so let's see is this small to show why the united states of america is still the greatest nation on earth really mr president greatest nation on earth in the middle of armageddon how about a little less talk and a little more action on the debt ceiling because some americans think taxing times call for taxing measures. and he's known as bitter number seventy and his slick bid to save utah's ecosystem from the oil and gas industries could land him behind bars . and a missile mind game first there was a reset button then the start treaty a quote a missile shield blown off all those agreements. it's

tuesday july twenty sixth four pm in washington d.c. i'm christine freeze out there watching our t.v. . all right everyone i want to talk about the economy and what's going on here in washington you may have seen last night both president obama and speaker of the house john boehner standing their ground and continuing to duke it out on the airwaves over who's right and who's wrong in the debate over how to solve the issues surrounding raising this country's fourteen point three dollars debt ceiling president obama says it needs to be a balanced approach that both spending cuts and revenue increases are necessary and speaker boehner says it should all come from cutting now in this whole game of chess there's a lot of talk about the moves the other side is thinking of making but here's the reality we're basically a week away from a stalemate in case you're counting and that is that seven hours are scuse me six

days away. fifty eight minutes and something like that anyhow this is our debt clock going and going and you can see we can't rewind time so this is pretty scary things can change this country's credit rating and economic standing in the world so far wall street seems not to really notice and if you've lived in washington for a while i have there's a chance you're thinking that this will happen as it always does that at the last possible moment that's when something will happen but there is an important aspect of this discussion that need to be looked at closer and i want to sift through this because some of this is murky so we're going to talk to heather ceremony associate with institutions and down o'connor who is running for congress in two thousand and twelve a democrat from new york city to try to get to the bottom of what all this means all right so this seems to have evolved from an argument about bettering this economy to an argument about who's right and who's wrong last night's speech was

interesting but some critics say that this is simply showing that obama has already lost this one either do you think that's the case is a bomb already lost or i think that obama has taken a long time he still does not have the really specific plan the democrats under harry reid brought something to the table but really it's been republicans trying to get their cut cap and balance proposal through cut cap and balance right yes and you know at the in the day that's probably not going to be the case but the republicans who were elected in two thousand and especially have to show the american people who they feel gave them a mandate to cut and balance but they are doing all they can to make that happen and the reality is it's probably going to carry over to two thousand and twelve and then this is an issue that you're going to no doubt face in some capacity if you do win this election in two thousand and twelve times to me about what you've been thinking is that the core of this and do you think that obama has already lost this one and he sort of trying to justify that for twelve for himself. well i think i

think it's not only obama who should be shouldering the blame i think everyone in d.c. should be shouldering the blame for this more so even though even the republican party because they want to out of the elections last year on the platform of cutting of cutting spending and they haven't really done anything significant and they haven't offered any sort of significant cuts especially on the issues of defense which they're never willing to cut on you know president obama of course talked about this last night and i want to play well i think it boils down to i know he spoke for fifteen minutes but there's just one little part that i think come from thought the only reason this balanced approach isn't on its way to becoming law right now is because a significant number of republicans in congress are insisting on a different approach a cuts only approach an approach that doesn't ask the wealthiest americans or biggest corporations to contribute anything at all how do why is it that

republicans say you know we don't want any individuals to have to have their taxes increased but what about the oil companies they continue to get more and more revenue in these tough times what about you know goldman sachs which you know call them job creators if you want if they're actually laying off people these are huge companies why can't they pay a little more. well the reality is a doesn't really work that approach we already have fifty nine percent of the wealthiest americans paying. i'm sorry the wealthiest americans are paying nine percent of the federal income taxes right now we have forty seven percent of americans who don't pay any federal income tax and you know you could very well argue that one of the people that are not paying those income taxes are some of the largest corporations like g.e. like aswell yet the corporate tax loopholes you're talking about you know i'm one of the opinion that though should be closed and i think that there's a fair way of doing that to where every corporation takes the same load and you don't have the corporations that are for the high powered lawyers to get them out of taxes to do so i think that would be a fair thing the reality is

