sixty percent approval rating at the height of the oil spill. then were nine percent. well you heard it here b.p. b. i.r.s. and even the idea of communism have had a higher approval rating than the u.s. congress at the moment maybe it's because of all that bipartisan bickering so as lawmakers duke it out with the threat of a government shutdown looming tonight we ask are americans ready to send washington packing. this is a deal that we can be the policemen of the world and settle all these disputes i mean we have to quit because we're broke while these one republican is unwilling

willing to settle for the status quo and now ron paul is setting the record straight on america's role in the world and taking the iowa caucus by storm we'll take a look at his policies and his potential. and tis the season to be greedy american consumers these days could give the grinch a run for his money so as the credit card bills racked up in the empty spaces under the christmas tree philip what does this imbibe mentality have to say about american values. it's thursday december fifteenth four pm in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching r.t. well it's deja vu all over again for the third time our divided congress cannot agree on a spending bill if lawmakers don't come to some sort of an agreement by midnight friday a partial gover. and shutdown well in sewin americans will see higher taxes on

their paychecks and as the drama and bickering back and forth between congress plays out once again it seems there is no desire for republicans and democrats to compromise and the american people are fed up with polls now showing their approval in the single digits senator bennett put that figure into perspective for us my goodness the internal revenue service has a forty percent approval rating compared to or nine percent b.p. had a sixteen percent approval rating at the height of the oil spill and were it nine percent there's an actor says that fifteen percent more people support the united states becoming communist i don't for the record. so while they can't agree on a spending bill and almost anything else it seems they only thing they can agree on

are questionable controversial bills like the defense authorization act recently passed by the house which allows the government to detain american citizens and hold them in military prisons indefinitely essentially bringing guantanamo bay right here at home and what about the sopa act which if passed would allow law enforcement to shut down any website accused of pirating content a move that some say would hurt freedom of speech on the internet and let's not forget the passage of the tarp bill which authorizes hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to bail out the big banks wall street and big corporations so in the wake of all this what our congress is probably already is and is it time to scrap congress and start a new well nomi prins author of black friday is here to dig deeper into this with me welcome to know me i want to get your analysis about what is going on in congress yet another deadlock do lawmakers even have

a desire to compromise they seem to have a desire to act like children or if it's not a desire it's an inherent ability although i think children come to a compromise a little bit sooner it's like this is nice and box this is mine ok let's play together whereas congress doesn't seem to be able to do that over the important issues which really impact americans day to day life which is their job to work towards accommodating now there are a few things it seems that congress can agree on bailing out the big banks recently the defense authorization act so when it comes to military spending and bailing out corporations we do see a consensus but when it comes to spending to a spending bill which affects each and every american why is it that they can't agree. you know what that consensus is part of it's the fact that the wall street community fun many of the campaigns or the staying ability of these politicians on

both sides of the aisle certainly so does the defense industry so if you follow the money you see that the things that can be agreed upon are generally the things that have the most money behind them and not just in lobbying money that's part of it but also in campaign contribution money and i think the closer we get to the election and we're always in washington worried about the next election in the next run for office that becomes more and more apparent of course tarp the seven hundred billion dollars congressional bill that bailed out a number of banks in addition to all of the money and trillions that were thrown at these banks through the federal reserve and the treasury department was just after an election so this just shows you that really that is the game in washington and with respect to individuals that's what seems to get put on the table assumes the long term bargaining chip between everything else that both parties want to get done and gets thrown by the wayside and you get these ridiculous inane conversations we just have this conversation about are we going to start down the government can we extend the payroll tax cut in so for

a few months ago and all that happened when it was punted down the road whereas yes when you look at a tarp bill you get agreement within a period of days and as you just pointed out it's no secret that congressmen spend a great deal of time raising money because that is where they get their campaign funds from these big donors so how does this system influence the priorities of our elected leaders and with this essentially who do they really represent. so those are they represent the money rather than the votes and the way they look at is the corporate contributors who pay them the money to raise in their campaign situations are supposed to be about getting votes about getting their messages heard that's why else would you be raising money technically for a campaign but that isn't what happened what the money gets used to do is indicate what kind of legislation that particular politician is going to be pushing when he or she gets in office or is able to stay in office so that's really how our entire

