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tv   Full Court Press  Current  May 16, 2012 3:00am-6:00am PDT

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♪ ♪ >> hello, everybody. this is wednesday, may 16th. good to see you today. welcome to the full-court press, the progressive morning show only one on cable television, anywhere in this country. great to see you today. thank you so, so much for joining us. we have a lot to talk about, news happening in our nation's capitol, around the country and around the globe. we will bring you up to date on what's happening and take your calls at 866-55-press.
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what do you know? it's the end of the world as we know it. virgin airways saying it will allow the use of cell phones on certain flights, flights between the east coast and london, oh my god. can you imagine anything worse than listening to some inane vac vacuous idiot behind you? i would rather swim to london. >> that's one the topics we will talk about today. first, we get up to date on the latest, today's current tv news update in los angeles from jacki schechner. >> hi, bill. i would be swimming alongside you. good morning, everyone. the president is going to continue to run down his 5-point to do list for congress. he will visit a small business in the d.c. area and hold a round table and talk about proposed legislation that would give a 10% income tax credit to small business that create jobs or increase wages this year. afterwards he will meet with congressional leadership, and
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have lunch with mitch mcconnell, nancy pelosi and john boehner. >> the house financial subcommittee will take up the issue of how to regulate the biggest of banks. the hearing has been scheduled before the big j.p. morgan chase. it should be the topic of discussion. protesters with the 99 spring turned out at the shareholders meeting yesterday. congressional democrats say the voc vokel rule would have prevented the j.p. morgan loss but the cpo, jay me dimon say the rule would not have applied in this instance. the conversation turns to which banks are system deli-important enough to need the strictest of regulations. the house is scheduled to vote on the g.o.p. version of a domestic violence act. the president says he will veto because it doesn't do enough to protect i willllegal immigrants, native americans and gay women from domestic violence and
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sexual assault. the senate has backed a bi-partisan version of the bill. we will be right back with more bill press and ryan grim from the huffington post after the break.
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and it's steroid-free. spiriva does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. tell your doctor if you have kidney problems glaucoma, trouble urinating, or an enlarged prostate. these may worsen with spiriva. discuss all medicines you take, even eye drops. stop taking spiriva and seek immediate medical help if your breathing suddenly worsens your throat or tongue swells you get hives, vision changes or eye pain, or problems passing urine. other side effects include dry mouth and constipation. nothing can reverse copd. spiriva helps me breathe better. does breathing with copd weigh you down? ask your doctor if spiriva can help. 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
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answers that are truthful, serious, and not based on simplistic answers. >>we're here because we're independent. ♪ >> broadcasting across the nation, on your radio and on current tv, this is the bill press show. >> john boehner says let's have another fight over the debt ceiling. that worked so well for him the last time. didn't it? what do you say? hello, everybody. it is wednesday, hump day, may 16th here on the full court press. welcome. welcome. good to see you today. good to have you on board as we take off from our nation's capitol here on capitol hill.
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and head off across the country into every corner of this great land will all of the big stories from the day. here from our nation's capitol around the country and around the globe, john boehner yesterday laying down the gauntlet saying the debt ceiling may be up before the end of the year. just like they did last year we are not going to raise the debt ceiling unless we get massive, massive, massive new spending cuts. we will see how -- we will see how that works out. president obama welcoming the la galaxy to the white house praising american soccer and saying particularly for the galaxy, it has become big-time and the players are very, very very well known. so, so much to talk about today and we have got a lot of good help to do. so we will tell you all about that. but first, the help of our team press here peter okay burn and dan henning. >> hey there. >> salute.
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salute. from the video department cyprian boulding running our massive video team. our resident nerd. >> a little t-shirt. >> in charge of those 100 employees. >> that's right. >> then we have the other one 00 who are answering calls. >> the empire. >> speaking of calls, we will be happy to take your calls. we welcome your calls. we invite your calls. you are part of the program. give us one at 866-55-press. take your seat at the table. 866-55-77377. peter, where would we be without -- i know you are a south carolynian native. where would we be without the colorful politics? nikki haley, the new governor, has been governor for a year and a half, two years? >> about two years. >> mark sanford went hiking on the apalachian trail. >> that's right. >> she wasn't necessarily the favorite even among republicans
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in south carolina. one state senator in particular, state senator jake knots affection atly known as jakey. he was caught on the a video back during campaign a couple of years ago, but the video didn't surface until yesterday. so get this. jakey, republican, fellow republican, he is in a bar with a big beer in front of him saying why we can't have nikki haley. >> sellcelebrity that he most resembles, i would say boss hog. he is a big dude big good ol' boy. >> jakey what do you think? >> finding out her daddy wears a turban around lexington and her mommy wears a ruby on her head and she is a sheik trying to be a methodist. and it gets to greenville about the bob jones university people they are not going to like that. with pat robinson sending out
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that e-mail today, people need to look at that. we got a raghead in washington. we don't need a raghead in the state house. >> oh, my god. >> that's horrible. >> what a freakin' biggot. we've got a raghead in washington. we don't need no rabhead. >> her mommy got a ruby between her head and she is running around like a shiek. >> she is a shiek. >> he is insane. >> totally. >> he is totally insane. >> how did he get elected? >> seriously, honestly, you think about how we stit are fighting for gay marriage in this country and you wonder who in the world opposes gay marriage? here you go. people think like that and they live in south carolina. >> are you kidding? opposing gay marriage? imagine what he opposes. right? >> absolutely. mother got a ruby between her head. there you go.
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>> well, i would say i hate to destroy illusion of hope but i don't think president obama should count on his vote. >> keep hope alive. >> i don't think the magic reaches quite that far. >> maybe not. >> our team includes senator tom harkin from iowa in studio. congressman john sarbanes from maryland in studio. congressman steve israel in studio and lyn sweet covers the white house for the chicago sun times also in studio as a friend of bill. whoa. welcome to the party but first this is the full court press. >> other head likes making news a star in holiday wants help from the president on combatting the paparazzi after snapping at
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a photographer at her child's school for getting too close, haley berry telling extra t.v. while many may call it a small and insignificant issue she wants to call president obama and ask him for help in getting the children of celebrities protected especially at school. what the paparazzi does every day is wrong, wrong, wrong. >> the cigarette service, we should have secret service protection for every child of every celebrity. they are making millions of dollars. let them pay for it. >> he is going to balance the budget and make sure her child doesn't get a picture taken of it. >> as you mentioned,pom follow taking some jazz at david beckham, of the soccer team visited. obama made fun of the star for his recent underwear ad campaign and noting his age said half his teammates could be his children. >> funny. >> celebrity sheet mario batali
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is trying to live in someone else's shoes. they are attempting to live on a food stamp budget of $31 a week breaks down to $1.48 a meal per person. he said on the show he learned very quickly how challenging it is but it does make him thing more about the individual ingredients for each meal and wants to do this challenge with his family a few times a year and encourages others to do so. >> you couldn't eat at his restaurant on food stamps. >> absolutely right. >> remember jens sharowski, congresswoman from chicago she was telling us how tough it was. i am glad others are doing it. i am not going to. >> just let me know how it goes. >> exactly. >> thank you dan. it may not be the most important issue of the day but it's important to me because i fly a lot. and i hate haiti hate what
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virgin atlantic anow is ed. not virgin america yet, but it's only a matter of time. virgin atlantic sxwrousing they have introduced cell phone service on flights between new york and london. it is somewhat limited. you can't be on your phone during takeoff and landing. you can't be on your phone -- get this -- within 250 miles of the united states. why? who knows. maybe interfere with navigation or whatever at that point, but otherwise, for that, you know, six and a half seven, eight hour flight between the east coast and the atlantic you are going to be listening to somebody in back of you or alongside of you with some inane, stupid unnecessary, frivolous -- what else can i
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say? -- conversation. i hate it. i hate it. i hate it. can you imagine anything worse? i mean you hear people on their cell phones all the time. you hear them on buses. i hear them on the metro and they are just -- it's nonsense you hear, particularly i have to say from business people, you know, like also at the airports in the waiting rooms. right? where you think that they are the most important people on the planet or you hear them before the plane takes off. the most important people on the planet, trying to make some deal or somebody calls and says give me so-and-so. now give me so-and-so. now give me so-and-so. it just drives me crazy. and i can't imagine anything worse than being blocked into that aluminum cylinder flying at 35,000 feet and you can't escape, and you've got to listen to that crap. here is what i want to know. if we don't have to thank god
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we don't have to breathe their smoke any more. right? from cigarettes. why should we have to breathe their banter and their chatter and their mindless talk? i mean that's -- that to me is assonsive as having to breathe their smoke, you know, and it may be it doesn't give you lung cancer but rots your brain in other ways. >> i have to step in here for a second because for those of you that think that this is some sort of act that you really -- i have been in restaurants with you where there will be somebody in the restaurant who pulls out a cell phone and starts talking. they might as well -- i mean, they might as well, you know be performing some sort of ritual killing in the middle of the restaurant. you freak out. >> i do. i totally freak out. i will never use my ofc in a restaurant. if i keep it on -- i usually turn it off if it rings i will get up. it's something i have to do.
