the average american dream and dreamer built dreams on shatorde hopes and left off on their own spaceshipsf life. but the average american laws are in a state of corruption. man is allowed to work -- to go to war and kill other. at age 18 but a man can't buy a drink until age 21. i mean the government has money to pay for wars but not to feed the poor. politicians say more taxes will solve everything -- everything the politicians say vote for me and i'll set you free. but then, dear politician, why are innocent men and women being arrested for helping a dying man on the street? men and women create but we got our name from our women and then we take from our women. when did we get to the point where we're buying everything but can't pay for anything? we have credit cards or checks and check books but not a dime in our pocket? we had dreams in the beginning but let them fizzle in the end so when the ship goes down we better get ready. thank you. [applause] >> ok the so it's called this guy. so there's this guy, right, and he has a smile that can turn my day brighter than bright and the scen

to the average american, the average american is not want to work 17, 18 hours a lot. that happens a lot in this business. how do you process this working at that level of intensity? >> hard drives -- drugs. [laughter] tavis: ok, that answers that question. that is a lot of drugs. >> that is why i am not seeing any of this money. [laughter] tavis: that is a lot. >> this is like a marathon. you start. you get used to it, you just. you have a different lifestyle. you really don't go out as much. i can probably be a little bit grumpy. you are like a submarine, you go down and your surface later. the crew are really the ones that do the heavy lifting. they are there from dusk until dawn. tavis: i can hear people typing already. if you can make the kind of money that glenn close makes, you can work 17 or 18 hours. you hide it well on "damages," it is clear that you are australia. how did you get here from australia? >> by boat. tavis: you are full of one- liners today. [laughter] >> i'm sorry. tavis: go ahead. >> slowly but surely, i came over a while ago. i did "troy," whe

dollar alone could cost the average american family more than $1,500. that means default is a job killing burden on the american people. remember how they've been saying that's what's going on with taxes, but that's actually what the downgrading of the u.s. credit rating means. as politicians in washington position themselves politically on this debt ceiling fight, have they thought at all about what this default is going to do to the rest of us? joining us now is ezra klein, columnist for "the washington post" and bloomberg and also an msnbc policy analyst. hi, ezra, it's nice to see you. >> good evening, good to be here. >> thanks, listen, so i've been watching you, you know, writing recently about boehner one, boehner two, we could talk about, you know, obama circa june, obama circa july. it's really a three-ring circus in washington that we're all looking at, but tell me, is there something that we should be focusing on about the effect of this default on the average american? has that been overlooked? >> it has been, look, if only this were merely a

by working with the responsible economic powers yet i'd still beijing could potentially drop the american dollar lead because that currency what will that mean for full for the average american really. the reality of the situation again is these sort of doomsday scenarios the notion that that china would just drop the dollar. but you could just offer something like that is entirely and rightly the reality is the world today still does not have a rival to the dollar despite. despite the rise of the here in the last decade we've seen what's happening in europe at the moment. is not the way as a decade ago there is no currency like the dollar there is no debt market like the u.s. debt market and so i don't see that happening i really don't see any drastic change about my take on this is that i once had an agreement was reached between some of my usual realm who were actually return to normal china will continue buying us but in the united states we'll continue to shoot to china now over time in the wrong when things are certainly change the battery is declining but it's not going to happen overnight and i don't think at the. it is going to be it's going to affect the i

i think both of the individuals bernanke and ron paul were correct ron paul is right that the average american has not seen the benefit of the stimulus money that has been put to good use and we're seeing that in unemployment rates we're seeing that in the last luster g.d.p. growth and it's impacting middle america mainstreet very significantly they haven't reached the benefits of the last two years chairman bernanke is point in that they bailed out the financial institutions and they have the more and more solid footing that's correct as well so in many respects you've got wall street that's been successful you have large conglomerates that are posting record earnings but yet mainstream middle america you me we are not feeling it in jobs our incomes not expanding we are home values are still declining it's very much a different story when you talk to the man on the street and i think what you heard in that synopsis is ron paul representing the common man and ben bernanke he representing wall street both can be right but it still doesn't get us where do we need to go in turning this economy ar

