getting serious about syria france in the u.k. pushed the united nations to condemn the government crackdown on protesters in the country the u.s. reportedly working on pressure pressure tactics to so what's all behind this is the start of libya deja vu. sixty one point six trillion dollars that is the amount of money to us has promised but certainly does not have so if the u.s. keeps relying on credit just when will the empire foreclose our foreign policy and expansionist foreign policy will land whether you agree with me or naanee willing because we're out of money and there you go someone who wants to save some money so

is it rand paul to the rescue of the congress be too comfy though with kickbacks to part with current foreign policy. similar story a current topic not a historical topic yes even one hundred fifty years later we'll take a look at how the arguments of the past can be seen all over present day usa. good evening it's wednesday june eighth eight pm here in washington d.c. i'm lauren mr and you're watching r.t. now britain and france are stepping up pressure for a united nations security council vote condemning the syrian government's reported suppression of months of unrest the u.s. reportedly has a separate resolution in the works to however they face potential opposition from moscow and from china who've both indicated they're prepared to use their veto power to block a move artie's marina partner has been following this she's going to give us the

very latest from new york she's been following her around all day today marina so really what are these resolutions calling for let's start with what's going on with what the u.s. and u.k. and france are pushing for. well warren as you mentioned it was britain who introduced this draft resolution to the security council today behind closed doors that were closed for consultations that took place now the text of this resolution calls for several measures including an international condemnation of syria's quote systematic violation of human rights it also urges all countries to prevent the sale and or supply of weapons to damascus and calls for an impartial incredible investigation into the alleged abuses of anti-government protesters now there's many more measures in there but clearly this is being used as a tool to put political pressure on syria you mentioned france we should note that

this draft resolution has also been called sponsored by france portugal and germany now following two hours of consultations behind closed doors there was no agreement on the draft of this resolution it will continue thursday morning but after the consultations the british envoy came out addressed the media said he feels confident and hopeful that in the coming days support will be garnered but this resolution will be voted on and i've got did so we'll have to wait and see ok do we know why the u.s. wasn't part of that group and also what are the details i know the u.s. does have something in the works with the u.n. in regards to syria. that's right well the u.s. has come out in support of this draft resolution of this war because it is. putting its attention into a different draft resolution according to what's been reported the u.s. is drafting another resolution against syria with respect to the international

atomic energy agency this resolution is drafted with the u.s. expressing serious concerns quote serious concerns over syria's lack of cooperation . with the i eighty eight inspectors so clearly this is a one two punch coming from the u.s. coming from the europeans and and syria has to be in some way feeling this political pressure while it's caught up in the middle of its own internal turmoil but we have not heard any calls for military intervention in either of these resolutions is that fair to say you know ok and then my next to say as far as i know ok and then my next question is obviously this will give some people deja vu over libya there have been some comparisons between a situation in syria and libya we thought the united nations security council passed a resolution in libya and then we've seen countries such as russia say that what is going on in libya intervention has gone far beyond that resolution for a no fly zone and to protect civilians so how does that inform in effect the

discussion going on right now over any kind of resolution having to do with syria. or you are correct to draw parallels because that's what all a lot of difficulty right now that's what the media is doing is drawing parallels between the way that the west behaved with libya and the way they're behaving now with syria and look what it's done as a result is cautions some countries like russia and china have come forward saying that they do not want to support a resolution against syria that they any kind of international intervention can even exacerbate the problem that this is an internal conflict and they feel that dialogue is the best approach i mean how far and wide can you stretch the u.n. and the security council how many countries can you go in armed and possibly inflame the situation so that's why russia so far has a very clear in the fact that it is does not want to support a resolution against syria right

a lot of good questions you pose there and we'll continue to seek some answers into to follow up with you as well and so good to see you and have great nights like that are now we know that the u.s. is facing more than a trillion dollar deficit and has blown through the fourteen plus drolly trillion dollar debt ceiling but a new analysis shows the situation is actually far worse than it sounds and part it has to do with the way congress gets to do their accounting but take a look at these numbers so the one point five trillion dollars that the government took out last year in debt was to finance the deficit but this excludes spending that the congress is committed to because they don't have to put that down until they write a check for it so it's lose those when you put those in though this amounts to five point three trillion dollars and you obligations in two thousand and ten and then if you're looking at right now fourteen point four trillion dollars is the u.s. federal debt however when you add in everything that the u.s. is committed to because the united states does not have to record what it owes to