a lot of companies aren't talking about that because that's another rabbit trail and you know a lot of them get paid by a corporation let's be honest here but i do think that the reality is what they're saying is we need to cut and obama and democrats are not willing to talk about the that's not true i mean they're cutting i'm talking about tax what they call revenues which is nothing but they are worth noting increases then let's let's bring you in here i mean they're putting a lot on the table year it's not like i mean that here's the other argument here in washington is that democrats are willing to cut well guess what president obama is very unpopular in his own party for some of the things that he is willing to put on the table dan what do you think about this argument that heather is making you know that you know these wealthy americans are shouldering so much of the bird in already. sure but i think i think a lot of the politicians in d.c. and this is both republican and democratic politicians they continue to annex it all to neglect the biggest tax and that's the inflation tax this is

a perennial tax and it's not it's not politically. beneficial for them to him to mention this because they benefit from this tax because it's a hidden tax and they don't have to impose a million have to vote on it and this is what democrats and republicans in d.c. they allow they got the federal reserve to continue to print money constantly we saw the biggest printing spree in the history of the world in the past few years we see our cost of living skyrocketing we see the cross of gas skyrocketing costs of commodity skyrocketing skyrocketing but nobody in d.c. none of the politicians want to talk about this issue i want to also mention that we get the other other side of this argument we did hear from obama and last night right after the president spoke of course spoke alex here but here it is that the president has often said we need a balanced approach which in march you do need we spend more in ukraine. i mean run a small business i know those thirteen reasons will destroy jobs the president is

adamant that we cannot make fundamental changes to our entitlement programs all right so the president is adamant according to iran's that we cannot make fundamental changes to our entitlement programs i mean i would argue. fundamental it has a different definition depending on who you ask a lot of democrats think that obama has already gone too far with some of the things that he's willing to cut back on so what's the deal here well i like to see things from a different perspective because i think what we're really facing here is to be different paradigms of the economy and two different paradigms of of the future of america and a new pew pew research study has shown is that i mean people don't think the american dream is alive anymore and the chasm that separating the poor from the rich is is getting wider blacks are right is getting wider and the reality is what these people will want is not that they're going to a guarantee they're going to be able to get rich without that chasms going to close but they still have opportunity and unfortunately what's happened is over the past

few years you know we've said that housing is the most secure thing to invest in and what we've seen with the housing market bottoming out that's that's no longer secure and especially with minorities they place a lot of security and housing so really what needs to happen is we need to put more of our and time and investment in small businesses creating businesses and that's when we get our economy moving again because the housing market's not going to be open up for a while what do you think down what will actually do agree to that taxes and you need to be removed from businesses and we do need to allow businesses to grow more will get more specific so goldman faction have to pay taxes. certainly so this should have the same taxes imposed on them as as other businesses it should be universal at the same time you know what the politicians in be in d.c. the republicans them and democrats they just support one of the biggest bailouts in

history in american history and they're getting away with it and the american people have essentially forgotten about the bailouts but this is a complete transfer of wealth from the government from the hands of the government into the large corporations and the banks and they've actually gotten away with it no i think it's really important i mean how are you brought up the point that a lot of people are saying that the american dream is sort of diminishing before our very eyes certainly we're also seeing something that's really important that you know we just can't reiterate enough this gap between the rich and the poor continues to be growing so a lot of more people are getting poorer but some of those wealthiest americans the people who we're talking about at the table here they are not they're continuing to make money let's talk about the who is exactly at the table certainly these their elected officials they were voted into office but these decisions will affect the entire country so i want to give you some food for thought here the average american had real disposable income after taxes of about thirty three thousand

dollars according to the bureau of economic analysis as for senate majority leader harry reid and senate minority leader mitch mcconnell well they will each earn one hundred ninety three thousand dollars this year and when you take assets into account read reported assets of about nine point four million dollars and mcconnell one thousand point eight million dollars so you know what about those who have lost their jobs or those who rely on medicare they're not sitting at this table these are the people who will actually be affected why is their voice not being hired. well i think that there are advocates for them and i would argue that republicans are trying to advocate for them and i think do that and that republicans are trying to advocate for people who rely on medicare are they saying that there should be more medicare cuts i think that republicans are trying to be an advocate for the poor yes those programs are supposed to be for the poor and fortunately too many people have been on that and they we can't sustain it and i think if we rework the system as paul ryan has suggested and we help younger people start seeing their