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you know there are sometimes when i get a call coming in from an editor or something i have to take during a meal. when i see it, i will get up and walk out of the restaurant. i think that's the only thing to do. >> i can back that claim up. right? >> absolutely. >> something else. i will tell you right now, if anybody ever is having a meal with me at a restaurant and their phone goes off and they answer their phone, i will tell them to put their freakin' phone away. absolutely. i will not hesitate to do it. can you imagine? so passenger's response was mixed but mostly negative. a little medley of passengers somebody caught up with. probably at jfk. >> it would definitely throw me off if i have somebody just yelling, especially with people ignorant, talking real loud. >> the flight i am going on now is 13 hours. i wouldn't want someone talking all night. >> to have someone talking with all of the tongue lashing.
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>> at first, i don't know why, but they are only going to allow six passengers at a time to use their phone and then they are going to expand, they say, up to more -- they will expand to more passengers being able to do so event but starting off with six on flights now. only between new york and london. i have got to tell you it's only a matter of time. the others, virgin atlantic will soon change it to virgin america will make it. i just booked a flight from san francisco to washington. one of my choices was virgin america. am i glad. united might be the best airline but they don't allow cell phones. to my knowledge, nobody else. no, there is one saudi arabian plane, i think that allows it on flights to saudi arabia. but now virgin atlantic.
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>> this is the first one in america you can do it. >> 866-55-press, tell me what you think about. this i can't think of anything worse. 866-5577377. i mean, you know, the other question i would ask you: vefr heard -- have you ever overheard one cell phone conversation anywhere? restaurant restaurant, on the street, in a plane plane, on a train that was worthwhile, that was a necessary call? you can't tell me. if you can go from here to california or whatever here to chicago, here to new orleans without smoking, damn it, you can go without making a cell phone call. don't tell me you can't. i don't want to sit alongside of you or in front of you or in back of you. get off of the damn plane. just don't go. take the drive. you can smoke and talk on your phone. >> drive to go england might be sort of tough.
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>> row. row. 866-55-press. this is horrible. >> this is the full court press. the bill press show, live on your radio and on current tv. with special guests: >> i'm lance armstrong. if somebody put my back into a corner, i'm coming out swinging.
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we have a big, big hour and the i.q. will go way up. how are you ever going to solve the problem if you don't look at all of the pieces? >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >>you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. >>sharp tongue, quick whit and above all, politically direct.
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>>you just think there is no low they won't go to. oh, no. if al gore's watching today... >> ♪ >> heard around the country, seen on current tv this is the bill press show. >> 24 minutes after the hour. happy wednesday. hey, if you don't have a copy of my latest book "the obama hate machine," i want to remind you you can pick it up at your local bookstore on amazon.com but if
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you want a copy adescribed to you or a friend of yours or birthday present, go to our website, billpressshow.com. i signed a whole pile of them yesterday. maybe one of them is going out to you. if not get yours for the same price signed and mailed and shipped to you same price you can by the book for in your local bookstore. we are talking about this announcement. my version atlantic no longer are you going to have the peace of being able to fly without listening to somebody else's telling their life story on their cell phone. not on vehiclein atlantic. de dee is calling from atlantic georgia. hello, dee. >> yes. >> there you go. >> i am so totally outraged by that. my suggestion would be to encourage any passenger that's sitting in the area with the lamp that wants to talk on the phone: why don't we all join together and start singing 99
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bottles of beer on the wall. if we happen to get through that song, we can move on to "i am henry, the viii i am i am. ". >> i would hope passengers would object to that. it is offensive to force your conversation on everybody else sitting around you. i just hate it. i think it's so rulede. >> it absolutely s i don't know what they were thinking. >> maybe the other thing is passengers could all get up and demand another seat. you know of course. >> there is a thought. either that or find a screaming baby on the plane and pay the mother to switch seats with you. >> dee you are on to something here. i would hope passengers would find a way to fight back and not just take it. i know i would.
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i take the train a lot to new york. on the train they have something called the quiet car. >> that's where i always go. the quiet car, no cell phones allowed and if some idiot takes a call or make a call on the quiet car, peter, you will not be surprised, the conductor doesn't have to. the conductor is not always in the car. the conductor doesn't have to come in and police the car. guess who gets up and tells them to get out of the car. >> you. >> captain america. will calling from daytona beach, florida. hello will. >> hello. >> what's going on? >> not much. i woke up to your program and i said, boy, i could maybe be on the radio ortive t.v. >> you are on both, will. you are famous. >> wonderful. i love current tv. >> thank you. >> might give way to some new technology to have like a cloaking device or call it the rural vacuum to allow people to talk and not be heard by anyone
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else. some kind of new electronic device like from the klingons. >> yeah. >> that would be great will, if we ever get there. but i don't know. i never heard of such a thing. >> it's right. you never heard of it. the verbal vacuum. >> what you need, will is maybe like some kind of, you know like a plastic hood. right? >> a cone of silence. >> a cone of silence. >> that's it. thank you. you wake up to that person and you put them inside this little cone of silence. maybe that would. i tell you, will, you go out in your garage and tinker with that. if you come up with something, let us know. or better yet, let virgin atlantic know. i would hope -- here is what i would hope. i would hope that the protests of people and people cancelling their flights on virgin atlantic because of this would convince the airlines to change its mind. this is going itn the wrong
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direction. >> this is the bill press show. ♪ lieutenant governor of california, and former mayor of san francisco is coming to current tv. >>every night on cable news networks everyone's focusing on what's wrong. i want this show to move past that. i love creative people, and with all the vexing problems we have we need creative thinking. >>(narrator) with interviews with notables from silicon valley, hollywood, and beyond. >>at the end of the day this show's simple. it's about ideas. ideas are the best politics. ideas can bring us together. >>(narrator) the gavin newsom show. premiers friday at 11 eastern/ 8 pacific. only on current tv. tequila lime tacos. [ man ] delicious! [ male announcer ] it's festival of shrimp! for $12.99 try any two shrimp creations like new barbeque glazed shrimp. offer ends soon. we're servers at red lobster. and we sea food differently.
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we are the trail-blazers, the truth seekers. >>every night we will drill down on the day's top stories in search of facts that inform. >>we are the rule breakers. >>be afraid, be very afraid. >>the investigators. >>our system is fundamentally broken. in a time that we're supposed to be worried to death about defecits, they're considering lowering corporate taxes. (vo) we are independent. >>a new scientific study shows conservatives hold science in contempt. that's a shocker. >>we are fearless. >> you who are pragmatic, you who are progressive, you who are impatient, uncle sam needs you. >> my job is to keep it real. the good and the bad. (vo) and we don't do talking points. >>we will have a continuous conversation. >>the young turks with cenk uygur at 7. >>i can see both side of this issue. >>viewpoint with eliot spitzer at 8. >>transparency is good in
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government. the more we know the better. >>the war room with jennifer granholm at 9. >>i think that's smart politics. (vo) and there's only one place you'll find us: >> this is the bill press show live on your radio and current tv. >> what do you say? 33 minutes after the hour here on wednesday may 16th. it is the full court press coming to you live coast to coast from our combination of radio, book and t.v. factory here on capitol hill. lots going on capitol hill today. you want to keep up with it all. check out huffington post. huffington post.com and the washington bureau chief of huffington post, ryan grimm
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joining us on the news line. ryan, early good wednesday morning. how are you? >> good morning, bi. >> good to talk to you. i always enjoy your huff post hill. thank you for putting that out. >> excellent. >> so good items yesterday i wanted to ask you about. first of all, i understand so mitt romney picked up the big endorsement of the former president, george w. bush yesterday. tell us about that. did they have a great big press kong french and a rally and everything to announce that? >> not that it was, i guess, a huge surprise that he is getting behind mitt romney, but you know, as we put it, basically, it amounted to, you know, the guy was with the hair the nerdy guy for him. >> that's basically it. and that's probably all mitt romney is going to get publically from bush.
