held at their house and they are ld they will kill the husband and the children. staff sergeant guts says receiving the medal is bitter sweet. plus, can't afford your mortgage? an astonishing one in three americans say, it's okay, just walk away. but what does that mean for people who do pay their bills? good thursday morning, i'm chris jansing. live from msnbc world headquarters in new york. wnchlths t with the ink barely dry, there's a new assessment of how big a threat the tea party poses this november to both democrats and the republican main stream. right now their candidates are running neck and neck with democrats and some key races across the country and gop leaders are scrambling to get onboard with the newest winner. christine o'donnell. she staged a disdcisive upset in the u.s. senate race in

delaware. state party leaders said this woman couldn't get elected dogcatcher and karl rove dismissed her as nutty. the national republican party is promising campaign money and even the vice president has a warning to democrats. >> i wouldn't sell short these candidates. i think that in my state, this new republican candidate is going to have an awful lot of money. i think you're going to see it pouring in and the third party operations, we'll take it very, very seriously. big mistake not to take it seriously. >> nbc news capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell is in washington for us. kelly, good morning. this is really fascinating and a new poll out today showing americans, basically, don't know who the tea party is. about the same number have favorable and unfavorable views but an awful lot of people are undecided and you sort of wonder if the real selling point they have is simply change. the same way it was two years ago. people aren't happy and this is

a group that offers something different. >> well, chris, surprisingly, i think you're right on that meaning change more than ideology for a lot of the voters who have come to meet in different cities and different states where the tea party has been a player. been on the trail a lot this year and just spent a few days in delaware, as well as other tea party events and clearly there are some who are very strongly, conservatively, ideological and also some voters that are just frustrated and the kind of anger that we've seen that is less about belief but more about wanting to see change. i think you're right on top of that. now, the misunderstanding or the lack of familiarity comes almost because it's a new generic term in politics. specific different types of deep tea party organizations. they're funded differently, they're headed by different groups. some are very loose and some are more formal and yet they come under the sort of umbrella of tea party. that adds to some of the confusion. >> i think one of the things that people are looking at when you talk, for example, about

christine o'donnell, it seems to me there was a time when people were saying about the woman challenging harry reid, sharon engel, very dismissive of her and now you look at the polls and she's a real threat. >> dismissive is exactly what the republican establishment was in looking at christine o'donnell. they, infact, were aggressively trying to disqualify her and you don't often see that within the republican party. now, she was not known to us, but in delaware she had been a candidate frequently. she had been, in fact, joe biden's senate opponent in 2008 when he ran and won his senate seat and the vice presidency. in delaware, she was far better known. we're all just getting to know her now. voters i talked to described as liking her as a fresh face, someone who is different, not the incumbent. now, as people are looking much more carefully at her record, her finances, her work history, her beliefs, all of that vetting that is happening, there are questions that some people have.

opponents say she has some extreme views and conservatives new york ci say, no, her change in washington is what we're hearing from conservatives this year. she has had more personal problems with paying for her mortgage and a history of unployment that has raised questions. that is a more personal line of attack and that's where people have really hit her hard. >> we were just show, too, the latest poll and there were three on the engel/reed race and all were within the margin of error. also buck bennet in colorado, right? >> he calls himself grassroots. he is up against michael bennett and ken buck attorney and law enforcement type official. a district attorney, a prosecutor, that kind of background. he has a much more traditional law and order approach in a western state like colorado

where we had seen it going a bit more democrat now kind of trending back republican. he is not an unknown candidate and he's one of the more traditional-type conservatives who is under this tea party label this year. >> all right, thanks very much. good to see you, as always, kelly. where does all this leave the gop? former president clinton jokes that some of the candidates make george bush look liberal. pat buchanan is former director of white house communications for ronald reagan. how are you this morning, pat? >> good morning, chris. >> i guess the question a lot of people are asking right now given what is a split between a lot of, if you want to call them main stream republicans and tea party who have gotten so much inthui enthusiasm, who is in charge? >> who's in charge here, i think we're at a time of the warlords, if you will, chris. mccain who is the leader of the party has basically taken a lot of conservative positions and the president is gone.