retirement a different way then these entitlement programs won't be so another line of younger people who maybe as you're arguing might not get used to but some like to call handouts one of the people who rely on it who have who are working overnight shifts and rely on food stamps rely on medicare people who will lose these if this passes right will the reality is the people who really need these programs which they were designed to help will still get them but we have far too many people who are on it but one thing you realize that the wealthiest among us billionaires can still get medicare that can't assist them and they can still get it one that we don't need and they would even say we don't need that you know we don't even my opinions with this one but we don't need to take that for ourselves but they still get it but little things like that there's work all over the place including defense that can be removed and we've got to come to the table and and make those serious changes medicare is one of those programs that need to be revamped then it is another

program let me get your reaction your head there says republicans are advocating for the poor talk to me what do you think. short well first of all i think the republicans have the best track record and they don't really have a lot of. them they don't really have much to stand on right now especially when george bush ran on a platform of small government he doubled the size of the government but you know what i actually do agree with her and on the fact that we do need to these issues do need to be addressed in settlements to certainly need to be addressed and i'm sure one of the few democrats candidates that's actually willing to go into the sea and bring up this issue is the rest of democrats aren't even willing to talk about it but there is we are finally at a stage in our history where we do have to address this issue of the entitlements they are bankrupt they are insolvent and i am actually one of the few democrats out there that want to go up and actually try to change the system as it exists all down i mean i would say that you're a little late because that's what they've been talking about for the last couple months here they've been talking about these entitlements i think that you're not

going to have anyone at least you know on this day in two thousand and eleven thing that they should be given more money or that they're fine the way they are they've offered cuts but i guess the question that we're talking about here is just how far is too too far how much but i think what dan brings up is he had to have long term vision i mean right now we're talking about the debt limit which will be decided upon by august second and we're going to move on the economy has many many issues and it's going to take hold it's like two thousand and twelve again or when to come in and continue working on it and continue working on it for ten or fifteen years let's remember welfare reform was introduced in one thousand nine hundred eighty four it wasn't signed intel around one thousand nine hundred six under president clinton fourteen years right there we have to have that kind of fortitude and and vision and to carry that through so and i hope you're going to be around green that i've been home. well and i agree it is a gradual process and it's also a very sensitive issue at the same time and it's not something you can it's happen mediately because this is this is an issue that that really hits home with

a lot of people but it can't be conspicuous can't continue to neglect it but one thing that can be done abruptly is pull it pull out a lot. these military engagements around the world this is something that can be dealt with abruptly but the republicans in washington d.c. are willing to do this so i'm glad you brought that up dan because that's the problem that the republicans have with harry reid's plan because they're supposedly cuts in there but those cuts all go back to withdrawing our troops in afghanistan and iraq and that's a given anyway so those aren't substantial that's not good enough because we've already taken that into account so that harry reid's plan is a smoke and mirrors plan i want to talk about something that we're not really hearing in the mainstream discussion here on but it does come out of obama's speech from last night this was one of his final appeals the entire world is watching so let's sees this moment to show why the united states of america is still the greatest nation on earth. well just because we can still keep our word and meet our

obligations but because we can still come together as one nation i think the president here really appealing to those who you know feel a sense of patriotism for this country the greatest nation on earth a lot of people like to believe that i think it's important to talk about a couple of things though when you talk about social mobility the united states ranks tenth when you talk about infant mortality united states ranks thirty fourth and in talk in terms of the people that are incarcerated in this country you found there was a lot guess what this country ranks last so certainly the ideals of this country might be you know far above the ideals of several other countries but what about when you look at reality but when i look at reality i see that we still have the greatest democratic system that's been established i see that we have people who can speak freely their minds and can elect freely and we have an election where people aren't impressed with the outcome they don't really know we're both in the

streets i think we do have the greatest nation in the world however i do think that we need to make sure that we are still in tune with the founding fathers wanted and we still have a kind of government that the founding fathers wanted and that's where we are rather crossroads right now deciding whether we want to rely upon the government to become more like european countries or whether we want to continue down the same track of the founding fathers set us on which is of limited government ruled by the people revolting in the streets so i mean i just got to say when you compare this country to what we're seeing in greece what we're seeing in spain what we're seeing in israel in terms of frustration with economic measures i mean yes we have wisconsin but we certainly don't have egypt by any means so if they were not able to mistreat you know we have to have a sense of peace and unity and i think we need to you know attempt to maintain that and we maintain that is that people elect people to represent them in congress a congressman listen to the people and do what they want you don't have somebody who thinks that he's king and you know exactly his will upon the people and he's

