deems a current dysfunctional aspect of the federal government in both political parties. it's about 45 minutes. [applause] >> thank you very much. i promised to detain you only briefly before it gets to more interesting things such as your triet the message of my book is that our political institutions have become dysfunctional. they've become dysfunctional in that they don't serve the broad public interest. that's because they have been captured by wall street and corporate money. both parties are owned by corporate money. the democrats rather hypocritically, the republicans probably in a matter of principle. that said, both parties are not

equal in their responsibility for this function of the system. the democrats at least take a stab at governing even as the results are mediocre at best. the republicans by contrast when confrontational for compromise, the issues rather than bills and gridlock over functioning with the downgrade the nation's credit rating last year and that caused me to write the book as a warning this country has enacted legislation to and to increase the debt limit after world war ii 50. if they wanted to hold the credit rating hostage. the government accountability office found later that just a transaction costs in the gop because the tax payers can't

least $1.3 billion. my warning is that you cannot be pete cannot delegate the government's over the world's largest economic and military power to a political party called that thinks obama is birth certificate muslim some version of the government and that panels are serious issues. of course by no means all republicans are like that. but increasing numbers are becoming unhinged box. there are three main thesis about the gop in my books. the first is the gop or ships wealth and the wealthy and subordinates every other domestic economic issue to that fact. while they try to make the deficit and debt reduction this sector issue the staffer i believe that is a phony claim. they will raise subordinated deficit-reduction to giving tax

breaks to the wealthy contributors to. that from the's current tax plan is the case in point. it would increase the deficit by $60 trillion over ten years. ask yourself now which loophole is he going to close to make up the difference? she doesn't say there are not enough loopholes to do that in the case. most will cause people like you do not consider the mortgage interest deduction to be a loophole. unlike the deductibility for offshore. the recent past, congressional republicans refused to reveal even the egregious tax loophole in the corporate tax so the deficit claims are essentially fraudulent. yes, they consider all of you to be potentially rude.

chapter five in the book describes the republican tax policy as follows. quote, although you will not find it in the party platform, the gop mission is to protect and further enriched if americans plutocracy. the party is counter walling about the deficit and debt is so much to blind the public. in reality, republicans act as bellhops for the corporate america and the super rich behind the corporation. in the calculus of the politics practiced by the gop, wealthy individuals and corporations are interchangeable. mitt romney may have said more than he knew when he pleaded if that corporations are people. they are indeed people in a very select group of people and executive suites and board rooms draw wildly disproportionate shares of the benefits from the tax code, the tax code manipulated relentlessly to

produce exactly the outcome. republicans have strangely indifferent. some gop presidential candidates have even offered proposals that would increase taxes on people of modest means. one might think republicans would be enthusiastic about extending their tax-cut agenda to low-income earners paying regressive rates on the payroll taxes. these folks who struggle from paycheck to paycheck just to keep their head above water would benefit the most from tax rolls. but the gop has been uncharacteristically hesitant when it comes to the tax cuts for the ordinary americans they claim to represent. all of this is because of republicans' five-year and resolution to protect our society over class at all costs. that's the end of that passage.

my next major thesis about the gop is lakeoff war worship. the gop variably worships the altar of mars. how many americans know and for that matter has the media ever bothered to inform them that candidate mitt romney, the great deficit hawk plans to add as much as 2 trillion in spending to the pentagon budget over the next ten years? why didn't think that was common knowledge. the media remains all above about chik-fil-a rather than reporting on a candidate pledges to do with trillions of your money. many people attribute this for all things military to a quid pro quo. the dot contract provides money for campaigns and jobs for constituents. there is something to that, but it doesn't tell the whole story. here's what chapter 6 concludes.

take away the cash nexus and they're remains a strong psychological predispositions to words of war and militarism in a large part of the gop. this greatly exacerbated in the immediate aftermath of september september 11th and alarmingly persistent can undoubtably arises from a neurotic need to demonstrate toughness. it dovetails with the bill would grant tough-guy affect when constantly hears on the right-wing talk radio milledge order some springs from a psychological deficit that requires an endless series of enemies both foreign and domestic. often the formulation war is a force that gives them meaning. that is the end of that passage. i conclude a country with a 15 trillion-dollar debt failing

infrastructure and a very mediocre world ranking in terms of life expectancy, social mobility and poverty simply cannot afford the extravagance of reckless intervention as some handan illusory world dominance. the third factor that i believe has made the present day gop is the culture war met on the basis and politicized religion as i described in chapter 7 religious cranks beginning in the 1970's and a crew into a major element of the republican rank-and-file carry a pat robertson's strong showing in the 1988 iowa presidential caucuses signaled the gradual merger as politics and religion in the party. unfortunately, at that time i underestimated the implications of what i was seeing. a strike me as oddly humorous