political system has devolved and it's not that there wasn't always money in politics or that there wasn't always a revolving door between people that were leaders or are high ranking officials in the business community and then become that in washington but we've gone to a point where it really is all about the money that's behind these these campaigns and the legislation that gets passed and the doesn't get passed in the priorities of the country are just verbal sort of rhetoric that you hear in debates or you you hear on the floor but the don't get passed as quickly or as widely or get thought about is deeply and we're seeing this impasse get again when i ask you do you think that we will see a partial government shutdown this time around. no i don't think we're going to any more than we did last time at the end of the day because there is this election coming up you know congress person on either side of the aisle wants to get labor where you go from a nine percent approval rating there's there's not even a very big drop from from one percent to zero and i don't really think they want to go for that i think there's going to be an agreement like there was last time which

is going to be something along the lines of we'll extend the payroll tax cut for middle class americans we will extend the unemployment benefits like we did last time for a little bit further down the road we won't penalize or tax more greatly the wealthy and we'll throw in some pipeline extras to make it work and everything that's being discussed now ad nauseum for days and weeks is going to come is going to be resolved even with all of the squabbling back and forth and it will be them punted down the road for the next time that the squabbling will reemerge so obviously congress not very popular right now they're at an impasse yet again american people are not happy what is the solution i mean eight is it time to start over or what needs to be done econ i wish that that the vote actually could get rid of anyone who is in the way of getting things done for the american public instead of doing their job which is to effectively help the american public that

would be basically getting rid of almost everyone in congress not everybody but a majority of congress people on both sides of the aisle and starting over again the issue is that people don't feel that they have a choice beyond who's in office or running for office and generally the similarities that we are seeing between the republican and the democratic parties are very very the same and i just want to ask you. as you said a shutdown not likely but if that were to happen if they do not come to a compromise what effect would that have and what would it mean for the american people. well i mean there be a lot of uncertainty again around this this potential extension of a tax cut against unemployment benefits and we're looking at a situation where despite the fact that the unemployment rate was reduced a little bit in the beginning of this month that we saw it's really only because a lot of people have stopped looking or they might have jobs but they're not jobs that are able to make ends meet and people are paycheck to paycheck away from not

being able to make a mortgage payment in addition to the ones that are living in poverty or close to poverty which is now almost fifty percent of the nation so all that does is continue to prolong the pain instead of providing a little extra comfort to go a little further forward realizing that a lot of this situation this economic deterioration that we're seeing in the united states is partly because of these decisions to fund wall street and to fund the defense and to fund the bigger corporations at the expense of the community of the population of the united states know me great to have you on the show that was no me prince author of a black tuesday in los angeles. well still ahead on r t he was once a french presidential candidate now ron paul is headed toward the finish line in iowa this he have what it takes to cross first we'll explore next and look at his views on foreign policy.

to the police to the left. but what is protesting nobody seems to know. the number of pepper sprayed the face but part of the argument that they're being overly dramatic. the cumberland county i'm lauren lyster. well ron paul is surging in the polls in

iowa considered a fringe candidate by the mainstream media he appears now to be making his way to the front of the race most recent poll shows him coming in second to newt gingrich now what mostly sets paul apart from the rest is his stance on foreign policy throughout the years he has maintained that the u.s. should stop acting like the world's policeman and stop waging wars abroad and it seems his anti-war message is resonating with more and more people today so what exactly does ron paul have that the other candidates don't and how do his stances measure up with other world leaders and if elected what will it mean for the u.s. libertarian columnist for world net daily dot com a lot of mercer is here to dig deeper into all of this welcome a lot of so what ask you what sets a ron paul apart from the rest of the candidates and what he has come to symbolize . well he's the only candidate who actually adheres to the constitution in terms of