there is no national leader. you have boehner and mcconnell here in washington, d.c., but they're not the real movers and shakers of voters. there you see sarah palin, rush limbaugh, beck and i think you have columnists and others and that's who people pay attention to more and more for their ideas and that's who influences voters. i mean, i've never seen anyone in a campaign who has more ability to raise a candidate, if you will, from no where to victory than sarah palin. that is enormous political power. >> you know, you mention rush and i thought he said something really interesting yesterday he said, i never heard carl, meaning karl rove when he called christine o'donnell nutty. never so animated against a democrat as he was against christine o'donnell. do you think there are people within the republican party who are making a mistake here? >> i think karl rove is cutting his throat. i do not understand this. i can understand a clear

analysis by karl rove that we really may have lost our chance to win delaware, but the personal attack on this woman after she's won a tremendous victory on the night of her victory, it's inexplicable to me except the fact that rove and others are really working on a lot of projects and this really upsets their projects. what they don't understand, though, is what the people are saying it's one thing is, look, we nominate the candidates, you don't pick them for us. this isn't russia where he appoints governors. you put up your candidate and we put up ours and we have a contest. >> don't you, pat, even if you're with the tea party and you're looking for some idelongical purity. don't you have to find the nominee, the most conservative nominee and still get elected and how do you bring those two things together? >> you have a credibility threshold that you want to pass. let's take alaska up there.

murkowski was a certain winner, but joe miller, they want him and they believe him and they say they can also win with him. when you go back to it, that's the reagan thing. george h. w. bush should be more acceptable candidate in the middle and we can beat carter and the true believers in the party say, we think we can win with one of our own and, you're right, theres a threshold where you have to say, look, that person simply cannot win and we're throwing the election, but the people in delaware made that call and this woman in a very large turnout for delaware crushed one of the most popular figures in the last 40 years in delaware politics. >> pat, it's always good to see you, thanks, pat. we'll talk more about this. >> i think so. now to a rare look inside one of the world's most controversial leaders. in an exclusive interview, iranian president ahmadinejad sat down with andrea mitchell in tehran. international concerns over that

country's nuclear ambitions to the recent release of an american hijacker who was jailed for more than a year. nbc chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell joins us from tehran and, obviously, a lot of curiosity about this, andrea. you sat down with so many world leaders over the years, what struck you most about ahmadinejad? >> well, it is not an easy interview because he has certain issues that he cares about and sticks to his program. does not like to be interrupted, as you'll see. he is a very controversial and difficult figure to get a handle around. but we do know that he is strongly opposed to the u.n. sanctions. we'll talk about that in a minute and he's going to the u.n. it seems as though he tried to do one thing as a gesture towards america, which was to press hard against the judiciary here which controls this.

press hard for the release of sarah shourd. the 32-year-old woman was released this week really because of pressure from ahmadinejad. then i asked the logical question that the u.s. wants to know, the state department wants to know. what about shane bauer, her fiance and josh fattal who are still in an iranian prison. here's how it went. >> translator: that was a good proposal, but i like, i wish they wouldn't cross our border in order to be forced to get back to new york today. if they had not violated our border, they would have been at their homes for over a year. for more than a year. and we had no problem here. and hopefully there would be no violation and no offense and, otherwise, the judiciary has to react. >> and, of course, the big issue

facing iran and the united states in the coming week will be the u.n. sanctions, the u.n. general assembly and the president will be speaking, president obama will be speaking and relations, of course, have been very tense. president obama tried to reach out to iran with a series of gestures, but it met with a lot of resistance, the u.s. feels. ahmadinejad feels differently. he reacted very negatively when i asked him about the u.n. sanctions. >> translator: i like to say that our nation does not need the united states whatsoever. even if the u.s. administration increases the sanctions and 100 times more and even the europeans join the united states to impose heavier sanctions we, in iran, are in a position to