that a fundamental staff member in my congressional office was going to take time off to convert the machines and increase to a country that has been overwhelmingly questioned for almost 200 years. i recall another point in the early 1990's when a different fundamentalists' gop staffer said that dinosaur fossils were a hoax. as the mayor of the legislative mechanics waling away what i held to be civil rather than in a pleasing act calling i had not yet seen the tautological impulse far different from mine placed to capture the party of lincoln. if the american people polled more like the iranians or nigerians than europeans are canadians on the questions f evolution, the presence of

angels and demons and so forth a rise as the religious right, it's insertion into the public's sphere by the republican party and the consequential normalizing of the formerly reactionary belief. all around us now is a prevailing antiintellectualism hostilities politicized religion as a sheet anchor of the jury 40-year-old cultural war and that is the end of that passage. i hope the listener doesn't construe this as a condemnation of religion. it's a merger of the politics and religion that we have been seeing occurred over the last 30 years. a phenomenon that basis of politics and religion to the as i conclude the chapter, the united states has been fortunate to have to avoid it some of the worst aspects of history. look at something to do with it.

but so in the the system of governance that permit and encourage religious pluralism. what america didn't do is mandate a religious test for elective office or the basis for the domestic policy on someone's reading of this country ever uncorks the genie of politicized religion as the republican party has been attempting to do we should long regretted. so much for the republican party. what about the democrats? as i describe them in the introduction, the democratic party posted four to one of franklin roosevelt's legacy. it became complacent and we began to feel entitled to its near hegemonic position and the politics, culture and the media. when the new freight increasingly began to displace all three of those aretas some

liberals turned into whiteners and crybabies. the bulk of the democratic party politicians and operators however moved in a different direction. after three straight losses in the presidential election. they are continuing to espouse them to lead the rockets can say anything to win any election and object that in the mind generally requires them to emulate republicans. particularly with respect to money grubbing on the fund-raising circuit. many of them lack because if people want a republican, they will vote for the real thing. what is evolves in america over the last three decades is a one-and-a-half party system as

democrats opportunist ackley lead to the center which is the root of a stick universe of american politics keeps moving further to the right, and of quote. well, so far, so bad. i realize i've painted a canvas of what now constitutes the political system of lincoln's last best hope for mankind. i do have the solutions because as you have no doubt heard, it is in my nature to be relentlessly upbeat kerry of [laughter] those solutions are also in books. but rather than by continuing to talk, however out some questions at this point? [applause] >> first of all, i would like to

commend you -- i can understand why it went viral. we need to promote -- i will buy the book justice who support you. i agree with everything you've said. the problem is i am a liberal democrat, and i was born in 1947 and i've watched the country change. it doesn't seem like the country that i grew up in the 50's and 60's. as a democrat my question is what should we do. what we do better to go back to space principles? supporting the middle class and strengthening security and medicare? or will put simply marginalize us further? >> it would be nice to have a contrast between the party however there are antecedent

problems such as the avalanche of money and politics which off to the moneygrubbers to spent 40% of their time akaka for dollar and every time a politician is either not elected or he retires, he says i need the money trade. they hate it but they are trapped in the system. >> what should we do? >> get the money out of the politics and would also help if we had something other than this crazy system we have in this country and like most modern democracies where you get the

state legislatures draw in the district line in congress. all it does is creates safe democrat and safe republican districts. it furthers the polarization to the country. >> i would like to know where is anyplace in the pantheon of the republican transgress since come they're despising demonization of government. the government can't do anything, the government is bad, bureaucrats etc. etc.. >> i find it amazing people that keep getting elected to the public office on the public payroll relentlessly demonize the whole process by which they pay and under which they operate. but i've known people that have worked in congress even as members or staff for 20 years than on any payroll.

they are always talking of the lazy no good bureaucrats. you know, the ones that inspect the airliner to see if it is safe or inspect your medicine to see if it is safe for inspect food or do any number of things that are very important so there is waste, fraud and abuse in the government and we have seen the gsa scandal. that does not mean most people don't want to do a good job, and it's the job they are doing is in some measure very important. most people like to go to clean and well maintained national parks that doesn't come free curious yaki is in nobody's responsibility whether the media or the democrats can't win out all of these functions the

nursery essential and are done pretty well? >> i think the public responsibility to say whether they want the services or not. and perhaps the media can be a little more responsible lamken playing the false equivalence game. is the world round or flat? you be the judge. the controversy continues. [laughter] >> for years i've watched the assassination as policy makers of both parties have championing concept of privatization and outsourcing that used to be considered inherently governmental the rise of the private contractors and a number of them ranging from prisons,

