good tuesday afternoon to you. my name is dylan ratigan. the big story on this valentine's day is no love for the state of politics in this country. we have been advocating the need for electoral reform from eliminating the super pacs to ballot reform and gerrymandering against lines in the primaries. well now a new poll further confirms that desperate need for major overhaul in this country. it shows just how costly inaccurate and inefficient the u.s. political system currently is. 24 million people, remember there's only 311 million americans, 24 million people are either invalid as voters or significantly inaccurate. that's one out of eight voter registrations that have signature breaches or completely wrong. the data includes millions of people who either moved and are on the rolls in multiple states.

two million americans who are dead, but still listed as active voters. why do these things matter? voter registration helps to determine polling funding in precincts, and not to mention overall resource allocation. it's another reason why our election system is so remarkably effective and out of touch with the actual reality in america in 2012. the instrument we are using is not designed or capable of measuring the intent of the human beings in this country. it's why it's bought and sold and done in the back room. here with us now is chairman of the house democratic congress, john larson. he's pushing a renovation of sorts. also james homan who is probably too familiar with the data we were just referencing. congressman, does anything that just came out of my mouth on

mississip msnbc surprise you? >> no, but it did remind me quite a bit of that old line that i wanted to be buried in st. mary's cemetery so i could remain politically active. >> hold on. you're not surprised. james, from your perspective, you're on the beat. were you surprised with the revelations in this data? >> not at all. this is the same data we have been seeing for years. after the debacle in florida, nothing happened. it's clear something needs to be done. >> clearly, we're out to lunch. we are out to lunch every way possible. congressman, you are, obviously, not only aware of this, but have prepared some form of legislation that's attempting to address some of of this. >> right. >> tell us what the legislation that exists right now that would

address this. >> dylan, i think you're absolutely correct though at the outset of this. we have now formed a task force within our caucus to deal with reform on multiple levels as it relates to campaign finance reform, election reform, electoral reform. there's a huge electoral college reform movement. this is something that's caught hold with the american people. you know from your tour as well. and listening to people, part of the core in the main emphasis of the occupy group has been this whole need for election reform. and as was pointed out, since the election of 2000, i dare say even before that, there's been brave concern heightened with t of money pouring in and further manipulating the system to the point where both suppression of the vote and preventing people

from voting. the statistics that you just rolled off are compelling and should be shocking to most americans. and yet, it seems to be gaining momentum, but unfortunately, not here in congress. but we hope to change that. we hope to get the disclosed legislation on the floor and pass that. and we hope that we're in a position as a majority party come 2012 so we can make significant reform that we don't see emanating right now. >> i'm suspicious of your suggestion that switching parties, with all due respect, congressman, but i think that that's the false promise of various political parties telling the american people that they are going to fix things is a little bit insulting at this point. when you look, james, at the actual data, 24 million human beings, more than two million of them are dead, these are the

sort of things you read about in the banana republic that's known for having rigged and bought elections. but we're discussing the united states of america whose entire ego and national identity is predicated on what is more and more revealing itself to be a total marketing scheme and lie that there's some tool to evaluate the american people that we call on election that has integrity by virtue of the fact there's component of actual human beings involved and actual competition of ideas. and we have none of that. where would you point out to somebody, how would you prioritize the horrors? >> it's a long list of outrages in plain sight. there's incentive in a lot of states. they are pushing the voter i.d. laws that make it harder for

people who can legally have the right to vote to cast ballots, but not doing anything to fix the problem you're outlining. there's a huge incentive from the conservative base for republican state legislatures. places like south carolina that have passed these laws, politically, it's not hurting anyone to not fix these problems. >> the beautiful thing about the fact that politically no one can be hurt, congressman, is because of the closed primaries in the gerrymandered districts, you could have a congressman with a 20% approval rating in a gerrymandered district there's never going to elect a democrat. he never has a primary challenger. he continues to be bought off. he doesn't reform anything. and you guys, people with your job, are basically like anointed nobility that have been put up for sale to the highest bidder with an 80% chance that every gerrymandered district will

