coming up on our t.v. on capitol hill republicans and democrats push forward on a budget deal but even with a budget this is still shaping up to be the worst congress in history and then the floor just ahead and forget the get out of jail free card in california the deadline to reduce the state's prison population has been delayed their offer rating at one hundred fifty percent overcapacity for the foreseeable future and they will stay that way the latest on the state's overcrowded system coming up and philadelphia schools are taking a class in fund raising the city council will allow it will losses and buildings to be plastered with ads borne a new attempt to drive the city out of debt later in the show.

it's thursday december twelfth eight pm in washington d.c. i'm meghan lopez and you are watching r.t. well starting off tonight for the first time since two thousand and nine the house was actually finally able to cross over party lines by passing a budget deal for the next two years neither party got exactly what they wanted so no one is really happy but hey that's compromise for you here's a glimpse at what that compromise entails the eighty five billion dollars budget was cooked up by house and senate budget budget committee chairs representative paul ryan and senator patty murray and reverses three hundred sixty three billion dollars in automatic spending cuts known as seaquest ration plan for twenty fourteen it also reduces the deficit by another twenty three billion dollars over the next ten years now the total budget for fiscal year two thousand and fourteen

is one point zero one two trillion dollars which is split between. military and nonmilitary spending so who made out on the deal well oiled drill or certainly did the proposal would allow development of an area in the gulf of mexico previously closed to drilling and the spending for the pentagon has increased by more than twenty billion dollars from its current levels but in order to trim the deficits americans are going to have to pitch in a bit more liberals trying to push for an extension to unemployment benefits for one point three million needy americans that are set to expire by the end of this month but to no avail that extension is not in the deal also federal workers will have to contribute more to their pensions and airline travelers will have to pay higher security fees but before you start thinking that political gridlock in the nation's capitol is over and the lawmakers are sitting in a circle singing kumbaya with one another keep this in mind the one hundred

thirteenth congress is the least productive group of people in decades they have passed seven times fewer bills than harry truman's do nothing congress in one nine hundred forty eight and twenty two fewer bills than the last two years so what are they doing with our time if they're not passing legislation are to correspondent perry and boring finds out. we are almost halfway through the hundred thirteenth congress and if we're on its way to becoming the least productive in the history of the united states this friday marks the last legislative day of the year for the house of representatives so far there have only been fifty bills and acted and so law a stork low for even modern day congress it is in two thousand and eleven the first year of the hundred twelfth congress eighty one bills were signed into law by the president capitol hill picked up steam in two thousand and twelve passed another two hundred two bills this gave the one hundred twelfth congress two hundred eighty three total laws making it the biggest do nothing congress thus far however with

the fifty six bills passed into law this year it looks as though the one hundred thirteenth congress could break this record here's how i presented it judy chu feels about this. i think it's a crying shame when i first got here we were the most productive congress ever we passed the affordable care act frank and the biggest increase to college scholarships ever but this has been a do nothing congress and we have so many important things to do including extending unemployment benefits i'm just really distressed by the state of things. so let's talk about what the legislative priorities of the hundred thirteenth congress are the republican controlled house has passed forty six different bills to repeal the affordable care act fifty two jobs bills and a budget the senate has passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill so-called nuclear option which changes the rules to make it significantly easier to pass executive branch nominees and

a totally different budget despite the house and senate both passing separate budgets we still haven't agreed upon one or several key measures including a farm bill a permit doc fix to medicare and fourteen of the eighteen key appropriations bills in the past these have been nonpartisan measures what some people prefer their congress doing nothing including representative ileana rossley in who i spoke with earlier this week. well some people say that we do our best work when we don't pass any more laws and we don't pass any more regulations and we don't hike anybody's taxes so i guess it depends on what one's version or definition of productive is if you don't like congress you don't want to passing any more laws than than you probably pretty happy with the record so what are some of the bill that have passed both chambers they include an amendment to the national baseball hall of fame commemorative coin act to specify the dimensions that should be made and then we also have the no budget no pay act however despite the fact there is still no

