♪ >> what do you say? good morning. everybody. it is wednesday, wednesday, april 25th. good to see you. welcome. welcome to the full-court press, your new morning show on current tv. i am bill press, liberal and proud of it. for the next three hours we will talk about all of the big stories of the day. of course, taking your calls. president obama out on the road calling on congress to do the right thing and to acte interest on student loans doubles by july 1st.

but republicans are against it. yes, they would rather give billionaires another tax break than give college graduates a break on their student loan interest. talk about wrong priorities. just one of the things we will talk about this morning. but first, as always, let's start out with the latest. in the current tv news update in los angeles, here is jacki schechner. good morning, jacki. >> good morning, bill. good morning, everyone. mitt romney is going to be fundraising today in new york and new jersey while his team meets in boston to the figure out next steps of the strategy. romney took all five primaries last night and his focus now is trying to craft a fresh start, both for his campaign and for the country. >> tonight is the beginning of the end of the disappointments of the obama years. and it's the start of a new and better chapter that we will write together. >> mitt romney is well aware he has a likeability gap. so expect him to say president obama is a decent enough guy but he has failed the country on the

economy. romney beat newt gingrich handily so that should be the end of him? not so much. gingrich says he will attend all of his scheduled events may 8th and then he says regardless of when we bows out, he intends to bring the conservative platform to the convention. ron paul came in second in three states, connecticut, rhode island and new york and be it a far second and he says he is still running until tampa. as for rick santorum he is parsing words a little bit. he says he will back the republican nominee and it looks like it's going to be mitt romney but he is stuartopping short of an endorsement. he said he will have to meet with him. he is planning to meet with romney's staff and hopes to meet with romney in the next week or two. we are going to be live online. more bill right after the break.

fun... indulgence... one square inch of bliss. hershey's bliss.

attack on women that perhaps the majority of the population woke up? >> idaho is not known as approaching act i.v. you had hundreds of women show up, thousands signed petitions. they made their voices heard. what happens is that now, the legislators are running scared. very similar laws have passed quietly in other states for the past 10 years, really in the past two years have intensified. pennsylvania a similar law was shelved, idaho this proved to be political poison.

women are paying attention and having their voices heard. >> thanks for coming in. >> the aclu considers a demand that to get a job you have to let an employer open your private mail, the senate wants to make it illegal to hand over a password to your facebook account. as i understand it in radio they can't see you, so this is big for me. >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's new morning news block. for television. >>sharp tongue, quick wit and about all, politically direct. >>politically direct to me means no bs, the real thing, cutting through the clutter.

my show is the most important show in the world. ♪ >> broadcasting across the nation, on your radio and now on current tv. this is the bill press show. >> mitt romney wins five primaries. does anybody care? say hello, everybody. i know that's cruel. he worked so hard to win those five primaries yesterday, but seriously: who cares? what do you say? hello, everybody. it is wednesday, april 25th. and here we go. our town hall of the morning to talk about the big issues of the day. we are here in our nation's

capitol as always at capitol hill. full-court press, the bill press show and it is great to see you this morning. i hope things are starting off well. get ready, to dive into the big issues of the day here from our nation's capitol around the country, around the globe and get ready to hit the phones if you want to give us your point of view. we welcome hearing how these issues impact you and your family. give us a call at 866-55-press. a big line-up of guests. we will tell you all about that today. president obama on the road spending the night in bolder colorado, or thereabouts before he goes off to the university of iowa today, and here in studio with us, they showed up against today. our team peter ogburn.

>> don't sound so excited. dan, they showed up again. >> dan henning hello. hello. hello. good morning. >> cyprian boulding the man behind the cameras. >> he is waving. >> i waf backve back through the door there. >> good to be here. >> president obama rock and roll had a lot of fun with the students in north carolina and at the university of colorado and talking about student loans, which we will spend a lot of time on this morning. he also taped the jimmy fallon show for last night fallon has this slow jamming the news. >> it's usually hilarious. >> brian gives a straight news story and jimmy fallon gives the slow jazz. >> and the whole time it's going on, his backing band, the roots are playing slow smooth jazz. >> so he said yesterday, told the crowd he wanted to slow jam the news and lo and behold.

>> i am present barack obama, and i, too, want to slow jam the news. >> all right. >> he slips right into it here president obama giving the news story of the day about student loans. >> now there are some in congress who disagree. they say keeping the interest rate low isn't the way to help our students. they say we should be doing everything we can to pay down the national debt. well so long as it doesn't include taxing billionaires. students just have to make this rate increase work. ♪ frankly, i don't buy it. um, um um.

♪ the barakness monster ain't buying it. we all know our legislative bodies in the house, tossing and turning late into the night. ♪ still republicans disagree and can even filibuster. but if they do the president says, they are going to feel it, buster. ♪ they should sign something new to do like tim tebow ♪ >> that's good. >> that's good. >> it's a good band. >> the barackness monster. >> and they try to -- the feel-0-buster, they are going to fill bust feel it buster. >> congressman joe courtney from the state of connecticut is going to be here in studio with us as well as senator geoff murkley from the state of oregon. we are so close to the capitol, we have this going here now.

sherrod brown was in the studio. we get members of congress and u.s. senators to make a routine, stop by the full court press, say hello. right? talk about the issues on the way to work every day. >> easy to do when you are walking distance from the united states capitol. >> building that subway tunnel from the capitol to here was the best investment we ever made. >> yeah, right here. >> it's a good -- it's a good routine they are getting into. we like that. we are also going to be talking to 1 of the to one of the -- at the sent of american progress about this arizona immigration law which will be before the supreme court today. >> but first, this is the full-court press. >> on this wednesday, other headlines making news three days until the white house correspondent's dinner and we have learned of another celebrity, and this will make jimmy kimmel happy. lindsey lohan will be at the

dinner. the actress will be a guest of fox news' greta van sustren is known for bringing blockbuster guests. she has brought sarah palin and ozzie osborn in the past. >> when are you going to report on my three guests? >> this has been reported. >> we talked about this. >> my three guests are governor jennifer granholm, host of "the war room," governorshot spitseliot spitzer and cenk. >> you better hope you are not going to be at lindsay lohan's table. >> with me and stephanie -- i couldn't get another ticket for stiff instead of knee, so anyhow, we tried. we tried. except for stephanie, it's going to be the whole line-up of current tv right there. one table. >> seems ann romney needs more

time working with her horses. one placed "adweek" 15th out of 18th in the netherlands. >> no. >> according to "the washington post," though the rider jan adeling was the top u.s. finish finisher. >> she shipped her horse to the netherlands for the dressage fields and placed 15th out of 18. >> yeah. these people can relate to average americans. >> forbes is out with -- >> having a dressage horse but let alone shipping it to the netherlands to compete? >> that's where the best dressage competitions happen, though. please. what are you? a farmer? >> did she ship her cadillac too? >> plural. >> forbes is out with the most influential athlete listing jimmy johnson as number 1 for the second year in a row, the 5-time nascar winner, the guy next door persona that marketers like best.

no. 2, tim tebo manny packpachio. >> what does forbes know? what do they know about influential agentthletesathletes? >> how much money they can earn. >> they then they ought to say the wealthiest athletes. >> no. it's how much money they can earn for like their clients and whatnot. how influential they are on the american public. >> if i want to find out about sports, which i don't usually care much about, i am not going to go to steve freak"freakin'" forbes. thank you, dan. yes mean to shoot the messenger but anyhow. we haven't paid much attention to this republican primary lately, but it is all over. mitt romney last night, he did the five strike right? he picked up connecticut and rhode island new york, pennsylvania and my home state

of delaware. newt beginningrism planned he was going to win delaware. he vowed that he had to win delaware. he campaigned up and down the state of delaware. and yesterday, mitt romney just said, no, newt. we are not even going to give you this little state of delaware. my sister, by the way, tweeted me yesterday that she is a registered republican in delaware. i'm sorry. i can't apologize or explain my family. but she got a call. she said monday night she got a robo call from mitt romney and tuesday morning, she got a robo call from ann romney. so they were on the case in delaware. anyhow anyhow, mitt romney last night thanking his supporters saying okay. this is it. we got it. >> tonight i can also say, thank you, america, because after 43 primaries and caucuses many long days and more than a few long nights, i can say with confidence and gratitude that

you have given me a great honor and solemn responsibility and together, we are going to win on november 6th. >> yeah, well, we will see about that. but, you know, the fact of it is. we have been saying this for how long? months and months and months. we knew from the beginning that mit romney was going to be the nominee of the party because, look at his competition. i mean, you know, we went through the motions and the media really tried to keep it alive. god knows they tried to keep it alive by pumping up by pumping up michele bachmann while pretending rick santorum was serious. we all new all along mitt romney was going to be because he was the only sane one of the whole freakin' bunch. when you are lined up t michelle

