on just one day, 100 million of us joined a movement... and main street found its might again. and main street found its fight again. and we, the locals, found delight again. that's the power of all of us. that's the power of all of us. that's the membership effect of american express. good morning, from new york, i'm chris hayes. u.s. special forces in afghanistan have suspended the training of new afghan recruits after a series of attacks by afghan soldiers with ties to insurgents. the new united nations envoy to sear urrenewed calls for the government to stop crackdown on bloody protesters there as the death toll surpassed 20,000.

right now joining me today, van jones special adviser for jobs and co-founder of rebuild the dream. rose agular host of radio in san francisco and president of the center for american progress and my colleague john nickels, washington correspondent and associate editor of the "wisconsin capital times." great to have all of you guys here. we're looking at the state of the modern democratic party. interest groups that comprise the democratic coalition. for much of the last 80 years, one of the largest of those constinchancies is organized labor. providing the money and organizing power necessary it compete with the well funded gop. but the influence of organized labor within the democratic development has eroded within recent years. the latest example is the very location of the democratic convention next week, charlotte,

north carolina. for the first time in a generation, the democratic convention is being held in a state that forbids private unions from arequiring workers to pay union dues, making it impossible to unionize. north carolina is also one of two states in the country, along with virginia, that makes it illegal for the state to collectively bargain with public sector workers. not surprisingly, north carolina has the loetest rate of unionization of any state in the country. the choice of charlotte prompted an outcry from many labor leaders who see it in the long litny of a front. some are even skipping the convention altogether. north carolina, of course, provides a model for what conservatives are trying to achieve in their sustained nationwide assault, a nation without unions. in fact, one of the proponents of that vision, nick a nikki ha awarded a a prime speaking spot in the republican national convention last week which she used to attack union leaders.

>> we deserve a president who won't sacrifice american jobs and workers to pacify the union bosses that he counts as his political allies. >> you're not going to hear redric from the podium like that in charlotte this week, but that doesn't mean national democratic politicians have done a whole heck of a lot to aid the cause of labor. the outcry was really quite whe convention was announced. they have not been contributing to the fund-raising for the convention itself. they're sending fewer people and, rich, who is the head declared political independence earlier in the year, although they then endorsed barack obama fairly early on. so, this is the eternal conundrum. labor has no where else to go because that nikki haley is the voice of the party and the

democrats know that. the amount of raw union members is declining. and, so, i guess where does this go from here? >> they're a new study came out about the jobs created. the majority of these jobs are low-wage jobs between $7.50 an

hour and $13.50 an hour and you can't live on that. >> they're not unionized. >> of course not. >> what is happening right now and i've interviewed a lot of people. they are being fired at $50,000 a year jobs and because people are so desperate for work, they're retirihiring people at the salary with no benefits. >> there's nothing that aids, this is the broader problem. the broader problem with 8% unemployment nothing that aids the bosses more and forget about collective bargaining more than 8% unemployment because where are you going to go? >> rather than the unions spend money on these conventions, $100 million, they should spend money on organizing because collective action is the only solution here. >> yeah. well, i think this is part of a broader problem. we now would suddenly us not fighting to defend our friends when now our enemies are coming for us turns out to be a bad

strategy. not just the labor unions that are smaller, weaker. remember acorn and they took out 50% of the population with one silly video and no defense mounted. you have a party that should be growing by leaps and bounds. the middle class is being destroyed. the american dream is being gunned down. not being gunned down by barack obama and not being gunned down by labor unions and big corporate, you know, global corporations that don't want to pay america back. they don't want to pay america back with taxes and they don't want to pay america with good wages and respecting our air and water. they want to take, take, take from america and give nothing back. corporate america would be the worst boyfriend ever. they just take and take and they don't want to give anything back. that's destroying the american dream. rather than the democrats saying the champions of people class people are the people we rally around and go to the mat for.