meet requirements. >> so, it doesn't appear that there is going to be a very different approach from iran at the united nations. he will be making a speech to the general assembly and meeting with others in new york. but it still does not appear, also, that there is any progress on this issue. chris? >> andrea, thank you so much. andrea mitchell reporting from tehran for us. still to come, we have the pope making a historic visit to the united kingdom, but will he get the royal treatment? we'll talk a little bit about that. would you go to space aboard boeing's latest invention? wall street is getting back on its feet.

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it's more a cause than a campaign and the cause is restoring america. >> the palin is strong in this one. my god, just give her bangs and a pair of rimmed glasses and she'd be a dead ringer. no! which one is bridget fonda and which one is jennifer jason leigh. i don't know what's going on sdmm! >> we're going to be talking about that a little bit more later on in this hour. first, we have to bring you this. today's stone cold stupid criminal. check out the guy at the convenience store. he first basically looks at the surveillance camera and then he puts on the darth vader mask, then he puts it on. this is at a convenience store

near detroit. this is one of the world's dumbest criminals. thanks to his unintended mugshot, they expect to catch him in short order. give on the chance, would you fly to outer space? boeing is getting ready to get into the space tourism business and they hope to win a nasa contract to take astronauts into the international space station. it will have seven seats, room potentially for space tourists to go along. the costs is estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars. is that for the space capsule or how much to fly? tens of millions of dollars? no can do. a big night in the nation's capital last night for the red carpet premiere of superman. the documentary about education reform in america. here's the director. >> i live in hollywood and sometimes people say, what are you working on and i say i'm

working on a film about public education. and you see their face drop, good luck with that. tonight we'll disprove that. we have head of the teachers union, this is a night where everyone to help kids is coming together. it is very, very exciting. >> the buzz on the movie is great and they said you cannot not cry if you see this documentary. joe scarborough and mika brzezinski will host a town hall meeting "waiting for superman" september 26th. the pope is making a state visit to britain. he immediately he met the queen. he is spending the day with local church leaders, although his visit is not without controversy. nbc stephanie gosk joins us and how are things going so far for the pope this morning? >> good morning, chris, they seem to be going pretty

smoothly. one of the big questions for catholics in this country is whether or not the pope was going to address the priest abuse scandal. he did that over on his flight from rome and he said the catholic church didn't act quickly enough or decisively enough. and that's not the only issue he's going to have to face here. there's a growing liberalization of catholics in this country and they feel the catholic church in many respects is disconnect would the modern world and they feel the celibacy of priests should be limited and they are hoping the pope will address those issues. but, overall, as you mentioned rbs this is the official state visit from a pope in 500 years and the catholics in this country are excited to see him and they came out on the streets here to greet him as his popemobile went by. he will give an open air mass later on in the day in glasgow that should be attended to close to 100,000 people and at that mass, which is the real

highlight of the day, susan boyle is going to be singing. she is a faithful catholic and her faith has helped her in some of her hardest times, which perhaps is the last year when she rose to stardom. >> i have to say, stephanie, earlier i saw you talking to little kids catholic school kids in their uniforms and they're convinced that the popemobile goes 150 miles per hour, right? >> that's exactly right. this kid was so serious about it. i said, tell me about the popemobile. well, you know, it goes really fast. 150 miles an hour. come on, 150 miles an hour, come on, you have to wave fast if he's going by that fast. he said, if something goes wrong, the pope has to get away. all age dwrups excited that the pope is going to come here and you can feel that enthusiasm even amidst all the scandal and

controversy that accompanies the pope wherever he goes. chris? >> i've got this vision, you know, the pope making a get away. the cape flying and, anyway, it was very cute to see those kids and thank you very much, stephanie, we'll talk to you over the next several days. >> i think he needs to go to the miles conversion to kilometers class. anyway, this is serious stuff, has to be the most shocking video of the day. yes, a 2-year-old smoking pot. and guess what, mom might be in a lot of trouble. also, this suparentally a growing trend. shocking new numbers about how many americans are doing illegal drugs and older than 2. sofia amarosa launched her clothing company, nasty gal at age 22, with nothing more than a good eye for fashion and a unique sense of style. she started by selling vintage