never change hands so long as the royal parties, thou republican and thou democrat, give food unto us. >> wow. that was a lot, dylan. but let me say a couple things. first, i would say there's a little bit of a false equivalence. i recognize that people when they look at the system say, you have had opportunities to change. and you haven't. but i say false equivalence, because you look at the people that are in the forefront of reform in the system, i'm proud that my colleague walter jones has joined me with the fair elections now act. if you look down the list of people that are both in terms of a constitutional amendment and looking at a number of the issues that you have, it's primary democrats out in front leading the way. i say false equivalence also because we're in a nuclear arms race. as you point out, it's going to

be mutual self-destruction primarily of our cherished democracy if we don't get this under control. but no one is going to unilateral unilaterally disarm this process, which of course, makes the whole system reek of hypocrisy and makes it difficult to look people in the eye and say, we have to have campaign finance reform. we have to change the system. but that's what people recognize and understand. we're going to provide the best opportunity to do that. notwithstanding, i think we will be successful. >> that would be insulting if you couldn't considering it's to expose private billionaire money being spent to annihilate others reputations without disclosing it. that's what they callow-hanging fruit. high five for that, but it's amazing that is considered an accomplishment. james, if you were to look at,

again, the knowledge that politicians of both stripes love to tell us about how they are going to deal with gerrymandering, redistricting, using the prison system as a way to manipulate redistricting, dead people, taking secret money, it stinks to high heaven. when you look at what it is that our politicians respond to, which is the threat that they are going to lose their jobs, what do the american people have to do to create a credible threat for the people to lose their jobs when they have the districts locked in gerrymandered with no primary challengers so they basically decapitated the american voters' ability, thus giving them rough shot blt. >> it's a huge structural problem. that's why a lot of the things that are trying to fix the

problems that we've been talking about are happening at the state level. just today, eight states have come together on a bipartisan basis. some progressive republicans, they are working to fix this problem with the voter rules. they are saying let's create a system so we can track people who move from state to state and make sure dead people aren't on the rolls. it seems like not much to ask, but at this point, it's only eight states. that's a very small thing when you're talking about these big problems. but at least it's a step in the right direction. >> all right. listen. >> james is right on that too, dylan. our state legislative bodies are the laboratories for democracy. we never hurt when america gets an overabundance of democracy working. that's exactly what's going to be needed here. >> tough to have a democracy if the voter is not allowed to take the politician's job away because you got the back end rigged. >> they got to vote.

>> they don't got to vote. that's actually a lie. because if you vote into a gerrymandered district with an incumbent with no primary challenger, you're baiting them into engaging in a rigged system than being honest and saying you are not given a choice because you live in a dominant gerrymandered district with no challenger. that's the problem we have to solve. but we can do it another day. i appreciate everything you do congressm congressman. >> i appreciate the structural concerns you have too. >> coming up, developing news today out of the straits of hormuz. a dangerous game of cat and mouse being played between iranian fast boats and u.s. warships. plus what we learned today from today's getting to know you session between president obama and china's election leader. what you need to know about it. this year it's pretty pricey

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flash point continuing in the middle east. a couple key areas that you're probably familiar with at this point. first, a game of cat and mouse in the strait of hormuz. iran threat tong close the strait. that would seem unlikely. and western sanctions are the provocation depriving resources in iran in response to iran's

continued development of their nuclear program. jim mcla chef ski on board one of the warships in that part of the world just arrived in the straits and was approached by iranian boats. >> reporter: it was a potentially deadly game of cat and mouse played out here in the strait of hormuz. that iranian patrol boat was on a direct collision course with the u.s. carrier. at the last second, it changed direction and kept just enough distance between the two to avoid confrontation. >> in syria, neighborhoods under incredible siege, escalating siege under government direction. activists sticking inside saying that the assad regime has launched an all-out assault. rocket fire and the elimination of basic humanitarian supplies to the region. there are fears that assad was emboldened by the security

council's failure to condemn the escalated violence not that long ago. instead of stepping back, assad stepping up the violence against his own people. our mega panel is here. karen, susan, and jimmy. if you go to the hornet's nest, you don't want to go in there. you can get confused 50 ways. you can find yourself with a lot of unresolvable issues. the united states has little leverage with a lot of these things beyond the absolute leverage of our military se primacy that will blow everybody to smith reens. your thoughts as to how we should be thinking about this. >> we have to think about it in the full context. as we were talking earlier, syria is not just about syria. syria is related to china and russia. china, we also need in dealing with iran. iran is connected to israel.

