl that we couldn't do that that if that's just foolhardy when it comes to taxation when it comes to our our money i mean i want to go a little bit outside of kind of this partisan debate and look at something that kind of neither sides of the aisle really want to touch and that is military pay defense spending is something that's not a very popular and i want to bring up a graphic to show what exactly the united states is going to be owing and terms of military pay these are military retirement and disability benefits three point six trillion dollars that's thirty one thousand dollars per u.s.

household and i want to show you how that's grown the wars in iraq and afghanistan let's go to the next graphic they've contributed to forty six percent increase since two thousand and four and the cost of pension medical care and disability benefits for former service members this is the biggest jump that we've seen seventy one percent increase since two thousand and four to one point three trillion dollars in the cost of future pension checks to retired military personnel the funding for the disability program rose to one point five trillion of that fifty four percent in two thousand and four and nine hundred billion dollars for retiree health care that's up thirty two percent so how can you know look at defense spending and the amount. country has promised for these wars that it involved in when you look at the budget heather i think you have to look at all facets of the budget however what the republicans decide to do right now is realizing too that any cut is going to be controversial and you're having a hard enough time just suggesting to make moderate changes to one program but

a bigger picture should these be cuts that are on the table why is this out of line and should foreign policy be brought into i think this living outside of knowledge it sure i understand i think this defense spending though is for the most part a worthwhile expenditure i don't think that we should look too closely how much we're spending on defense and my personal opinion i think that's a very noble thing to spend our money on that does not mean that there aren't cuts we have to there is so much that is put on each goal that we've passed so many things that i would argue the average congressman doesn't know is in the bill what about two thousand pages of a bill and you know it's a long bill i think that sometimes they don't get it right i want to ask you though caroline what about something like a two hundred twenty million dollar doomsday plane for the president they can withstand nuclear blast an asteroid that's on standby twenty four seven in addition to air force one what about things like this that are inexpensive and looking at other countries you know the prime minister of united kingdom david cameron had to charter a plane or schedule first you know schedule one in order to travel are these like

some of the things that should be next. well you know we spend certainly yes we spend more money on our military industrial complex that eisenhower warned us about you know sixty years ago then all of the other advanced industrialized nations combined the cold war after after the fact we found out that the arms race was about ten times what it should have been in order to keep us safe and not only do i have an issue with the amount that we spend but we're also spending it oftentimes unconstitutionally when the president is going into war without congressional approval cost of the human lives involved we see major issues now with mental health because so many servicemen and women are going back into battle again and again and of course i want to honor their service and their pension should not be touched but we need to think long term about what our priorities are as a nation and i want to thank both of you ladies for weighing in on what you think could be done of course we still don't know how our girls are going to get paid in this country to everybody that is owed but we found and i think heather stemming

from four hundred forty great public relations and caroline help me professor of politics at occidental college for their insight now some analysts would argue that republicans and democrats have do good after mastic lee over many issues which we just heard about but they stood together on america's costly wars and expansive foreign policies witness the continuation of missions in iraq and afghanistan also guantanamo bay and drone strikes in pakistan which have continued from bush to obama administrations now enter a libertarian leaning republican senator rand paul he's an outsider some would argue more willing than the traditional politicians to call a spade a spade and call for a change so will this mean anything for u.s. foreign policy we'll get to that but first r.t. correspondent caitlin ford has more on just what it is rand paul is calling for. first though to rand paul america is a quote fortress but it can't be defended by a deficit we're out of money i mean our foreign policy and expansionist foreign

policy will end whether you agree with me or not it will end because we're out of money. was made way to the republican party by outlining his own foreign policy and challenging military and humanitarian aid around the world by and large foreign policy has been bipartisan with very little dissent in our country that's why i am on usual and that's why i'm called names in anybody who brings up less intervention is called an isolationist for decades american presidents have decided to intervene about taxpayers but the bill. was a friendly island paradise for tourists but it wasn't today i want to talk with you about our nation's military involvement in somalia american and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm iraq. even the president the campaign promises to keep it off it does not comply with the resolution the international community will impose cuts what's the resolution will be enforced