we tend to in the face of controversy back away and then our friends are weaker and our enemies are stronger and to me it is a cycle. >> what is the relationship between obama administration organized labor and how have they dealt with organized labor? this is a tweet sent by the president the night before the wisconsin recall election. the wisconsin recall election was the key strategic political priority of organized labor and tremendous mobilization around scott walker's attempt to gut public sector unions to effectively bargain in that state and the president didn't go to wisconsin, but the night before the election, 12 hours before the election, this tweet. it's election day in wisconsin tomorrow and i'm standing by tom barrett, he'd make an a outstanding governor. 100 labor -- your biggest priority gets less than 140 characters. >> i'm not going to put on my

shoes and march, i'm going to tweet. >> this is really the challenge that we're in and it was odd because in ohio in november of 2011, labor had one of its greatest victories in modern times. governor had put on anti-labor law and unions mobilized and they won. the fascinating thing was. if you wanted to know the story of what happened in ohio, labor led, not the democratic party. labor led and the democratic party so beaten up in ohio, it had been so wiped out in 2010 that they followed labor and they won big. in wisconsin, what happened is the democratic party led and i think they tried hard, but they could not bring the top to bottom infrastructure in and just to close the thought here, when you extrapulate this out, understand what happened here. this convention is a critical

juncture. as recently as 20 years ago, the republican party put labor people on stage at conventions. >> thets true. >> it was a front page story in "new york times" in 1964 when three members of the afl executive board said, we're going to back johnson. we're republicans, republican unionmen, but we moved so far beyond that now. >> i think you want to defend the administration, so i want to give you an opportunity to do that. well, go ahead. >> i just have a good point. >> go ahead. >> look, i think we can talk about charlotte and we can talk about wisconsin and politics and one could argue labor could have done more itself in wisconsin and just saw the polls and chose not to put all their resources there. definitely putting more in the presidential campaign. i think the issue really should be about what the president is doing. >> please. >> and, you know, in this, in the american jobs act the president has defended and asked for, actually increased

resources for public sector workers, teachers, firefighters, police officers. he's actually argued for, he made the case very clearly that it's public sector workers that are in the firing of public sector workers who much by these republican governors that is actually holding this economy back. in terms of what we're actually talking about, it's important that we hire more people, we need more unionization. if you look at germany, one reason their economy is doing better is because they have strong immunization and it drives up wages and it creates demand. that's why we need more unions in our country, but it's also as you recognize what the president is doing and he's actually arguing for billions of dollars to put teachers back in the country. >> so, there's two issues here and i want to lay these out because two things. i want to get to this question of political independence because to me that seems fascinating and profound in the terms of the long-term structural issues. just so folks have a sense of where this ends up and you can

jump in if i'm overlooking or undercounting things. on the bill of complaints, there is the fact that the employee free choice act, which the number one priority was essentially left to wither on the vine. the white house supported it, but never really put much muscle into passing it. that's generalthy consensus. the pay freeze on federal workers is a huge complaint by the union that reps a lot of those workers. that pay freeze will enter a second year, i believe. the president's support for some large-scale firings of teachers in rhode island and some other rhetoric around teachers' unions. these seem to me, some of the big complaints. on the side of support for the president or things he's done in terms of labor, aside from the american jobs act and the parts of the recovery act that sent money to states to close those budget deficits which meant people didn't lose those jobs, the labor recess board and the afl-cio fought very hard for and beefed up staffing and hiring a

very zealous enforcer from new york state that has been cheered by labor folks. there is a mixed record in a lot of way ways. >> let's not also forget how important to labor we passed the affordable care act because that is not a minor piece of business in labor negotiations. >> also some problems with the health -- >> hold on one second, hold on one second. i want to talk about this, talk about the record and the political independence and a a fight going on in charlotte. we have to find new ways to help make life easier, more convenient and more rewarding. it's the reason why we don't have costumers. we have members. american express. welcome in. arntlr gh rg [ nn ]errequ

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all right. we're talking about the relationship of the democratic party and labor and particularly organized labor and talking about the president's record on it and i should state that a contested relationship between a president and organizeded leader is not something that just happened. >> ask jimmy carter. >> go back to the new deal. john lewis who was one of the

most figures has built what we have today in many respects. i think he, i'm pretty sure he endorsed roosevelt's opponent. >> in a national radio broadcast. yeah. >> at a time when john lewis would do a primetime radio broadcast, he would do it because he was a huge figure in american life. rose? >> bringing it back down to the ground where it matters to peppal. had a a great piece in the "washington post" back in april and he looked a that standard wages at auto manufacturing plants in the midwest and found that the wages have gone down from $28 an hour to $15 an hour. new hires are capped at 19 an hour, regardless. okay, and then one more thing, this is important. a new high-tech plan in muncie, indiana. caterpillar are hiring people at $24,000 a year. >> what do you want the president to do about it?