it's like connected. that's the problem when you hear the saber rattling. let's take syria. some are saying we should be arming the rebels. okay. who are they? syria is not the same as libya. syria has a well-armed army of its own very organized. >> thanks to the russians. it depends on which country we want to arm. >> the point being, you have to view in a global economy and in this kand of environment, you have to see these as moving parts that are connected. >> so where is the leverage now? what we're looking for is to identify the narrowist part, the smallest group of people on this whole chess board that could exert influence on syria and iran to diminish the level of heat. who is that? >> they are not such a small group. it's the largest country in the

world. china. that's what we need. >> explain that a bit. why is china so relevant to what happens with iran and syria? >> china is so relevant because they are iran's largest importer of oil. they buy 20% of their oil. they also have a lot of say with their relationship with the russians. so it all kind of comes back to who can flex muscles. they are not doing it militarily, which is the only way we know how to do. >> how is china flexing? >> because they are the largest consumer out there. >> of oil? >> of oil. not just of oil, but of goods. and everyone is dying to compete there. >> and as a result, they are able to basically, jimmy, tell the entire west without even having to say it, bugger off. get out of here.

this is none of your business. you can't really do anything other than threaten total annihilation with your military, which is unlikely to be productive or actually happen. >> the eu said last fall, we're not going to buy anymore oil from syria. right? okay fine. what happened? they just shifted to somebody else. they sold it to somebody else. you know, like four billion barrels a year. 20% of their income. or their economy. all right. fine. so today turkey, they are our l allies. they announced they are going to keep buying oil from these people. >> why shouldn't they? >> the eu won't let them in. >> i didn't interrupt. so let me finish this. the point is, it's all interconnected. let's go to the u.n. let's force turkey to defend their actions. let's force the chinese to vote and over and over again.

>> let's go to china. you get the point. china is the country that we, the united states, are most reliant upon. not only to resolve our trade issues which are costing us millions of jobs, but our relationships in the middle east. in fact, the person expected to be the incoming president of china met with our president. it was at the white house. president obama welcomed the man that many expect to be the communist country's next leader. take a listen. >> this is obviously a great opportunity for us to build on the u.s./china relationship. we have continually tried to move forward on the basis of recognizing that a cooperative relationship based on mutual interests and mutual respect is not only in the interests of the united states and choina, but i

also in the interests of the region and in the interests of the world. >> the only leverage the president has with china is the fact that the united states is the largest market in the world for chinese experts. that is his leverage. there's been no indication, not only from this president, but any prior u.s. president, that they are prepared to use the gigantic piece of leverage as it pertains to the marketplace to do any of the things we're talking about. is that a fair assessment? >> i don't think we know that's true. a lot of times what gets reported on the outside is not necessarily what's really going on behind the scenes. >> you're saying the tax is not 25%? it just appears to be that. >> sarcasm noted. no. i'm saying a couple things. some of the things that i think obama has done effectively. number one, in terms of outreach in currency manipulation. engaging our other g-20 partners saying you can't do that.

>> which they are still doing it. so the accomplishment is saying something. >> but he's been praised by a number of foreign policy people from across the spectrum saying that was a good place to start. >> so rereceived praise is talked to people. neither of which solve our trade problem. >> but he has a coalition together. it's not just us saying to china saying you can't manipulate currency. one other thing. with china, i think some of the leverage, as we were talking about before, they are also a growing economic power. they are growing their own middle class. our leverage is their burgeoning economy. whether or not we'll use that is a question. >> the reason i take issue with your logic is their economy is burgeoning because they are destroying ours. so if we prevent them from destroying our economy, that will naturally raise the cost of labor and raise unemployment in china, which means you have to

deal with unemployment in china. >> your thoughts on why we haven't seen more of the united states enlist more aggressively? >> because it's such a fine line. and the fact is, i happen to agree with your logic in saying we can talk about manipulating currency. >> we have been for a decade. >> it's not going to get us anywhere. the biggest problem with china is not just internally with the debt they owe, but the american people in an election year, and every president faces this problem, is right now china is going to become the bad guy. >> you think because it's political. >> that's where the president is in trouble. china all of our jobs are going to china. that's not really the problem. but we have to be careful in what we do with china. >> right. i'm out of time. time is up. that's how tv works. and next our specialists take what our economic relationship not only with china but with our