bachmann, herman cain, newt gingrich, rick santorum not to mention jon huntsman and tim pawlenty. >> who? >> listen. not for get rom paul and you have mitt romney he is the only sane one, which isn't saying much of the whole firming and everybody recognizes that except newt gingrich somehow still doesn't even yesterday while the votes were being cast, he said how dare -- how dare mit romney pretend that he is the nominee. >> he is the front-runner, but he is not the nominee. and i think it's a little insulting to the people of these states sdfrn. >> what's insulting newt is that you are still out there pretending to be a candidate. last night, after the votes were cast and after he lost delaware newt did say, well now i might have to take another look at

this. >> i want you to know that over the next few days, we are going to look real i wancally at where we are at. >> so he and calista, the only person left in his campaign are probably going to go out for some expensive dinner at chez france. >> so they can pay the bill. >> maybe they will go to tiffanies with their revolving charge account. does tiffanies have a cafeteria? do they have free champaign. >> depends upon how much you spin there? >> he won't drop out. he will suspend his campaign. he suspended his campaign. there we go. we now know what it is. here is my question to you: are we ready? are we liberals and -- we know

what the campaign is going to be: mitt romney and barack obama and we know what the romney people are going to say. ed gill he isespie the chief strategist for romney said obama is a nice guy but he is just in over his head. and then he also said, president obama is not going to run on his record but we will. so they are going to run against obama's record. again, i ask you: we are democrats. we are liberals. we are progressives. are we ready to get on the team, or are we going to continue to whine? i have heard a lot of it. i am sick and tired of progressives and liberals saying, i voted for obama the last time but he has disappointed me, too much. i can't vote for him again. so let's look at this record very quickly because they say they are going to run against his record. i think i am ready to run on his record. i mean this is the guy. right?

who turned this economy around, saved us from going over the cliff. no doubt about it, where we were when he took. there is a guy who put through the stimulus $3.2 million, who saved the american auto industry, who ended the war in iraq bringing our troops home from afghanistan, who in seven months, helped overdloe the dictatorship in libya, got rid of muammar gadaffi. he did get rid of osama bin laden, given us two years in a row for tax cuts of average working americans. i think that's a pretty damn good record. i have to say. i want to know if you are ready 866-55-press. are you ready to get on the team? are you ready to stop whining? are you ready to take sides? are you ready to get out and bust your butt for barack obama? because if you don't, you are going to get mitt romney and we don't know what the hell mitt romney stands for except he stands for the big corporations

and the big oil companies, and we know that more than ever. so that's my question to you today. are you ready to get on the team? are you ready to run and defend barack obama's record or are you going to continue whining? you have got to choose sides. now is the time. 866-55-77377. >> on your radio and on current tv, this is the bill press show. building up to this. >>bill shares his views, now it's your turn. >>i know you're going to want to weigh in on these issues. >>connect with "full court press with bill press" at facebook.com/billpressshow and on twitter at bpshow. >>i believe people are hungry for it.

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to cover their bets. >>we are the investigators fiercely independent, and we don't hold back. >>we're here because we're love. >>...and we don't do talking points. >>i think the hypocrisy is so blatant. >>and above all... and there's only once place you'll find us. >>weeknights on current tv. ♪ >> heard around the country and seen on current t.v. this is the bill press show. >> all right.

25 minutes after the hour. a little breaking news here on this campaign front, priorities usa, the super p.a.c. supporting president obama's re-election is out with a new ad as of this morning. it was em bargoed until just right now in this 6:00 o'clock hour on wednesday morning. bill burton, the head of priorities usa. you have seen him in the studio with us. they are pointing out mitt romney, mr. big oil. here is our latest ad just released. >> mitt romney, he made millions off companies while workers lost health and retirement benefits. he made $21 million but paid a lower tax rate than many middle class families. now, romney is proposing a new huge $150 tax cut for the wealthiest 1% while cutting medicare and education for us. mit romney if he wins we lose. priorities usa is responsible

for. >> romney saying president obama nice guy but in over his head assigned to choose heads. ron is calling from elgin, illinois. >> i can't wait for the debates to start. i am ready to support that record that you gave and we can probably add in health care. >> i had that on my list. i wasn't looking down. of course, health care. it may not be the most perfect plan. right? it's a it's a it's a hell of a lot better than what we had. >> bring on the debates. >> right. i think the president can readily run on his record. and take a look at that if you haven't done so, that 17 minute video that the obama campaign put out. lamont out in the state of indiana. >> how are you doing? >> good. thank you. what do you say? >> all right. i don't have a problem running on the president's record. i don't think he should. what i do think is that the media, yourself included should

focus on romney's record because what is it actually? >> that's a good point. first of all, we know he was governor of massachusetts. so you take a look at that. right? >> running on health care for massachusetts doing great out there. as far as it goes, what's his record? >> we have bane. we have massachusetts where massachusetts was 47 out of 48 states, out of 50 states. i'm sorry. with -- on jobs and the other thing that you get to lamont is we don't really know what mitt romney stands for. i mean we really don't. he's been out there a long time. 43 primaries. and he keeps saying, well, balms is over his head. we need me to fix things. obama is over his head. we need me to fix things. he has never told us what he would do to create jobs. you know what? because he does not have any idea. look, i am sticking with obama. he has the record. >> this is the bill press show.

♪ [[vo]]cenk uygur calls out the mainstream media. >>the rest of the media seems like, "ho-hum, no big deal." we've have no choice, we've lost our democracy here. just refreshing to hear. no other television show does that. we're keeping it real.

>> listen and watch your bill press show now on current tv. this is the bill press show. welcome to the spin room. >> here we are, politically direct on current tv and on your local progressive talk radio station. good to be with you today. 33 minutes after the hour. the full court press brought to you today by the utility workers of america delivering a brighter future under president michael langford. check out that good work at

uwua.net. taking your calls about campaign now underway for sure. president barack obama versus mitt romney who sewed up the republican nomination last night and romney saying obama is in over his head. nice guy but in over his head and they are going to run against president obama's record. i am ready to defend the president obama's record. how about you? 866-55-press. first, we have to jump into -- i want to talk about arizona's immigration law with you, which is coming up before the supreme court today, oral hearings oral arguments today. first, jumping into the spin room again, last night, it was one more time, yesterday, newt gingrich saying what a big mistake mitt romney was making. >> i think it's a very substantial mistake for governor romney to pretend these primaries aren't occurring and for him to be having quote a general election speech tonight

in new hampshire. >> yeah. >> mitt romney is not ignoring they are occurring. there have been 43 of them and newt, you won two, georgia and south carolina. mitt romney won like most of the rest. pointing out you are the biggest loser of all time. in front of the support, challenges to arizona's immigration law and yesterday there was a hearing in the senate before the judiciary schmidt led committee to take a look at the provisions while one testifying is the vice president of immigration policy at the center of american progress angela kelly who joins us on the news line this morning. good to have you with us. >> good morning. thank you. first of all, how did this law

from arizona get before the supreme court today? >> well, the law passed in arizona two years ago. then we see several copy cat measures in georgia, south carolina and alabama. and all of those loupes, including the arizona law, have been largely stopped by the court. they have been enjoined. there are few exceptions in obama when has -- alabama. there has been immediate allegations. challenges by both the department of justice and by a range of parties from, you know labor from business aclu folks from both sides of the aisle have also been challenging the law. there has been a lot of activity activities in the lower courts. the body of juris prudence has been on the side of, hey stop this law. this is not what states should be doing. it goes way beyond state authority but, you know, the supreme court decided to take it

up pretty quickly, frankly, and in an election year. >> and. >> is the obama justice departmenting challenging the law. >> yeah. it's our solicit or general. the department of justice has been vigorous and consistent after the department of justice has been. >> now you testified yesterday in front of the senate -- >> i actually didn't. >> i read a statement that you -- >> we submitted a statement. i was on a radio show at the same time as the hearing. i heard all about it. >> i read your statement. tell our viewers and our listeners what's wrong with this area law? >> there is a couple of problems pretty big. we hope talked about unauthorized immigrants as aliens. you can't tell looking at somebody whether they are supposed to be here or not you

can't tegll looking at me if i paid my taxes last week. because the law gives brought authority to police to anybody they reasonably suspect who is here legally they can say show me your papers. >> uh-huh. >>. >> this is nots practical. we have a country changing color. 30% of the people in arizona, for example, are latino. 65,000 mexicans enter arizona every day just to do business and lawful transactions. so it runs up against the fact that you may come up as if you are in removal proceedings, trying to deport you but you have a pending asylum case. so it's legitimate you are there. these are laws that mean our cops spending time doing that kind of work instead of stopping real criminals. that's why you see a lot of law enforcement against it.