if you look into the hearts and minds of the average american, not the studies historian, the average guy or gal who stands at the lincoln memorial admiring lincoln, you think the average american admirers a beloved lincoln because he played a significant role in ending slavery, because he played a significant role in keeping the union together? are because of this magnificent aura that has in terms of his political, spiritual, intellectual gifts and our? >> that's a great question. i think magnificent or is a wonderful, wonderful phrase, and you feel that when you stand at the lincoln memorial. and press part of it is also because of the extraordinary statute era, such a presence in the temple. one thing i don't think every american does revere lincoln. in fact, some of the best selling books on lincoln in the past 10 or 20 years our books by guy named thomas dilorenzo. this a story whose whole shtick is what evil fascist pig abraham lincoln was. [laughter] is something i also found writing for the new york times, there's a lot of commentators who want to paint abraham lincoln as wel

out the one trillion dollars in the increase in the budget equals eleven more day lesson for the average american lawyer being that you've lowered the government so thanks for that and that's that's now over over half the . isn't it. true they want to tax freedom day well in august ours is cost of government is well into august but to get to your question and i think boehner has the right approach and he says dollar for dollar if you're going to raise the debt limit by x. number of dollars you have to cut x. number of dollars if you want to raise a bill i'm going to join you get a cut two trillion i think that's a pretty good standard to go by i'm i'm a little surprised to hear a true fiscal conservative say that banners on the right track there were maybe maybe on this wish to give him a lot more credit but i want to turn to obama speaking of obama yeah we have a clip from the twitter town hall he did yesterday on the debt limit. if we do not the entire world capital markets could decide you know what the full faith and credit of the united states does mean anything. and so our credit could be d

>>neil: the average american cannot stand this. tee 70 years from now democrats will still be talking about the evil george public, it is time to move on, it is time--. >>guest: like you said the american people do not want do see this and we do not need the boehner plan that continues this with another vote. >>neil: all right. okay congressman, thank you very much. >>guest: thank you. >>neil: what could be good news for john boehner, on the vote and whether it goes down, a fellow tennessean who the speaker tried to get support for on the measure to get the debt under control earlier opposed now is saying he will vote for the boehner measure. this is the one that keeps the government going through the end of the year but one more crucial yes note that was a no vote. hardly a done vote but speaker boehner yesterday said "guys get your ass in line." [ male announcer ] you never know when, but thieves can steal your identity, turning your life upside down in a matter of seconds. hi. hi, you know, i can save you 15% today if you open up

the price for the average american in my opinion is way too painful. this modification, the new word is modification, it's like we're playing the game password. remember that years ago? modification. for social security, would involve a chained consumer price index, or chained cpi. right now to adjust the cost of social security based on the traditional would be devastating. they have calculated cost of living increases would cut senior's benefits by nearly 10%. can you hear me now? for the average retiree reaching the age of 75, it would be about $560 a year. by age 85. the change would amount to an annual cut of nearly $1,000. are you ready for that? if you're still around at the age of 95, the reduction would rise to nearly $1400 a year. you know what, a small minority of lawmakers in washington are fighting these massive cuts, so leave it to my favorite senator to sound the alarm. >> 1,000 dollars a year is a major blow. so i congratulate senator coburn, senator chambliss for doing what president obama said would not happen under his watch. >> socia

because the average american -- and there is no one more average -- [ laughter ] the average americant's a horrible thing for a politician to be smart. they want the athletes to be elite. they always say elite athletes. they love that. elite soldiers. those are the only two things you're allowed to be. okay? and that is because people could tell if they're not good. all right? and so, i thought, well -- you know, i heard john boehner yesterday say, "let's not play politics. let's not play politics." but i never heard a football player say, "let's not play football." [ laughter ] [ cheers and applause ] >> jimmy: you're a politician! "let's not play football." >> and then i keep hearing these congressmen, such as they are, say things like, "we're gonna have a bipartisan -- we have to have a bipartisan deal. they're not being bipartisan. we don't want to have partisan politics." i have news for them. partisan politics, that's politics. [ light laughter ] bipartisan politics, football. bipartisan politics is like anything else that starts with the word "bi." it means you did it once. [ l