budget and everyone can ten used to get paid there is the helping heroes to fly act to make it easier for injured veterans to pass through airport security over disabled people and seniors still have to navigate their way their t.s.a. screenings and the helium stewardship act which revises the requirements for crude helium sales on federal land it was mark twain who told us actions speak louder than words but not nearly as often when i was leaving the capitol earlier this week i snapped this photo of a few hill stoppers going through security they were really in a blanket covered cart and ensure would do nothing fashion as they approached the metal detectors then build an assortment of beers to be due to the capitol although we've yet to pass a water bill we can at least be assured that someone's paying their beer bills in washington d.c. perry and boring are to earlier today the senate banking committee drafted a bill that would introduce new sanctions against iran this comes less than a month after the obama administration announced a temporary deal with the country to ease sanctions in return for iran curtailing

its nuclear program of course if the u.s. does follow through with these new sanctions it violates the terms of that agreement senate banking committee chairman tim johnson said the bill will not move forward if iran follows through with its end of the deal but the obama administration is anxious to prove that it remains tough on iran and will do so until a permanent deal. is reached now to that in the white house announced that it would be blocking the trading activities of an expanded list of iranian individuals and companies operating around the world these are companies associated with iran's oil sector and they will even remain on the sanctions list under this new agreement meanwhile iranian and russian officials are meeting in tech runs today r t s marina sheena is there with more. this is the highest level russian delegation to visit iran since president hassan rouhani took power. that has led to a real significant diplomatic movement after just several months in power and

breakthrough talks in geneva earlier. the new administration in taiwan agreed to either freeze or curb parts of its nuclear program the payback was limited relieve from the international sanctions which have severely hampered the country's economy already we know that a group of international inspectors has been allowed to visit the iraq plant here in iran which is at the center of suspicions about iran's motives for have been a nuclear program it's been shut down so far for at least six months a cauldron to geneva deal with russia's massive is that good will is key to holding these together in once foreign minister has already warned that if the u.s. senate decides to introduce new sanctions and this is something that is now being discussed in america all diplomatic achievements already reached between the signs will be done and this is very dangerous sergei lavrov russia's foreign minister

will seek a sure is that iran is keeping its and of the deal to the next rehabilitation of the international arena could include syria in just a month's time diplomats have back to switzerland to participate in geneva to syria peace talks and at this stage all the major powers involved in the protective crisis in this. country will be there but not iran and this is something most who is very concerned about and wants to change it wants to get to run involved too that will be another important part of the discussions here integrand today. that was artie's maria cino shiina. russian president vladimir putin delivered his annual state of the nation address the today and he focused on the economy and said the main slowdown for growth in the country comes from internal factors he also addressed situations in ukraine and syria archies igor piskun office in moscow with

more. it's traditionally become the place to be to find out the president's vision of the president and his plans for the future every year russia stop politicians businessmen economists and elites gather at the kremlin to listen to his idle address first head of just returned from there as well and here are some of the key points why the world had to make russia isn't looking at dominating the rules but that doesn't mean it has to stop protecting its sovereignty and traditional values . because we know that there are even more people around the globe who support our position in terms of ensuring traditional values these are the values of traditional family and the value of human life including religious life that is not only material life but also spiritual of course this is a conservative position but the point of conservatism is not that it hinders the movement forward and upward but that it precludes the movement backwards downwards back towards chaos and a barbaric state. diplomacy was another point in the president's speech or

specifically recent breakthroughs with syrian chemical weapons and the reigning nuclear program and many animals to greet these are examples that diplomacy still works by the time when russia. has adjusted to the process of chemical disarmament stars and syria. very few countries in the world we can to support the so-called obama option which would have been yet another bombing of the it and as a country so i think that this is a very important lesson. lesson on how the crisis is over this time should the sole u.s. plans to build an anti missile defense system in europe one of the biggest sticking points in moscow's relationship with washington was of course also talked about the president's message was simple without a threat from iran what's the point of building it. moscow does see the shield as a threat to its national security and putin says powering up russia's military is