going to be here down peace and unity may be the case but that doesn't take away from the fact that a lot of people are jobless a lot of people are homeless who's fighting for them. politicians certainly aren't and i agree that america is still the greatest nation but what makes us unique and what does separate us from other cut countries is that the fact that we have a constitution and a constitution that was well written it's not a perfectly constitution the original intent of the constitution it was written to restrain the role of government and currently we're looking at it at a government that is unrestrained and this is why the idea of the constitution has become popular again is because we're looking at it out of looking at an out of control and under strain government and it's going to take people to come in and actually start to enforce the constitution in washington d.c. certainly an interesting discussion from both of you thanks again for coming heather sorrow a blueskin solutions and u.s. congressional candidate dan o'connor keep us posted on your race there. well

clearly a lot of this debate centers around the issue of who will pay because someone will write well instead of just keeping this inside the walls of washington or her friend of the president got net took it to the streets of the big apple to ask regular people what they think about whether the wealthy should pay more or if the government already has given enough and needs to cut back. would you be willing to pay more in taxes to save your government from bankruptcy this week let's talk about that. absolutely with pay market value of their spending . their spending. so do you trust your government to spend it correctly i don't trust any of the parties in our country a little bit i mean just a little bit. few percentage points more and that's about it that's about

it since fifty percent of the american public does not pay a nickel i would have a problem i believe everybody even if it's a dollar fifty everybody should be in the shared sacrifice more in taxes means more benefits which means more community programs can save or not but what about the whole notion of people being responsible for themselves and not looking for a handout from the government some people can't help it i mean there are some people who tried really really hard in the us they still need help i mean it just happened so you got to get help or you can well i mean how much work you put into words if you know if i'm working or. you know why they want to wait for me when people you know. you know you just spend a lot more money in taxes so that more people have more service that she'd you have to pay for people who aren't working as hard as you yeah yeah. yeah ok with that.

well yeah i think everybody should have it ok so i think it's ok because. you know you think people who want to work so much that says. i work in the states the government has spent all the money i'm free she was in new york and. so i was the first of the stupid wars and there you go and. you matter how you feel about taxes the bottom line is you're probably always going to have to pay them but if that's your government to use those funds well. all right now to a story that we've been following for quite a while about a man who showed up to a public land auction with the intention of protesting or at least causing a stir there to shed some light on climate change and say this is a national park national park land in utah and it was going to be solved by the u.s. bureau of land management to wait for it well and gas companies all in service twenty

seven year old man and bidding on the land driving up the prices and winning many of them. but when president obama came into office the following year he invalidated that auction but even after that tim de christopher was convicted in a salt lake city federal court for making only two million dollars in false beard at a federal auction today he is scheduled to be sentenced kevin zeese is the director of come home america us and has been very outspoken about this case. and kevin thanks so much for coming on from what i understand tender christopher faces up to ten years of behind bars for what seems to me at least to be an act of civil disobedience is that right that's right it was an actress it was a beauty instead start and the legal sale of lisa's we all in gas industry the sale was illegal and not only be a bone ministrations started after christopher blundell and will be reviewed

believe leases are represented all and then almost all of them would have been illegally least what this was was a rush to try to get sales done by the bush administration to their friends in the world and gas industry before the obama's race you came into power and to cross over there wasn't for that wasn't making progress and come to grips britain's on the starkness illegal leasing of oil and gas lines and i know yesterday r.t. spoke to temperature christopher about some of the broader issues of his case and here he is in the big picture last night talking about how corporatism is almost always the big winner i'll tell you a bit of it and we can talk about it. and the legal system become a justice system is a tool of those in power and so we shouldn't necessarily expect that tool to be used against those that it did or controlling our government calling corporations accountable it's more our job it is the legal justice system's job and we should be looking for other ways to do that besides just you know hoping for some u.s.