that is what happened in terms of that. unionized labor has moved to nonuni nonunionized south in alabama where toyota is manufacturing a lot of cars. where they have right to work laws. >> what is creating downward pressure the fact that we're dealing with oult sourcing. the reason why manufacturing jobs incomes are coming down because there is global arbitrage about labor costs and now people are competing for lower costs manufacturing and the chal lenging and there is nt enough power to bring those wages up. >> this is a big problem for barack obama because barack obama did not break with the democratic republican, democratic republican consensus on free trade. i will tell you that in the upper midwest, if you talk to folks who are hurting, there is an awful sense, and i hear it from people who will do down ballot hard work, you get them

on barack obama, you get them on barack obama and they have, they struggle with it. they will probably vote for him, but there is a real struggle because brown in ohio running for re-election has battled free trade day and night and saying and teaching the people of ohio, teaching them that a free trade, no, let me just finish this thought. teaching them that if they do, if free trade goes forward, they'll lose their jobs and then they have a president standing up announcing he is doing a new free trade act. >> behind closed doors deals is what's happening. they cannot get the information. so, you have corporate executives behind closed doors making these deals. how is it any different than what -- >> the trade consensus goes back. >> here's where you have the heartbreak. this is a heartbreak for union folks. they use their power to help this president. they use their power to help the democratic party. and it was time for the

democratic party to use its power to help them, which was giving them the power to go out and organize the democrats were missing in action. and when you break that trust, i mean, you've got to remember, labor stepped up in a way you've never seen before. they put all their chips to say we'll put in place and people who are going to help us. we'll help you with what we got and when that didn't happen you leave labor now without a strategy going forward and then there comes the attack. that's the problem. card check was going to give -- >> i should be clear here, you're talking about the democratic party here. i mean, before the main obstacle to employ free choice act, more than anything, were senate votes. i mean -- >> take it away from just obama. >> talking about democrats in the senate. >> you agree or disagree? >> look, i appreciate we should have passed, i totally agree to that. but i think we should step back

here and really have an honest conversation about what's happening with manufacturing jobs and jobs overall. i agree that we should have a tougher negotiation with trade agreements on trade agreements and the challenge on trade is really we're facing, we are facing downward pressure on wages from countries we don't have trade agreements. we don't have a giant trade free agreement. and i believe we should, i believe we should have a tougher stance with these countries. but regardless of whether we have that, people in these companies are making decisions and that's why we do need stronger unions and it would have been important but we should recognize, as well, that we didn't pass because the senate would have passed it. look, the president made a decision about health care. he made a decision to pass health care over it, he didn't believe he would get it and he thought he could get health care. he made that decision. not like he decided not to do anything else. he actually decided to make,

what i think is transformational change by passing the affordable care act, but not like he decided to do nothing. >> we shouldn't lose sight. to the extent that labor plays a unique role in american politics as a "interest group" it is the fact the interest and it will work very hard, i will say this about the labor group. despite the fact that, actually, from the very narrow self-interest perspective, the people who have health care in america are organized, unionized workers. they had the least amount in play. the 50 million people who are going to get medicaid the medicaid expansion, those aren't labor members. by and large -- >> absolutely. but it does help labor, the fact that they don't have to negotiate. >> labor has been in the last few years a lot of defensive action as by labor. >> that's because the republican party has the boot on the

neck -- >> i want to talk to someone in north carolina who is actually trying to organize public sector unions, not just the defend the rights of existing public unions and organize new public sector unions and salidi mohammed will join us next. right decision. so when we can feel our way through the newest, softest, and most colorful options... ...across every possible price range... ...our budgets won't be picking the style. we will. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. get labor day savings with up to 24 months special financing with your home depot credit card.

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we haven't forgotten, you still like things to push. [ engine revs ] the all-new cadillac xts has arrived, and it's bringing the future forward. >> our role is not to build the power of a political party or a candidate. it doesn't matter if candidates and parties are controlling the wrecking ball or simply standing aside to let it happen. the outcome is the same eater way. if leaders are blocking the wrecking ball anded a vnsing working families' interest, then working people will not sport th them. this is where our focus will be now, 2012 and beyond. >> richard trumka declaring political independence, declaring political independence. i want to bring an organizing of the united electrical union

workers. can you tell us a little bit about the history of anti-unionism in north carolina is profound and fascinating and in some senses kind of dark vision of what the future of the entire country might look like. what are the conditions under which you are working to try to build the labor movement in terms of north carolina's legal structure? >> well, first of all, i think it's important to say that north carolina epitomizes a regional problem. in all 12 southern states together combined, there are more union members in a state of new york than all 12 southern states combined. so, you know, it's important to really recognize the role that the south has played overall in weakening a labor throughout the country. the south has become a global

reason, you know. in north carolina in 1957 when the taft act was passed and also in '59 when right to work was established, there were no blacks in the legislature. black people couldn't even vote. so when we'd think about the emergence of right to work, particularly throughout the south, it comes out of a particular history that had a system of jim crowe which had already shaped the relationship between workers and the employers. in north carolina, we call right to work a jim crowe law. the last jim crowe law here. in charlotte, it's so important to point to charlotte because charlotte was the leader in leading the denial of collective bargaining for all state, all public sector employees.