one of the ways to protect against it. you go when you go to look at you do see it less if it was more sinister that it's what no country should harbor illusions of achieving military dominance over russia we will never let it happen russia is ready to meet those challenges both political and technological and we've got all the potential needed we are military doctrine as well as our military equipment allow us without a doubt to ensure russia's security point admitting their relations with europe and former soviet countries are not easy to clearly referring to the current situation in ukraine putin said moscow respects the desire of those partners who want to be fulsome to be used as long as decisions aren't made by heads and are based on dialogue with spin off or to moscow. while all week we've been telling you about the countdown to the expiration of the national defense authorization act and any attempts to come up with a last minute deal part of the new were only in or india a bell included additional funding for american missile defense. systems when all

is said and done the bill boosts spending by three hundred fifty eight million dollars bringing the grand total to a little over nine point five billion the compromise mandates an additional homeland defense radar to be built and also allocates more money to u.s. and israeli cooperative efforts while makers are hoping to have the bill signed stamped and sealed by the end of the year if they can get everyone on board that is r.t. correspondent ana stasia charkha recently had the chance to sit down with stephen cohen who is a professor emeritus at n.y.u. and princeton to talk about missile defenses place in u.s. russia relations take a look this is only my view that from the beginning of course it was directed potentially at russia because scientists in this country have testified that the further or fourth stage of deployment of missile defense those installations that are in eastern europe bordering russia could technically bring down russian

missiles as they were on their upward launch they could be destroyed but now why does this matter because russia is never going to attack but he destroys the principle it's kept the nuclear peace for fifty year or so that we dare not attack russia because russia could retaliate and vice versa but if missile defense could destroy russia's retaliatory capacity the idea of a successful safe first strike now becomes part of policy and even though nobody would act on it it's exceedingly dangerous missile defense is a thing in itself it's now part remember it's now not an american project it's a nato project. that means it's part of a nato expansion toward russia if the united states and russia could agree some out to nato expansion then unilateral missile defense will also end and if you want

missile defense then it ought to be some collaborative european american russian program but at the moment it's motives are not really military because nobody thinks it could actually protect you you send up one hundred fake missiles and the missile defense goes after the fake ones then you send the real ones it's done you no good this is political and it's enormously expensive and it's an absolutely no one's national security that was stephen cohen professor emeritus at n.y.u. and princeton. well in israel people are breathing a little easier lea's days ever since syria agreed to hand over its chemical stockpiles to the international community for months so syria's civil war raged on in the country israelis have been preparing for the possibility of violence to spill over into their country or worse yet a chemical weapons attack but those fears are finally easing artie's policy or reports. this could soon be

a thing of the past is radius queuing for gas masks in the pipeline a recommendation to the cabinet to stop manufacturing them for civilians so is dismantling of its chemical weapons arsenal seems to have lifted the edge of israeli fears of a chemical strike well as a few months ago kids were spilling into the streets today the paranoia has died down. it comes after syria destroyed all of its chemical weapons production facilities the country is on track to eliminate its entire stock power by the middle of next year the chemical weapons are among the most important weapons ever known to man. and we made friends with a world away except for syria had agreed to abandon that weaponry a long time ago only two countries in the middle east haven't come on board with egypt and israel television has actually signed but not ratified the chemical weapons convention that outlaws the production stockpiling and use of chemical

weapons the reason that one there is still some chemical weapons in the region and also does not want again from reasons of deterrence to reveal and to discover its capabilities tel aviv has always been vague on the topic of chemical weapons according to foreign media reports israel has a stockpile of various weapons but the israeli public's always shied away from asking too many questions the same reason if it's security we don't have to deal with we have the dakota stablished the nor the doing we don't have to do anything about it but with syria out of the picture israel's argument is weaker and the organization that controls chemical weapons is keeping up the pressure we regular. stand letters to the non-state parties including israel and encourage you to. but

