do you guys know that the united states actually decided to sell weapons to taiwan recently. i haven't heard. you know really keep up with politics you know and. well there you have it the average american has no clue how the u.s. and taiwan are related to the u.s. presidential or does this threats from china have a hand in a major deal between the u.s. and taiwan. that's what president reagan did nineteen eighty one what started out well it's hard john sears know the people in this campaign i want you talk about like i'm going to general feel like even rumsfeld lost his job so is it time for history to repeat itself while obama fights to higher with his new jobs plan many

are saying what the president needs to do is fire this during a time when he's fund raising at thirty six thousand dollars a plate many can't even put food on the table. a prison contractors have no difficulty making money they have figured out how to cash in on undocumented immigrants ahead here how one man's american dream was rushed to his residency was revoked four years later. hey there it's friday september sixteenth five pm in washington d.c. i'm christine you're watching our team well the white house has given the green light to the sale of an arms package to taiwan as they all know is leaving a lot of world leaders on shaky ground all right here's the deal taiwan says it's.

fleet is aging and they were hoping that the deal would include new advanced f. sixteen jets the u.s. which has provided weapons to taiwan since world war two and is all dated to help based on a one nine hundred seventy nine law will instead sell less advanced jets older ones to taipei and the reason is china who really doesn't want the u.s. to get involved in the first place especially with advanced weapons now in some ways you could look at there's like a crazy sibling rivalry china and taiwan two siblings that while don't really get along at all china in fact still claims taiwan as its province as it has apparently fifteen hundred missiles targeting taiwan the u.s. and china are also family these days especially when you consider how much of the u.s. debt is held by china so you have a sticky situation and what shows that based on the u.s. backing down in some ways is that china is still very much the older stronger brother so this is the simple version of the story but to make more sense of this i

was joined earlier by investigative journalist and r.t. contributor when madsen. this is geopolitics actually was what is going on here taiwan and china have actually had pretty good relations considering the fact that they claim each other's territory for them for their own and national is on taiwan and communism of ageing through a process called the cross streets negotiations however china looks at the united states interference as something that they don't want to deal with they have no problem dealing with the government in taiwan especially the current president was a big advocate of this cross street dialogue increasing trade between taiwan and china for example but whatever happens out of his fighters deal china will get four point two billion dollars of military aid from the united states maybe not the advance of sixteen's maybe in a package to. their current fighters sixteen's but put this in

context with hillary clinton rattling sabers about the south china sea disputed islands there disputed between five different countries china philippines vietnam brunei and malaysia. in addition to taiwan she she has been rattling sabers against china so it looks like there's still some old free china cold warriors in the obama administration parading around as democrats when in fact they look like they're closer to the old richard nixon of the one nine hundred fifty s. there were of quite a few forces that were in pushing for the sale for that sale of the newer more advanced ethics teams and that includes the lawmakers who supported a bill basically to reaffirm that close relationship between the u.s. and taiwan i want to read something that's or at a republican congressman eliot only on a lot ruslan said yesterday in a statement she said quote in order to protect u.s.

national security interests in the pacific we must ensure that taiwan has the capability to defend itself from an attack her. mainland china the taiwan relations act requires this it is deeply concerning that the current administration's commitment to the very foundation of the t.r.a. seems to be faltering at most glaring lee through its continued refusal to sell time one the next generation has sixteen's or diesel submarines. other lawmakers including texas senator john cornyn also you know this would have brought us jobs which we desperately need since these newer jets are made by lockheed martin talk about kind of the truth of politics here between these lawmakers getting involved and wanting the u.s. to sort of tip that scale between the u.s. and china well with ross lane and we have actually someone stuck in time she is basically she doesn't want to have any dialogue with. cuba because she's a basically cuban from south florida so she's against any initiatives with the

castro government and it looks like her policy because of the china is going back to the old debate between nixon and kennedy in one hundred sixty whether the u.s. will protect queen morion might sue these people like corn and and. robert menendez who's a democrat from new jersey i should add he's a member of that same cuba coalition ileana ros let in as a member of these are cold warriors but then again they're also beholden to the military industrial complex they want the french guards been and is a new jersey court in texas and roslyn and she and she is the chairman the house foreign relations committee but she if you want to republican administration after obama you're find people like ross layton and in that administration these are people who are playing great winship with china they like to do with russia cold warriors in the twenty first century you mentioned when how relations between china and taiwan relatively speaking are decent these days despite some pretty. good.