it undermines public safety. third reason is that it costs a lot of money because you've got arizona, for example, a state that's in the red like all of our states. the first six months aver the law passed $141 million were lost because conferences were cancelled. if you make yourself a hostile state, nobody wants to go there last reason, it doesn't solve illegal immigration. people go deeper underground. they are staying because two-thirds of people here without papers have been here for longer than 10 years. so they are not going hope because they are home. >> is governor january brewer in washington. she is going to attend the hearing at the supreme court. she says basically we had to act because the federal government won't. here is governor brewer yesterday. >> we are not racists. we are not bigoted. we know that we have a severe problem and our citizens are paying a high price for it. >> so we had no choice she

said. >> that's what this state senator said. >> the governor, she is expressing frustration that is shared by a lot of people. right? our government congress has just failed on the job to pass a national law that solves the problem. we've come close a couple of times now they are ducking the issue and using it as a political edger wedge issue. not doing their job. i get that. the problem is that this, a, doesn't solve the problem either for the reasons i described. and b, it keeps a lot of harm on the very people that she claims that she is trying to protect. she says, you know my citizens are tired. my citizens are overwhelmed and i get that, but i also see that this is, in fact going to hurt those same citizenship and then secondly, this administration has done a lot to control room illegal immigration. check this out in the third year of the obama administration, he already deported 1.2 million people. >> that's more people than bush

departed in eight. so we do have super aggressive immigration enforcelt policies. >> i was going to ask about that. the last numbers i saw, it was just a couple of days ago, there are fewer people living here in this country illegally because a lot much them had just left because of our economy and there are far, far fewer people who are coming here. >> yeah. >> illegally every day. so it appears from arizona and when you hear jan brewer, it sounds like they were talking about a time 10 years ago when people were pouring across the border all the time. right. >> that's right. there is virtually no migration. people are not coming in because there aren't jobs here because we have made it harder for them to come. so i mean we are at the lowest level since nixon was in the white house with illegal immigration. it's remarkable. and, you know, look, part is a problem that we are kicking down the road because our economy is soft. but i want our economy to get stronger.

i want us to get out of this resettle. and when we do -- and we've got "help-wanted" signs. but we do not have an immigration system that ensures people come legally, we don't have sufficient number of visas we will have to solve the problem to make sure we have u.s. workers getting a chance at the job first but look, we are all having fewer kids because kids are expensive. i have two of them. my god. and we are going to need fourteen workers down the road. i would love to have congress tackle this. >> they have to do it in a way which the president says comprehensive angel kelly the vice president for policy at the center for american progress. find out more about her writings and the work on this issue by going to americanprogress.org. thanks, angelie. very important issue in front of the police report today.

mitt romney saying president obama over his head and he has a dismal record. randy from he willelliston illinois. >> you say you don't know what mid rom next stands for. he doesn't either. you talk about president obama has accomplished so much. this is one of the karl rove tactics, to attack a person at their strength. you know what? this is where they are going to lose big-time because they don't control the narrative as much as they did back in 2004 and 2008 because the social media has exploded. even the mainstream media doesn't control the narrative as they once had. they can write articles in "the new york times" and whatever but they don't control the narrative. the professional left. i call them what they call the ipl. the irrational professional left. they need to just chip out

because if they continue with this winehining, they are going to be really ostracized. last time -- >> on that point, you know it's time and randy, you are absolutely right. there are things we could have been disappointmented. but now, it's time to take sides. now, it's very clear versus romney. we know what obama has am come accomplished and we know who mitt romney's friends are. it's the 99% versus the 1%. so my advice and my me this morning is let's stop whining. let's get together on the scale team and fight like hell. are you ready? 866-55-press. >> on your radio, on t.v., the bill press show new on current

tv. show in the world.

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♪ the latest from the world of politics, this is the bill press show. >> twelve minutes before the top of the hour the sides are set the nominees are in place. the general campaign starts today. mitt romney versus barack obama. are you ready to defend barack obama on his record 866-55-press. get back to your calms but first, a little reminder about something very very important, and that is identity theft protection. all kind of stories you probably heard the stories last week on tax day about all of the people who have found out they filed

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ultimate protection, 1-800-356-5967, and accepting -- accepting actually marking five victories last night, here is how mitt romney sort of turned the corner into the general election. >> we believe in america. we believe in ourselves, our greatest days are ahead. we are after all americans. >> he said this is the beginning of the end of the disappointment of the obama years. bill calling from down in the great state of texas. hi, bill, what do you say. >> mitt romney says he is going to run on his record. first of all, he better define which record he is going to run on. he has more records than the beatles beatles. actually, what he says is, he says he is going to run against obama's record. ed gillespie said obama will not run on his record but we will.

i think obama can run on his record. >> i think he can, too. i think he has done a real good job. i think the more people that find out about what's in the -- as they calling, the obamacare, the more people that find out about it, the better they like it. i know a lot of people around here, this is the great wasteland of news in texas, especially around the houston area. the people down here believe every bit of propaganda that the republicans put out. and it's like talking to, to folks, you talk to these people because every little thing that the republicans put out, they believe. and it's ridiculous some of the things that they believe. >> i know. i know, bill. and one part of the problem is that's all they hear. >> that's all they hear because this is no progressive talk radio. thank god current tv is in texas. eric is calling from harlem new york. >> hey, how are you doing? great show. >> thank you. thank you. >> i want to thank you, my

friend for being one of the sane voices in television right now. >> not too many of us. >> i want to thank you for talking to a lot of progressives and liberals offer of the ledge. there is nothing for us to worry about. you know i believed in this president from the very start, you know. i worked with the board of e elections yesterday and it was so refreshing to see just maybe we had seven people that voted in the republican primary yesterday. there is no enthusiasm. there is no enthusiasm because they know they don't really have anything. >> come back. come back. seven republicans showed up to vote? >> 7. >> this is because it was like it was right outside nyu. >> okay. >> what i mean working in the lobby of the building there, nyu. and most of the people lived inside the building we had five

people. most of them were senior citizens there is no enthusiasm. you know, the sad thing is when i hate -- what i hate about our side is that, you know we get like disgruntled children when our daddy didn't get us the gi joe and because daddy didn't do that, you know, i am going to run. i am going to run to the other side. it goes against my best interest. that's what it's about. it's really, really sad. we need to step up and open our eyes and see, you know, exactly. >> absolutely. absolutely. well said. again, there is nothing wrong. we are democrats. we are liberals. there is nothing wrong with saying, come on, obama. you didn't do everything we expected on this issue or come on, obama, we wanted that public plan option and keep the pressure on him. >> that's good. that's healthy. there comes a time when you have to make a decision. there has a time when you have

to get on the term. there comes a team when you have to take sides. now is the time. >> that's for sure. >> you got it. thanks, eric. while you're out catching a movie. [ growls ] lucky for me

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weeknights on current tv. ♪ >> taking your e-mails on any topic at any time. this is the bill press show live on your radio, and current tv. ♪ >> here is an interesting little fact i didn't know thanks to bill fulke who says the university of north carolina where president obama was

visiting yesterday is the alma alma mater of virginia foxx republican of north carolina. her committee, of course overseas student loans. president obama talked about her. she had no sympathy at all for students who have graduated fromwith student loans. last week, as bill points out, she -- but he tells us that when she attended in the 1960s the the tuition was less than a thousand dollars a year. doesn't make any difference what the hell she is talking about. she is comparing college tuition today, $304,050,000. right? if you are lucky, and back to the day when she got bio less than a thousand dollars a year. oh, man. anyhow, thank you, bill, for that e-mail. keep your e-mails and comments coming from bill press show.com. love it. this is the bill press show.

♪ it is wednesday, april 25th and welcome to the full-court press, your new morning show, brill hess press show here on current tv. good to see you today. great to have you along for the ride as we talk the big issues here in our nation's capitol around the country and around the globe and it is now official. yes, after winning five primaries last night, mitt romney is the republican nominee for president in 2012 but how could it be otherwise? look at the competition.

of. donald trump, michigan bachmann herman cain, tim pawlenty, jon huntsman, rick santorum, ron paul, newt gingrich. i mean as weak as he is mitt romney was the only sane one of the whole damn bunch. we get the latest today's currents t.v. news update from our good friend out in los angeles, jackie schechner. >> hi, bill. good morning. good morning, everyone. president obama, the college tour, continues today. he is going to be at the university of iowa with a round table of students first ant he is going to give a speech. hoping congress to keep rates from doubling. he is calling on leaner years to show students he can relate. >> michelle and i have been in your shoes. when we got married, check this out. we only finished paying off our student loans about eight years

ago. >> 66% of voters under the age of 30 voted for the president in 2008. right now, he has a considerable lead over mitt romney with the same demographic. about 54% of college graduates are either unemployed or under employed last year. so that makes it difficult to get out and volunteer and let alone get out and vote. president obama knows this. in a new interview with rolling stone this friday, he knows its his responsibility to show what his administration would do to keep the economy on an upward trend of the last night was a good one for progressives in pennsylvania. two blue-dog democrats went down mark cric jason a lotltmeyer, and the redrawn 17th. holden and altmyer voted against national health care reform and lost their jobs. a little note of caution there.

we will be right back. [ male announcer ] cookies with smooth caramel and chocolate. ♪ ♪ hmm twix. also available in peanut butter.

as i understand it in radio they can't see you, so this is big for me. >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's new morning news block. >>it's completely inappropriate for television. >>sharp tongue, quick wit and about all, politically direct. >>politically direct to me means no bs, the real thing, cutting through the clutter.