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weather. good morning, bill. >> first things first a dangerous situation developing for our friends in mexico. they'll likely deal with a category 2, possibly category 3 hurricane making landfall tomorrow afternoon. they're finding it much stronger than expected and looks like it's rapidly intensifying. not what you want to hear. tampico looks okay. poza rica is pretty much inland, so it's coastal areas near there that will get hit the hardest on friday night. to deal with igor, huge, monster storm. this storm is moving at the speed of a turtle, by the way. take another four days to get to bermuda and hopefully weaken sunday night down to a category 2, but still a blow there to bermuda. otherwise around the lower 48. chicago has 15-minute delays and that is better, it was at a half hour and the forecast up and down the eastern seaboard looks nice.

chris, that's a look at the tropics and rather tranquil late forecast. >> what happened to julia? >> julia is falling apart rapidly and not even worth talking about. >> let's say two storms from here on out. thank you, bill. this video, it's hard to watch and it has sparked a fire storm in dallas. dashcam video tells it all. suspect andrew collins is chased and then gets pulled over for driving his motorcycle on the sidewalk, but then the tape shows him being beaten. he's beaten with fists and beaten with a police baton repeatedly. two officers are expected to face felony charges for this and a third officer moved that dash cam camera to conceal part of what happened. he realized what was going on shouldn't be caught on tape. the fbi is now investigating. well, he says it's his job to get on base and last night derek jeter, i'd say used a

questionable strategy. it appeared he was hit by a pitch, so the umpire sent him to first, but, come on, the ball just hit his bat. the yankee shortstop didn't argue the call. after the game, jeter did explain that he wasn't going to tell the ump not to send him to first, after all. he cored a run but the yanks lost the game to the tampa bay rays. an ohio mother indicted for allegedly giving her 2-year-old pot. look at that little girl, she is holding a joint and taking a puff. her mother is accused of recording the incident on her cell phone and then maybe after the effects wore off she tried to erase the video. if convicted, she faces up to seven years in pris on a whole slew of charges. you to the polls predicting that the democrats might lose power in november, but don't count them out just yet. fascinating new results in a couple new polls. we'll break them down for you.

plus, i'll have a conversation with the staff sergeant, the first living american since the vietnam war to be awarded the medal of honor. [ woman ] nine iron, it's almost tee-time... time to face the pollen that used to make me sneeze... my eyes water. but now zyrtec®, the fastest 24-hour allergy relief, comes in a liquid gel. zyrtec® liquid gels work fast, so i can love the air®.

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welcome back to msnbc, the senate is expected to pass long delayed legislation today to open up credit to small businesses, plus incentives to hire new workers. most republicans are against the bill. firefighters are making progress on a forest fire in california's sierra nevada. that fire has already destroyed more than 6,000 acres and at least one home. and illegal drug use is at its highest level in nearly a decade. nearly 22 million americans over 12 years old now admit to using drugs, mostly marijuana, ecstasy and methamphetamines. it is the nation's highest military honor and it's awarded for valor and action. now, for the first time since vietnam, the medal of honor will be given to a living warrior.