things between them that run deep in terms of art as. and to one another on the china china has been warning the us for quite some time about this this deal which has been in the works for a couple years now i know one official chinese newspaper even said quote you know warned about the mad men on capitol hill pushing the f. sixteen sale we're playing with fire and could pay a disastrous price what kind of disaster a surprise do you think they were threatening well they could increase their military presence as they already are in the south china sea. there's also the. dispute over some islands between ship in and showing or this could ratchet up tensions on the korean peninsula okinawa taiwan all the way down to the south china sea but i think there are some elements in both the obama administration the republican party that would like to see that showdown with china which actually owns our debt and i think that's the key here there are some people who would like

to see a breakdown in relations but if he were somehow to get out of jail instead to china which isn't going to happen a lot of kind of interesting connections there between the u.s. and china of course the intense rivalry between china and taiwan runs deep and there's a history to it as well the u.s. reaction clearly important in all dealings with taiwan but here's a question how much exactly does the average american really know about taiwan well arcee that around you sarah took to the streets of washington d.c. to find out i went out on the streets of washington d.c. armed with a camera and i have to ask americans a simple question. what is taiwan and why is it so important to the u.s. where is taiwan. asia. well is where you're we are is that. i don't know what it. is joining us this morning nice to talk hear from you know the scuse me sir did you guys know that. states decided to sell arms to taiwan

i had read that i didn't know i hadn't heard that you know i don't know that you know i didn't i don't know traditionally the u.s. is sort of intervened on behalf of taiwan. who against china china i would assume since they're closest to protect them from attack from china probably against communist china if i'm not mistaken i i was in the impression that taiwan was. occupied by the british invasion ship or taiwan is probably important just as important as our relationship isn't china but you have it it seems americans kind of know where it is but not why it's such a big issue reporting from washington and i don't know said oh artie. i think when i want to get your thoughts on this i mean to what extent do you think that the american public is aware at all of all these different kind of divisions and complicated relationships between countries well or not very aware of them at all

because if you watch the cable news networks you would know that taiwan certainly existed you know that the part of white house party crashers just said you know broke up but that seems to be where the focus is with the media the mainstream media but taiwan is a very critical part of our policy towards asia but again it's not it's not the nineteenth it's the one nine hundred sixty s. and fifty's for republicans and some democrats who want to play the old for most nationalist china card but for the american public in general they have no idea what's going on over in the in taiwan straits what about the future of the intercept in taiwan there has been some talk that the obama administration has sort of tried to get involved and maybe have a hand in who might be coming out next in order once again not to take that delicate scale were president the current president of taiwan is a big proponent of the cross trade initiative however his opposition is favored and

in favor of this is somewhat of an independent stance for taiwan something to china doesn't go to go for we also have a transition in china itself in the people's republic which again is very important considering this maneuvering going on with supplying taiwan with weaponry and just finally when i guess i want to get your take on what you think the bigger implications of this whole deal was this was a long deal in the making in terms of this sale it's sort of was a compromise on the part of all of the countries i guess what's the bigger picture here well the u.s. will be supplying taiwan with weaponry the report is four point two billion dollars worth. let's see how china looks at that if it's if it's weaponry that china doesn't look at all. as a as aggressive towards china they'll probably go ok with it but if it's any sort of dubious weaponry especially weaponry that could counter china's missile threat to try taiwan we're going to see some problems between beijing and washington all

right always an interesting discussion with you and that's a good journalist and r.t. contributor when nothing well we end this week like we have so many weeks this year with the sense that things in this economy have not gotten much better for many it's even simply another day without a job of president obama is hoping to fix that and he's traveling the country to sell his american jobs act hoping to get people on board and hoping congress will pass this bill finally we are starting to hear some reaction from republicans here's speaker of the house john boehner yesterday it was so the president. they're not doing their jobs if they're not constantly for restoring removing impediments to job groups. and if they're not focused on that there will be for all the talk more about the jobs bill the economy and the politics of it all i want to go to caroline hellman

a professor of politics that occidental college who is in our los angeles studio i carolina i just want to get your take first on what may be more political wrangling on what seems to be at first a non controversial piece of legislation the american jobs act. well i think it will be highly politicized partisan politics will play a major role expected to get whittled down simply because a win for jobs at this point in time would be a win for president obama and we have a looming presidential election so if i were a republican strategist i would be doing everything i possibly could to defeat this bill because as moody's has pointed out it will actually create one point nine million new jobs and it will boost g.d.p. by two percent it will lower the just the unemployment rate and any positive movement will benefit president obama and the next election but there's only one thing republicans have not changed their mind on the entire time obama has been in office is raising taxes they say they will not sign on to anything in any form that

doesn't that seems to be what's going on here they've seen some of the provisions of the bill and they don't like it and your take on that. yeah i think that's a good assessment there are two provisions the way and which will be paid for is to get rid of the bush tax breaks to the wealthy so the top two percent as president obama specified will be taxed and he'll also get rid of some of these corporate loopholes which have prevented major corporations and even mid-sized corporations from paying any taxes republicans are using the economic downturn as an opportunity to say that taxes and regulation is what's not causing hiring but that's simply inaccurate from the research i have seen in the polls i've seen coming from business again and again the vast majority are saying that it's a lack of aggregate demand and they're right because the bottom dropped out of the middle class we don't have people purchasing at the same rates and as a result there is no reason for adding your workforce to increase productivity if