state, county and local government. in '58, the chairman, chairperson of the chamber of commerce of charlotte introduced a report and proposed a bill, proposed a bill calling for the prohibition of collective bargaining race, not only to prohibition, but to make it illegal for all public sector workers to join the union. >> my understanding is that there was even a misdemeanor law on the books in north carolina that it was illegal to be a member of a union which is, obviously, plainly and patently unconstitutional because you had the freedom of association in this country and that was struck down by the supreme court, but kept on the books in north carolina. >> yes. >> now, i want to ask this question. >> yes, absolutely. in fact -- >> go ahead. >> the north carolina public service workers union had to challenge that and they had to get a print change because

supervisors would use that statue in the bold headlines that it's illegal to join the union and misdemeanor to save the workers from joining and organizing the union. >> just so people are clear on this, this law struck down was unconstitutional and people were using the law, even though it had the foot law saying this is invalidated. >> like a big poster of it. >> might possibly still be a problem. >> right. >> when you -- let's zoom out and look at the stakes of this public sector union fight because it's so important in terms of where the power of unions is as private sector has been destroyed by all the forces you talked about and before there was china a, right, there was center south carolina. >> in many american states, public sector unions -- >> even northern states. >> the first outsourcing. >> that's right. >> the democratic party. not the whole of it, but they

are the infrastructure that kept the democratic party strong and functional. doesn't mean there isn't a democratic chairman or a democratic committee, but the fact of the matter is public union workers stepped up. they will endorse candidates for different offices, but they defend the public. they defend the comcomments and, as such, because the republican party has in the last decade begun a militant campaign to assault trade unionism at all levels, they have been pushed more and more into a clear democratic position and had to spend more and fight more. the interesting thing is that we are now at a remarkable juncture where we listen to him talking and this incredible story. understand that this goes back, there is deep history here and i'm not going to tell the whole deep history, but i'll say that the deep history is that trade unionism has changed our parties and it has changed our politics. now, as there is an effort to fully remove trade unions from one party, we have to, democrats

have to really be conscious. they're going to a place where they can, indeed, without going overboard, speak a language of support for collective bargaining and trade unionism that i think could be very, very vital, not just in the north, but in the south. they better do it. >> i would love to hear saladine tell us a couple stories of what workers are facing because i have a piece coming out in al jazeera english tomorrow where house workers in southern california and i want to give this guy a voice, he's 61 years old and what he does is unload all the craft that people buy at walmart. he works from midnight until 8:00 in the morning and makes 8.$8.50 an hour and gets no benefits. no access to clean drinking water. we're talking about southern california, the largest port in the country. he barely gets a break. they cannot even mention the word union. his hours have been cut so much that he is not able to pay his

rent. he got evicted and now living in a motel. this is 61-year-old -- >> american heroes who are fighting for america's middle class and need a champion in the democratic party, but we have to understand the stakes that as a party, we, we have a key pillar being knocked down by republicans and being knocked down by global corporations and let's come to the rescue. >> i want to hear about the front lines of the fight with sanitation workers down there. we have to take a quick break. u] hey, isn't that the girl who tore out your still-beating heart? ok, how's this gonna play? try manly [ screams ] [ male announcer ] eew, ok, just do your thing. hey! hey! [ male announcer ] definitely a little bit epic. stride.