without joining the convention it means you see god has no legal mandate to undertake verification activities to verify the point but as another chemical weapons arsenal in the middle east is dismantled with the power of diplomacy these way the government is facing growing international pressure to come on board. television well last month we told you about california's plan to reduce its prison population significantly by january a three judge federal panel has now extended that deadline to april to give the state time to figure out how to go about reducing the prison population right now there are over one hundred ninety thousand inmates in california causing the prison system to operate at one hundred fifty percent over capacity inmate advocates say this over population is a violation of constitutional standards and leads to poor prison conditions the court says that the population needs to drop by one thousand six hundred inmates by april rather than january earlier i spoke with r.t.

correspondent ramon the lino to get the latest on this deadline extension take a look. this isn't the first time that the extension of this deadline has been extended we have to remember that the corps initially ordered the state of california to reduce its prison population to about one hundred ten thousand people or about one hundred thirty seven point five percent of its capacity by june of two thousand and thirteen that has been extended until april and this also gives a little bit more time for for the attorneys representing the prisoners themselves to help negotiate new solutions in order to deal with california's prison overcrowding before this it was just the governor's office and legislators who are trying to come up with ideas but this has to bring in attorneys for the prisoners to try to come up with some ideas to help reduce this issue of overcrowding well let's talk about some of those ideas what kind of long term solutions have been

proposed sure the ideas coming from this day really have to do mostly with reducing the rate of recidivism here in the state of california now that means spending more money on education of inmates and spending more money on mental health funding instead of the prisons as well however attorneys for attorneys for the inmates themselves say that more needs to be done to really address the immediate issue of just plain overcrowding inside of the prisons and as i had spoke about that the attorneys for these men as and women say that the overall population is a violation of constitutional standards as well as and leads to these really poor prison conditions can you go out and tell us about those conditions what it's currently like in these overcrowded prisons. no you're absolutely right i mean the health care system inside of california prisons was ruled to be unconstitutional and this really stems from

a couple of lawsuits involving inmates suffering from mental illness illness and just regular inmates who weren't really getting the proper care because there's just so many people stacked up on top of each other attorneys representing. some of the mentally ill inmates described some of the conditions let's hear from something like twenty five to thirty percent of state prisoners in california are people who are severe mental illness and those people were in horrific conditions they would be very symptomatic to compensate committed suicide and be in cells where they're basically losing touch with reality smearing themselves with their own ways and there just wasn't enough capacity to care for them the other compassionate face is that it is a me as a medical case where you just sent people with medical conditions range ranging from infections to cancer who also were not getting minimal care and they're in

prison it's not like they can just go to the doctor or call nine one one the only cure they can get is been here in the prison system gives them right and some of the judges that ruled the health care system in california prisons to be unconstitutional even suggested that the same and they're led to deaths and in the most recent extension of the negotiations for this prisoner release deadline some judges express a lot of concern over the fact that hundreds of mentally ill inmates are being kept in solitary confinement with what appears to be no sort of cause well ramon i have to ask you why is california's present population so much higher than the rest of the u.s. do you guys just have more prevalent. well this is a problem that didn't happen overnight this is decades in the making just for a little bit of perspective back in the one nine hundred seventy s. there are about twenty thousand total inmates in all of california is prison system at its peak in two thousand and seven there were nearly one hundred seventy five

thousand inmates that's an increase that but of about seven hundred percent so and a lot of this does have to do with tougher drug laws stricter sentencing good guidelines laws such as three strikes and what we see is a lot of the coverage of high profile crimes in the news and then that really created a string of lawmakers who were tough on crime really compete to see who could create tougher sentencing guidelines and years and years of those sort of policies unfortunately ended up with this overcrowding this inside of the prison system now one of the reasons state officials say that they want to extend the deadline is to give the rehabilitation programs in the state time to to be able to work well have to see how those rehabilitation systems work or if this deadline is going to be punted once again artie corresponding remodeling the reporting for us in los angeles thank you so much well say goodbye to the iconic yellow bus children have been going to school for decades city council members in philadelphia approved