my show is the most important show in the world. ♪ >> broadcasting across the nation, on your radio, and on current tv, this is the bill press show. >> you know any mitt romney wins five more states. who cares? we knew it was going to happen anyway. he is now the nominee. good morning. good morning. it is wednesday, wednesday april 25th, great to see you today this is the full court press, the bill press show coming to you alive across this great land of ours from our t.v. factory, radio factory and book factor in washington d.c. that you for joining us. we always save a seat for you as

we tackle the issues of the day 866-557377. in addition to our regular team we are prout to welcome to the studio a great member of the united states congress representing the second congressional district of the state of connecticut. great to see you. >> thank you, bill. >> we like it when members of congress stop by the studio on the way to work in the morning. we mentioned mitt romney wrapping up the nomination last night even though newt gingrich is still saying he is re-assessing his cam paper. priorities, u.s.a. the super p.a.c. supporting the president's reelection, they are out this morning. we just got a copy of it. it's a new ad 30-second ad that they are running in colorado and

nevada on mitt romney. here is what it sounds like. >> mitt romney he made millions off companies while workers lost retirement benefits. he made $21 million but paid a lower tax rate than many middle class families. romney is proposing a huge new 150,000 dollar tax cut for the wealthiest one person while cutting medicare and education for us. mitt romney. if he wins, we lose. priorities u.s.a. action is responsible for the content of this advertising. >> painting mitt romney as somebody who doesn't represent most americans. >> that's right. >> i think that will be the theme of the campaign. >> when he basically embraced the ryan budget plan calling it marvelous, really, that is in my opinion the fault like of the election. >> i forgot that word. mav-lous. >> billy crystal. >> speaking of the ryan plan, we

want to talk about student loans but paul ryan has gotten himself in a little bit of trouble because he, as a catholic has been out there. let me back up. his budget of course, does anything but help the poor. >> right. >> you as a member of the house have looked at the budget. >> right. again as i was mentioning to you off camera, i sit on the agriculture committee where our nutrition programs come through. anybody who has had a cursory reading of the bible knows that it is full of, you know inspiring examples of how we have to feed the poor and protect the poor. i think tim waller counted 3,000 references to helping the poor in the bible. when you see a budget that says at a time with 9% unemployment, 46 million people on food stamps that cuts about $40,000,000,000 next year on food stamps leaves every single other farm subsidy

completely untouched, i mean it's just you cannot with a straight face talk about those kind of priorities in synch with the value of the old testament or new testament. >> the catholic bishops, in fact, i am one of several catholics who i wrote at column chastising the catholic bishops for quickly coming out against president obama's plan for making contraception. they came out and said the ryan plan is income patible with the church's -- catholic church's teaching on social justice. paul ryan shot back and says no, no, no. i am following the gospel and yesterday, 90 something members of the faculty at georgetown university where he was set to give a speech came out and said no. no. no. no. no. you are totally off-track. where is ryan coming from on this? >> what he ought to do is go to a saint vincent food bank and he

have one in my district in norwich. you will see the crying need for making sure that snap or food stamps has to be sustained for people at this particular time. it is about all the that's left in terms of the real safety net out there. we have eliminated aftc and other programs in the past. again, anybody who operates a nonprofit food bank and again, those programs supplement food stamps. the people who run those programs and you said why we cut the food stamp benefit for 10 or 20% for families in this predictament will look at you like you have rocks in their head. they are struggling to keep up with doane assess. people are so strike that to come to these. it is somebody who is really out of touch with the reality of what's going on. i mean in connecticut, suburban connecticut, we are seeing food banks. >> connecticut is one of the

wealthiest t per capital. >> it is the wealthiest per capta. we have about 7.8% unemployment. there are some rough patches. in the urban areas you expect but you go into suburban connecticut now and food banks are now a new reality. people lining up there are folks who either were in the middle class or clinging to their homes or whatever. but these priorities in this budget those folks at georgetown, they get it. and again, i think that the network of catholic charities that really fill so many gaps out there right now i mean they are appalled by these priorities. >> yeah, the ryan budget as we know, cuts every program affecting the poor eliminates medicaid as we know it, and then medicare as we know it and gives a huge new tax break to the wealthiest of americans and more mont to the penta gone, not

let's. i want to ask congressman joe courtney our guest in studio, i want to ask you about the big issue the president was talking about yesterday. and that is the student loans unless depressed acts, the interest on student loans will double in july. >> that's right. >> it will go from 3.4% to 6.8%. back in 2011, george noler's leadership and the new majority, which was part of in that election, in 2006, we cut the rate from 6.8 to 3.4%, 77 republicans, house republicans voted for that bill. >> at that time? >> 35 senators george w. bush signed it into law. the stafford program is named after robert stafford of new york. as this clock has been winding out and the president in his state of the union challenged congress saying it's going to do you believe. you have to act.

we have 146 co-sponsors in the house. every single one was a democrat which is just kind of another statement about how far to the right this is. >> we have one -- we know what one republican said about this. here is virginia foxx, who is on the subcommittee i believe. >> that's right. she is the share woman. >> here is her comment last week. >> i have very little tolerance for people who tell me that they graduate with $200,000 of debt or even $80,000 worth of death. there is no reason. >> no reason. why aren't these people, you know, taking out loans. >> you get a chance to meet face to face with people going through nursing programs or dental programs or ph.d. engineering programs. every single one of them are accumulating debt totals. not every single one but a large

number and the only program that is stable and affordable and has some protection for students after they graduate is the stafford students loan program. it's something that was not one of those sort of scorched-earth partisan issues in the past. >> why is it this year? why would they say, the tax breaks will expire. we have to continue those but lower interest rate expires. let's let that expire and stick it to the students. >> if you look at the priorities that were in there again, the 6.8%, that's baked into his plan. thing go a step further, cut the pel grant t it's an outright grant to reduce exposure to debt financing. again, right now, we -- the democrats actually boosted pel's

basic award lovell up to roughly about $6,000 maximum award for students. they will cut that by a thousand dollars in the ryan budget plan. so on the one hand they are going to max out with the highest interest rate and the stafford loan program and also cut the grant level. this is really something that is -- if we are a nation that is serious about facing global come competitiveness challenges workforce challenges. >> having an educated work force. >> they are not only taking us into the walls of thes have and have not but to tab into human capital. >> are there any republicans willing to break. >> mitt romney collapsed like a cheap shoot. >> he doesn't know what he says from one day to the next. >> what it shows is the pickle power of this. this is an issue which touches

middle class independent swing voters in suburbs. his people are not stupid in terms of -- because if you washed him that day, he was talking about senator rubio having some little precedent. he walked away from the microphone, stopped, turned around and came back. obviously they told him, don't forget to bring this up. so they get it actually in terms of the politics of this. >> i don't understand why this would be a political issue at all. i also don't understand. i am trying to -- you know it's hard for me to think like a republican but you have got to know that those kids that have student loans are not just all democrats. >> they are not. >> their families are not just all democrats. i mean this goes across the board. right? >> it's roughly about 7 to 8 million students in a given year. they figure about 40 million have used it. i have been a chamber of commerce event where people know i have been pushing this.

guides will come up to me afterwards, who are not democrats and say the stafford program if it wasn't there, i wouldn't be able to go to college. i mean, again, this is a very powerful issue. the president is definitely onto something, and these events at north carolina, colorado iowa state, i think, are just, you know, the pretty sort of gets it in terms of covering event effects but this is a real dog whistle to the middle class. >> nice of you to say that about the media. i don't think the press gets it at all. the only thing i have heard about these events this road tour, on a very important issue is is the president is playing politic. it's going to swing states. god, you know. how can he dare go to colorado? they are ignoring the issue. the issue is 7 to 8 million american kids and the fact that these republicans in congress

would it's just crazy enter what's happening under the surface, i was talking to the financial aid office, this is a time when kids are getting acceptance letters, winding up school year. the notices are going out to kids about well unless depressed acts, your rate next year is going to be do you believe. so, you know, they are watching this like a hawk. >> don't forget the toll-free unusual. i see your calls. talking with congressman joe country courtney. i want to talk about gas prices when we come back. student loans. republicans are saying we don't care about the students as long as our billionaires get their tax cuts, screw the students? >> this is the full court press. the bill press show. live on your radio and on current t.v. our democracy here.

just refreshing to hear. no other television show does that. we're keeping it real.

the newest voice in cable news is on the new news network. >>jennifer granholm joins current tv. this former two term governor is politically direct. ♪

>> on your radio, on t.v. the bill press show new on current tv. >> 24 minutes after the hour. joe courtney from connecticut in studio with us and congressman, today, day 66? >> yeah. >> 66 days left until these loans expire. you would think that john boehner would get from front of his caucus and say, hey, guys look. we are not stupid here we are not going to put ourselves out in front of the american people as saying we are going to turn down all of these students or make these students pay more. why wouldn't he do that?