>> i'm so astound by the innate selfishness that the obama admin station must believe the american people possess. he's saying the averagen is going to go to the poll oblivious to the condition of the country. we only care about our self. we don't care about the deficit. this really does to me betray the utter arrogance that this administration has for the average american citizen. it's stunning to me. and i hope americans are paying attention because david plouffe speaks for the president. this guy is making political decisions on behalf of president obama as he fights for reelection. i think it's devastating and i hope americans are paying attention. gretchen: i want to bring in alan colmes. what we were talking about is one of the president's advisors saying the americans don't give a darn about unemployment numbers. he said sit would not affect the 2012 election. >> that many different than saying they don't give a darn. he did not say they don't give a darn about it, he said sit would not affect or be a big factor in the election. he may be right. i don't know whether it's true or not because we have a long way to g

how would that affect the average american? we have some answers for you. good morning. i'm alex witt welcome to msnbc saturday. marathon negotiations are planned many the senate today. a working weekend. as the debt clock ticks closer to midnight, the senate will start its session at 1:00 p.m. eastern. it is scheduled to test vote 12 hours later at 1:00 a.m. early sound morning. meantime the house is meeting this afternoon. sit planning a vote to reject the senate bill before it has even been passed. with just three days to the default deadline, tensions on the hill are higher than ever. >> it is time for the administration and time for our colleagues across the aisle put something on the table. tell us where you are. >> the proposal that i put forward is a compromise. we changed it even more today. we would have changed it more as i indicated on the floor we had no one to negotiate with. >> senator reid went up to senator mcconnell on the floor and said let's talk. let's work this out. nothing, nothing all day long. not a word. later at the end of the day a call from se

the motorcycle industry counsel says two wheeler was get up to 80 miles to the gallon, and the average american pays $177 per month for gasoline versus $20 a month for those riding scooters. that is up to around $150. and video games aren't just for men anymore. times have been changing for quite a while now. and now, that change is showing up in stores as well as office of video game developers. retailer game stop says women now buy half of the games and 44% want something more. >> this morning i woke up and had a barbie house. and i loved the barbie house. but there was nothing quite as satisfying as destroying him at duck hunt. >> women want a good game. women want a game that plays well and that maybe has a good story to it them want the same things. >> jessica has been working for two years and says they're getting in for a career and for fun and plan to stay there. >> and not enough explosions and violence. >> right. >> i love it. >> and salvation army and target stores teamed up to help kids in under served neighborhoods gear up for school. 90 students went on shopping frees -- sprees. a

the average american male takes in about 2500 calories per day. that means the guy who won the hot dog eating contest on coney island consumed in ten minutes what most of us would eat in nine days. they don't mention it, but it's one of the reasons we fought the revolution. it's as american as apple pie and one of the most absurd american traditions, the nathan's hot dog eating contest. who can stuff the most processed meat in their mouths in ten minutes. and joey chestnut, american hero wins the face jam 62 dogs consumed. he is officially a one-man dynasty and i think he is sponsored by pepto. certainly a promotional opportunity for them. >> do they even know what's in those dogs? if they even knew what was in those hot dogs, would they really eat that many? >> there are two things you never want to see made, sausage and television. you don't want to know what's inside either one of them. >> keeping our eyes on the skies obviously. >> showers and thunderstorms possible tonight. severe weather. >> that's it for us. take it easy out there. the cbs e

the study found that the average american woman stands 5'3" and every four-inch increase in height correspondedo 16% hike in cancer risk. out of 17 cancers height was related to ten of them breast cancer and leukemia. it could help them common mechanisms that trigger cancer. c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c

what effect will that have on the average american? o let me give you a global number for a minute. the united states issues 60%, 2/3 of all the aaa-rated sovereign debt that goes out there. that is countries selling bonds. right? 2/3 of it comes from the united states. we are the international aaa market. right? if we all of a sudden go away and people can't buy our debt, mutual funds and investors and people who are mandated by the conditions of their investment to buy aaa debt, it's a global economic problem. now, we will, as i said before, start to see our individual interest rates rise. right? it's like a big family credit downgrade if the united states gets downgraded. >> the republicans, a large body of republicans, say that raising taxes is simply unthinkable, unacceptable. most financial experts outside of america say of course you should raise taxes, the taxation here is not that high compared to places like britain, for example, and they should be doing this now, that is how actually to deal with cutting spending but raising

if that happens, can you explain what would be the real economic impact for the average american person? >> well, the bipartisan policy center did a as to and basically they said in august, if we don't get an agreement, they'd have to cut federal spending by 40%. what does that mean? that's $134 billion, about 10% of the economy in the month of august that would disappear. on top of that, we have to roll over $500 billion of debt. how you're going to do that in a market where you don't have an agreement on the debt limit? that's a scary thought. >> susie: a lot scary things there. thanks, darren, appreciate it. >> my pleasure. >> susie: we've been speaking with our washington bureau chief, darren gersh. >> tom: still ahead, alcoa's profit more than doubles. we talk with c.e.o. klaus kleinfeld about those earnings and the aluminum giant's hiring plans. while washington tries to find a fix to america's debt problem, european debt worries are spreading again, and that hit u.s. stocks hard today. the dow fell 151 points, the nasdaq lost 57 and the s&p 500 was down 24 points. trading volume