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you know, from -- now, i wasn't there, but as i recall herbert hoover kept showing up at republican conventions for, you know, convention after convention. and just tanking these republican candidates over the decades after he left. bush has kind of taken the complete opposite approach. i imagine that democrats wish he would start following hoover's playbook. >> yeah. >> i don't think he will -- i don't know if he will show up at the convention. i wouldn't be surprised at all. >> you know what? i wouldn't be surprised either. you know, yesterday, he was in town here in washington for some event that he had sponsored with his foundation and so he was leaving the event, getting in the elevator right, when a reporter hollers out: who do you support for president, and as the doors were closing, "i am with romney."
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it was hardly a ringing endorsement to say the least. right? >> that probably is the end of t actually, probably everybody's -- everybody on both sides of that equation is happy with that. >> the thing i found most exciting is that you reported yesterday, is that there is a new book coming out, the dog story. shamus will not accident happen from mitt romney's life. right? and we have talked to the guys that have that website. what is it? dogs against romney. >> dogs against romney yeah. new book coming out, dog on the roof, on the road with mitt and the mutt. >> yeah. this story won't go away. and appropriately not. it's just an absolutely astounding story. he was talking to somebody this weekend about it as we were actually driving. and i said to them can you imagine if you had a dog on the roof right now.
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>> yeah. >> in a moving car. >> for 12 hours. >> for 12 hours, and then the dog got so scared it scrapped all over the -- crapped all over the roof and his solution was to hose it down and keep driving. >> unbelievable. >> it's just i mean, there are no words for it. you know they have even done polling on it and as you can imagine, people are kind of moved by it. like, that is a strange, strange and mean thing to do. >> we know from what ann romney said because she said he only got sick because that time he ate the turkey when he shouldn't have off of the kitchen table or the kitchen counter that they had done this more than once. she said that was the only time he got sick. >> i know. >> otherwise, he really loved it. on a more serious note, so john boehner yesterday threatening, saying, you know, that the debt ceiling fight that we had last year went so well for members of
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congress, republicans got so much, you know, support out of saying, we won't raise the debt ceiling unless you/domestic programs, we are going to do it all over again this year. >> he whipped out the exact same arbitrary number that he came up with last time. >> uh-huh. >> last time, he said, we are going to raise the -- for every dollar we raise the debt ceiling, we are going to cut $1 in spending. and i mean there was no -- there was no, you know, basis in any kind of reason for that. >> that's just -- that's just kind of numbers that you are pulling out. so he said that they are going to do that again. and they think they have a real leverage point here now, tim geithner who was, you know, at this pete peterson fest yesterday quickly responded to him and said, well action look. our numbers show that the debt ceiling is not going to instantly coincide with the tax rate increase. in other words, the bush tax cuts expire january 1st.
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>> right. >> it will be sometime in early 2013 that you hit the debt ceiling. so what obtain is proposing basically is if democrats let the bush tax cuts expire that a month or two later, when the debt ceiling hits they will default out of spite because there won't be leverage any more. >> right. >> the taxes will already be up. so it will just be kind of a payback. >> the question is whether, you know, whether they learn anything. you know what i mean? i mean jay carney yesterday at the whitehouse briefing made this point. he said the people who are suggesting this, that last year the congressional approval ratings went down to 12%. he said maybe they are trying to prove they can get it down to zero. you know. >> i think that, you know, there are different incentives for different members of congress. and i think the lesson that some tea party tea party came from is
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that they were too pliant. you know they were too accommodating. >> that's hard to fathom, but i think that that is how some of them feel. looking back i think boehner probably wishes that he would have given in to a government shutdown early on when there was that first stalemate. you know, shut the government down, the parks close for a few days. you know the market might tank for a day or two and then you come to a deal and things go back to where they were. >> right. he should have talked to newt gingrich about that. that worked so well for newt gingrich when he was speaker, too. right? >> i think that's why he didn't do it because it doesn't make any sense. but because of tea party didn't get their piece of flesh then then they wanted it down the road when it came to the debt ceiling fight, which boehner knows because he goes to new york a lot on and talks to the people that run the town. he knows you can't do that
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because it tanks the entire global economy. and so he didn't give them that. and so now here they are. they want something. and the only thing left is a government shutdown in october, when the budget do you want to do that? >> i was going to say, do they happen to know that this is an election year, you know, and they are playing these games? one other thing i want to mental before i let you go. you mentioned tea party. i was really stunned to read in your piece last night that the tea party freshmen, the guys who say too much government spending, you know, too much government in our lives, that the 87 tea party freshmen republican freshmen, as you reported sent 25.6 million pieces of unsolicited mail last year alone and it cost us taxpayers about $10 million. can anybody say hypocrite? >> yeah.
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and the top 10, you know, most prelivic junk mail senders, eight were republican freshmen. >> tea party freshmen. >> they love -- they got in. they got in office and like whoa, free mail. they have just been blasting it out. >> unbelieve a.m. i am so glad you reported it. great work. check it out. hustington post.com. ryan grim is the washington bureau chief. thank you for joining us, ripe. >> thanks, bill. >> see you around the track. ryan grim. let's go back. geoff is calling from lexington, south carolina. what do you say, geoff? good morning. >> how are you, bill? >> all right. good. >> i wanted to call you on your piece about jakey and nikki. it's beautiful down here. football is great. the town of columbia is great. but -- >> by the way, charleston is one of my favorite cities on the planet. >> yeah. >> do you know this jakey guy?
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>> everybody knows jakey down here. you know south carolina is kind of like the whoopi cushion of the nation when it comes to politics a democrat or a liberal doesn't stand a chance. when you go to vote, you feel like you have to watch your back because everybody down here is republican and all of the silly things we have seen by jim deminutede demint jackie knots, we have been laughing about him for four years. he truly is a good ol' boy of the world. >> i am glad we discovered him.
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you will hear that. i guess lindsey graham is probably considered a liberal. >> the only problem i have down here is -- and it shows you where we have to change our politics as far as ramping things up. i have gotten in touch with the democratic office here two or three times because i am retired and i have tried to volunteer to try to help roll out the vote. but i have gotten no response from them whatsoever. it's really shocking. >> i tell you what geoff. i really appreciate the call. what you ought to try to do, get in touch with her. she is great. carol fowler. >> carol fowler. >> carol fowler was the -- she is no longer -- she may still be. is she still the chair 12. >> i don't believe so, no. >> she was the chair just recently of the south carolina democratic party. she is a good good great person, great organizationer. look up her. her husband, don teaches at the
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university. they will help you out. they will get you involved. they are great people. ♪ >> this is the bill press show. ♪ >>it's something i've been waiting for a long time. >>join the debate 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.
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we have a big, big hour and the i.q. will go way up. how are you ever going to solve the problem if you don't look at all of the pieces? >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >>you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. >>sharp tongue, quick whit and above all, politically direct. >>you just think there is no low they won't go to.
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oh, no. if al gore's watching today... ♪♪ >> >> listen and watch the bill press show on your favorite radio station and now on current tv. this is the bill press show. welcome to the spin room. >> yeah, you bet. 12 minutes before the top of the hour, before we get back to your calls and to news of the day. jumping into the spin room it was sort of the big showdown yesterday. jamie dimon, ceo of j.p. morgan chase. just happens they had the big shareholders' meeting yesterday.