through military action policies also propose ending the u.s. is three billion dollars in aid to israel even as both sides of the aisle express their unwavering support despite. we've increased foreign military financing to record levels and he's called the united nations a quote foreign predicting but i'm like his father congressman ron paul get the troops out of afghanistan and that more that hasn't helped us and hasn't helped anybody in the middle east. isn't proposing immediate withdrawal of u.s. troops. is the fourth think the thing that percentage of the budget spends on the pentagon is right in eighty one percent increase in defense spending since two thousand and one when i prioritize spending that i think national defense is a. constitutional function of government and so it would have a priority for me over all other spending really that are rand paul's views are often portrayed as far outside the mainstream but with

a resonance in polls showing fifty percent of americans favoring ending u.s. involvement in libya it may be closer to popular opinion if not thinking rational one here in florida are at the washington d.c. now for more earlier i spoke with jacob arguer he is president of the future of freedom foundation i asked him whether or not he believes that senator rand paul really stands a chance of shaping things that politically in washington i think out against established bipartisan foreign policy consensus here with his assessment rand is calling for a more constrained to restrain foreign policy in which the u.s. government does not intervene in baden occupies so many countries the problem as i see with those it still leaves in the hands of the government the power to engage in these interventions and so while you may call for more restraint policy all that subjective the government officials are going to be the ones in charge we libertarians say the government shouldn't even be engaged in intervening anywhere should be a department of true defense my question to you because as you said you're

a libertarian i know that you are from whatever i do do you support rand paul in his ideas why are republicans and democrats so quick to kind of cast off the libertarians as being out of touch when it comes to foreign policy or isolationist that don't really understand the world why is that war because we take a completely different approach than they do i mean our paradigm is completely different our paradigm is consistent with the founding principles of america which is that government does not go abroad in search of what john quincy adams called monsters to destroy we don't go abroad to save people to regime change or kill invade and whatever what we do instead is we liberate the private sector the cultural groups the business from an economic groups to exchange and to. raiden interact with the people of the world so we want to isolate the government which obviously upsets the big government advocates in the republican the democratic party we want to liberate the private sector they want to do the exact opposite but

how do you know this wouldn't work well because we've had a history of it i mean from you know seven hundred eighty seven the u.s. government did not have a huge standing army it did not have a military industrial complex it didn't have this in pirates seven hundred eight hundred bases around the world and yet we were building trying to build a model society here from big exception slavery in tariffs and so forth but it worked very well in terms of keeping america out of these foreign wars so what's different today i mean what would be holding back members of congress who may be let's say have large donors that are terry contractors who benefit from the four hundred twenty billion dollars that the united states has spent in afghanistan eighteen billion dollars in civilian aid it's gotten over the last eight years are there pressures that we keep members of congress from supporting foreign policy like what you're calling for what rand paul is calling for of course i mean you've

got big money involved here the military industrial complex plays a huge role in the amount of money that's involved here you've got contractors that are on the dole you have foreign dictators on the door i mean look how many middle east dictators receive billions of dollars from the u.s. government those donors have influence they have influence in congress it's also a matter of domination you've got a full loss of fee of these status that say we want the u.s. government to dominate the world to engage in regime change operations sanctions. assassinations and beijing's occupations we want to stop that because what are destructive it is it's producing the terrorist threat that they then use it is an excuse to take away our freedoms and it bankrupts our country a couple things that i want to ask as you mentioned bankrupting our camp. do you think that rand paul is challenging any conservative who is for smaller government and we see this huge debate over debt do you think he's challenging lawmakers by bringing up the money issue that the united states cannot afford to keep operating