foreign policy an economics and he certainly adheres to the founders vision of what the country should be like and how it should conduct itself with the rest of the world. and i think that he's followers are in fact seeing that what he adheres to are the natural laws of economics and justice you cannot fluff them for too long and not expect to crumble and i think the response is amazing as you say he is. cheek to jowl with a very flabby new to in in iowa is looking good in south carolina and he's poised to do better one message that paul has maintained over the years is the antiwar message and do you think that that message really heading more people today in n.f.l. why. i think it's not as simplistic as that the republicans ians would like us

to believe that he's simply anti war he's anti are just was which are the kinds of wars that we have been waging unconstitutional and unjust and i think that that message more than anything has the capacity to take him to the national level it is not only mitt romney who although as a libertarian i do not agree with him but is a fine man it is not only mitt romney who can beat obama it is. ron paul can do that with a message of a non interventionist if defense of foreign policy i mean consider ron paul running on a ticket not worth. a warmonger as hillary clinton is who cackled wildly when we were watching videos of our proxies in libya was she orchestrated executing khadafi but let's. synods i wouldn't trust him with

a commonly but he has impeccable credentials when it comes to the constitution and our foreign policy. and a lot of staying on foreign policy i do want to play two sound bites for you one is from ron paul and another is from russian prime minister vladimir putin will compare and contrast this idea that we can be the policemen of the world and settle all these disputes i mean soon we'll have to quit because flat broke but we cannot continue to get into these issues like this and and getting ourselves into more trouble you know they made up their mind on afghanistan and what did they discuss the mission with their own eyes in advance they carried out their strike and we started pulling in other forces saying it was not with us is against us we'd like to be allies with the united states but what i see now is not partnership sometimes i think america doesn't need allies it needs service. so both leaders are speaking

out against the us becoming involved in wars abroad to what extent would you draw a parallel between putin and paul. well i wouldn't draw that parallel except because it doesn't really flatter. ron paul among the base i wouldn't want to emphasize that for his sake but it's very ironic for liberty loving people like myself who's been writing and in the trenches for over a decade and who came out against the bush's war of aggression in iraq in two thousand and two however it's very interesting that we have putin who's so much maligned in the american press echoing very sensible policies. and so if ron paul we see that he's gaining there some momentum do you think that if you were to poll at poll this hour what would it mean for the u.s.

and what would it mean for global policy. well first of all he has to take it from caucus goers which is clearly pleasing they understand that the laws of economics and justice are natural laws and that you kind of lock them for too long and he has to take the message nationally and he has to do that. in a way that he unseats obama and captures his base and he can do that with his foreign policy he can do it it's not a noninterventionist far foreign policy it's a foreign policy that here's to the vision of the founding fathers strengthens a very broken america i wrote in one column that the titan is tired we are tired we need to to circle the wagons protect our own borders and stop gallivanting around the world and destroying other countries and so ron paul he has always had his base of followers but he still is seen by the mainstream media as

a fringe candidate what does he need to do in order to expand his base of followers so so that he could pull it off well you make an interesting distinction he's seen by the mainstream media as a fringe candidate but not necessarily by his growing advocates and he supporters and they are growing among the young people and what i mean by young i don't mean the occupy street crowd ron paul's crowd although you do see a lot of supporters in the occupy wall street movement that you support ron paul yeah yeah that's that's going to but he's supporters you identify them by the message lou free not give me stuff for free they understand that the pursuit of happiness does not mean a guarantee of happiness house and free healthcare there understand the economics they have years of working life in front of them so he certainly has a growing base among the people if not the media who obviously sinecure and have

a vested interest in the state's. and speaking of young people ron paul does have the youth or a large following from the youth what is it about him i mean he is the oldest candidate among the g.o.p. candidates what is it about ron paul that he attracts this young following and this is what is so interesting that has brought impish traditionalist who's probably the oldest among the candidates is attracting so many young people and i don't even like to call it the message of liberty i like to refer refer to ron paul's agenda as he promotes eternal verities eternal truths and i think young people understand that they understand that if they cannot spend hi rick private property counterfeit money their way to prosperity neither can the state or the super state