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hot on the heels of the news that because of the recklessness of jamie dimon and some of his investment team they had hedged their bets on an investment and blown $2,000,000,000 pulled think he would have been run out of town on a rail. but no the investors, the share holders basically approved his plan. they approved his new compensation package and jamie dimon, the most that he would say was, you know what? we are not against government regulation. no. we want some regulation. >> we supported sent, 80% of dodd-frank derivatives to clearing houses and destroying oversight committee. we want better stronger smarter regulation based upon factual
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analysis. >> this guy is such a phoney. he has conned even the president of the united states. "we are good guys. we approve to 70 or 80% of what dodd frank wants." the 30% they don't want is the 30% that would actually do something and would prevent the kind of trade they just engaged in. and, number 2, while he says that, they have sent i think i read lobbyists to oppose implementation of dodd frank which is why two years after it passed, we still don't have those rules and regulations in place because jamie dimon's
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lobbyists have held them off and given money to mitt romney and others who say they are going to repeal dodd frank. jamie dimon speaking out of both sides of his mouth. i want to bring you up to date on a couple of other things. fred hawkberg, the head of -- president of the x mbank, very very important institution here which was up for renewal. house republicans tried to block it. they failed to do so. yesterday, the senate voted overwhelmingly, 78 to 20 to continue the charter of the x mbank no taxpayer dollars involved but it does a great amount of good helping banks participate in the global economy, x mbank got another
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five years catholic bishops, timothy doll edges of new york says if congress does not take away access to birth control, take that provision away from president obama's affordable care act, which is now the law of the land we know they opposed that. president obama said the catholic instittexts didn't have to pay for birth control room if some of their employees decided to use it. catholic bishops wouldn't even accept that compromise. the latest is that if congress does not overturn the affordable care able, catholic bishops say they are going to sue the obama administration? don't you think the catholic bishops have more important things to do than to deny every woman in america access to birth
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control. is this the number 1 priority for the catholic church? don't they recognize since 1965, all of their efforts positive persuade women that it is sinful, immoral, against the teaching of the church to use birth control have totally, totally failed, that 98% of catholic women still use birth control? so bishops you have failed and you are going to fail in your lawsuit against president obama. change your policy. >> that's that's what you ought to do. all right. we will be back we will be and take a look at some of your comments by e-mail facebook and twitter. what do you say? >> on your radio and on current tv, this is the bill press show.
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get answers that are truthful, serious and not based on simplistic answers. ♪ >> this is the bill press show. >> it's 26 minutes after the hour, congressman steve israel from new york, head of the dccc here in studio with us, "us" being me bill press and lynn
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sweet. good to have you in, lynn could we say a quick hello? you wanted to talk to some of your colleagues, friends from chicago? say a quick hello to kathleen from chicago? hi, kathleen. >> hi. how are you doing? >> good. what's up. >> okay. all i want to say about mit romney is: the president is only making him be accountable for his resume. he goes around claiming that in bain capitol he created so many jobs the president is not going to let him get away with thatly. mitt romney is in the big league now. he is taking credit for bringing the cars back. take credit for bain capital. he is playing with the big guns now. you all have a good day. >> absolutely. i mean i think bain and his record at bain is a legitimate issue. people are selective. he doesn't want to talk that much about being governor of massachusetts. he wants to talk more about bain. >> yeah. >> he talks all the time about
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bane. i am a businessman. >> one other quick points. >> i did an interview with former white house chief of staff bill daily a few weeks ago, who has been in the corporate sect on-the-job private business banking and the white house and he on the record, was pretty vocal in saying it's a different skill set. running the government of the united states is not the same think as running a business. you don't have just a board of directors. you have to deal with congress. >> yeah. >> it is a different -- it's not the sake. it is a different skill set, different rules, and it is not a given that you are a good corporate executive that it absolutely transfers over. >> remember george w. bush said, also: i am a businessman right? so i know how to run the government. we saw how well that worked out. lynn sweet again with us. your called welcome at 86655 press.
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we will talk politics with steve israel next. >> this is the bill press show. ♪ it's go time. >>every weeknight cenk uygur calls out the mainstream media. >>the guys in the middle class the guys in the lower end got screwed again. >>i think you know which one we're talking about. the overwhelming majority of the country says"tax the rich, don't go to war." >>just wanted to clarify that.
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♪ >> this is the full court press, the bill press show, live on your radio and on current tv. >> it's tree 3 minutes after the hour now on wednesday, may 16th. good to see you whether you are listening on your local progressive talk radio station or warranting on current t.v., good to have you with us. joining me and lynn sweet here for the next segment one of the most important men in washington these days was one of the most challenging jobs steve israel not only represents new york's second congressional district
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but he is the chairman of the democratic committee. >> great to be with you. >> you have said recently you are not predicting democrats will take back control of the house but you say it's within side. john boehner has said the same thing. >> rarely john boehner and the chairman of the democratic, it is real. we have 175 days to the election. this house is in play. we have taken the ball from deep on the 20 yard line after the 2010 e elections. we have got it to their 20 yard line and we get closer every day. >> you need remind us again, our viewers again, you need 25 seats? >> 25 seats to take the majority and here's why we are
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progressive. there is a deep set of buyers' remorse set in. these tea party republicans came to congress to be part of a solution. they are now the problem. they enl gauge in excess partisanship. they are so concerned with taking president obama's one job away from him they have failed to create jobs. we had an adammendment last week that said if tu are a member of congress, give up your pension. you shouldn't be double dipping every single republican voted against themat. they are about helping special interests. these guys were against extending a middle class tax cut but they won't ask big oil companies to sacrifice a nickel of their $40,000,000,000 in subsidies. >> yesterday speaker boehner said he wants to have the same fight over the debt ceiling that
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they had last year meaning we will not raise the debt ceiling unless we get what we want which is a dollar in cuts for every dollar in debt ceiling plus extending the bush tax cuts. i think this gives you extra ammunition because that worked so well for obtain last time. >> every time you contrast the tea party republicans with us, we win. they are willing to downgrade the creditworthyiness of the united states and shut down the government to protect millionaires from contributing revenues. we are about expanded middle class. they are willing to shut down this government again to protect tax cuts for people making over a million dollars and hurting the middle class. >> what districts do you think have the -- can you just tell us districts where you have the tea party candidate that you think is most vulnerable or the ones that you are playing in the
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strongest because you are talking as if they will be a national campaign. tell us some of the districts where you think the tea party guys are in jeopardy. >> again 25 seats to take the majority. i will break it down for you very quickly. there are 46 districts this morning that have a republican incumbent and voted for president obama. those are swing districts. there are an additional, believe it or not, an additional jean sgrikts across the country that have a republican incumbant and voted not only for president obama but for john kerri in 2004. these are democratic districts that wham woke up in 2010 with an accidental member of congress. >> the district lines, too? >> these are new district lines. >> 2010, it was under the old district. you also have the advantage. >> correct. >> i want to hear some specifics because in some states, you know, there was a heavier happened in remapping than
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others. so what are the some of the -- >> illinois joe walsh represents the far, far, far far, far right against a vet iran who is -- a veteran, tammy duckworth. more democratic. so i think we win that one. in new york henry berkel in syracuse, daniel faye a problem solver is running. i think we win that one. across the country, you can take a look at districts in a tsunami election where we had gail force wednesday against us, elected a tea party republican have a breeze at our back in those districts. >> i want to be sure i understand. it's 46 plus 18. >> correct. >> you have 64. >> 64. >> i will tell you what john boehner, two weeks ago, said that he believed they could lose control room. he said there was a one-third chance they could lose the
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majority. you know one-third, two-thirds for off-track betting it's interesting but i agree with him on this. he says there are 50 districts, republican districts that are threatened, that are challenged. i actually think it's more like 65 to 70. but i will take that 50 that john boehner by his own admission says are in trouble. and we only need half of that. >> right. now, i want to ask you if the ryan budget which all republicans voted on last year and we know would end medicare as we know it, da-da-da. extend bush tax cuts bigger tax cuts for corporations. they voted last year. they voted on it again this year. is this going to be a play in these elections? >> it's absolutely a defining moment in the ryan budget because once again every election is about who you are for. in the ryan bucket, they are for millionaires and want to take medicare away from seniors in order to extend the bush tax cuts for millionaires. they are asking the middle class
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to consistently sacrifice more but the ryan bucket doesn't ask oil companies or big corporations to sacrifice anything. we all need -- look we have some tough choices to make. we have to reduce spending balance our budgets, but we all need to be part of that. and the ryan budget consistently puts a firewall to protect the richest millionaires, big corporations and asks seniors to give up medicare. >> the republicans say we voted for it but we didn't mean it because we voted for it, but they don't say that. my interpretation but they say we know it wasn't going to become law. so we just voted for it to show what we stand for. >> that's why washington is broken. these guys came to congress saying they wern the going to be part of that old inside the beltway we didn't really mean what we did. we didn't mean what we said. we just said it. >> that's why people are looking for solutions and i tell you what, the candidates we have out there, a two-star general in virginia, a police chief in orlando, florida who brought crime down 40%, a nasa
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astronaut, small business people. i don't think a two-star general or a nasa astronaut would ever say, well, i didn't really mean what i said. they are about solutions and there is an unquenchable thirst in this country for solutions. >> do you think, though, that the -- how will the presidential overlay if you are in a battleground state -- >> good question. >> put it this way. out of your 46 and 18, how many of those seats are in battleground states. >> it's a fascinating question. there is going to be a phenomenon in this election that people will be looking at for a long time. usually, there is a direct alignment between the presidential campaign and concongressional races. this is different because of redistricting in states like illinois. they don't invite me to their meetings but i doubt the romney or obama campaign will invest heavily in illinois but we have to do well in illinois win 2, 3, maybe 4 seats in illinois. there is going to be not much of a presidential presence, campaign presence in illinois.