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charlotte can look like when you don't have representation. >> well, first of all, i think it's important to recognize that the attack on public sector workers is an attack on public services. and there's an attempt to hide that. organized workers are the strongest, strongest power to defend public services. this attack on public sector workers is a part of a strategy toward privatizing public services and, again, you know, making them a for profit entity. that is very much missing, i think, in the argument in the debate. there is a part of the social safety net that working class people rely on. here in north carolina and also in tampa, it's ironic, you know, that the whole of republican and democratic convention you can secure federal grants and federal funding in the amount of

$50 million in tampa and $50 million in charlotte. now, i mean, but the workers, you know, can't get a decent raise. workers are required to work 12 to 15 hours a day. they've enact aed now a new policy of minor infractions, accidents, et cetera, of 30-day suspension without pay. now, any time workers are working 12 hours a day, it's quite possible that somebody might have an accident. yet, these workers don't have any official voice. the only voice they have is when they pick iet the city hall or call on their allies, you know, to make noise on their behalf. this is why it's so important because in a society and an economy where a job is required inereder to provide basic necessities for the family, then

workers' rights is a human right. of course, it will just dislaunl the whole community if workers have no rights to be able to address the issues that impact them on a job. >> i want to reemphasize one point that you mentioned that gets lost because they're assault, particularly from this idea of that they're greedy. when you think about a public sector union workers who is working in, say, a mental hospital. those patients have no voice. no constituency and can say, no, don't cut the hours, don't cut the funding for this place are union workers inside it. i'm just restating what saladin said because it's such an important point. >> unfortunately, i'm still in shock because i was down in tampa in the gop convention doing coverage and commentary down there and the republican party wants the entire country

to be north carolina. all of the horror stories that you just heard, they want that for all 50 states. and i think the challenge that we have right now, we have this frustration that we haven't been there for labor now. if we think it's bad now, if we don't, if we don't now rally to make sure that we don't have these kind of policies happening across the country, i think we're in real trouble. i grew up hearing, i never heard the team public sector worker when i grew up. i heard teacher, firefighter, nurse, librarians and those were the heroes we were supposed to look up to. >> i think all of this discussion gets why unions are important and i think it's what we should be argue aing about and what we're really seeing in this economy right now with 8% unemployment and also with the drive down in wages, what is really happening is we're not creating enough demand and that's hurting all of us. why is it important to hire teachers, firefighters? because when they're fired they can't buy anything and that is what the real challenge is, why we're facing lower growth and why we don't have better

unemployment because this economy drives on consumption and we're really losing that. that's why it doesn't really make sense for corporations who really need that demand to drive down wages in the long run, but that's what's happening. >> we should also say there's the microtrend of what's happening in the recession. >> but, really accelerate it over the last ten years and a product of the inability of people to really organize. >> productivity is off the charts. you had at $378,000 per worker in 2007 in productivity. last year, $420,000. >> it's incredible. >> walmart just posted their second quarter profits, $4 billion. and this guy is making $8.50 with no clean water. this is unconscionable in the year 2012. >> mother jones called this the great speed up because one thing that happened in the recession and it's able to happen because the climbing union density, places that fired workers but

maintained their level of output by working people harder. i want to thank saladin muhammad. public service union workers and good luck with the convention this week. thanks so much. >> thank you. we'll talk about the, more about the role of labor in the democratic party, as well as the role of finance and how a party can manage to represent the interest of both at the same time. is it possible? er driven. i bought the car because of its efficiency. i bought the car because i could eliminate gas from my budget. i don't spend money on gasoline. it's been 4,000 miles since my last trip to the gas station. it's pretty great. i get a bunch of kids waving at me... giving me the thumbs up. it's always a gratifying experience. it makes me feel good about my car. i absolutely love my chevy volt. ♪ >> announcer: meet mary. she loves to shop online with her debit card, and so does

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i love new technology, so when i heard that american express and twitter were teaming up, i was pretty interested. turns out you just sync your american express card securely to your twitter account, tweet specific hashtags, and you'll get offers on things you love. this totally changes the way i think about membership. saving money on the things you want. to me, that's the membership effect. nice boots! on thursday president obama will close the democratic national convention in charlotte. here's the dnc chair, los angeles mayor antonio villaraigosa earlier this week. >> the whole sort of culmination of the whole week is at bank of america stadium. yeah, democrats and i know a

bunch of literature are calling it panther stadium. do you have a problem with a mega bank sponsor? >> i don't have a problem with the sponsor and whoever is talking about the panthers do play there and -- >> what are you calling it sph. >> i'm calling it the football stadium. >> purchased by a major u.s. bank highlights some of the contradictions of the u.s. democratic party. as the labor in the democratic party has diminished in the past two decades, two things have happened. inequality has risen and campaigns have become much, much, much more expensive. in turn, democrats have learned to the finance sector for funding. $22 million to john mccain's $13 million. that mountain of wall street cash serves to heighten the contradicks in the modern democratic party while the republicans can protect the interest of capital the democratic party must try to