i'm sorry? >> go ahead. >> follow the money is what everybody always says. there is some special interest. there is some corporation. it's like the koch brothers or exxon or somebody giving money against it. in this case, i don't get it. who? >> again, there is a pay force that you have to come up with to make sure that the rate stays at 3.4% because 24s a program that's administered through the department of education. >> they didn't pay for the way are in iraq or afghanistan so. >> or the can a be certain bill last week. >> they paid for the tax cut. you have to pay for the student loan. >> you want to play within those boundaries, the fact is 6.2 billion, which is the offset here, you know, if you close the loopholes for oil companies and hedge funds, you would more than cover that and frankly be able to do it on a recurring basis so we talk about a 1-year fix on this. >> how about if we get rid of the bush tax cuts? god forbid.

sharon calling from kpoj. hi, sharon. >> good morning. >> i am a registered democrat. i have been listening to how charitable paul ryan is: the democrats seem to be prostate before these republicans. they are not able to function you have two branches, the executive branch and the senate. >> no. >> what do you think the problem is? >> you mean what are democrats doing about it? i guess that's actually three branches of government. thank you for the call. i guess our point is: why aren't democrats fight back more?

in the house where the majority pretty much controls every amendment of froor time we have been particularly on this issue that's looming right now using every device we can. i was on the floor for an hour. we have doing the countdown clock on a consistent basis. public interest research group, the group that organize on college campuses delivered 130,000 signature to see jack reed and myself, senator reid from rhode island about a month or so on this very issue. it appears that the senate is going to actually introduce a bill today that will again protect the lower rate. senate democrats will. the president is using obviously the bully pullpit flying across the country here this is an issue which has been below the radar screen. as you flesh it out in the public, sharon, i will tell you we win on this issue. and good for the president that he is out there in front of

young people drawing the lines that show which side the two parties are on. >> so just 30 seconds is not fair of the gas prices. nobody seems to be talking about are going down. >> they are a little bit limiting speculators' position limits. it's about time. that was in dodd frank. they have been slow but i think we are going to have a much saner mascot because of those rules. dodd frank which the democrats struggled to get done provided the legal framework for that. >> that republicans want to repeal just like obama care. a lot of good fights. you are leading the battles. appreciate it. we will be following the next 66 days. >> keep the countdown going. >> this is the bill press show.

we will not settle for easy answers. (vo) the former governor of ny eliot spitzer, joins the new news network. >>every night we will drill down on the days top stories in search of facts that inform. >> we don't stop until we get answers that are truthful, serious, and not based on simplistic answers. >>we're here because we're independent.

♪ >> this is the bill press show, live on your radio and current tv. >> here we are 33 minutes after the hour on a beautiful wednesday morning, april 25th. we are talking about all of the issues. most of the issues facing us this morning her here in our nation's capitol around country and taking calls at 866-55 press. the other thing i have to do is sign a whole pile of books mere of copies of the obama hate machine that you viewers have

ordered. one may be one you have ordered. if you haven't done so yet and you want to signa copy of "the obama hate machine" and who is behind it, like the koch brothers. tell us you want a book signed and we will get a book out to you right away signed to you or to a friend of yours or to some right-winger friend of yours that you think might need to hear the truth for a change or read the truth for a change. have you heard about this issue of the woman in long island who got fired after donating a kidney to her boss? yes. you talk about every once in a while, i follow politics and what's happening and every once in a while i see a story outside of that that drives me freakin'

crazy. iable it. this is one of them. a lot of people are talking to this story. i would love to get your take on it, too. this woman's name is debbie stephens. she works for a group of car dealerships in long island called the atlantic car group and her boss a woman by the name of jacqueline brushea. so debbie stephens works at this place and becomes friends with the boss. her boss has kidney failure and the boss, jackie brushea needs a new kidney. so debbie stephens says you know what? i will give you one of mine. she offers to donate one of her kidneys to her boss. her boss says, oh that's a great offer. of course, i will take you up on it. are you sure? >> yes.

and so her boss says okay, i will take it. the woman has the surgery. she has the surgery, donates her kidney. it turns out there is a little wrinkle here it will turns out her kidney is not a perfect match for her boss. but her boss is able to make like a switcharoo here so because she's got a kidnerly that may not be a perfect match for her, it is a perfect match for somebody else and therefore, she is able to trade debbie debbiesteins debbiesteins' kid ne. she debbie stephens' kidney goes to someone else and she goes to the top of the donor list gets a new kidney. >> debbiesteins recovering from surgery, three days after she comes back to work she is

feeling well. she goes home. she gets home. here is how she tells the story. the phone rings, and it's jackie brushea, her boss who says what are you doing? why are you home? and jackie says well -- debbie says jackie, i am not really feeling well have been problems and brushea says you can't come and go as you please. people are going to think you are getting special treatment. and she fired her. fired her. she got her kidney and turned her out and fired her. here is what debbie stephens has to say about that. >> you would think usually when someone has given the gift of life, they are filled with gratitude. >> yeah. you would think. >> is that far, peter? you would think? >> you would think yes. >> you would think. >> she gave her freakin' kidney.

she saved her life. if it wasn't exactly her kidney it was only that she had the kidney to take to the top of the list to get a kidney that fit her. she fires this woman and jackie brushea was asked by some t.v. station, what do you have to say about this? just two days ago, she said that she will always be grateful that debbie stephens gave me a kidney. i have nothing to say about her. she did a wonderful thing for her and i wish her all the best. yeah, i wish her all of the best but she fired her ass. tell me is this like the worst boss in the world? did you ever hear anything so cold? you know what this woman neededd she needed a heart transplant:

no. she needed a heart. she didn't need a transplant. she needed an implant. how do you defend that? >> i don't know. >> that's a crazy, crazy thing. >> maybe he hired a lawyer to say she was -- i think, boy, i think she's got a hell of a case that she was wrongfully fired. you wouldn't think. you wouldn't think that the only way out of this would be to have to hire a lawyer and deal with a situation like this. stell me 86656 press. ever since i read this yesterday, it's been bugging the hell out of me john is in boyce, virginia. >> my take on this is like this lady that she works for doesn't have a heart and she doesn't have a brain. >> yeah, like the wizard of oz?

>> yeah. out to get something for this lady. >> it's too bad. you have some good points there. it's too bad your cell phone is not in a good location there. she doesn't have a heart or brain. but she has a kidney, thanks to her employer employee, and, yeah, and her way of saying thanks to her employee is you are fired. >> this makes even -- she kind of makes donald trump look like a gentleman. right? makes donald trump look like a statesman compared to donald trump. maybe he should be the new host of the apprentice. lilian down in rock hill south carolina. hi lillian. >> hi, bill. >> how are you doing? what do you think of this? >> you know what, i think the lady should sue her ass and take

her damn kidney back. >> she can't do that. some sure she would like to. >> that's a rotten shame. >> that's a rotten shame. how low can you get? >> did you ever hear anything like that. >> i never heard anything. she is an ungrateful hefeer. >> anthon knee in los angeles, california. >> early on the west coast. >> how are you doing. >> good. i have to get your book, by the way. >> all right. >> that lady was wrong. gee whiz people do nice things for people and they show that they are ungrateful. >> you do a favor for somebody. i mean favors and sometimes people may not give you the thanks you think you deserve but this is over and above, actually giving one of your organs. right? >> her organ.

>> she didn't do it morefor money. she did it out of the goodness of her heart for a woman that she cared about and even though she was her boss she considered her friend. yeah, and this is the thanks she gets. >> yeah. you know what? another thing, too, i was going to call you and tell you this one. i couldn't get through. you know what? mitt romney said that the corporations are people? >> yeah. i think in a they they should have got him right there: what are you? people or a corporation? >> dorman in north carolina. >> good morning. >> yeah. and your take on this? >> well, if there is poetic justice in the world, this lady

will end up with kidnerly stones. if you've ever -- kidney stones. >> that may be what she deserves. i have never had them, but boy, i know people who have. >> i have. believe you me you cannot be anna atheist and have a kidney stone. >> hell on earth? >> one of the most painful things. >> i don't want to wish evil on anybody. if anybody deserves them jacquline brushea does. whatever her name. >> i also had another comment about mitt romney's statement. he never endorsed lowering those. he just said the effort and he knows darn well that that will not go through with this congress. and he can always wiggle out and say, i supported the effort but the effort failed because it wasn't supported. i had jump on that with all feet. >> a little off topic there. it

looked like: he agrees with president obama. he waffled on it yesterday. he is with the republicans in congress and they are against american students. we are talking now about this woman. fired. she gave her boss her kidney. her kidney, and her boss turned around and fired her. 866-55-press. full-court press here on wednesday, april 25th. ♪ my show is the most important show in the world.