. >> paul: what does a downgrade mean in practical terms to the average american. >> there are a lot of theories, with a default. >> paul: not a default, a downgrade. >> downgrade. capital would throw to probably other places, see the dollar fall, a flight to safety in terms of gold and safe currencies like the swiss franc, probably have a rise in treasury yields that would increase costs on everything from credit cards to mortgages. but more seriously, look, if you continue down this path, we're looking at being greece. one report came out this week that said, given current levels we could be greece in five years. >> paul: you're saying this is a warning as much as anything. >> absolutely. >> paul: okay, steve, what do you think about the political implications of this? what happens if there is a downgrade? who gets the blame? >> well, i think everybody in washington does, paul. i mean, people are so upset with the 4 trillion dollar buildup in the debt that we've seen just since barack obama was inaugurated so obama is going to take a lot of the blame especially when you consider i b

the study of a million women was published on lance yet oncology, found the average american woman is five three and every four inch increase in height corresponds with a 16% heightened cancer risk. out of 17 cancers studies, heights was related to 10 of them, breast, skin and luke keem. experts say this could identify common mechanism that's trigger various cancer autos real estate values are climbing again in san francisco. county assessor says the market bottomed out in 2009 when properties dropped 40% what they were five years earlier. the value of homes and buildings went up almost $2 billion in the last fiscal year. and the technology sector is booming, fueling a mini boom in commercial real estate. >> transaction values going up, increases from owe% to 40% increases for commercial offices depending on product types. >> and lower priced and high end homes in san francisco are also registering increases in value. exceptions those between 750,000s skpdz $2 million where invnvnvnvnvnvnvnvnvnvnvnvv [ male announcer ] brace yourself for the big, bold taste of a subway® bbq pulled por

that affects everybody because as you say, it's the largest a set on the balance sheet of the average american family, and it's being wiped out! >> the implications of this politically, karl rove has written a piece saying 100,000 fewer votes from african- americans in north carolina could wipe away the gains the president needs. and hispanics in that same survey are the hardest hit group by the recession. and that comes at the same time they have the most -- the growth clout as a political force. will they be more politically engage next year and again the democrats -- >> pat, these statistics that we put you on the board on the wealth of blacks and whites are so worrisome that barack obama ought to put out a policy for black -- agenda for black americans. would than a bad move or good move? >> terrible move for this reason -- the white working class has been hammered completely, again their aspirations and hopes for the future are going down. they're the most alienated of any groups of americans, they're line the teapot movement. if you do something for heavens sake, do it for all americans!

some guy to retire at fifty three than to go murder a million people somewhere else oh mitt the average american doesn't stand the store isn't the energy and food prices are going up so what do you do about these people that have put them on reservations and then finally tying this all back to bankers and the afghan war american choice of plundering their future income afghan banker i have evidence of death plot this is abdul qadeer fit rat the former governor of the afghan central bank and he's fled. afghanistan is now in washington hiding out and he's saying that there's a death plot against him and that's why he had to flee but listen to this threat rats comments come just hours after afghanistan's deputy attorney general said that state rat and other officials at the central bank faced prosecution for not acting on warnings about widespread corruption at kabul bank so the corrupt central banker gets safe haven in washington d.c. under bernanke is umbrella bernanke said banking criminal protection program. and meanwhile back and all the american people are telling folks willing really well ye

and i think you could see that in the quality of the of american politics over the last decade the quality and the intelligence the average american voter has it's really the client as a result of the increased partisanship reflected in the american media ok tony but you said you believe in the people i mean are the people getting enough information to make decent decisions about their lives i mean i go back to the last presidential election and obama is a socialist which you know i think was the wall street journal it started out is that healthy for any kind of a for a political environment when people are going to vote. well i it's debatable whether people are getting the right information or not but honestly it's not the media's responsibility to try and figure out what the right information is because basically we have a complete free flow of information the internet has opened up extraordinary channels for blogging for all sorts of information that would never have been made public before and we're talking about this robust communication which is a great thing it somewhat overlooks the fact that in this particular ca