seniors what it was to veterans what it owes to retired employees when you put those in the u.s.o. sixty one point six trillion dollars in financial problem. says that are not paid for and of course the government can't agree on how to deal with this which we've seen with all of these debt negotiations and the deadlock over raising the debt ceiling but for for more earlier i spoke with a couple of women to try and get some answers as to what the government could do had her stand out from four hundred forty group public relations and caroline help and professor of politics at occidental college after their thoughts on big picture solutions for getting us out of this situation and getting us to actually be able to pay its bills here's what they said what is easy to understand is compare what's going on with the government to what could go on in the households if you reach your limit you can't 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 and the 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 it goes for medicare or the twenty one point four trillion dollars it goes personal security i think doesn't 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 in the house have come behind it and we're having a debate on that right now and those are good solutions and the democrats have to get to know him back but it's not a popular solution with the american people i want to switch over to you provide our help and ask you what do you see as the solution to this big problem because there are many good points that have been pointed out that you know point the fact

that the government can't keep on like this. well lauren first i think those numbers are a bit because they don't take into account the fact that g.d.p. will grow will 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 emerging various points but most recently about ten years ago and we know that the primary driving factors are three things one our 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 our 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 want to ask heather something about that because one of the reasons that the debt is now expected to reach the level of the g.d.p. did 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 that isn't hindering this 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 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 another solution that paul ryan also has and 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 no security to millionaires professor helpmate 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 other that we need alterations to these programs we do need needs based programming for those 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 quit that and when they instituted the bill that we couldn't do that that is 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 do you know i did say it is going to be telling in 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 move 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 its ability 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 and the cost of future pension checks to retired military personnel the funding shortfall for the disability program rose to one point five trillion that fifty four percent in the 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. this 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 are decide to do right now realizing too that is going to be controversial i mean we're having a hard enough time just suggesting to make moderate changes to one program but the bigger picture should these be cuts that are on the table i is this of the line and should foreign policy be brought into this i think that looking outside of politics sure i understand i think that the 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 mark personal opinion i think that's a very noble thing to spend our money on that is not needed there aren't cuts we have to there is so much that is going on each bill that we pass 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 know what about something like a chill 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 have to charter a plane or schedule 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 often times unconstitutionally when the president is going into war without congressional approval horrible 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 pensions should not

be cut but we need to think long term about what our priorities are as a nation 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 bills are going to get paid in this country to everybody that is owed but we certainly i think had our stamina from four hundred forty group public relations and caroline helpmann professor of politics at occidental college for their insight now some analysts would argue that republicans and democrats have voted out a message on many issues the debt and deficit in just one of them which we just focused on but they've stuck together on america's costly wars and expansive foreign policies witness for example the continuation of the missions in iraq and afghanistan also gone time to mowbray also drone strikes in pakistan which have continued from the bush to obama administrations now and her libertarian leaning republican senator rand paul is an outsider some would argue more willing than the traditional politicians to call a spade a spade and a call for a change but will this mean anything for u.s. foreign policy we're going to get to that with some analysis but first our