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same thing for and my state in new york. but you are going to see a very robust and intensive ground game and air war in terms of house races in those states. >> but i am talking about the battleground states, what the impact is going to be because that's where the plus is. it's cheaper perhaps in some of these states but they are going to be inundated with ads from romney and obama and the super p.a.c.s supporting them. so, also, they are going to be far more into the national issues. so how many states, how many of your seats are in battleground states? not -- >> about half, nearly half of the 25 seats that we need to win come from california come from new york, come from illinois. >> that's pretty blue. >> and those are blue. in terms of the battleground where there is a presidential contest going on and where you have senate races and house races, florida. >> uh-huh. >> washington nevada, arizona,
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our four states where you are going to see lots of battles and lots of different -- individual campaign fronts. and the cost of advertising in those states is going to be sky high because you have the super p.a.c.s competing. you have got senate races competing, the presidential competing and houserations competing. >> what is the political communication tool that you will use? what works when you have all of this going on? >> this is. >> in the battleground states. >> lynn this is hand to hand, district by district combat. we are going to use every tool in our toolbox. we just reserved 32 -- and field, you don't win campaigns on the air. you win them on the ground. so we are building outfield infrastructure in individual districts so we can go to those persuadable voters, knock on their door, get out our base, make sure if somebody is voting for the president, they move down ballot. we will use every tool in our toolbox. the stakes have never been higher. >> i want to ask you as a
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californians, what other couple of key races there? i understand if you don't remember them because there are so many. >> look. >> few 5 million. >> i have 35 districts in my head. but i can tell you that california, i think, offers some real contrasts. we have one of my favorite candidates in california is jose hern andes a nasa astronaut and he embodies the kind of democratic candidate we have. jose hernandez, his parents were my grant workers, didn't speak eng english until he was 12, saw the moon landing on television and said to his father, i want to be an vaunt. his father said work hard play by the rules and make you can do it. applied to nasa 12 times and was declined. on his 13th time they tool him. he traveled on the international space station. who is more of a problem solver than a nasa strapped about astronaut. >> you have to go. here is an invitation.
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we do the mete the candidates on the show here to bring in by phone or hopefully in studio. give us your 5 or 10 best candidates. we will give them each a day here on the show that people in the country get to know some of these congressional candidates. you pick them. we will put them on the air. all right? >> i would love it. thank you. >> lynn sweet and i would be back. bill press show now on current tv. >>do it, for america. jennifer granholm is politically direct on current tv. >>the dominoes are starting to fall. (vo) granholm is live in the war room. >> what should women be doing? >> electing women to office. (vo) she's a political trailblazer. >>republicans of course didn't let facts get in the way of
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spin. >>do it, for america.
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(vo) don't miss your chance to catch the premiere of the gavin newsom show. with special guests: >> i'm lance armstrong. if somebody put my back into a corner, i'm coming out swinging. ♪ on your radio, on t.v., the
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bill press show, new on current tv. >> 12 minutes before the top of the hour. senator tom harkin in studio with us in the next hour. we will be back to our conversation with lynn sweet and with all of you. just a second after i -- a little word on behalf of our friends at income at home.com. i mentioned before those of you who have may have treenail making ends meet at the end of the month, check out incomeathome.com. america's leading work from home business doing business in over 80 countries today. so they know what they are doing. and this is something you can do no matter your age education or experience. you can literally earn money from your own laptop on your own kitchen table 24/7. no pressure, no having to try to sell soap to your neighbors. all you need is a little spare time and the one on one coaching that income at home will provide. so if you are sick of living paycheck to paycheck and woerld
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about job security, ready to make practice money from home, income at home.com. check them outrld about job security, ready to make practice money from home, income at home.com. check them out. giving away a thousandbucks to somebody checking them out today. that could be you incomeathome.com. lynn sweet washington bureau chief for the chicago sun times. lynn, president obama making his big decision. he didn't call for new legislation, a constitutional amendment amendment. he said he personally has evolved to the point where he thinks gays and lesbian s should have that right. will this help or hurt him? >> if you look at the persuadables in the battleground states, this may be an issue. i would say it's a polarizing
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issue. it's an organizing issue. so it will -- the most important thing in why it is good for him is that it does work the base the base vote is important in terms of fundraising. >> energy. >> yes. >> ground, as steve israel said. >> the issue had never been: will you take on as a crusade getting same-sex marriage legalized. the issue is why don't you say where you stand. >> yeah. >> i point out this has not been just an evolution. this is a bit of a 360 because when he started his political career in chicago, he was for legalizing same-sex marriage. >> he went off of the reservation and came back on. the other thing in the time we have left there has been this group called "americans elect." you have written about them. you have intrude them. narrative goal was to forget about the democratic and republican party. we are going to have national
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vote online? right? that's how we are going to choose our candidate for president. >> it didn't work. they had a self-imposed deadline. they spent a lot of money. they have no candidate. "we are going to create a ballot access for a candidate to be named later." it was interesting, i suppose, as a political scientific experiment. we now know you can't replace fire in the belly with giving a slot on a ballot to an unknown candidates have a lust for office, they have an issue. they can't do it necessarily the other way around. >> they had a big millionaire around them and that upped the ante. to get ballot access on the
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presidential level, the issue is that states have these complicated access that maybe the bar should be lower. you cannot force fusion. from the way they did it, now we know it was an interesting political science experiment that kind of didn't work in the way they rolled it out. >> i was glad to see them fall on their face frankly. god forbid whom, if they had gone through with it, whom they might have come up with as the candidate. it might have been daffy duck. >> buddy roamer who tried, it couldn't be a place for a famed primary contenders. that wouldn't seem to be real. if they wanted to do it for real. they had people of stature, christine todd whitman was a supporter of theirs. i thought what it would have been maybe if it worked was a new home for moderate republicans. >> yeah. right. the few that are left.
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lynn, we are out of time. great to see you. >> great to see you. >> thank you for spending an hour with us. lynn sweet chicago, sun times. i will be back to tell you what president obama is up to today. >> this is the bill press show. xlooer if you have copd like i do you know how hard it can be to breathe and what that feels like.