like this absolutely because you know they also you know well you know we want we're we're for a strong fiscal policy and fiscal policy sound dollar but they want to keep spending the money own this actually bankrupt in the country rand paul and his father ron are coming up and saying no let's start cutting the things that we're spending on including this military empire and so forth really quickly if they want to get this how much of a difference would it make if congress did change its tune and start to have more of a difference in opinion on foreign policy when so much is in the hands of the executive branch as we've even seen with libya where the obama administration could just continue war in libya at the sixty day mark which is required by the war powers act for the president to go to congress and congress pretty much get a free pass i mean they passed a resolution last week but before that the sixty days that really was a non issue absolutely and they ignore the requirement the constitution what they really need to be doing is start talking impeachment only way they can get the

president to obey the law if you think is going to be removed from office with the threat of it you know bring him over to congress let him justify it in an impeachment proceeding i got a feeling been president's mind be more cautious about obeying the law they don't hear a lot calling for that right now that was jacob warren burger president of the future of freedom foundation now it is the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of the state of tennessee joining the confederacy during the american civil war who cares well it's actually one of many being celebrated this year now last summer of beer the date as a time to honor those in the south who fought for what they considered to be states' rights others require all in horror at what they consider tantamount to celebrating what they feel is the real reason for that war slavery one hundred fifty years later it really seems the country is still slip over what caused the war is still divided today by many of its lasting effect here some of them. it's a war that lives on in the united states. soldiers can be found camped out here

the battlefield where forefathers once thought reenacting the civil war one hundred fifty years later and off these fields its legacy still runs through the country the ohio river was once considered an extension of the mill and line in the united states dividing north and south a division that still remains today. most of the civil war as the war in one country to come to confederate states of america. in the south there's still rebellion against the northern victors version of events and battles rage on in americans minds about what was its state in this conflict then and now there's a lot of people here i think the civil war is still a current topic not a historical topic. in this town it's left residents defensive over their right to bear arms shipment over. here owning a gun is mandatory southerners view the last gasp of the citizenry against a

and oppressive government is is to reveal what. and in the very capital of the nation what. the the residents are still fighting the federal government for full voting rights and the representation in congress the residents of the district of columbia have never had the rights that are present though to time everyone else in this country the limits to their rights stem and part from civil war division it's definitely part of an the floor that people never thought of blood folding at all but scholars argue though the war may have ended slavery it was far from ending racism with washington d.c.'s large population of newly freed black citizens at the end of the war to limit their influence political elites pushed. occur voting rights for everyone president they're still fighting that legacy today. by an

awful place. and the tea party protests that have slapped across the u.s. have really energized a rally behind states' rights reminiscent of confederate rhetoric one hundred fifty years ago when you look at philosophically how they line up and then be there even genetic pedigree and global going back to the states that the most people are from it's much more along with the confederacy of eight hundred sixty southern ball celebrate civil war state secession the modern day civil rights activists acquainted to celebrating treason and slavery and polls show a divided country more than half of americans believe the civil war is still relevant today only a minority relegated to history while the country remains split over the cause. of the war the literal reenactments of the civil war may be the most visible leftover of a war that divided

a nation. left over battles are still being fought by many more in a war that lives on today or in mr r.t. germany now for more from our los angeles studio and anika sperry and with the young turks and thanks so much for being with us my question to you just sitting in los angeles on the west coast a liberal area what do you care about the civil war one hundred fifty years later does this concern you at all. well i care a great deal i mean even though i'm in a liberal area where progressive voices of progressive ideologies trump all i think that it's important to look back at the civil war and how it shaped the identity of the united states i know that this is still a huge issue in southern states right now where you have that debate as to whether the confederates won i mean it's amazing to me that people still want to have that debate and what the real meaning behind the civil war was and this is a question that is happening in the united states right now and just based on the

report that your viewers just watched it's incredible to see the diversity of ideologies that surround this very topic and that very war but before i want to get to why exactly that is that this divide exists i just want to ask you just kind of anecdotally you know because for me going this out and doing that reporting was really the first time that i realized how much the civil war really is a part of people's lives in a way that it was just wasn't from mine growing up in california do you feel the same way it is do you have the same reaction. i have the exact same reaction because here in california don't get me wrong we still have a very long way to go in terms of race relations racism still exists but in california you have this sense of equality among all and i know that that's not the case in a lot of other states and there are still people in southern states that want to raise the confederate flag and want to talk about how whites are superior superior to blacks and that's something that's jarring for someone like me who was born and