a bill this month that would allow a school district to raise money by selling get this advertising on their school buses and also on their school buildings the council approved a bill with only one no vote the cash strapped district is following in the footsteps of several other suburban areas to sell advertising space to help the city dig out of debt the move could raise hundreds of thousands of dollars and city council member say they will not allow tobacco or alcohol advertisements on the bus is the legislation doesn't one hundred percent guarantee that the district will follow through with this. here's our graphic artists interpretation of what the buses could look like one day. now the lone dissenter in the vote councilman dennis o'brien says the children are all ready to move on board with advertising and the city should find another way to raise the money but for now it looks like when the wheels on the bus go round and round the city's bank accounts will go. well

a sexual desire drug for females hit a snag this week when the food and drug administration turned down the medicine for widespread distribution of answer in is a non-hormonal pill that is like an antidepressant in that it lowers the levels of chemical sarah tone in the brain and boost stop of the levels or that happy go lucky feeling that you get the pill which was created by sprout pharmaceuticals would have been the first of its kind to hit the market however the f.d.a. says the drug has only mild effects on women now the company claims that in its clinical trials the flibanserin doubled wimbledon women's sexual experiences over the women who received a placebo pill spell pharmaceuticals has appealed the f.d.a. decision so there may be hope for women yet. well i spy with my little eyes someone on facebook or perhaps as someone watching porn in tonight's resident takes a look at how the f.b.i. can spy on you through your computers at webcam without you knowing it and how you

can protect yourself from all that spying take a look. new york where i'm at yes surveillance techniques revealed that the f.b.i. can covertly turn on your computers webcam and watch you while you're sitting at your computer doing god knows what they can watch you while you're watching porn that for all you do with everyone's worst nightmare and they can do this without triggering a warning light so you'll have no way of knowing that they are literally watching you but the record confirms a terrifying fact that many people have always thought was possible three years

people have been covering up the computer camera sensors with post it notes or duct tape effectively blocking the government's hypothetical view of you at your computer but now that it's been confirmed and we know the f.b.i. can commandeer our cameras it might be time to make that makeshift camera cover a little more official and of course where there's a need that there is consumer as many companies are now manufacturing computer camera covers some are just stickers like the electronic frontier foundation cynthia that is all about defending people's rights in the digital world their cameras cover stickers with their logo on it are both functional and promotion and then there are some fancier ones a little plastic things where you can manipulate a slider back and forth this allows you to use your webcam when you want to but when you're skype with mom and aflac it but you don't want anyone to see you like what you're watching for and of course there's a hello kitty web cam cover there's

a republican elephant webcam puppet for surveillance hitting conservatives there's a sky. and crossbones webcam cover for i guess there's a hand crocheted goes to web cam cover with little googly eyes on it i hope the f.b.i. can take over those eyes too seriously people are actually making all of these camera covers because the f.b.i. the flight actually watched you through your computer camera without knowing it how sorry is that state of affairs i mean some of them are funny but stop and think about it these covers are true testament to the fact that we're living in a bowl on surveillance world right now and it's not going to go away so we might as well all go get ourselves camera covers now or else with having the f.b.i. know what are over he says look like tonight let's talk about that by following me on twitter at the resident.

all right well that does it for me for tonight but for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash r t america don't forget to check out our website to r.t. dot com slash two us am follow me on twitter at meghan underscore lopez i want to hear what you want to cover but for now have a great night. the obamacare big so failing health care system doctors with very different opinions are going to weigh in and why of the millennia was abandoning the president and obamacare with a deadline approaching the signed up we're going to take a close look at the president's health care act from different perspectives and it's all next on politicking with larry.

will. science technology innovation paul believes developments from around rush hour we've got the future of coverage. it was a. very hard to take i. want to get along here a lot happened that back with me here please.