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copd includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. spiriva helps control my copd symptoms by keeping my airways open a full 24 hours. plus, it reduces copd flare-ups. spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that does both. and it's steroid-free. spiriva does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. tell your doctor if you have kidney problems glaucoma, trouble urinating, or an enlarged prostate. these may worsen with spiriva. discuss all medicines you take, even eye drops. stop taking spiriva and seek immediate medical help if your breathing suddenly worsens your throat or tongue swells you get hives, vision changes or eye pain, or problems passing urine. other side effects include dry mouth and constipation. nothing can reverse copd. spiriva helps me breathe better. does breathing with copd weigh you down? ask your doctor if spiriva can help. eliot spitzer joins the new news network. >>we will drill down on the day's top stories in search of
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facts that inform. ♪ >> this is the bill press show. >> three minutes before the top of the hour. senator harkin is in the building with us. president obama busy day in and around the white house today. this morning, he will be popping out of the white house to go to a nearby small business. hasn't yet been identified where he will meet with some small
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business owners and talk about what congress ought to be doing to help small businesses. then he will be back at the whitehouse for a working luncheon with congressional leadership. john boehner and mitch mcconnell, nancy pelosi and harry reid having lunch with the president and the vice president to talk again about the congressional agenda and what things they might be able to accomplish even in this election year. this after be, he will meet with secretary of state hillary clinton and present the medal of honor post humously to specialist less lucky sabo, jr. members of his family will accept the award in his memory. jay carney will be giving his daily press briefing at 1 o'clock today. i will be there representing awe of you. senator john -- congressman john sarbanes from maryland on campaign finance reform and senator tom harkin both up in studio in the next hour. so good reason for hanging
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around. >> this is the bill press show. is what he said. and i was like "you watch your mouth. she's my friend." friend is a strong word. [ male announcer ] chocolate just got more irresistible. find the all brown bag and you could win!
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>> hello. happy wednesday. welcome to the full-court press on this wednesday, may 16th. we have lots to talk about, lots happening here in our nation's capitol capitol, around the country and around the globe. we'll cover it all, let you know what you think it means and take your calls at 866-55-press. how about this, boy? end of the world as we know it. if you ask me, virgin airways is announcing that -- has announced it is going to allow cell
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phones, cell phone usage on flights from the east coast of the united states stolondon. can you imagine flying eight hours listening to some inane, vacuous, empty-headed stupid conversation on the part of somebody in front of you or in back of you? no way. i would rather swim to london. we will talk about that and more with senator tom harkin in studio with us. first, let's find out all of the latest here in los angeles with today's current tv news update. jacki schechner. hi, jacki. >> hi, bill. good morning, everyone. republican new jersey governor and potential vp pick, crist christensen christensenie has posted a new video on youtube that he is in an awesome show of bi-partisanship or a bad decision, featuring christie and newark mayor corey booker starts
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with christie looking at his way to boost his image. >> i don't know about that. >> a cat in a tree? >> i think we are all set here. >> thank you for coming. >> there is a two high alarm fire on state street. we have a car broken on route 1 and a girl lost her cat in the tree. >> governor, i have them. >> booker rescued a neighbors last month. he helped book springsteen and catching a falling baby at the balcony. at the end of the spoof, booker is on the phone telling mitt romney he is no background singer and wouldn't make a good vice president. christie grabs the phone and says he has it. it debade last night at the legislative correspondent show. it's funny but unclear why christie would make a video that's so perfectly promotes a democratic rising star. in other strange developments this morning a virtual g.o.p. unknown is set now to go against
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former senator bob kerr i for ben nelsonets seat deb fisher she won 40% of the vote. we will be right back.
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we have a big, big hour and the i.q. will go way up. how are you ever going to solve the problem if you don't look at all of the pieces? >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >>you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. >>sharp tongue, quick whit and above all, politically direct.
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>>you just think there is no low they won't go to. oh, no. if al gore's watching today... ♪ >> broadcasting across the nation, on your radio and on current tv, this is the bill press show. >> well, what do you say in good morning on a wednesday may 16th. it is the full court press. with me, bill press, liberal and proud of it, coming to you from our nation's capitol and our studio, radio studio and book factory on capitol hill in washington d.c. and we are so proud to welcome to the studios, and been on our show many times on the phone. first time in studio here on --
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in our current tv studio the chair of the senate health education, labor and pensions schmidt, the honorable senator tom harkin from iowa. senator good to see you. >> thanks for having me. everything good in the state of iowa? i have to ask how i look now that we are on t.v. >> you are too dressed up? >> i know i am. >> than bill. >> that's for sure. >> there are so many things i am going to talk about, senator, but i do have to ask you this: you have been in the senate a long time. how has it changed? it hasn't changed necessarily for the better. >> the first thing it came to my mind, it changed for the worse. we don't do anything. i tell you, bill in 1995, i first introduced an amendment to do away with the filibuster. i am telling you i hate to say i was prophetic but i was because i said at the time the way it's going, it's going to get worse and worse and worse on this fillibusterfilibuster. i got to the point now where you really do, you need 60 votes to pass anything in the senate.
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you can't get that. quite framing, i think it's unconstitution unconstitutional. i think it is inherently unconstitutional. >> you are amad man ahead of your time. i was pleased to see this week that leader, harry reid, has said, you know, i put up with this filibuster so we made a deal with mitch mcconnell, i wasn't going to shake it up. even he reached the end of his patience. haven't he? >> anyone who wants to get things done here and get meaningful votes on legislation is fed up with this. this filibuster thing t it's gone beyond all reason and it's got to come to an end. and probably the only way we will end it is next january when we reorganization, the new senate comes in and we adopt rules, that type of thing. so we are gearing up now, a lot of us senator eudall merkley, i, others, are gearing up to do a full court press on getting rid of that filibuster. >> you can use the term. i didn't have a patent on it. i remember discussing with you at one time, some people said
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get rid of the filibuster. at one time, you were proposing that you reduce the number of votes you need each time? 60 to 55? whatever it was. >> that's right, bill. >> is that the best way to go. >> i think so after looking at it for 20-something years. there may be some reasons why you would want to slow things down. we don't want to be the house of representatives. i understand that. it's one thing to slow something down and stopping something. my idea was, yes to provide for a sailing weeks of the votes you need. right now, you need 60 votes to break a filibuster. what i have always proposed is you have that level. if you don't get the 60 votes, you have to wait three days. you can vote again then you need 57 votes. if you don't get it, you wait three days, get 54 votes and 3 more days, finally, 51 votes will move the legislation. i think that way, you could slow things down, and i think that
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kind of aapproach would lend itself to compromise. here is why: the majority party wants to move something. the minority party wants to stop it, slow it down. if you say, have a filibuster and you have, like maybe 53 or 54 votes, you know you are going to chew up a week until you get down to that. the majority will not want to do that. the minority knows they are going to lose it eventually so the two might, in order to save time, the majority then will agree with the minority make some changes, do some things to save a week of time. >> tim not a lawyer. if you can't even, let's say the student loans that came up last week and if it went to the floor t would have passed. every republican voted for that, i think except olympia snowe.
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>> she voted present for some reason. >> right. >> you are right. if we would have gotten it up. our oms thousand to pay for it closing a tax loophole. the republicans had their way of paying for it, which was to terminate, totally eliminate the prevention health fund for things like colo rectal screening and cervical cancer screening and those kind of things. get rid of all of that to pay for it. >> why do we need preventive medicine. insane. >> i would love to have seen that vote take place because i am sure we would have won. >> of course. >> but they wouldn't even permit us to bring it up. that, i tell you, bill i am glad you brought that up. this student loan thing, it's getting dangerously close. july 1st, it's going to double, add over a thousand dollars, on average, for every year a kid is in school on their loans.
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the republicans won't let it come up. >> it has been through your committee? >> it's in my committee jurisdiction. >> that's why i am managing the bill. we brought it to the floor, brought a bill right to the floor without going to the schmidt committee. >> so our listeners and viewers understand, the issue here is, okay one, are we going to allow student loans, the rate on student loans to double july 1st from 3.4 to 6.8? arch. >> yes. >> and if we don't, how we are going to pay for it. republicans are saying, if you do keep it at 3.4, you have to pay for it rather than close a loophole that millionaires are using to evade taxes, take away breast cancer colonoscopies. >> immunizations for kids.
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>> we would rather sacrifice that. unfathomable? >> mind-numbing. i talked about it on the floor and all of the good that the prevention fund is doing and they still want to promote that. but like i say if it came up for a vote, i just wonder how many really want to vote to take all of the money out of the prevention if you would. they are hiding behind the filibuster right now. >> on another issue, senator tom harkin in studio with us. we will be glad to talk calls, 866-55-press. the resident did of iowa get first shot here at the senator on the full-court press. senate same-sex iowa, what am i saying? way ahead of the president. what has it created in iowa? certainly it can't just have happened and no reaction.