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we have learned so far on our 30 million jobs tour as we have been traveling about is there's a common thread among the areas of america that are thriving, solving problems. they all share a culture of how they relate to one another. the quality of their community and the way that they choose to work with one another with a mission to solve problems rather than a mission to exploit one another for personal advancement and the destruction of everybody else involved. but in silicon valley or down in miami and of course, at the south by southwest town of austin, they already figured out that the road forward is about a

culture of how. investors, entrepreneurs, and educators working together to solve problems. it's about thinking huge thoughts and acting them out in a culture based on integrity and choice. today's specialist agrees this type of innovative attitude can, will, and is empowering the future of america while new york and washington idiotically argue about things like a samurai stuck in a cave after world war ii who doesn't know the world has changed. steve factor is a former american express executive whose job focused squarely on the cultures of innovation. he's the author of "econovation." we're preaching. we have e predisposed agreement through this. through also though. there is evidence everywhere

that cultures that exhibit how are very productive. what do you believe are the characteristics of how in the communities share? >> i think the way to frame it is where we are now relative to where we have been. if you took a look at a corporation, for example, and you think of the size of the strategy group or the innovation group. it's tiny relative to the rest of the company that does all the hard work. the manufacturing division, the customer support division, all of those things that make businesses work. now we as a country have focused on the idea part of the equation and pretty much let go that hard work that is involved in making the rest of the thing run. and so the thing i learned as i

was writing and researching this book is that we have let go of too much. now our economy doesn't scale very well. what we have done is created a lot of great companies on the surface of facebook, for example. a hundred billion-dollar business. less than 3,000 employees. even if every one of those employees bought, you know, a block in detroit -- >> but that doesn't answer my question of how. if you came here to tell us it's screwed up, we were on screwed up in 2008 and 2009. we're well through screwed up. >> let's go to the fix. >> he knew that. >> let's talk about the fix. the fix, i want to talk about the math of small business. you hear people talking about small business. it's important. we need to grow it. but really what's interesting about it is it's the inefficiency of small business

that creates jobs. not efficiency. if you think about it, if you have lots of small businesses, each has a management team. each has a finance department. each has human resources. if you have lots and lots of small businesses, it's that duplication of effort that actually creates lots of efforts. we missed a great opportunity, for example, when the banks were struggling. we could have transferred all of those assets to a lot of small institutions and created a lot of that type. >> if your society is at a high rate of change, which we all know, the only way to survive is with a high rate of adaptation. if you know the only way to have a high rate of adaptation is if you have a high rate of experimentation, you're saying we don't want any experimentation, we want these huge entities, whether it's the government or health care or

whatever it is, susan, we're not financing the $3 million capital mark market. we're not encouraging a culture of experimentation at a time we're desperately in need to have the characteristics. >> and we're also afraid of failure. it's always what leads to more success is when you can have failures and learn from them. my question is, what do you see as far as businesses going through this process? we have to be a more production-oriented society. in your view, how do we get there? >> there's a couple ways. the first thing is are you talking about individuals or businesses making that change? or on a government? >> we need 30 million jobs. take it wherever you want to go. >> so we right in my opinion are

li living through america's last stimulus. what that is is europe has given us a gift of greater incompetence. so. >> we get that. >> so they have bought us time. >> i totally agree with that. >> so we have a moment of stability and ability to borrow. >> uncontested. >> the first thing i would do is attract foreign corporations to the u.s. >> if you're going to tell me what you would do, we can go all day. in the context of reality. >> where would you put your money? >> i will give you one that works on multiple levels. so let's talk about 3d printing. are you familiar? >> i printed this pen on a 3d printer. you can down load a simatic and the printer would print the pen. i printed this suit before i came to work today.