represent interest and labor. while attempting to do just that, president obama said this in 2009. >> i did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of, you know, fat cat bankers on wall street. >> that single otherance uttered by president obama combined with frank dodd financial reform pushed it back to the republican party in a huge way. the cycle of the sector has donated 1 -- less on finance and capital and less on labor. robert wolff former president and a member of president's council and host of impact players on reuters channel on youtube tv. great to have you here. >> thank you, great to be here. > >> so, i am obsessed with the

story that you see, how the titans of finance feel. nothing makes me love president obama more than these stories because if he, if the people, if jamie dimons of the world are mad, he must be doing something. >> is that your feeling? >> i left ubs august first. >> i'm curious to get, i'm going to get some insight. when you look at the dow jones industrial average, profits on wall street, the banks are incredibly healthy and people that make a lot of money are making a lot of money. is it really just that they don't like the word fat cats and is it dodd frank and why are people so upset? >> those are two good things to start on. let's start with fat cat. i'm glad he used the word fat cat. i went on a diet, i lost 30 pounds. let's be blunt here. we were called a lot of different things by a lot of

different people. it's really meaningless and what we have accomplished over the last few years which segues into the lehman weekend. no disrespect to people who talk about the lehman weekend. when governor romney or congressman ryan say, are we different than four years ago? i mean, come on. january 2009, we lost 800,000 jobs. the most in 60 years. okay. the stock market's up since the president took office, almost 100%. we have 500,000 more manufacturing jobs than we've had had. that's the best since the '90s. our exports is a percent of gdp have been gaining double digits ever since he's been in office. so, we have had economic stability. we're not where we want to be. with respect to dodd frank, we need reform, just to be clear, we did not have the tools that weekend, okay, for what we needed. okay.

i'm not saying i agree with all 5,000 pages. i liked it better when it was in the 85 treasury blue print but reform is needed. >> i want to go back to the first part because that, to me, is the key point. from my perspective as a hummable journalist, i look at the banks and i say, these guys saved your bacon. they save your bacon, they saved your livelihood and they saved you from total destruction and discrediting. remarkably, it's almost like the whole thing never happened. it feels like the whole thing never happened in the rest of the country because the recession has been tough on jobs. but the perspective of finance, why are you complaining? you should be throwing roses at the feet of -- i'm being serious. why is there not more gratitude? this is the thing that drives me bonkers. >> there is a choice in this election. there are people on wall street who understand that and people in finance who understand that. you know, you're one of them,

there are others. but, look, one of the reasons why so many people of incredible means are giving to the superpacs on the republican side and to mitt romney is because it's a return on investment. they're looking at 20% across the board tax cut and they're looking at their own -- >> looking at the end of the inheritance tax. >> look, there's other people on wall street recognizing it's better for the entire economy to grow and i think those are people who are supporting the president. i think that's the difference. they're looking at a longer term versus only an immediate short-term issue. >> i want to find out how much of this is temporary and where things go from here in terms of the two parties and two candidates after we take a break. most of the pain i experience is neck pain

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you just made a point and i think it's great. why aren't the wall street bankers lining up with roses at the white house to thank president obama for saving them. you made the excellent point, the election is between two candidates. one candidate is proposing

things like getting rid of the inheritance tax entirely and getting rid of a 20% tax cut and lowering capital gains and paul ryan wants to get rid of capital gains altogether and mitt romney would pay 0%. >> i think it's 1%. >> 1%. you're saying it's a return on investment and i would like you to respond to that. is that your understanding? >> listen, as opposed to talk about why someone is moving that way because of taxes, we should talk about this way. why do we need taxes to go up for the wealthy? it's about having a shared sacrifice and i want to put one fact on the table. since 1776 every war we ever had in this country was followed up with taxes. every war. we have been in a ten-year war. it is time that we look at the sacrifice differently. this is not like i don't want my taxes to go up, but at the end of the day, this is what i would recommend for this country. they all give the president grief about clarity.

this is very straight forward. we could pass right now tax relief for 98, the extension for 98% of this country. let's do it. then let's have the argument on the last 2% and see which way it goes. but let's bring clarity to 98% of this country. >> i agree. if you look at the polling, right, that's where the polling is. the problem that we face is that the 2% there has a lot of money on the table. i mean, you're talking about tens, hundreds of millions of dollars. >> this is the fundamental disconnect of the moment. we have, absolutely everything we're saying here is totally right except that that president who will say it and probably say some of that quite well. still has, they desperately look. i talk to dnc people all the time. they desperately look at that romney pile of money and they keep saying, people saying, oh, my gosh, we have to get some of that -- >> the president could not be more clear. i will raise taxes for this as part of shared sacrifices.