education until more recently military and security issues have been put forward with much rhetoric but not evidence in terms of cost effectiveness for example. my question assembly how much of this reflects the preset of the marketplace and adam smith, and how much of it is a payoff to the corporations that will benefit them in the future and i might note that i've written a book on the subject with regard to the majority contractors and there is little empirical evidence of any regarding the cost effectiveness of contractors doing logistics and security work. as amihai was a the correlation is inverted and to get less out of it. we have seen how well halliburton did when they took over the logistics of the army. the army cannot see itself anymore which is kind of ridiculous.

look at all of the scandals in iraq, and you see these across-the-board to be of national security budget is what i did, and at some point it struck me as overwhelming that these things were not working as the proponents had claimed that they would work. there are some things that not only because of the cost effectiveness i don't want some contractor looking at the sensitive surveillance intelligence. i don't want some contractor choosing who is going to get hit by a drone. >> i'm a holocaust survivor in the civil rights veterans. and what i see happening in this country is a move towards fascism which resembles that of

germany pretty much the labor movement which restricted the voter preservation -- participation as well as the media that takes on the lives of our being spread on a daily basis kid there are very few outlets that you can actually read or hear the truth of what is happening in our government, and my fear is we are going down eight really and quick descent into fascism and i think that is very worrisome. i am a fighter and i have no idea how this can be because i

don't see that there is a movement. even if it is hopeless, we have to continue to battle the there doesn't seem to be a cohesive movement like there was in the 60's to but i wonder whether you have any suggestions about how we can do what about this or agree this is a worrisome aspect. >> if there is enough people who believe that, then it isn't really an option, and the system corrects itself when enough people decide to become active. that's the problem we have an amusing ourselves the best in various ways over the last 20 or

30 years, and our voter participation rates not because of the voter, simply because a lot of people just don't turn out to vote. it's one of the lowest in the coming and that isn't a sign of a healthy democracy. it didn't happen that way because of a grand scheme of the public for cultural reasons or whatever became apathetic. >> what is happening now in the many states that are targeting groups of hispanic african-americans the poor, the elderly, students where it is so patent and a disturbing am

surprised there isn't a bigger outcry dhaka, and i don't know whether people can be so apathetic that they are not scared for the future of their children and their grandchildren and the future of the country. >> i wrote the book because i was concerned. >> thank you. >> linus angelo. i would like to ask the media but let me make one or three bullets before you have a chance to comment. first, the media from endorsing support which is a crime according to the loss, the media had a big lie. they lie to you or report things not the way they are from the coverage of the olympics to what happens in syria.

my question is since the media kokesh keep everybody sustained and how are we going to be able to rally those that want to change things around if everybody has been put to sleep by the media? >> perhaps the outside is that over the last many years the view version of the big media has constantly trended down, and there are things like the internet that has its own audit fees and the dangers, but i think a lot of people are more interested and independent of the viewpoints, and a lot of the to decline in viewership of the major media is because people

don't think it's particularly useful. i'm not old enough to vote yet, so we don't have any political opinions yet, and it seems like in my generation, you have to take everything you see with a grain of salt because there are a lot of misleading articles, people, teachers even. we live in a throwaway society. politics also affect our food. there was a documentary called food, inc.. i want to ask also what your thoughts are on private equity in the 80's and how that led to our financial collapse today. islamic i think the terms we use our leverage buyout hit. private equity became a

euphemism. they changed it so people wouldn't recognize it. >> to the extent money and write off the interest cost to take over a viable business rated fund, strip the assets, sell off the pieces and then give themselves a pay that isn't a good saying in my view akaka. a strong industrial base. they wouldn't step in and allow that. and also, i feel other thing is politicians have also said this, not all of them, but some i have heard speak is politics has changed a lot even in the last 40 years where now the media and the people that are running

everything is so polarized, and i interested in business, and i feel like another kind of bad divide that is also being treated in a lot of people like if you are into business, you are automatically like a republican or something like that. or if you are not into business, then you are just completely to the other side. and i feel like you shouldn't have to be like that. and if you want to start your own business. there's just a lot of fun needed social pressure in that aspect. by the way, they double the pay of the workers because it occurred to him may be if my own workers can afford to buy the product to make, i will make more products.