correspondent helen ford has more on what exactly rand paul is calling for. for senator rand paul america is a quote for sure but it can't be defended by a deficit we're out of money i mean our foreign policy and expansionist foreign policy will land whether you agree with me or not it will end because we're out of money. was made waves and the republican party by outlining his own foreign policy and challenging military in 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 while taxpayers foot the bill grenada we were told was a friendly island paradise for tourism well it was 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 who campaigned with promises of peace if gadhafi does not comply with the resolution the international community will impose costs. for the resolution will be enforced through military action paul has also proposed ending the u.s. has three billion dollars in aid to israel even as both sides of the aisle express their unwavering support despite us we've increased foreign military financing to record levels and he's called the united nations a quote foreign predicting but unlike his father congressman ron paul get the troops out of afghanistan today and that more that hasn't helped us and hasn't helped anybody in the middle east rand paul isn't proposing immediate withdrawal of u.s. troops. is the forcing facing the percentage of the budget spent in the pentagon despite an 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 senator rand paul's views are often portrayed as far outside the mainstream but with a resonance in polls showing sixty three percent of americans favoring ending u.s. involvement in libya he may be closer popular opinion if not the congressional one ford r c washington d.c. now for more earlier i spoke with jacob harm berger he is president of the future of freedom foundation and i asked him if he believes that senator rand paul really stands a chance of shaking things up politically in washington by speaking out against the established bipartisan foreign policy consensus is about as. well i think so i mean ideas have consequences rand is calling for a more constrained a restrained foreign policy in which the us government does not intervene in occupied so many countries the problem is 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 and that my question to you because as you said you're a libertarian i know that you from what i've read you do you support rand paul and his ideas why are republicans and democrats so quick to kind of cast off libertarian and being out of touch when it comes to foreign policy or isolationist they don't understand the world why is that well 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 the 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 trade and interact with the people of the world so we want to isolate the government which obviously upsets the big government advocates and the republican and democratic party we want to liberate the private sector they want to do the exact opposite so that you know the twenty mark well because we've had a history of it i mean from you know seventeen 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 a big exception slavery in terrace 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 what would be holding back members of congress who may be you know let's say have large donors that are military contractors who benefit from the four hundred twenty

billion dollars that the united states has spent in afghanistan the 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 a foreign policy like what you're calling for what rand paul is calling for of course i mean you've got a 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 bill you have foreign dictators on the dole we look how many middle east dictators receive billions of dollars from the u.s. government those donors have influence they have influence in the in congress it's also a matter of domination you've got a philosophy of the status that say we want the u.s. government to dominate the world to engage in regime change operations sanctions embargoes assassinations invasions occupations we want to stop that because look how destructive it is it's producing the terrorist threat that they then uses

because it is the excuse to take away our freedoms and have bankruptcy our country that was dick of harvard or president of the future of freedom foundation now is the one hundred fiftieth anniversary today of the state of tennessee joining the confederacy during the american civil war who cares well it's one of one of many actually being celebrated this year and while some revere the date as a time to honor those in the south who fought for states' rights others recoil in horror at what they consider tantamount to celebrating what they feel is the real reason for the war slavery under fifty years later the reality is the country is still split over what caused the war and still divided today by many of its lasting effects here some of them. it's a war that lives on in the united states. soldiers can be found camped out near the battlefields where forefathers once fought 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 mason dixon line in the united states dividing north and south a division that still remains today. mostly a civil war it was a war in one country we had to kind of you can push those american you know stationary in the south there's still rebellion against the northern victors version of events and battles rage on and americans minds about what was its stake 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 to presidents defensive over their right to bear arms and ship will never agree or be here owning a gun is mandatory southerners view the last gasp of the citizen or a against a. oppressive government as it is to revolt oh i say and in the very

capital of the nation war i well know ya residents are still fighting the federal government for full voting rights into representation in congress the residents of the district of columbia have never had the rights that are persist or upon everyone else in this country the limits to their rights stem in part from civil war divisions it's definitely part of and before that. people never thought of blacks voting 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. curve voting rights for everyone presidents are still fighting that legacy today. just like stand up for slavery. and the tea party protests that have swept across the u.s. have reenergized to rally behind states' rights reminiscent of confederate rhetoric

one hundred fifty years ago when you look at source software glee of how they line up and indeed there are even genetic pedigree anscombe level going back to the states most of these people are from its much more along with the confederacy of eight hundred sixty southern belles celebrate civil war state secession one 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 relegate it to history while the country remains split over the cards. of the group so while the literal reenactments of the civil war may be the most visible left over of the war that divided the nation. left over battles are still being fought by many more in a war that lives on today or in lister r.t. letters now earlier i spoke with an experience she has from the young turks and i

asked her sitting in los angeles on the west coast and liberal parts of california if this of a war concerns her today here's what she had to say. 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 shapes 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 or not 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 not very war but before i want to get to why exactly that is it has divided this 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 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 lives 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 new 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's just shows you that regardless of the civil war regardless of all the progress we've made in this country there are 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 and you know that's one 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 know you would see a wave in a competitor at flag as insulting and kind of channeling that that racism or white supremacy people i have interviewed in the south see it 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 stand by when. i don't see about way i see the confederate fighting for

the right to have slaves ok because with the huge issue was at the time of the civil war the northern states had already abolished and banned 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 a 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 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 towards 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.