>>i'm a political junkie. this show is my fix. [[vo]]this former two-term governor is ... photos

>> this is the bill press show. >> 13 minutes now before the hour. happy wednesday, april 25th the john edwards trial first full day of testimony yesterday from andrew young one-time aide, now his chief accuser. tell you the latest. first a little reminder about one way that you can help yourself out when you are -- if you are feeling a little short at the end of the month, and who is not? if you want to earn some extra income at home check out incomeathome.com. america's leading work-from-home business. doing business in over eighty kuntz trees. these people who know what they are doing. this is something you can do. no matter your age education, or experience you can earn

money using your own laptop. you need a little extra time and a little extra coaching, which you will get from the people at incomeathome.com. i urge you to do so. if you are sick of leaving paycheck to paycheck, worried about your job security or retirement and you are ready to make some extra money from home check out incomeathome.com. they are giving away a thousand bucks to somebody just for checking them out. that could be you today. it's incomeathome.com. incomeathome.com. the latest from greensboro north carolina, andrew young on the witness stand yesterday. you know what? this whole thing you want to wash your hands even after -- or use mouth wamp. it's so sleezy all the way around. the fact that john edwards cheating on his wife, didn't want his wife to find out about

this because she's got sooncancer about this rielle hunter. see if anything they can help rielle out meaning hush money. he talks to supporters gets them to write checks and young, this is young now. the government's witness tact about the fact that he goes to these people. they write their checks and the checks are coming in like written. this is for an ant eke table or whatever. checks are made out to andrew young's wife. she endorses the checks over to rielle had noter and that's how they funneled the money and the money is used. rielle hunter moves in with andrew young and his wife and then they move around to a whole string much different fancy

resorts. they end up buying a house for her in santa barbara and they are living together. it's so ugly. and meantime andrew young and his wife are skimming money off of the top of this and they build their own one and a half million dollar house in chapel hill, north carolina. and now, andrew young is, of course, the other thing he talked about yesterday is: so john edwards discovers that rielle hunter is pregnant. she tells andrew young. andrew young tells john edwards. edwards calls her, i think, we are not sure exactly what trays he used. i think it was the one that rush limbaugh used against sandra fluke and then john edwards says there is only a one in three chance that he was the father of this child. so he asks andrew young to tell

the world that he had an afford and the government's chief witness and john edwards is the big liar to joe's life that he wasn't having this affair. you have two big liars here but the problem is: is this a federal crime? >> the big question. the federal government says that these payments to this mystery violated the 2300 campaign limit on individual donationsors. the money did not go to the campaign. it did not go to john edwards' product. it went to rielle hunter. people like sheldon adelson are writing $25 million. our justice department is pursuing john edwards because two of his supporters wrote

checks which are not campaign checks for over $23,000? it doesn't make sense. this justice department refused to go after george bush for war crimes? this justice department is not pursuing the koch brothers or sheldon adelson or any of these people pouring millions and millions and millions of dollars into campaigns today? yet this justice department has time to pursue this lawsuit against john edwards based on the testimony of a corrupt lying andrew young? i am telling you, this makes no sense at all. eric holder shame on you. you ought to get your priorities straight, eric holder. thud should not be one of them. >> radio meets television, the bill press show. now on current tv:

>>this is outrageous! we've have no choice, we've lost our democracy here. ♪

♪ >> on your radio, and on current tv this is the bill press show. >> senator from oregon in studio with us at the top of the next hour here president obama is about to get on the road. he will leave aurora,comed and buckley air force base this morning where he spent the night over to cedar rapids iowa a group of students doing a round table discussion. speaking to remarks again today at 4:20 -- 1:20 p.m. on the need

for congress to ability to prevent the student loan interest on student loans from doubling on july 1st. again in the next hour the president leaves cedar rapids, iowa, arrives back at the whitehouse at 5:45 p.m. and then returns right -- turns around and heads out to a campaign fundraiser at the jefferson hotel here in washington, d.c. jay carney will conduct a gaggle as they call it, no briefing at the whitehouse today. in the next hour senator geoff neyley and molly baum from the ant look attic atlantic. lots to talk about. good reason to stay around. see you in a couple of minutes. >> this is the bill press show.

♪ lucky for me your friends showed up with this awesome bone. hey! you guys are great. and if you got your home insurance where you got your cut rate car insurance, it might not replace all this. [ electricity crackling ] [ gasping ] so get allstate. you could save money and be better protected from mayhem like me. [ dennis ] dollar for dollar, nobody protects you from mayhem like allstate.

♪ >> here we go. it is wednesday, april 25th. welcome to the full-court press. your new ms. we will be we will be tackling the big stories of the day. taking your calls and getting you involved in the conversation. pom president obama calling on congress to act before july 1st in order to prevent the interest on student loans from doubling the break in student loans expires on july 1st.

democrats are for helping out students. republicans are against it. they would rather give another tax break to their million air and billionaire friends than help america's college graduates. >> that's one thing we will talk about in the next hour. the latest update, we go to los angeles and is a good morning to jacki schechner. >> good morning, bill. the 99% power coalition is taking its message to ge today, about 2,000 protesters are expected to turn up at a shareholders' meeting detroit. think tank citizens for tax justice says ge paid what amounts to a neg ligentible tax rate and 11% in 2011. the message to corporations is clear: pay your fair share today is 1 t day the day student loan debt will pass $1 trillion. the occupy student debt campaign

plans to hold 20 events across the country with a big one in union square in new york city. the ap reports 24 people have been arrested after yesterday's occupy protest at wells fargo shareholders' meeting charges of trespassing or resisting arrest. it was mostly peaceful. shareholders voted to approve the ceo's $19.8 million compensation package. wells fargo is approaching record profits. the supreme court is taking up arizona's show me your papers immigration law today. jan brewer passed the law and the administration says the state law is in direct conflict with federal immigration policy and senator chuck schumer said if scodis decides to uphold it he will try to stop it. we will be right back after the break.

[ train whistle blows ] [ ball hitting paddle ] [ orbit girl ] don't let food hang around. yeah! [ orbit trumpet ] clean it up with orbit! [ orbit glint ] fabulous! for a good clean feeling. ♪ eat, drink, chew orbit! ♪

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♪ >> on your radio, and on current tv this is this is the bill press show. >> how about it? wednesday april 25th, mitt romney won five primaries last night. does anybody care? what that does mean? he will be the republican nominee as long as newt gingrich finally, gets out of the way. good morning, every way. welcome. it is the full court press coming to you live from our nation's capitol and our radio factory and t.v. factory right here on capitol hill. good to see you today. thankful for joining us. we are very pleased to welcome to the studio this hour great

united states senator from the state of oregon his first visit. >> i am dlooibt delighted to be here. >> we love it when the members of the senate stop by here you are right down the street. i feel reich i am a californiaan, i grew up if delaware but i have real routs i feel like a constituent of yours, a son, daughter-in-law and two in bend oregon. >> terrific. >> little guys. >> all of the micro breweries there. >> it has a tremendous set and lots of folks are coming and opening new ones. i think we are going into a couple of dozen new possibilities in the year ahead. >> i look forward to trying

those. i will bring some in. maybe we could broadcast and go from micro brewery to micro brewery. >> if you haven't been to the schutte's brewery, you should go there. >> we have been talking about the president on the road the legislation in the senate. are we going to leip up to, to prevent the student loans from going back up which they would july 1st. >> they would double from 3.4% to 6.8%. >> that's an incredible burden on young folks trying to get an education and it's symptomatic of what's going wrong with america. we are making education more and more difficult to obtain and becoming the first generation of parents whose children are getting less education than we got. >> tuition keeps going up and now, the threat is of course that the interest on the student

loans could go back up to where it was? >> yes. the sequence of is it doubling a lot of folks are going to say, i can't continue paying those sorts of prices that sort of debt burden. >> one of your colleagues sherrod brown was in studio. you, sherrod brown, jack reed from rhode island have introduced this legislation in the senate. are you going to get any republican votes? >> i think we are. really? >> i think we are going to hear a lot of feedback from folks across the nation that this is a wrong way to go. we are in this global knowledge economy. we are competing with the world. so now more than ever, we have to have a processes through which higher education is afford affordable and this certainly, when you are talking about a 200% increase doubling, that's a big impact. >> well, what i want to know is: what are you hearing from the -- has the leadership republican leadership taken a position yet, like mitch mcconnell? have you heard? >> i think what mitch mcconnell

has said is he is interested about the issue. he is concerned about the issue and wait and see. >> yeah. wait and see. >> he is in and out out there lead okay it. i will put it that way. saying let's tackle this problem together. >> i asked joe cokely from this. what could republicans say? how can they possibly defend extending the tax break to millionaires but not being willing to extend a break in student loans. >> this is a great example of the 1% dicktum for thetum for the cutting the burden for everybody. and everybody else, tough. >> the idea is as joe told us,

66 days left. so some time in the next few weeks, you have to get a vote. will there be an up or down vote? maybe a motion to proceed. i think we will win it because i do think this is going to reverb brate. >> meaning you will need 60 to proceed. >> to get onto the topic. the there will be some form of debate i think somehow we will find a way to address this issue. i think there are enough folks who recognize the impact on higher education that we will manage to bring it together. >> 866-55-press. our toll-free number if you have a question or comment for senator merckley. we save a seat for you at the table. >> that's as we are talking about these issues. take it at 86655-773. 77. you did win a procedure vote senator yesterday on the issue

of the post offices, which is a big deal? right. >> this was related to shut down rural post offices 3,000 or so across america. this is where they assumption seed and can take orders and ship product on a daily basis independent. >> they need the post office. >> absolutely. the seniors need to be able to access medicine and other folks money orders, you name it. you shut down post office t would have a devastating impact. you would see seniors move. you would see folks say, well if they take care of these basic functions, not very expensive at all and say we are going to shut

that down and 200 families are going to have to drive roundtrip on roads that are often shut down, that's economic insanity. this said if you are cutting services, if you don't have broadband, you cannot shut down the post office. >> that passed? >> that passed. it was a lot of maneuvering to get it to that stage. i think that normally reflects we would have had the votes had there been a voice vote. the post office is the had you been of the town. get the mail action talk. >> you can do things that save

costs, if you are go to co-locate, have fewer hours, but you can't shut it down. letting the post offices get into some other activities? >> absolutely. they should be able to sell fishing, hunting listens. a lot of small towns have a growth in the summertime with campers and hunters using the forest in or gone. there are a lot of services they need. so that's certainly a possibility >> delivering beer and wine? >> i hadn't heard that one but i think we hadve to think outside the box here you have beer as we were talking. there are these regulations.