there's no demand for it so if this can increase demand then the ripple effect in terms of jobs will be much greater than the one point nine million projected by moody's but those one point nine million jobs. are not likely to come on fast and all of the same time and in the end they're not likely to change the unemployment rate drastically so the lie of the republicans you know signing on to this so that they can say in six months well obama we let you have your bill and it's still in do anything you know that's as good of a campaign speech as any one as any thing that i can think. that's an interesting analysis i think that the fear would be that it would be effective and it would be somewhat effective at least in the next year there he president obama is focusing on infrastructure and the infrastructure jobs would be shovel ready jobs and they would start immediately stimulating the economy as that money is circulating and more people are employed so at least in that one sense we would see some movement

and also he has a payroll holiday extension which would mean that mid and small size businesses would be able to hire so if there was a question about well maybe we can produce a little more but not quite enough to get a new employee it would help to make that decision so i actually think it would be somewhat effective in the next year or at least that is a risk that republicans are not willing to take but aren't they in turn are going to be the ones who look like they are the greedy people that everyone says they are by not jumping on board i mean in one breath they say we need jobs and in the next one they're not getting on board with an actual plan that's been put out there so you know the only people with lower lower in the polls than the president himself are members of congress. sure and i think that republicans to their credit have very skillfully framed the problem not as being lack of ever did demand but government regulation and so i think they set it up so that they can perhaps successfully blame president obama if nothing happens at least that is the goal and

i think that if he passes it and there's some success it will be very difficult to overlook that come the election and this really is his election to lose because the republicans although they have some strong front runners now are not polling very well they have not presented someone who can peel to the wide swath of americans come a general election we've perry bachmann and romney and certainly paul are much further to the left or impulse case much more libertarian than you're even your average general election republican voter so this really is president obama's election to lose and if there's even positive movement even slight positive movement as we saw with ronald reagan it wasn't that the unemployment rate had come down dramatically but rather that it was moving in a positive direction and he was able to spin that as a victory for the candidates always during the primaries play more for their base in this case than playing to the right it will be interesting to see what happens in that case but let's get back to the economy caroline it seems like the debt ceiling debate wasn't very long ago and neither was the downgrade of our federal

credit rating. do you think that we could see something like this in terms of his jobs bill i mean certainly that is the priority for the president right now what do you see as kind of unfolding here. i see something unfolding very similar to the debt limit i see something very similar to the near government shutdown and i think it's important to note that the primary driving force behind the downgrade was not actually what was happening in terms of monetary or fiscal or economic or currency policy rather it was what was happening on capitol hill so not only do i think that we will have this rancorous partisanship come up with this bill and it will be whittled down and watered down to the point where it's not very effective but i also think it will contribute further into this notion that partisan politics is so entrenched in washington d.c. that not a lot will get done and i do think that that threatens us globally in terms of our brand threatened certainly the economic markets the market the stock market does

react to this and that trickles down to hiring and you know for middle america part of politics of course campaign is campaigning and last night the president held a dinner here in washington in georgetown and it was a thirty six thousand dollar a couple fundraising dinner and i just want to get your take do you think that when people hear about this i heard some people talking about this today just shocked that there's anyone who can pay that kind of money to come to a fundraiser these days do you think the contrast is just a little too stark between what's going on in the economy and these kinds of campaign donations. well absolutely i think that they reflect a profoundly broken political system that both parties participate in and will not reform because if they reform it therefore feel it will benefit the other side when we're talking about a hundred million dollar entry fee just to be a serious presidential contender and that's a two thousand and eight number who knows what the actual number will be in two

thousand and twelve president obama certainly is raising money using this system i wish that he would not if he chose to opt out of this system and critique it in the way in which it should be critiqued then he would lose the election as would anyone else running and i think it's a shame that we won't get movement on this and washington d.c. because to get movement on this would be to say we have to get big business money out of this out of the system and if you do that then you lose your election certainly since citizens united the rules have changed and everybody pretty much forced to play by those rules caroline hellman ph d. and professor of politics at occidental college. well free money doesn't come easily for thousands of people right now but one industry that seems to be raking in the big bucks is the prison industrial complex and it's cashing in i'm documented immigrants are the correspondent ramona lindo shows us how. you house. so.