credit rating before actual default which means this month, the average american could be hit hard for a second time in the decade. where's the initial damage? your 401k and stock portfolio. >> stock prices are going to fall. bond prices are going to fall. and you're going to notice that when you log onto your 401k. >> reporter: after an actual default, mortgage rates, auto and student loans would jump immediately. and perhaps more importantly, credit would tighten, leading to business paralysis. what will that mean for jobs? not many new ones and pressure to cut back. >> the lack of available credit would caususcompanies to rapidly slash their payrolls and it could drive up unemployment even more. >> reporter: when would this all start? we have two weeks for action, say many economists, who believe by the end of this month, if no agreement is in sight, the market plunge would begin. by the week of august 2nd and default, credit will tighten, interest rates zoom. and by the end of august, economists predict the nation's recovery would be making a rapid u-turn, back to recession. jim av

facebook, the budapest, the inefficient health care systems, what is that going to do for the average americans? is there anything policy can do to help improve the income of the average american? or their lives? >> growth. >> we've had the growth. >> we've had part of the growth. the project of automating work in white-collar work in particular, you know, we can't have higher real wages without having automation so that people are more reflexive. it's not possible in long-term growth. and that the project of automating white-collar work is very partly along. glenn emphasized how far we've come and i agree with that, aneesh emphasizes how far we might go. i agree with that. there's an enormous number of americans, about a 1/4 of americans their primary job function is white-collar work buying or selling stuff and these are not exciting jobs. we need to automate white-collar worker the way we automated the blue-collar work if we're going to be a substantially richer society and that's still a big project. it will take a while. >> just very quickly. this is a difficult problem but my emphasize is

the record breaking fourth. scorching heat, wildfires and skiing. a holiday of extremes, and in me places, authorities taking extreme action tonight. >>> an american payday. but for whom? stunning new numbers about pay raises. what the average american is getting. what the boss is getting. >>> car trouble. with 39 million americans striving this fourth, which cars are the most likely to get you pulled over? >>> and, the american picnic. from presidents to pinups. do you recognize these faces on the fourth? >> we should do this more often. >>> good evening on this sunday night. and we begin on this holiday weekend with fireworks in the courtroom. for six weeks now, millions of americans have been online, on twitter, on their couch, following the trial of casey anthony. the florida mother accused of murdering her little girl. we have reported here on the images inside the courtroom and outside. there have been near stampedes. people racing to get a front row seat in the courtroom. and as the case wore on, there were these ages, the fights breaking out when people began cutting the line, trying to get in first. but what cannot be forgotten, at the center of it all, a 2-year-old girl, and the central question. did d r mother ta

realize that would be nice we know about the debt ceiling we know what it's all about but the average american knows the economy's in trouble that includes us talk about this nebulous talk about the debt ceiling but get the economy moving and what could they have to do with the debt ceiling our debt was one hundred twenty six percent of g.d.p. after world war two and nobody was running around their hair on fire instead eisenhower started spending money like crazy building national highways and we spend our way out of it we get where we are because we're saying it's enough republicans are saying republicans are saying republicans but the bomber i'm going to say and i thought we we're saying it so there's a there there is an uproar there it's a different time you're saying you may like these of these people to represent them in two thousand and ten ushered in a lot of republican house members where we got the majority and there and people are saying we don't want to raise the debt ceiling with out having significant cuts we can't take this anymore so it's a different time and a different preside

the new york times found. top executives at 200 major american companies made 23% more than they did two years ago. their median pay was up $10.8 million. meanwhile the average american worker's pay rose one-half of 1% last year. not enough to keep up with inflation. so the rich get richer. >>> the online video site ho loo may soon be sold. the company will talk with more potential buyers this week. already been in discussions with google, microsoft and yahoo. the site offers access to prime time tv shows and it's currently owned by the parent companies of three broadcast networks and private equity firm. projected to make $500 million this year. >>> and the company behind farmville game on facebook, they are going public. the san francisco start up zynga hopes to raise as much as $1 billion in initial public offering. the company is joining several other high valued internet companies that recently filed ipos including linked in, pandora and groupon. >>> time now 4:45 on this 4th of july. three u.s. senators making very high profile visits to afghanistan today. how they're raising doubts about president obama's exit strategy in that company and more confusi