u.s. army staff sergeant salvatore giunta rescued soldiers while under fire while in afghanistan. he is still on active duty and he's in vicenza, italy. such an honor to speak to you, congratulations. >> thank you. >> tell me a little bit about what this award means to you. >> this is really huge award. but, to me, you know, it represents more than just me. this is for everyone that i've been with, everyone that i served with and everyone that has served with me. every time we go outside the wire for all the service members, men and women, not only in the army, but also in the marines and the navy and the air force that are really out there fighting for the american people. this incompasses all of us. i'm just the one that's here to

receive it here today, i guess. >> everything i read about what you did, absolutely remarkable and truly heroic. and a lot of it, not just about that incident, but about what happened in the valley in afghanistan back in 2007 is written about so extraordinarily in sebastian younger's book "war." he spent just about a year with you guys. i just want to set it up a little bit. you're going down a trail and come under an ambush by taliban fire. you get hit, fortunately, you're wearing body armor and you lead a couple other guys in and start rescuing other members of your platoon. tell me a little bit about that minute, that moment when you came under fire and your decision to risk your own life to save the others. >> it wasn't really a decision that i actually had to make, it was already going to happen.

that is what the training was for. we didn't go to war unprepared, we went very prepared and every single person that was out there that day, this is our chosen profession. we don't have any other side jobs, so, saying that, i wasn't leading it, staff sergeant galardo led it to the first guy so he could call up because he had the radio. that was gogoing to be the piece that he was going to take care of. i continued on because i didn't have any more grenades. i already threw all my grenades and i was already running forward so it just seemed easier and to kind of put it into perspective, there was a lot of bullets in the air and lot of rpgs, but it was that way for everyone on the line. and i didn't run up, i mean,con doing such a heroic thing, but it wasn't that heroic because

anyone would have done the same thing in the position that i was in. that is the kind of professionals that i serve with. >> i thought one of the things that was really remarkable about subassian younger's book was it painted such a picture of what it is like to be at war. this is a very different kind of war than we've had in the past, but the unity and the brotherhood, really, that you guys who are out there on the front lines experience. to me was moving, it was inspirational. tell me about your relationship with those guys who you went to war with. >> all of them will forever be my brothers. you know, i have my brother. my brother, mario, he's back in the states right now. but forever they'll be my brothers, even from the first deployment. i mean, i'll see them maybe once every three years and they're going to slap me in the face and call me a dirty name and then we're going to hang out and talk like we never missed each other not even for a second.

so, it's a brotherhood, it really is. i didn't totally understand that until more and more time passes and every time i see these guys or hear from these guys, we just pick up where we left off. it is an incredible bond that i don't think you'll get anywhere else. >> what are the things, at least in my experience of talking to veterans and active service members both in iraq and afghanistan is this isn't political for them. when you, when you're under fire, it is about the men that you're serving with and, in your case, saving their lives. so, i don't want to ask you to make a political statement, but you did risk your life and you lost people who you loved like brothers over there. so, i wonder as you're now sitting, i hope in the relative comfort of vicenza, italy, what you hope to accomplish there. >> we accomplished, i believe, everything we set out to accomplish.

the only reason we left there was because our time was done. yeah. i guess that's really all i have to say about that. i don't really have too many political things to say. >> again, i don't want to put you in that position, but for somebody who has come under fire and seen things that most of us will never see and thank god we'll never have to face what you faced, you say you were trained for that, what you're not trained for is to go to this big fancy ceremony with the president of the united states with other medal of honor winners. i'm assuming and hoping your family is going to be there. are you just a little bit nervous about all the hoopla that's going to happen? >> i absolutely am nervous. i don't know how to prepare for this, i don't know, really, what to do. i have people here trying to help me and guide me and mentor me into filling this role that is a huge role. i'm excited.