a lot of people laugh over engine charlie wilson under eisenhower. they always mean old the quote and they say what's good for general motors is good for america. no, he said what is good for america is good for general motors and vice versa. what he said was the seat of the company and of the country were inextricably linked to the when one does well the other does well. >> another thing that just really annoys me is every time i buy something this has made in china, and i hate seeing that and that's why i just have a very strong feeling about missing delete committing domestic product and this whole thing was becoming dependent on china and the other problem is

because of the wage level devotees businesses operate you can't compete with china, and it's very expensive to produce domestic products for in the united states and there are not that many companies that do that and usually there are they are small businesses. [chanting] you know, a lot of people on the news say it's easy we can just cut off. we could say no whenever we want and just come back to america and i don't think that is true. i think they have like a vise grip on us right now. i don't know how and my -- as i get older if there is ever going to be a way to cut off from them and start making things again because there will always stimulate our economy to the estimate riding we have a modern version likely had with the soviet union ..

list. >> many people agree with

your view and my view about policy. the problem is the way out and it seems the question is politics and leadership. for those two colette's to find a solution. you work for republicans. i worked for democrats. the use cheerleader out there that may precipitate and share our feelings to get above the policies but only with the electoral system. d.c. anybody?

>> not on the horizon. >> at all? >> no. [laughter] my days of endorsing politicians are over. [laughter] >> who in the past to have you like to you thought would be inappropriate? >> i like ike. >> that far back? >> pretty far. >> thank you for your 30-year is of public service. one dimension is how incumbents become captured by special interest. a couple of dimensions why

don't congressicongressi onal candidates you generally represent the interest get selected to compete for political office? why are they captured our interest? >> we don't have open primaries. we get limited people boating, only the face of the party in the primaries which are usually low turnout. the results of the case this where most candidates don't have to worry they just

worry about the primary. >> we have to find a way to open the system. >> the open primary system. >> then why did 50% plus of the zero to four those candidates reflecting the special interest and not their own? >> i am a political hack. not a psychologist. [laughter] let's do the last four questions. they've got me off my

question has to do with political ideals which 20 or 40 years ago perhaps they have remained the same. what are your political ideals you hope somebody would represent? >> with today's politics and ronald reagan would probably be too moderate. he raised taxes four times. he pleaded with congress to pass a clean debt ceiling extension. when something went terribly wrong in lebanon he got out. it wasn't as polarized and

then but i would like to see some politicians who can have strong debuts and played to the base but at the end of the day they have to cut a deal with their responsibility to govern and produce bills. >> reiterated that tax system isn't this what the constitution is designed to prevent? why isn't it working? >> it is not working because the money and politics made it so o. that is why k street has all the lobbyist that beats down the doors of the house ways and means committee.

those provisions deny give by happenstance they were put been buying interest of campaign contributions they got manifold returns. >> academy get our rights back? is essentially we have lost the protection afforded by our great constitution. how do we get it back? >> that is something i have been pondering myself. now the supreme court has made a greater impediment to passing a lot to get the money out of politics. that is really the only way to do with it. and publicly financed system would be much cheaper in the

long run because of the billions of dollars of halliburton or solyndra, to be bipartisan. [laughter] came back many times as a hit to the taxpayer. if we had no ltd. campaign season. no need for the two year presidential cycle, we would save money. we would not have all of these monstrosities. >> following the theme, returning to mars, why don't and we have the pro peace party?

i think those are fairly well understood but the glorious oxymoron the unit -- humanitarian award of the balkans now with syria is seems there is something profound in both parties that makes it almost in the sand anybody on the right to or the left to oppose the mainstream that ought to respond to every problem in the world with killing somebody. >> me to bet slightly less.

it does distress me the rationale is they all represent the lead to interest. win a militarized empire starts to go downhill and have serious problems with debt to the reaction is not to say let's pull back but it double down on the policies that got them there in the first place. in this abnormal psychology but the only way to explain it. >> the other question was why but more specifically what role least change of education we don't teach

thinking and questioning but assuming fingers are backed? >> that is a big part of it with the terrible cinergy with the media to feed out to people. strikes me interesting 1880s and 1890's presumably uneducated farmers had the better idea who the real road interest were and house of the big banks were shafting them and the grain wholesalers where shafting them but many don't understand when the libor is rigged they are shafted. [applause] >> on the topic of

education, how come they don't teach six anymore? everyone of my generation does not understand how the government works which is a big problem why people don't vote. last week i was at a conference of the model congress how bills were passed handed educated me further and when you elect someone what they are supposed to do. why don't they teach that any more? >> the good question. the kids who do not understand libor their kids to not understand the difference between the house and the senate.

[applause] >> a regular basis of the visit universities to talk with professors who also authors. list be clear at columbia and joining us this history professor the author of this book, new netherland and the dutch of origins of american religious with birdie.