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right? >> well i'm sorry to have to inform you that, no, it hasn't created any problems. three years ago, is the iowa supreme court up shoulder a decision that gaze and lesbian s cannot be discriminated against in getting a marriage license. as you probably remember, bill three of those justices were denied reappointment or reelection. >> after that decision? >> after that decision. we have a system in iowa where these judges are appointed and then after so many years, they come up for a "yes" or a "no" vote. the very hard right, the religious right in iowa went after them on this. and they got defeated. three of them, three of the
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justices. all three got the john f. kennedy prize for profiles in courage. all three were awarded profiles in courage. they knew what was going to happen. they did the right thing and got kicked out of office anyway. but, you asked the question: what's happened in iowa? i always jokingly tell people the state is falling apart,non is getting married. our farm families are breaking up. >> people divorcing because the gay couple down the road got married. >> right. well, i say that to channelexaggerate a point and nothing has happened. quite frankly, it's sort of ho-hum now. no big deal. we have moved on iowa. nothing has happened: there is a lesson. >> proven to be the case in new york, ververmont, massachusetts and will be some day not so far away
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nationwide, i am sure. >> i am sure it will. and it should be a national thing. we shouldn't have state by state by state. that may be one of the things where i disagree with the president on. i think he wanted to get it out to the states but this has to be a national civil rights law like any other broad civil law. >> do you think there will be legislation to make it a national standard? >> i think that's coming: they could have been done by states but you have a hodgepodge all around the country. last time i checked, we are all americans no matter what state you live in. >> you know, for all americans, the american dream, the heart of the american dream is a job. >> that's right. >> and we still have a long way to go. i know you have been looking at
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ways to make sure everybody can achieve that. what are you proposing? >> bill, i think the preeminent premier issue today is the demise of the middle class. to be a middle class family, you need a good job. the most important thing is to get that job. >> a job and a paycheck. >> that's exactly right. so, you know, i think quite frankly the financial institutions of america and the policy of our government for the last 30 years. my committee i have had over five hearings on it how to rebuild the middle class. i introduced a comprehensive bill, the rebuild america act which basically has kind of three parts. one, growth and jobs, rebuild the infrastructure of america, rebuild the manufacturing base
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of america and invest in good job training programs. in other words, jobs and growth. >> uh-huh. >> the second part is supporting family. a lot has changed in the last 30 or 40s years in the way we have families. single-parent families. we have couples that need to work just to maintain a living standard. so we need to do better things supporting child care. one thing, i didn't realize until actually i started having these hearings, bill. we are the only industrialized nation that does not have paid sick leave for workers. >> really. >> the om one. >> the family and medical leave act is not paid? >> no other industrial country has that. they all have paid sick leave. my bill does a modest thing, get seven days a year paid sick leave. we need to increase the minimum
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wage. >> right. >> you realize 30 years ago, the min wage then and today, the same group that would have made the minimum wage 30 years ago and today is 30% less. that same group has 30% less buying power. we need to raise the minimum wage and index it to inflation so it keeps up with inflation. one last thing, in 1980, one out of every two americans had a pension, something that would be with them until they died. >> over and above social security. >> just talking a pension. one out of two. today, it's one out of five. >> wow? >> one out of five americans has a pension. get this: two out of five
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americans have 401(k)s. gu guthe average here is about $70,000. how long is that going to last you when you retire? >> right. >> 2 out of 5 americans, 2 out of 5. 40% of americans have no savings. they have no capital. they have no pension. they have no 401(k). all they've got is social security. >> yes. >> that's all they have. >> that's scary. now the republicans say, hey who needs social security? let's privatize that. all right. i didn't think things were as bad add that. senator tom harkin in studio with us. a seat here at the table for you at 866-55-press. right back. ♪ >> this is the bill press show. live on your radio and current tv.
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>>(narrator) gavin newsom, lieutenant governor of california, and former mayor of san francisco is coming to current tv. >>every night on cable news networks everyone's focusing on what's wrong. i want this show to move past that. i love creative people, and with all the vexing problems we have we need creative thinking. >>(narrator) with interviews with notables from silicon valley, hollywood, and beyond. >>at the end of the day this show's simple. it's about ideas. ideas are the best politics. ideas can bring us together. >>(narrator) the gavin newsom show. premiers friday at 11 eastern/ 8 pacific. only on current tv.
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♪ >> on your radio and on current tv, this is the bill press show. >> it's 25 minutes after the hour. congressman john sarbanes from maryland will be joining us in studio in the next segment. right now, we are visiting with senator tom harkin. senator, a good constituent of yours from fonda iowa. you know where that is. >> absolutely. >> this is john. hey, john. good morning. you are on with your senate, tom harkin. >> good morning, bill. good morning, senator. senator, i am so glad that you touched on the gay marriage thing. it's such a non-issue in fonda. i heard our governor on a different network. we can't say msnbc.
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>> not saying it, john. >> on a different network and saying that -- that he thought this was going to be such a hot-button issue, he thought right down i-35, that the people on the east were going to be, you know, such anti-high gay marriage and anti-thing. let's be honest senator. you and i know this is all because bob vanderplats needed a job and so they hired him, and they got him on there. they gave him a buzz. he went and ran and got those judges out so he set their hair on fire. you know where i live? i live in steve king's district. >> i am aware. i know where fonda is. >> it's such a non-issue here i don't see anybody saying
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anything? this just destroyed everything. i was telling -- >> john, got the call. we have other calls we have to take. i appreciate that. he is making a point. even in steve cage's district. >> fonda iowa and i live in a small town in iowa and, you know it's just not an issue. he represents a narrow constitwains, far religious right and he is always up on this all the time going after it. he doesn't have much of a following. >> senator, are we going to -- john boehner yesterday said dallas we are not going to i see rat debt ceiling unless we extend the bush tax cuts are we bam in the same ol' soup over this budget? what's going wrong? >> i thought, wait a minute. am i dreaming? did i wake up several months ago and nothing happened? this is what brought us to the
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brink last year. >> yeah. now he is saying the same thing again. i wonder. i am wondhing out loud, bill if this isn't a sort of -- if boehner isn't thinking that, look. [i say this, this will make the markets very nervous, make busy very nervous and they won't be hiring people and we'll drive the economy down and we will drive obama out of. sometimes i suspect some of these people would rather see the economy tank just to get obama out than try to do what's best for america. i hate to say that, but that's just the way it appears to me is that they would just as soon in order to get obama out of office, they would just as soon see the economy tank. >> mitch mcconnell said the number 1 goal, get obama out. >> they will do just about anything they can to get him out. it's sad to see, but this threat by boehner, i am telling you, this is bad for our country. >> senator, we have to hold it right there. thank you so much for coming
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back. you are welcome any more. >> you are welcome bill. >> this is the bill press show. jennifer granholm is politically direct on current tv. >>the dominoes are starting to fall. (vo) granholm is live in the war room. >> what should women be doing? >> electing women to office. (vo) she's a political trailblazer. >>republicans of course didn't let facts get in the way of spin. >>do it, for america.
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>> this is the bill press show live on your radio and current tv. >> it's 33 minutes after the hour now. here we go. it's the full court press coming to you live all the way across this great land of ours from our ac combination of radio is it studio and t.v. studio here on capitol hill in washington, d.c. thank you for joining us whether you are listening on your favorite local cambricsive talk radio station or watching on current tvprogressive talk radio station or watching on
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current tv for the remainedder of our our show action congressman -- congressman john sarbanes representing the third -- third district. >> that's right. >> third congressional district of the near state. i said paul sarbanes. of course, his father was a great united states senator for many years. congressman, good to see you. >> great to be here. >> thank you so much for coming in making the big commute from baltimore this morning. >> i do that every day. >> i bet. i bet. so i know big issue with you as helen campaign finance reform. first, i want to ask you about a statement made by the speaker yesterday saying that the debt ceiling, raising the death debt ceiling is coming up not until 2013 but he is vowing right now, they are not going to make any agreement on the debt ceiling unless he gets massive more spending cuts and an extension of the bush tax cuts. didn't we try this before? >> it's déjà vu all over again.