>> many states allow you to ship wine through the post office. we also again 866-senator manufacturing base, one of the sponsors of our show is the machinist union, talking about bringing jobs back to this country. president obama has talked about bringing manufacturing are we making any progress. >> not enough. we have lost nearly 5 million factory jobs. if we do not make things in america, we will will not have a

middle class. everything that depends upon the retail outlets will be further hurt. this is a core issue to our definition of what america is. so we have to understand why china is eating our lunch on manufacturing and what are we going to do about it. >> part of it is i guess, there is something like making it a prior to. >> yes. we think manufacturing is going to china and they do massive sub subsidies directly for the production of goods in targeted sectors including paper, renewable energy and famous brand strategy. >> it operates a terrive against american products.

in addition, they have a strategy to bring in technology haven't technology, set up a chinese firm and all of these things are done to create jobs in china. it's free trade. no. they have the strategy for jobs. we don't. they are taking us to cleaners. >> i am reminded of the article in the new york -- the latest news, for example, apple. apple's profit nearly doubled. they just reported this yesterday. they sold 35.1 million iphones in the last quarter and 80%, 88% increase from the period a year ago. they reported net income of $11.62 billion? >> they absolutely did a massive subsidy to apple to bring them

to china. they argued if they set up the supply chain they will bring the rest of the electronics to the world. it breaks the rules of the wto. in other words, you are not allowed to subsidize goods for export. we have sat on our hands while china has basically broken the rules i remember steve jobs told obama those jobs are not coming back. we have time to take your calls. we have a lot more to cover here full-court press on wednesday. 866-55-press, if you want a ticket at the table. our toll-free number. >> on your radio, on t.v. the bill press show. new on

1q1q you've heard bill's views, now let's hear yours. politically direct means no b.s. just telling you what's going on in politics today. >>at the only on-line forum with a direct line to bill press. >>it's something i've been waiting for a long time. >>join the debate now. ♪

>> heard around country and seen on current tv, this is the bill press show. >> it's 23 minutes after the hour. geoff merkley from oregon. you are a first-term senator? >> i am. >> here in the studio with us. the senator is involved in a lot of issues we have been talking about, the student loan program and efforts on the part of several senators to save the post office by keeping some of our rural post offices and allowing the post if office to get into more lines of activity to make more revenue and get out

of some of the finance be problems they are in. a lot of people want to can questions if we can go to julie out in -- is that washington dv or washington state? >> tacoma washington. >> hi, julie. >> i was just curious. our state just went completely mail-in voting now like oregon does. >> good question. >> i was wondering if in the future this might have adverse affect on our voting, whether some of the rural communities might not have a post office to drop their dr. bavikati. >> your point is well tan and it's one of the things we are arguing in order to pass the amendment that protects our rural post offices is you've got to be able to mail your ballot. oregon and washington are leaders. i love it when dallas something i can point to where oregon has been leader and washington state has followed. it's sometimes the reverse to

washington's credit, but in this case, it has worked so well in oregon. there is no question of electronic votes accident happening, no hanging chad. it's a very secure system. all of the concerns about fraud, but you need post office to get your ballot in. your point is well taken. >> how about security? have you had any problem with it. >> we haven't. you have to sign the outside of the envelope. your security is compared to the signature record. it's like if you weren't into a vote can booth. >> or like any, in some sites like california would be absentee ballots. it's like everybody votes absents tee. >> the way this happened was that about 12 years ago, the republican party votedencouraged everyone to vote absent tee when i ran in 1988, half of the votes

were by absentee and alf at the ballot place. since it was working well, we said it will save a lot of money let's do it that way. we have voting booths but it's essentially a mail-in. >> darryl is calling from rockford illinois. situate listen to your show every sing morning with my son in the car and i am happy to call in. >> we are glad to be with you every morning. thank you so much. >> what's your question? >> i have understood that the post office is like a private corporation? right? >> the post office is in the constitution constitution, set up when we founded our country, in the constitution because it was considered such a key piece of the infrastructure to make

america work. it was crayed or reinvented as a semi autonomous organization and said you can sell enough products, enough stamps, if will you to pay your own expenses soo we will put you on the off the bucks. >> government agency but no taxpayer funds. >> theoretically. >> would it be out of bounds for them to partner out with like a staples and office max in some smaller areas which, in turn is going to boost the economy and sell things like office supplies? is that a possibility? >> that's interesting. >> in these small towns we are talking about, there is no staples, no office max. you have a few stores pretty small towns. >> the point is they could sell office supplies. >> they could. you can co-locate with a local

cafe or sto. >> that's a possibility. the overhead of many cases, you have a very small little post office, the building has long been paid for. sometimes it's a manufactured home that serves as the post office. so you are not talking about a big overhead but you could save money by reducing hours, co-locate, change other things about what the products are that they sell to make them more successful and successful and hopefully they will do those things but don't shut down the post office. if you do, you destroy the town. >> geoff americamerkley, we appreciate you taking time out for us this morning. come in and see you soon. >> great to be with you. >> the great state of oregon well represented by senator geoff merkley. >> this is the bill press show.

♪ [[vo]]cenk uygur calls out the mainstream media. >>the rest of the media seems like, "ho-hum, no big deal." we've have no choice, we've lost our democracy here. just refreshing to hear. no other television show does that. we're keeping it real.

her unique mix of comedy and politics to current tv. >> it's like a reality show, they're just turning cameras on and we just do our thing. >>politically direct to me means no b.s., the real thing, cutting through the clutter. i'm energized to start my show everyday because it's fun, because i care about what's going on in this country, rather than some sort of tired banter it is actual water cooler talk it's the way people really talk about these issues. we've always considered ourselves a comedy show. let me just say i am not ready for my close up. i think it's important to laugh. i think it will be exciting, because you can't script three hours of radio. what is going on? i can't tell you how many times right wingers call the show and say, "i don't agree with anything you say, but your show is funny as hell." the only thing that can save america now, current tv.

can i say that? ♪ >> this is full-court press, the bill press show live on your radio and on current tv. >> 33 minutes after the hour time to talk politics on the full-court press here on this wednesday, april 25th. good morning after 5 big primaries and joining us now in studio, politico writer for the atlantic, molly ball. good to have you back in the studio. >> always good to be here. >> nice to see you. so before we get into last night's primaries and where we go from here president obama had a lot of fun yesterday. i just enjoyed watching this yesterday and i want to be sure

our viewers and listeners enjoy it this morning. so he was on the jimmy fallon show last night. jimmy fallon has this slow jam feature. >> right. >>. >> where he usually gets brian williams in to read a real news story and jimmy gives it the slow blues jazz version of it. >> right. >> last night, it wasn't brian williams. it was president obama's turn. they had fun together. >> that's who it is. >> there are some in congress who disagree. they say keeping the interest rate low isn't the way to help our students. they think we should be doing everything we can to pay down the national debt. well, so long as it doesn't include taxing billionaires. but their opinion that students have to make this rate increase work. frankly, i don't buy it. ♪ >> i am um um. >> slow jam

♪ ain't buying it. we all our our legislative body in the house tossing and turning late into night. still republicans disagree. they could even filet buster. if they do, the president says they are going to feet it, buster. ♪ no. no. no. they should sign something new to do like tim tebo> w. >> good idea for the president to go on these shows? >> i think so. i think one of the big edges that obama has over mitt romney is his likability. they relate to him in a way that i don't think they do to romney. when he does stuff like this. is it gloriously presidential? no, but you don't have to be surrounded by bunting all the time. he is delivering a sharply partisan message and there is a felt met a for in the said duction of the slow jam and the

way that people campaign sort of trying to soft pedal this tough message message. >> he was going through the republicans. it wasn't like hey america. he was delivering a message, relentlessly on message. >> as we were talking with senator merkley about, the rate of loans for student loans is going to double and republicans are going to let it happen and he is saying congress has to act to keep it where it is. >> right. if we are going to use the saidduction metaphor, it's as if your boyfriend is saying, honey, you are beautiful. come out with me. it's saying that other guy is no good for you. turn around, you know, don't look at him. come to me. >> i think he is smart to go on the shows. michelle obama does and the president does well. they are good at it. right? they can relax with a jay leno or david letterman. why not?