it's a nice suit. this is some crazy stuff. but there's a version of this that's true. none of which i just said. >> you're on to something. even though that example is out the there. what i think is going to happen, we're on the cusp of machines building machines. this is the early stage where we can work in three dimensions the same we would print a word document. so right now, there are companies already where you can, if you have a simatic, you can hit print and as long as they have a printer in that country or in that city, you can have whatever product that is compatible with their technology printed in that market and distributed. so the same way you would print a word document to a remote printer. >> that sounds like you just fired a lot of people. >> so we are living -- true. over the long-term. so we are living in this glitch.

we have this last opportunity. so what are you going to seize as a country level opportunity? so one example is this 3d printing. so ge, for example, they could be the company and we could be the country that produces 3d printers for the entire world. and invest in that technology in a way that now -- >> i want to back away in the interest of time. i don't know whether that will be america's future or not. >> just an example. >> your point is that if you don't have a strategic plan for your country to invest in your country, whether it's investing in energy independence, as i would suggest, or in 3d printing as you might advocate, your point is an investment strategy in your country. without that, your country is screwed, and we have a unique opportunity where we should have

already been screwed in 2008. the europeans are stupider than we are. we are floating around in this space where we could make major ren no -- renovations. they look at the currency in d.c. as if they fixed it. >> short-term fixes. >> the brains are like we fixed it. >> what you're describing, maybe i'm misinterpreting. you're saying that the machines are going to be making machines. >> i have 30 seconds. >> my point is where are people supposed to work? this country is not shrinking or depopulating. so if we're going to become the next great super power when it comes to an economy, you have a lot of people without jobs? is that smart? >> no pe wp needs to work towards a smaller population. >> work towards a smaller population?

that's how we will leave today's increasingly bizarre television segment. i think that we can find work for human beings. >> on the moon. >> is it work of our creation? >> i believe it will be work of our creation because of the things that have been necessity will be through the sorts of things you're describing. steve will be back. this was fun. steve factor, come on. there's more where this came from. there's the book. straight ahead, wondering how to tell that special someone that you care tonight. it's going to get expensive. i'll tell you that. the big cost of big love next. everywhere you go, america,

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expected to spend on valentine's day today. the banks are imbetting credit. each are dishing out just over $126 on everything from jewelry to chocolates to dinner to pens like this. that is up about 8.5% from last year e. also proof of what we already know. this holiday is all about the ladies. gentlemen spend about $169 on wine and dining. that's more than double what women typically spend on valentine's day. their tally around $86. while some say it's too much, consider this. ironically, february is also the most active for divorce. maybe it's worth spending a little more to know that the person your with truly cares about you or maybe finding out, no. i'm not a fan of this. but look at that pen.

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when the president unveiled his new budget, he made sure to appeal to the young. >> the congress needs to stop the interest rate from doubling on student loans. that's pretty important. wean the increases we have provide provided in pell grants, the tax credits, keeping interest rates low, that's all going to help. >> well, this as a new pew research reveals 40% of americans acknowledge it's our young people who are baring the brunt of our economic failings. they are going to be here the longest to deal with the biggest mess. also the most incentive to fix it. we are break iing it down with matt seigel. the nice thing about being the one representing the generation of baring the brunt of the problems is you guys do have the biggest incentive to fix it

because you guys are screwed. >> i actually think that if we can control costs of higher education from continually inflating, we have a decent chance of fixing a lot of this huge debt problem. >> walk us through your logic. >> the logic is as followed. you have a lot of people who need to go to college, because unlike ever before, unless you have a college degree -- >> even if you have a degree, it doesn't help that much anymore. >> we have sold that narrative. more people are enrolling. public and private universities are not keeping their costs in check. it's outpacing health care costs at a dramatic degree. as our website says today in honor of valentine's day, a student loan is forever. we have taken more and more people and given them loans to pay for college.