raised in los angeles but i think that it's a very important issue that we still need to focus on the united states you know one thing that i always think about is dr laura schlessinger and this is something that happened you know last year but she made the argument that since we have a black president african-americans in this country no longer have a right to whine about race relations and she claims that they all have a chip on their shoulders that just shows you that regardless of the civil war regardless of all the progress we've made in this country there's still people in the united states that are still racist that still believe that they're superior than any other race imaginable so it was jarring to me as someone who grew up in california but it's a topic that i think we should definitely discuss you know the thing i want to enter i want to ask you what do you think the divide is really about because you point to racism and you say that you would see waving the confederate flag as insulting and kind of channeling that that racism war or white supremacy people i

have interviewed in the south as you know honoring their grandfathers that fought and died in a war that they believe is about was about states' rights and was about other motivating factors and that it's not about racism it's about honoring their history do you not see it that way. i don't see it that way i see the confederates fighting for the right to have slaves ok that's what the huge issue was at the time of the civil war the northern states had already abolished advance slavery the southern states refused to do that and that was one of the main reasons why the civil war happened there might have been other factors that played a role but the major role was slavery so i can understand those individuals wanting to honor their ancestors their grandfathers their family members who fought in the civil war but we got to keep it real we don't want the civil war was really about ok with the question as to then if that's the case why is this country still so split about it because you know you are in maybe you know i think it's like around

forty percent or so you know some believe it's about slavery some believe it's about states' rights why do you think the country is still so split as you say you know we all really know what the civil war was about. i think the political question has shifted from slavery to something completely different you know in the report that we just watched there was the question of guns and the right to bear arms and you know the question has really shifted toward something completely different and you know people who live in the south and in a lot of other states feel like the government is out to take their rights away they're out to really violate their constitutional rights so they feel like they need to stockpile weapons or they feel like they absolutely need to have a gun and i think that that's something that is part of the fear mongering that you see in the media you know you see fox news talking about how the government wants to control every single part of your life and they want to take your guns away you have the n.r.a. telling you that they want to take your guns away so you have people in the south

who feel like they need to protect their rights by you know lashing out toward the government or by looking back at you know their confederate leaders and it's really not about slavery at this point like i said that question a political question is completely shifted to something different but you see that polarized politics in you know several different states in this country really quickly and we don't have a lot of time but you mentioned the polarization today and we have even seen states like texas that you know we've heard the governor talk about seceding we've heard that from vermont we hear some of the civil war rhetoric and the whole tea party movement do you think that it could ever ask the late to another breaking point as a date in a civil war times just yes or no and no i don't think that it's going to ask late to the point where we have a violent civil war like we did before i think we've moved past that but i could be wrong about how right i want to thank you so much for bringing us your perspective

from los angeles that was an experience with the young turks. now three men are on their way to the international space station after blasting off early today on a russian soyuz spacecraft now it's carrying a russian an american and a japanese crew member and pretty soon a russian spacecraft may be the only way or one of the only ways for an american to hitch a ride into space as nasa final shuttle launch is this month r.t. correspondent lindsey france though has more on today's blast off from baikonur kazakhstan the three men have been together for nearly two years proper preparing for this trip they've traveled all over the world preparing in different models of soyuz and getting ready for what is really this this final push into space in what they say feels almost a little bit like home as cranford as it may be the soyuz is is something they've practiced in for so long now that it eight feels a little bit like old the three men say they will be taking very special i don't see into space with them albeit very few items pictures of loved ones and so on to

also be able to talk with their families every day that we've talked to the backup team they're very excited to watch this they say that it's something it's an amazing emotional thing to wants let's check it out. like first just show up tremendously you can really sense the power in that as as it took our life experience out it will take them about eight minutes to hit hard around the earth two days to talk now to three bet when they get there will be undertaking over forty scientific experiments among them cancer research and view realty to actually grow food in space.