>> the emphasis on that message is undermined by the absolute fear of romney's budget. >> but that's not accurate. let's be clear. the top 2%, okay, they are absolutely willing to give back what they want to see as a fiscal deal. so, they understand where their dollars and cents are going. i think the president put something on the table, okay, which was for every $3 of spending cuts, it's a dollar of revenues. we should just look at the facts. 15% of our gdp right now is revenues. 24% is spending. the average has always been 18% of revenues, 21% of spending. so, when the republican party stands up and say zero to tax increases, it's silly time. it just doesn't work. you need taxes to go up, okay a, less than spending. you need spending to go down and that's where we need to be. that's the whole battle on gdp. >> let me point one more thing

out here. you'll note viewers and listeners, 20% in spending. we always run deficits, right? no, no, i'm saying this is a good thing. >> we have run surpluses. >> if you look at the totality in the overall scheme of thing in the last 100 years in american history we run deficits and we run them for a good reason. what do we do when something that's hard to paint, really wants to be painted? we break out new behr ultra with stain-blocker from the home depot... ...the best selling paint and primer in one that now eliminates stains. so it paints over stained surfaces, scuffed surfaces, just about any surface. what do you say we go where no paint has gone before, and end up some place beautiful. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. get $5 off one gallon cans of our best paint,

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arntlr gh rg [ nn ]errequ gh sf owgrl. rg hello from new york, i'm chris hayes. van jones from rebuild a dream, robert wolf a fund-raiser for the obama campaign and former investor of ubs bank and john nichols. we are talking about finance wall street and this election and particularly their relationship to the president, his re-election campaign and the rath of stories we've seen about the stories we've seen in which

the titans of finance have soursour . here's jamie dimon of jpmorgan chase on "meet the press" describing his own political affiliation in the wake of the president's first term. >> you supported president obama, you're a democrat, still? >> i would call myself a barely democrat at this point. i didn't support anyone last time around. i am a democrat, yes. >> so, what happened? why barely a democrat now? >> you know, i've gotten disturbed at some of the democrats' anti-business behavior and the sentiment and the attacks on work ethic and successful people and i think it's very counterproductive. >> attacks on work ethic. can someone please say to me when president obama has attacked the work ethic? how do you respond to that jamie dimon quote?

>> i'm letting you play the straight man, i'm the one getting all upset. >> i have a lot of respect, so how he wants to frame where he is personally, that's up to him. the way i would see it is, we have had 30 straight gains in private sector jobs. over 4.5 million private sector jobs. so, i think the private sector is starting to actually build a nice foundation. housing, okay, foreclosures is at a four-year low. housing starts at a four-year high. the auto sector and something you just bring up. when the governor of ohio the other night said that they have gone from 48th to 4 in job creation -- >> this is great. >> one in every eight jobs is the auto sector it should end in, thank you, mr. president. listen, we're seeing our country make things in america, build things in america, export from america. those are good things. >> i'm sorry. i just want you --

>> on that jamie thing -- >> that specific thing. forget about jamie dimon. i heard it in interviews i did in my own reporting. attacks on success, attacks on the work ethic. this idea that barack obama has some secret socialist program to sap the entrepreneurial view of the american people. >> i don't buy it. listen, as i said before, the republicans can put out donald trump and have their talk, but i'm proud that obama has people like warren buffett and eric schmidt of google. maybe we're just not touting who is for him on the business side as much as we should. maybe we just don't yell as much. but at the end of the day, there's a lot of business people for the president and a lot of business people for governor romney. that's where this country is. wall street does not define business. >> that's a very important thing, as well. we were talking about this at the break, wall street is a part of the business community. you have a lot of people in the

business community that understand that turning the country over to wall street has devastated main street businesses. so, you hear this sort of scream and yell. i don't understand how wall street got away with such a small slap on the wrist. they got the bailouts and they got the bonuses and all the great stuff and they literally are crying because they use the word fat cat once. what is it you would have him do differently? it's an emotional thing. but they're putting their kind of emotional pain over the rest of the country's need for economic gain. >> listen, i think it's nice to point the finger at wall street, them doing this, them doing that. wall street, you guys are defining wall street much more broader than how i define wall street. very philanthropic. you cannot blame wall street because t.a.r.p. helped them and we sped to recovery much quicker. it is a positive our banks are firm today. we have economic stability. we are the most stable