being the e.u. and the lights and they have many years of working life ahead of them and they understand these. truths i also want to ask you we have another debate coming up tonight another g.o.p. debate there's been many of them it seems this campaign but some people say that you know the republican contenders right now are unimpressive newt gingrich right now is in the lead by he it's really questionable how long he can stay there when you look at some of the other candidates do you how do you think that that impacts paul's chances. well i definitely think that newt gingrich is a flash in the pan and many he's record is absolutely awful news the quintessential status inside guy you look at his response to mitch romney who made a good case as ron paul about. newt gingrich's inside connections

to one of the entities that has brought us to financial collapse freddie mac. and for any for fannie mae. what was newt gingrich gingrich is response he said well look at mitt romney's record in the private sector firing people well anyone who knows who is a custodian of private business and property knows that sometimes you do have to consolidate and fire so this is an individual new doesn't even understand how private business works newt gingrich is is not a threat to to ron paul's truthful message mitt romney is more of an impressive man i've always said that he's a good man. he's message is just not my own but we certainly have a lot of ron paul's that are happy to see the way he is ron paul fans that are happy to see the way he is surging in the polls right now a lot of thank you so much for weighing in on this that was a lot of mercer libertarian columnist for world net daily dark and after our

interview the cannibals part lessons for america from post apartheid south africa. in seattle. and we will be right back after this short break. we just put a picture of me when i was like nine years old and just you know look through the lens. i confess and i am a total get a friend that i love rap and hip hop music and. that he was kind of a yesterday. i'm very proud of the will without you she has played.

the war. in. iraq. since. zero. into that only you know with the mechanisms to do the work to bring justice to accountability. i have every right to know what my government should do if you want

to know why i pay taxes. i would characterize obama as a charismatic version of american exceptionalism. is the state run english speaking russian channel it's kind of like. russia today has an extremely confrontational stance when it comes to us.

well shifting gears a bit to the war on drugs not doing enough that's what russia says the us and nato are guilty of when it comes to trying to stop the legal drug trade in afghanistan which now produces over ninety percent of the world's opium moscow claims eradicating the country's poppy supply as the simplest and most efficient way of solving the problem r.t. if you can dig deeper into all of this take a look. these harmless looking afghan puppies have caused millions of deaths worldwide. russian the u.s. have teamed up to crack down on drug producers in afghanistan as a result of joint operations a number of major labs were destroyed there but there is a stark difference in how russian the u.s. see the solution to the problem. metaphorically speaking instead of destroying the machine gun nest they suggest catching bullets flying from the machine guns we

suggest eradicating narcotic plants altogether as long as there are opium poppy fields there will be trafficking as simple as that but the u.s. and other nato countries have no intention to eradicate afghan poppy fields once and for all they say afghans need opium poppies to survive another inconsistency the issue of americans come up with the us together with the colombian government eradicates two hundred thousand hectares of coca bush is a year in afghanistan only two thousand hectares of poppy fields are being around a kid so one hundred times less apart from the refusal to get rid of the poppies there is the alleged interest of international banks in dirty money narcotics have nearly as much air in the total world trade as oil and gas the head of russia's drug enforcement suggested u.s. and european banks tacitly welcome and encourage the inflow of drug money and that is because of the reports show that a persistent lack of liquidity in an aspiration to survive during a crisis promote not only tolerance toward criminal money but also encouraging

attitude of availability of such money there was silent consent in the us audience to the russian proposal to stop the banks from laundering drug money we can interdict and see is tons of narcotics we can make arrests of traffickers but we really need to choke off the fog supply this there was also a sense of doubt whether western authorities can actually take on those very powerful financial institutions the u.s. and other nato countries are obviously not in for the idea. a rowdy kading afghan poppy fields all together besides your national banks those seem to mind the human gene flow of dirty money but experts say that the status quo would lead to millions more dying in the future deaths which could be prevented i'm getting shut down reporting from washington our team. well that's going to do it for now i'm sorry we couldn't cover that america's addiction to shopping but be sure to tune out five pm we're going to have that and more covered about you can also had to r.t.

dot com slash usa and our you tube page at youtube dot com slash r t america you can also follow me on twitter at liz well the capital account lauren lists are coming up next. if you're really going to take three. more charges. ranging free. free. free. free blog video for your media project free b.t.o. gondar t. dot com.

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