we were not well newlyweds hope and not removed akim we're living the american dream a dream quickly shattered by immigration agents after knowledge reach us residency was suddenly we were poked because of the four year old drug conviction and therefore asian standing high better and it just felt like a nightmare not three an immigrant from singapore was hauled off to the south texas detention center run by g.o.p. the second largest prison contractor in america geo along with corrections corporation of america or c.c.a. have contracts with immigrations and customs enforcement together their annual revenue is three billion dollars both gio and c.c.a. which operates this facility in san diego have repeatedly been accused of lobbying for tougher immigration policies in order to keep their cells full were given to

corporations their hijacking our legislators their hijacking our government and they're pushing for their own particular agenda to make money private prisons are making millions off of the crackdown on on documented immigrants they basically manage every aspect of the detainees life just like a government prison except that contractors are doing it for a profit c.c.a. and geo are not the only private companies making a killing out of our border security infrastructure wells fargo is reported to have millions in shares in private prisons security contractor for g.s. boasts about their ability to transport hundreds of thousands of detainees every year people like. an undocumented nursery worker who himself has been detained several times the thing that i was not only the economy around ten times or three years with and moved on i was

a smuggler. but it's also his final. success in settling in america shows the billions of dollars being spent on private contractors to build the border wall and on high tech monitoring equipment have not sought the flow at all the homeland security mentality the lobbyists are really. paving the way for many more contracts for private companies to have with the u.s. government to ensure that there's always is fueling says some of building more walls those multimillion dollar contracts comic tech spirit expense of course private prisons receive up to two hundred dollars a day pretty tweeny a record three hundred ninety thousand immigrant detainees pass through the system just in two thousand and ten but what they want is to increase profits will be cut medical care we cut services they cut the hire on qualified personnel and with that happens is that that's translated into abuse systematic systematic abuse throughout

the country on bills the detainees there have been reports of abuse even death separate run immigration facilities it is a system over which is only expected to expand as long as profits dictate the immigration debate in los angeles remember lindo r t we are coming up now on an election year and immigration policy will no doubt in issue that is debated and discussed but you know whenever this comes up there is a major component that is always missing and that's this this notion that detaining people keeping people locked up is a successful business prisoners after all are profitable so the more of them there are the more money the private prints prison industry brings in and earlier i spoke to one who is a good here is the president of all of the neither of us say about this connection between the private prison industry and the tightening of immigration laws across the country. well i think you're absolutely right the private prison

system he is very interested in has been from the beginning about toughening laws regulation. immigrants because there's still a very early on that this was a very big business. we have a situation now where essentially what we have now is a whole way of that involves the private prison system on the one hand conservative politicians on the other working hand in hand through professional obvious to make sure that the congress of the united states keeps a locating monies so the private prison system continues to expand and one thing that we've noted over the last thirty years is that in every single state

where politicians have to work have been signed have been defined in congressional law. federal laws seems to me in terms of implementing immigration law. you know you've seen an expansion of the crime of the prison system in those countries with the net result that not only have the prison system expanded. but immigrants are now being imprisoned for longer and longer periods of time because the longer they stay in prison the more money those private contractors get from the federal government it seems to me almost similar to what we now know about you know the banking industry yet another industry in which the people who stand to profit are the same ones making the rules and i want to talk specifically about one of the most glaring examples of this that is of course arizona's immigration law has a ten thousand eight where police. officers were ordered to lock up anyone they

stopped whether it be for a traffic violation or whatever reason who could not show proof that they were citizens i know two of governor jan brewer's top advisers are former prison lobbyists so the connections are aplenty what about those who constantly say you know this is in the name of safety we need stricter laws to keep our to keep the united states safer what do you have to say to those people. well yes of course you need to keep the united states safe but when you're dealing with immigrants what you have to understand is that by and large it is not being generous felon that's getting in the team and locked up for one period of time essentially what you are hardworking law abiding taxpaying immigrants who happen to violate in this trade of regulation who are now confronting very tough immigration laws federal level result the bleach you know they have been penalized for being in the

country without documents and they get caught up in these growing private prison industry which is that direct result of all these racist policies that we have states across the country and so you know the americans public you know are more safe today than he was before these draconian immigration relations and the prison system is broken that we've seen a lot of good points you're making here some of them really interesting that i don't know about i just want to get in one more question and that is i mean we saw this report and we showed one of the largest. corporations in this industry which is geo but there's also the corrections corporation of america c.c.a. why is it that when we talk about immigration reform and when we talk about this on political platforms and you know all the pundits debate in the mainstream media why is this part of the story not being told that these major contractors are working

with the government and profiting off the arrest of illegal illegal immigrants. well it we don't hear about it because everybody basically has been conditioned in the greater american public to. you know to simply assume that any time you're talking about individuals that are being incarcerated you're talking about the worst of the worst and there's not point discussing you know what the reality is what's going on i mean who who's making profit on the mystery of these individuals the assumption is that this individuals are very dangerous criminals as we mentioned earlier and therefore they deserve to be locked up you know he put only there are and so the last thing you won is to begin to inform the american public that somebody is making huge profits that incarcerating the ambac human pit is.