meanwhile, we're only throwing them more money to borrow to go to college. so what the president announced in his speech on monday, which is actually a major step in the right direction is saying we're not kboing to give you more federal money to get more students in your institution unless you keep costs in check. otherwise, we're going to go broke as a nation. >> and to that end, wouldn't the most ration way to keep costs in check for a university would be for them to disclose where they are spending their money? that's what we do in the normal marketplace. if i'm concerned you're taking advantage of me e and i'm going to spend $50,000 a year giving money for a service, typically i'd like to see how the $50,000 i just gave you would be spent. maybe i spent $10,000 and get more for less money. what is the barrier to forcing all these universities that get all this taxpayer money, private

or public, from being forced to disclose what they are spending the money on? >> they don't want to be held accountable. >> i know. >> we have talked about for had-profit colleges. they hire lobbyists in washington. we want all this federal money with no strings attached. none. and meanwhile, you can't hold us accountable to keep tuition in check. you can't make us spend that money for learning. we're going to invest it in a football field or a new housing complex. it's nonsense, which is why our politicians need to stand up. and the students need to realize that higher education institutions are hiring lobbyists who are working against their interests. >> with their tuition money. i take out a loan. i give the money to the

institution. the institution takes the loaned money to lobby against my interests so i have less information about what the school is doing such that it's harder for me to make a more informed decision about which school i'm going to go to. and i wonder why i have this debt afterwards. nobody wants to fix the broken educational market that is forcing the students to pay obscene sums of money into a black hole that no one will disclose what's going on. >> students don't know what they are signing up for. this is why we translate these issues on our website every day. no one knows they are signing up for a student loan that essentially is going to become more and more expensive each year. you'll have to take out more loans unless we pressure colleges to start to say let's take our cash we're sitting on like major corporations and informs it in access in learning services and like you've talked about, the cost of learning is

going down. >> it's collapsing. >> education is going up. why does that exist? >> greedy bastards. >> you got it. with regard to the pew study, then there's joblessness, which is the cruel irony of the debt. we take out the debt with the notion of getting a job. it leads to moving back home with your parents. >> which is why it's so exciting we have so much time. we should be so grateful to be as young as both of us are. we have a lot to do. so we have a lot of time on our hands. >> amen. >> it's a long list. we'll see you on our college tour. you're seeing us in chicago. >> i'm committed. >> one of our young gun. our friend from our time. young americans, the focus during the next leg of the 30 million jobs tour. three american universities next week. one in chicago, as you might have just heard. full details on that tomorrow.

we're in depth today on the way we learn and pay forward in greedy bastards. four weeks strong on "the new york times" best sellers list. and if you want to learn more, head to dylanratigan.com. we just posted a pod cast with brian lehrer. we had a lot of solutions. coming up on "hardball," chris with all the day's politics and view of the santorum surge. its reality and its illusion could rick be the true conservative in the republican race? first, david goodfriend with a rant for the love of his life. and every woman out there. are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule.

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on this day we celebrate the ones we care about, david goodfriend has a special rant for his valentine. >> dylan, my wife hates valentine's day. between running her health law practice, shuttling our boys to practice, and making sure her husband remembers where he puts his keys every day, she doesn't have time for pink hearts and red roses. it's usually hard for me to figure out what to do for her on valentine's day. not this year. this is the year that my wife through a high heel shoe at the tv when the susan g. komen foundation withdrew funding for

planned parenthood. this is the year that the aff d affordable care act, which my wife championed, became a political football for the right wing. when women's health and access to con tr sepgs became the wedge issue deinjury distracting us from the real need to spend funds up front on prevention to avoid spending in the future, this year i know exactly what i'm giving my wife for valentine's day. sue, this rant is for you. you're the varsity tennis player who still wins matches against players bigger than you. you're the brilliant lawyer who represents the nonprofit good guys in the health care sector dominated by the big money interests. you're the best mother our sons could have hoped for ready with a gentle hug or stern crack of the whip and always know which they need. and you're my best friend. yes, sue, this valentine's day

because i know how ticked off you are at the insultins being hurled at your intelligence and women like you, i've giving you this rant. because i know how passionately you feel about justice in our law and health care system for women and everyone else. and because i know how much you hate hearts and roses. happy valentine's day, sue. >> that was a very innovative, very affectionate, very loving, and peculiar valentine's day gift. will you give her a youtube clip and say here's the rant i did and you're going to love it? how does the presentation work with something like this? >> hopefully, her business meeting ended in time for her to watch just now. but if not, i have a gift wrapped version for had her at home. >> you get a 10 out of 10