i'm excited to hang out with all my buddies to see my family and to meet these other gentlemen who have received this award. it's amazing. not in my wildest dreams would i ever think i'd be in this position. >> well, as you said, you trained for it and whether you think you're a hero or not, you are, i think, a remarkable example of what's best in all the men and women who serve our country and who have fought in iraq and afghanistan and as the first living medal of honor recipient since the vietnam war, our congratulations and our thanks to you. >> thank you very much. >> and we'll see you in washington, i guess it will be. thank you so much. >> take care. we want to bring in msnbc military analyst and retired general barry mccaffrey. brings tears to my eyes but you were laughing a few times, general, when you heard his description of coming under fire and the decisions he made, tell me why. >> humility, he's downplaying

what was an intense, bitter, paralyzing firefight. this started from no where. the natural reaction of mankind is get down, take cover, don't even return fire. but these elite parachute infantry units, marine units are so well trained, are so combat experienced that he's downplaying what he did was incredibly heroic. it did change the battle. . three soldiers moved forward and then he went all the way in the mouth of an enemy ambush. >> he led this whole thing and let's not forget, it would be paralyzing enough just to be in the situation, but he was hit. he was protected by his body arm armor, but you feel that hit. >> just knocked him dead down. this is high velocity weapons, ak-47s. we have to remind ourselves, this is 9,000 killed and wounded in afghanistan already. 46,000 killed and wounded in the two wars combined.

there is a real fight going on and a lot of these parachute infantry units are running 20% killed and wounded during deployment. so, very battle hardened, very experienced and tremendously professional fighting force. >> i didn't want to put him in a political situation, but i'll put you in one and here's the question, where you come down on this war, should we stay in or should we go? how long are we going to stay? you do want to feel that these people who gave their lives that people who survived but will be forever changed whether it's physically or emotionally served for a purpose. what would you say about that? >> well, in a short run, it's hard to imagine what we do if we don't stay. i mean, when the taliban were in charge they murdered 400,000 afghans. there had been 19,000 killed since we got in there, so, tremendous sense of reliance upon our u.s. forces. 100,000 u.s., 45,000 nato and

the pakistanis, the women of afghanistan. >> i told you, when i was over in afghanistan, you cannot help when women grab you repeatedly, women who have been abused by their husbands horribly in ways we can't even imagine, women who are in tears because their daughters are getting the education they never had and they say to you, please tell americans not to forget us, there is a real push and pull there, isn't there? >> one of the female candidates for afghanistan lower house, the election is going to be on saturday. when she won the last time, her husband beat her unmercifully. this is a pashtun rural south community. a lot is at stake. we are stuck with karzai, who is probably of the best available, but the u.s. armed forces and nato allies, the afghan people have a lot at stake coming up. can we pull this off? i don't know. dave petraeupetraeus, the comma

have in the ground is the most creative, skillful guy we had in uniform since world war two. i think we will have to talk to the taliban, a combination of hammer blows at their leadership and negotiations and maybe we'll pull this off. >> general, can you stay with us because we are also very thrilled to have with us the parents of staff sergeant salvatore giunta. they are coming to us via skype. good morning and i guess congratulations seems like a small way to say the gratitude of the american people for what your son has done. mom, can you even put into words the pride you're feeling? sph. >> that's difficult. i have always been excited about what my kids do, but this piece here, this is hard to find words for. >> steve, tell me a little bit about what you knew about what had happened to your son and had you talked to him about it long before it became sort of part of

the public domain with sebastian younger's book and then subsequently his documentary. >> no, actually, we didn't talk too much about it previously. sal doesn't talk too much about battle or he gives us some insights as to what might happen at a fire base with his friends a little bit, but never anything about battle. the only reason why he told us and i don't want to offend rose, but she just, after about two weeks, she just said, you need to tell us what happened. you need to tell us. and then he said, i'll tell you, i'll tell you once and i don't want you to ask any questions. >> and, rosemary, for you, as a mom, and i went through this with my own mother when my own brother was in vietnam and i have a little sense of the emotional dynamic of a family of somebody who is serving in war. that must have been tremendously

hard for you to hear. i know you wanted to hear it, but how difficult was that? >> it was very hard to hear, but what was running around in my mind for those weeks previously, that was harder. he was very loving. he told us through tears, i cried on the othutother end and was okay. i heard my son's voice and that made a difference. >> i'm curious how you felt when he told you that he wanted to go into the military. >> we, as parents, we were for it. i think it's a very honorable, very honorable job and i would push others to look at their children and say, you know what, you have it, you can do this. so, i think steve and i had no problem with him going. and to this day, where he is at, it's still not a problem for us.