they will reach more eyeballs as we say in the business. >> absolutely. >> a good segue into talking about the primaries last night. let's be honest. right? you were down. you were on the road in pennsylvania last week. we pretended there was a contest. pith -- >> he is only sane one of the bunch which may not be. >> you could put this on his literature. >> the rest are insane. >> relatively sane. yeah. we have known for a while but there have been some people newt gingrich is still in denial apparently. >> yes. >> rick santorum and michelle bachmann dancing around it and trying not to say the e word for

endorse, which you have to wonder why not. had a is it about them republican voters are coming around. higher here is the focus on mitt romney. >> tonight is the beginning of the end of the deployment of the obama years. it's the start of a new and better chapter that we will write together. >> and i thought it was interesting this morning in "the new york times", ed gillespie, his top aide and former republican national chair said two things about president obama. one back to what you said about how he is likeable, yeah, president obama is a nice guy and we all like him, but he is

in over his head. >> uh-huh. >> number 1. no. 2, he said president obama is not going to run on his record. but we will run. we, romney will run on his record. so this is now their new message. right? focus can on obama. nice guy but like in over his head and a terrible record. is that going to work? >> these are actually messaging points romney has been using for a while and it does seem to be the smarter way to go if you consider the alternatives. the alternative would be sort of to take the tack of some of his primary opponents or hard right and say this is a person who is despicable, satantic a communist. and that's not something that the mainstream of americans are going to buy. right. >> we will talk about that. it's called "the obama hate machine." "there are people out there who hate president obama, but i think romney correctly calculates that they will vote for him no matter what. the people he needs to appeal to are the broad middle of people who may have doubts about obama'

performance even if they, you know, see him on the late night shows and think that's the guy i would like to have a beer with they are just not sure if they want to reelect him. >> that's who romney is going for. again, that seems like a smarter strategy. >> what it doesn't say is what mitt romney would do or who mitt romney is. it seems to be a strategy. i agree with you. it's a better strategy than the obama hate machine, but it's like okay. you may not need to know much about me but i am not barack obama. >> he has to make this a referendum. he needs to make it a choice rather than a referendum if he is going to a chance. >> that's the case when you have an incumbent president. but if you look at the way the economy is going there are some signs it's moving in the right direction, but if you look at the polls of how people feel about it doe they feel like

things are on the right track, those numbers are dismal. romney is tapping into that and saying things could be better. you are right. it's not a policy-based argument. flow sheet a resume based argument. he is saying i have been in business. i know how to make money. i know how to turn the scamp around. trotmy to do it. >> you have a chair at the table. you want to chon us, our listeners, viewers 866-55 press. >> that's how we do it. we are talking politics and the general election campaign which starts as of today if it hasn't already started but with everything else out of the way 4 three primaries behind united states, mitt romney is going to be the romney. we know that. they are rolling out their new general election strategy. is the romney campaign and to a certain extent expects find racking in the romney message he will say president obama has -- the economy is' mess because president obama doesn't know anything about the economy.

i do. i am a businessman. you need me to fix it. he still, miltt romney hasn't told us what he would do to create jobs, what he would do. we don't really know. will he ever have to tell us or just run on, at least i am not that guy. >> a binges of both. right? to be completely cynical, it's kind of smart of him politically to keep it as vague as possible so he can't be attacked as. >> he can get away with it. >> he is getting criticisms, not just from the last there was an article, i believe, in "the wall street journal" over the weekend talking about how trying to put together number crunching on his budget plan so it balances way he said it would. this is going to be finding a lot of tough cuts to government. so i do think he feels some pressure to be more specific in

ms. proposals. it is also the case that elections are not decided to white papers and that kind of thing, so all of the pundits in the world doesn't complain this or that doesn't add up as the core emotional argument. are you better off? could we be doing better? do you trust me? >> molly balls from the atlantic, our guest in studio. we are talking politics 2012. we now know for sure it's going to be mitt romney versus barack alabama obama. they have laid our their campaigns. our toll-free number and women continue our k and your calls when we come back. >> heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the bill press show. that's why time warner cable developed connect a million minds. to introduce kids in our communities to the opportunities that inspire them to develop these important skills. how can my car go faster?

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the newest voice in cable news is on the new news network. >>jennifer granholm joins current tv. this former two term governor is politically direct.

>> radio ♪ >> radio meets television the bill press show on now on current of it. >> thirteen minutes before the top of the hour. molly ball in studio with us. talking 2012 politics. a new trend today. as romney says, it's a new beginning. right? reporters are going to have to focus on no side shows anymore? >> yeah. although there will always be silly season caterpillars and working moms and various distractions to talk about. it's an argument between romney

now. it's been that way awhile. with this other side show technically going on, we had to pay attention, it's not there. >> we should also point out yesterday president obama racked up the 20 -- 2778 delegates he needs. >> so much suspense rita is calling from 40 immediate. >> hi. >> good morning. >>fort meade. >> hi. >> good morning. >> >>. >> i think the president can actually have a winnable argument with mitt romney on workers if we actually force the comparison of record. there is a number of things out there. tilled need an explanation as to why if your marquis is that you are such a great businessman you had to take a $10 million government bail-out to save bain capital. i would ask the question of why massachusetts went from 37 to 47

in job creation. i want wanted to know why those records from his governmentship were destroyed. i think if we push the issue of apples to apples and comparing records, it's a winnable argument for the president. >> first of all, it proves our callers are smarter than any of the rest of us. rita has it down. >> she has the talking points. >> president obama's record i think the obama campaigns believes with what rita is saying, that romney has a record that has not been fully exposed, especially when it comes to bane and his governorship in massachusetts, these have not been closely examined never by a general electorate and by a general election campaign.

you think about the weak challengers romney faced, none of them had a capable organization that could exploit some of these weaknesses. so we are going to be hearing a lot from the obama campaign and a lot of examination to go back over romney's record and explain to people what it was that he did in his business career and in his government career to try to hash that out. >> you are a reporter. i am a commentator so i will say what you can't which is i believe on the other side of that equation that if you look at what president obama has been able to accomplish in the past three and a half years despite having zero cooperation from republicans in congress, he has racked up a pretty good record. health care, you may not totally like the bill. afghanistan, iraq, osama bin laden, muammar gadaffi, they

could make a case, we accomplished a lot, too. you have both sides. suzi is calling. i don't want to force you. suzi in berk ley, california. >> this is suzi. i do listen to you every morning. >> god bless you. thank you. >> the basic thing is, let him run on his record. his job was to destroy companies and throw people out of work. that was his business. that is what obama should emphasize on top of a heavy emphasis on the time that every time obama put forward a pro program, republicans said we are not going for it. he has to run a campaign with the groingsal looeksz. >> it's not just the white house but it's every seat in the houseelections. >> it's not just the white house but it's every seat in the housecongressal

elections. >> it's not just the white house but it's every seat in the house house? >> 33 in the senate. but suzi is saying examine, the post point you just made the image of the republican party as a whole is going to play a role in this. to what extent is romney going to want to distance himself from a republican party it that to a lot of people seems to have gone far to the right with the tea party influence and the republicans in the house who are not popular we have obama running guessagainst congress. nobody likes congress. how is romney going to thread the needle and position himself with respect to his party. we have the supreme court hearing the immigration case. >> that's a tough one for the republicans. >> today. >> starting today.

>> in 2004, george w. bush distanced himself from the republicans in congress saying you can't balance the budgets on the backs of the poor. >> exactly. don't identify me. mitt romney hasn't done that. >> we talked about the ryan budget and romney's embrace of it. it will be easy to see how you backs off that or tempers that or tries to get away from it given how much the democrats are making that a messaging point about exactly that saying this is what the republican party stands for and it's devastating and horrible and too far. >> it's mav-leous. >> that's what he said about it. we will see if he sticks to it. >> mavleous. >> molly ball, good to see i. thank you for coming in her

twitter handle is @molly esque, or also at the atlantic.com. i will be back with the last word, parting shot. >> this is the bill press show. ♪

it's completely inappropriate

for television. ♪ >> the parting shot with bill press. this is the bill press show. >> well, you know, i don't do a regular worst person in the world segment, but if i did, that person would have to be today, jacqueline brushea, ceo of long island motor group she was waiting for a new kidney

when deborah stephens one of our employees volunteered to donate hers. stephens donated her kidney. while it turned out not to be a good match for her boss brushea was able to use it to bounce to the top of the list by trading her donated kidney for another one. what was her way of saying thank you to debbie stephens? she fired her. yeah. when stephens was having troubles recovering from her surgery, went home from work brushea called her and chewed her out and fired her on the spot. sounds to me what jack quack /* jacqueline really needed was a heart trans plant. brad woodhouse and eric alteman in studio with us tomorrow. you better be there. have a good one. see you tomorrow. >> this is the bill press show. ♪