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i don't know why the speaker would state this position out particularly when the public saw last time, the effect it had on marked, it roiled the markets to have this showdown approach to legislating. he is setting the table for that again. i think it's irresponsible because it raises that specter. there are a lot of things that are causing the public to be jumpy and markets to be jumpy. why he would want to add that to the mix, i can't fathom. >> jay carney pointed out yesterday when they tried this last3 ime,-theuapproval3rating % for congressaplummetedo bout0 % 12%. p % >> there isga lotaof cynicism-3 % out theree?enerally. p % a lot f-it is2directed5atme % washington. i hear-it4every dayrbecauseai driveahomesevery y.-3 % it's one of the3blessings of h % living % of ashington,'getgbacksto thel realuworld and talk-to folks.and3 % thattcynicismhis heal. i think'a lotrof it3has%to doo % with theaperception3which-iswe%
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it's go time. >>every weeknight cenk uygur calls out the mainstream media. >>the guys in the middle class the guys in the lower end got screwed again. >>i think you know which one we're talking about. the overwhelming majority of the country says"tax the rich, don't go to war." >>just wanted to clarify that.
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it's go time. >>every weeknight cenk uygur calls out the mainstream media. >>the guys in the middle class the guys in the lower end got screwed again. >>i think you know which one we're talking about. the overwhelming majority of the country says"tax the rich, don't go to war." >>just wanted to clarify that. >> if we can get them on board, i think we can get this thing done. >> now, we had public financing, or we still have it at the presidential level. >> correct. >> president obama said no. i am not going to take it because i want to raise all of the money i can, and i am going to need it. certainly, this time around neither he nor mitt romney are going to take it. >> right. >> so you are not getting much help from above. >> unfortunately. there was disappointment i know, among those who really favor public financing, the president in his first campaign.
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>> right. >> made that judgment. you know, i am nothing go second-guess his judgment politically. he looked at what was there and he decided that that was the best approach to take and it ended up being the right one in terms of him. >> he won, right. >> winning an election. but ultimately we are going to have to create, i think, a system that's robust enough to support public financing at the presidential 4re68 in terms of the amounts available to the candidates because that's a factor. but we also got to create at the congressional level because action frankly, it's at that level that is the most vulnerability to the influence of big money in politics. >> you know we have to take a break here and invite you to join the conversation. i know this is a hot issue for so many of you and for me. has been for a long time. 866-55-press is the toll-free number if you want to join the conversation and take your seat at the table with congressman john sarbanes. i once worked for jerry brown, congressman. remember one of his presidential campaigns, he said he wouldn't
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take a contribution over $100. >> right. >> we will see how that worked out. we will come back, continue our conversation about campaign finance reform on wednesday's full-court press. >> on your radio, and on current tv, this is the bill press show. >>just wanted to clarify that. it's go time. >>every weeknight cenk uygur calls out the mainstream media. >>the guys in the middle class the guys in the lower end got screwed again. >>i think you know which one we're talking about. the overwhelming majority of the country says"tax the rich, don't go to war." >>just wanted to clarify that.
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current tv, it's been all 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. >> on your radio. on t.v. the bill press show, new on current tv. >> twelve minutes before the top of the hour, congressman john dar baines sarbanes with us, working on
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campaign finance reform, taking the lead on it. even with the half of an hour, we can only scratch the surface. we can find out more about the ledge shrills he is working on at his website, sarbanes.house.gov. one quick question before we go to calls here that is: when you say public financing, what some people are afraid of is that means any kook any flameke puts his or her name up and we taxpayers are paying them to go out there and make a fool of themselves. how do you prevent that? >> you can have certain requirements in place in terms of those who can callfy for the public funds that would be available. and, you know, you have to raise a certain amount you have to achieve a certain threshold level of donations that come in. you have to meet disclosure requirements. >> you have to prove yourself. >> you have to show you are a serious candidate.
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then we would qualify. then we can build those protection in. >> i am laughing thinking whether some of the republican candidates in this primary might have been able to prove themselves serious but that's another issue. >> it should come out in the wash. >> i don't want to get into her main cain but here is carol calling from charlestown. >> on the phone. hello. >> carol from charlestown north. >> i love your show, bill. i want to make a comment on the way the tam pain financing is running this country. i mean the way they are able especially on the republicanside to dole all of the money they want out with no rules, it's like quid pro quo. give me what i want. it's bribery. it's basically equal to bribery. >> you know like sheldon adelson put in 5, another 5,
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another 5. you womaneder: what does he want or what does he get? >> you look at what adelson did and you can imagine a time when stove owning sports teams billionaires will decide to own their own members of congress and sit up there in the gallery. >> yeah. >> having funded campaigns of these people. their candidate or their member will be down there on the floor of the house. >> that's where we are headed or alternatively, if corporations are the ones writing the checks you will have -- you will have members of congress wearing sort of, you know, corporate logo on their suits like nascar guys. already there with some. >> that's why it's imports for the public to take hold of this thing and say we want our democracy back and the only way you do that is you create a system where the public is the one that is in effect writing the check for the campaign fund instead of the private special
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interests. >> you can see it. the chair recognizes the senator from exxon. >> exactly. >> of course. ed calling from dorsett new york. >> good morning. great show. representative sarbanes, this is a breath of fresh air. in addition to public financing, i think what is needed is term limits and abolish the electoral college, have a popular vote and a set of machine voting have paper ballots as we saw in 2000 and 2004 with ohio and florida how the vote was manipulated. >> you have the whole reform agenda there ed. appreciate it. >> go all the way. >> what about term limits? >> i have not been an advocate. i think a good strong democracy, again, if you take the money out of it, is one that has effectively term limits in the sense that every two years if you are a member of the house of
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representatives, you are on the ballot. if they want to terminate your time in congress, the public has the ability to do that. now, what happens is certain incumbents can be protected by special interests that have a lot of money to funneled their campaigns. if you got rid, again, of that flew of big money in politics then it would create a more level playing field in terms of challengers that want to come into the next. i know that can create some uneasy on the part of incumbents but, you know, i think that's a fair democracy. and the public is saying wheel underwrite this effort to have a contest to decide whose voice ought to be in there representing us in congress. right now, when people vote for a member of congress, they send them to washington to represent them. but they end up representing the special interests a lot of the time. >> yeah. term limits. i used to be for them until i saw what happened in california. congressman john sarbanes great
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to have you. >> thank you. >> it's an important issue. we will talk about it again. keep up good fight. we are behind you. >> thanks. >> i will be back with a quick parting shot. >> this is the bill press show. copd includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. spiriva helps control my copd symptoms by keeping my airways open a full 24 hours. plus, it reduces copd flare-ups. spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that does both. and it's steroid-free. spiriva does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. tell your doctor if you have kidney problems glaucoma, trouble urinating, or an enlarged prostate. these may worsen with spiriva. discuss all medicines you take, even eye drops. stop taking spiriva and seek immediate medical help if your breathing suddenly worsens your throat or tongue swells
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you get hives, vision changes or eye pain, or problems passing urine. other side effects include dry mouth and constipation. nothing can reverse copd. spiriva helps me breathe better. does breathing with copd weigh you down? ask your doctor if spiriva can help. we have a big, big hour and the i.q. will go way up. >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block.
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♪♪ ♪ >> the parting shot with bill press. this is the bill press show. >> on this wednesday may 16th, my parting shot for today: what's the difference between a dog and a house republican? well, big difference. you can teach a dog tricks. you can't teach a house republican anything. as we saw last year with the ryan budget, which every republican in the house voted for, the ryan budget which would
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end medicare as we know it, slash programs for the poor, that's what they voted for. of course, it would extend the answer it cuts and push tax cuts for the rish. they got cloberred for it. you think they wouldn't have learned their lesson? no, they voted for it all over again this year. now they are displaying the same ignorance or arrogance maybe with the debt ceiling fight. john boehner pledging yesterday once again that republicans would never, never never vote to raise the debt ceiling unless they also got massive new spending cuts and an extension of the bush tax cuts. you know what? remember, they tried this last year, too, and concongressional approval rating plummeted to zero. i mean to 12%. now, i guess by bringing it back this year they want to get the approval rating down to zero and they are well on their way. >> that's my parting shot for today. senator jean shahine in studio with us tomorrow as well as joe williams from politico.
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come on back. see you tomorrow. >> this is the bill press show.
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