>> i have to ask you, finally, i don't know if you heard the interview we just did with him, wow, by the way, what an incredibly smart, poised, well-spoken and humble young man you have raised. really a credit to, obviously, you, but to this nation as a whole. but i asked him if he was nervous about getting the medal of honor and he said he was tremendously nervous and that he had some people there who were trying to help him. how are you feeling about that whole thing? it is going to be a very big deal, as i'm sure you know. >> you know, every parent believes their children are destined for something greater. and a lot of children, a lot of our children, they achieve that. this is one of those times that sal's achieving everything and the potential that we seen in him, in that we're proud, but we're very proud of our other children, katie and mario, as well. >> it's a huge honor, as

everybody knows. and, again, we keep saying it's hard to find words for it to meet the president to meet his men. i'm excited to meet the men. all of it. it's a wonderful honor and we just thank you for allowing something like this to happen as a country to acknowledge stuff like this. >> and on a very light note, mom, you are going to be wearing waterproof mascara, right? >> you bet i will. thank goodness for waterproof mascara. >> steve and rosemary, you have been very generous with your time and we are really looking forward to seeing the medal of honor ceremony. thank you for being with us and congratulations, again. you have a wonderful, wonderful son and america's proud. >> thank you. >> we'll be back with more after the break. 'd take a drive before work. want to come? [ female announcer ] or make his day. yeah. [ female announcer ] maxwell house gives you a rich, full-flavored cup of coffee, so you can be good to the last drop.

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a new study finds young hispanic teens are at the risk of substance abuse and more than any other race or ethnicity to try cigarettes, alcohol or marijuana. peer pressure and a lack of knowledge of the negative effects of smoking and drinking are considered factors in the risk. it's a crippling pat frrn the nation's housing market. home foreclosures are soaring. up 25% from last year. but banks can't put the properties up for sale without undermining an already soft market. and that's not the only catch 22 playing out. according to fannie mae, 67% of americans still believe that housing is a safe investment and pew research shows more than a third would simply walk away from a mortgage under certain situations. nbc kerry sanders is live for us in ft. lauderdale, florida. of course, where you are, kerry,

a lot of things especially tough in that state. one of the highest foreclosure rates, right? >> absolutely. this neighborhood is a typical example. the builder started building about four years ago and these homes here, $700,000 homes. he had 70 lots built 40 of those lots and this home here, like about eight others in the neighborhood here in foreclosure now. the bank is trying to sell it in what they call a short sale for $380,000. let me take you through the statistics as i walk inside here. if you look at these statistics, they're stunning. they show that one in every 381 u.s. homes is in some stage of foreclosure now in the united states. the top three states, nevada look at those numbers. 1 in 4, florida 1 in 155 where i am and arizona 1 in 165. now, when we look at what states are responsible for 50% or close to 50%, look at that. it's california, florida, michigan, illinois, arizona and just to give you sort of perspective in ft. lauderdale.

1 in every 111 homes is in some stage of foreclosure, chris. >> all right, so, i guess the big question that i have and i think a lot of people have when you see these polls and people have come to the conclusion that you lose your job and money's tight and you just walk away, that's what you do. what are the implications for basically the rest of the people who pay their bills? >> yeah, are the people who are staying in their homes suckers, is the question. >> that's a good way to put it. >> well, that's really the question because i asked richard, he's an attorney and deals with foreclosures all the time and he deals with this all over the country and he raises the question and i think it really is. so you stay in your home and you pay your taxes, so, now, you're paying more in taxes because the home next door is not and the government needs to function. you're paying your mortgage, so your mortgage is costing you money, but the bank, because the bank is having trouble gets that government rescue. you're a taxpayer, you're helping there. then, of course, at the end of the day, your house alview has