attorney somewhere to indict some bankers are only taking years so pretty interesting kevin i mean we live in the united states of america and here tim is this environmental activist saying it's our job why is this not the legal system's job. because we have a corrupted government and senator christopher serves on the steering committee with me for a project called october two thousand and eleven dot org a couple of them there already is an effort to bring americans to freedom plaza in washington d.c. are told where to hold the government accountable and to end corporatism exactly what ima talking about we're going to have a tar here square type a rally we're going to occupy freedom plaza and we're going to mandan and corporatism and militarism and people have to be more than systems on election day we have to be citizens every day there's a constant work we can be nearly done to challenge the corporate state and tim was one of those real amazing leaders west it up and that was willing to take the punishment my hope is that he isn't going to jail or where the obama's race is

actually trying to make an example out of them they're actually turning a lengthy sentence and a gigantic million dollar fine against him for stopping any illegal sale he stops something that would be illegal and yet the obama station want to put him in jail for years for stopping the law from being violent it's pretty interesting i know this is a case that all eyes have been on alison and environmental community hasn't been discussed very much i certainly on the mainstream media and people are confused about it what do you think are some of the biggest nick misconceptions i mean if the obama administration indeed is making the case that the u.s. attorney's office is making the case that you know he he did something illegal and therefore should be punished for it regardless of whether the auction you know with validated or not this is someone who was doing soft bidding talk about that well this was an obviously illegal obviously illegal sale there's not even a question about it and what was reviewed to him was right what should have happened was this should have been stopped it was still occurred by

a court and now with and in the course of investigated or or the government should have investigated who was pushing this illegal sale and those people should have been prosecuted in the christian man to a hero for this and. the specter of corporate media to cover this fairly because this is in the corporate this is challenging corporate power and corporate and government working together to further enrich big business and so we know spectacle we in the car we really appreciate are people covering it thank you for being there because i think in the crisper needs to be known by people he is a hero to many and what he said today is the key thing is don't be intimidated use this injustice to fight injustice more when i know kim is also said he would rather go to jail and serve time than be an active and sort of lie down but why then are there not more time to christopher's why is this such an individual case and why do so many people except you know the status quo well in fact people aren't accepting the status quo i'll send you an e-mail after this show to show you the types of videos of protests going around the cross the country all parts of the country on

all sorts of issues from foreclosure on homes for banks not paying their taxes for schools be closed so we're not changing well they're not changed at the core business covering this this could if you look that was really going on those days right now you would think america was in revolt but it's not being covered him to christopher is one of many there are many americans that is enough is enough it's time for america to stand up and take back our government all right we will keep on this case of course and bring an update later today i want that sentence turned out to be direct come home america us kevin zeese thanks so much. well a pretty important foreign policy issue discussed here in washington today the issue of how to develop missile defense in europe and it appears that the u.s. and russia continue to disagree on the best way to proceed nato says the system is designed to protect the european continent from countries like iran but russia fears the project is aimed at its military and its awful offered alternatives

however the u.s. appears to be moving forward with its original plan so the russian envoy to nato was in town for the talks today and afterward stopped by our studios here to give us some insight into what some of these major issues are concerning anti-ballistic missile defense. but if you will there are questions that remain unanswered if mr of threats against europe come from the south why is the us placing part of its military infrastructure in the north close to russia's borders this is the question that we can't get an answer to when we ask for legal guarantees that the system is not aimed at russia we're told there's a big conflict between republicans and democrats in congress and they start to explain that conflict but we're not interested in that what's important for us is that the u.s. is behind this project and they should provide security for all partners russia is very flexible if some fabricated political reasons they rejected our suggestion to integrate our means of anti missile defense and there's another scheme they could

be cooperation between two independent systems if nato wants to defend itself it's no problem but if russia wants to provide its own security so be it otherwise it's like when you come home and discover someone else's bodyguard sitting in your bedroom he's been sent to provide your security he's going to like that so if all our suggestions are rejected and if it's understood that iran is just a reason to have a plan while russia's nuclear potential is the real target and russia will come up with its own military response which nobody is going to like and that was russian envoy to nato to meet heroes and talked about a lot of things today also he spoke about the ongoing conflict in libya thank wote this is a campaign that nobody really needs this is the west participating in someone else's military conflict that was a quote from him and that's going to do it for now for more on the stories we covered go to r.t. dot com slash usa our tech at our you tube page youtube dot com slash r.t. america you should also follow me on twitter and at frowsy.