dropped and you lost some money there. it's a moral question and it's complicated because in some parts of the country you can walk away from your house, like in california. in other states like florida, it's a little more complicated, you just don't hand the keys over and walk away. you may still be financially responsible. so, at the end of the day, a lawyer always needs to be involved in this. you hear about people putting their keys in the mail and sending it to the mortgage holder like a jingle mail they call it because it jingles when it arrives. not the best thing to do if you don't follow it through with all dotting of the is and crossing of the ts. >> kerry great stuff, thank you. it's shaping up as one of the top election issues this fall, not just the whole market, but, of course, the economy overall and the political battle over taxes. let's bring in right now david stockman, served as director of the office of management and budget under president reagan. you know what it is like to be in the middle of a firestorm and you certainly were. let me ask you, first of all, to

set the stage and where you stand on extending these tax cuts. >> well, i don't think we could afford the bush tax cuts in 2002 and 2003. now two wars later and $800 billion in t.a.r.p., 1 trillion in stimulus and $1 trillion deficit built in going forward as far as the eye can see, we reached the end of the road. we have to start paying our bills and for that reason we have to let these tax cuts expire. >> you know there is a political reality and a financial reality. the political reality is obvious. it's very difficult in a situation where you have 10% unemployment and some segments 15% unemployment to tell people that their taxes are going to go up. that's the political reality of it. the argument on the economic side is that that is an economic stimulus. you have to let people have money if they are going to spend money, they have to spend money to stimulate the economy. what about the arguments? >> we had stimulus for the last 30 years and we basically backed our selves into a corner or painted our selves into a

corner. when you paint yourselves into a corner the only thing you can do is let the paint dry. we can't afford any more stimulus as attractive as it might be because it just means more borrowing that we can't afford. more dependence on the chinese, the saudis and the other international investors to keep buying our bonds. we're issuing $100 billion of debt every month. our whole economy is growing by $50 billion. in other words, our debt issuance is twice the rate at which our economy is growing. that isn't going to work. it's going to lead to a real stop and it's really dangerous to continue to do what we're doing. we are going to have to eat our spinach. >> let me go back to a key question because this is part of the larger political debate. how did we get into this mess, if you talk to the democrats what they'll say and the numbers, bear this out, that the bush administration inherited a surplus and they brought us into

a huge deficit. how did we get here? >> we got here over 30 years. when both parties decided deficits don't matter. i regret to say the renz who pu who used to be the stallworths in the 1980s gave up on fighting the -- >> you get this whole tea party movement. >> i certainly do. we have the democrats advocating more spending and advancing the welfare state and helping people. we have the republicans decimating the tax base constantly reducing taxes and now we have a huge gap. both parties are to blame and the american people may be the tea party is raising this question. we can't live beyond our means on a national credit card of this magnitude much longer. and so things have to change, both parties are faking as far as i'm concerned and the first thing we could easily do is not extend the tax cuts. it's only 3%, 36 to 39 for the

2% wealthiest in the country. second, not extend the tax cuts for middle income because the bottom 50% of the population doesn't pay income taxes anyway. so, we're in a real pickle here and the political debate is not even addressing the honest question. >> david stockman, thank you so much for coming in. maybe we'll have you back in, you have a book coming out. that will do it for me, i'm chris jansing. thomas roberts is up next. words alone aren't enough. our job is to listen and find ways to help

workers who lost their jobs to the spill. i'm iris cross. we'll keep restoring the jobs, tourist beaches, and businesses impacted by the spill. we've paid over $400 million in claims and set up a $20 billion independently-run claims fund. i was born in new orleans. my family still lives here. i'm gonna be here until we make this right. somewhere in america, there's a doctor who can peer into the future. there's a nurse who can access in an instant every patient's past. and because the whole hospital's working together, there's a family who can breathe easy, right now. somewhere in america, we've already answered some of the nation's

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