industrialized country in the world because the banks are stable. that's a good thing. we should not move away from that. >> can we just go on this issue of success for a second and the president's rhetoric. if you listened to the republicans last week there was a lot of argument that somehow the president is attacking success. and i think what's really happened here is if you look at what happened in 2008 in wall street and housing and a whole variety of areas, you know, there was a crisis and people lost a lot of their welt. 30% of the wealth of the country. >> $8 trillion. >> $8 trillion. and, you know, a lot of people made bad decisions. a lot of people on wall street made bad decisions and allowing a deregulation system that you referenced earlier. but i think, you know, the president has just spoken to that level of anger in the country. that people who did nothing wrong lost their jobs, lost income and lost their housing value and people are angry about that and what the republicans

have done is the criticism the president has made about these poor decisions in the past with attack on success. that is a failure and we need to call them out on that. we have attacked the unfairness that has come from an economy that is not working for everybody. >> the watch word on the t-shirts even before the speeches, but in every speech was the we built it. and i want to emphasize, that is at the heart of this thing. there is a desire to suggest that barack obama, because of -- in one speech which he actually explained what he was saying about infrastructure that barack obama is a militant foe of the person, not wall street, but the scrappy guy trying to start a business. and what i want, what scares me about this, what scares me about this discourse is that desire to kind of come back at that and try to explain that. that goes deep into the weeds of where they want to be. a debate about whether barack obama is anti-business or not.

that's what they want. and i think the answer on this one is to go, it's much of what you have been talking about here. also point out one thing, the magazines that paul ryan and mitt romney read, the newspapers they read, "the financial times" "the economist" they talk about the american success story of the last three years. european countries tried osparity and in america, this obama guy did stimulus, that worked. it's important to point out that there have been some success here and that's a way to counter the, you didn't build it. >> two things. one that we didn't build it completely taken out of context. >> totally. >> this is a guy in the president of the united states who believes in infrastructure as one of the growth engines for this country. we should also be very clear for every dollar spent, it is a multiplier of 1.6 times on gdp. the fastest multiplier for any business. he put out a bill that didn't

get past. how could you not pass intrasfrkture? i hosted a summit that had the chamber of commerce on one side and the unions on the other side both begging. >> this is the middle and regulation in texas both begging for it. the idea that we have a polar e polarizing environment today. >> pole riarize in washington. >> this is one of the great tragedies. there is common ground between business and between labor and it has to do with investing in human infrastructure and there is a desire on the part of republicans even stuff that is good for small businesses and even stuff that is good for infrastructure, the republicans won't pass their own bills because they would rather see the economic pain build up than have the country move forward and have obama get credit for it. i think that has to be raised as a real question. think about the environmental

emergency we had with the hurricane. everyone jumps in to help. you have an economic emergency and the republicans don't jump in to help. that's a big problem. >> a year ago today he came out with the america's jobs act. >> it was multiple republican id ideas. >> 7 0% of that was tax breaks. 30% was structure and argue about the 10% that no one is for. >> domestic auto industry not be the same sort of thing. these are fundamental things. >> the first economist to come out that this was good policy was mccain's republican economist who said, 1.7 million jobs, okay, 1.7 and maybe 2% on gdp. >> it went no where in the house. >> and that was paul ryan. >> but explain that. that to me is also interesting because why is it the case, you know, neera, you articulated a

better recovery is better for all those folks. we're talking about return on investment. all those folks giving ton of money to mitt romney. you need customers. even if you're a bank, you need customers. although sometimes not so much, depending what kind of bank you run. but, generally, the folks giving all this money to mitt romney, you would think there would be pressure brought to bear on the republican party not to do that precisely because a recovery would be broadly helpful and the problem here, it gets back, i don't want to litigate the financial wall street crisis, i have a million shows to do that. the problem here, there is a bifurcated recovery and this gets to this profound point. those folks giving money to mitt romney feel that obstruction on the front of jobs and mitt romney that they could achieve a new equal librium and that is a

durable equal librium. they could write that off because their quarterly profits are breaking records and the question is, are they right or are they wrong? if they're right, that is a serious and deep and profound problem for the democrats and for the american political economy down the road and with that, robert wolf, i'm sorry, i'm not going to let you respond. really appreciate it. >> thank you. some of the less talked about political races this season could have more of an impact than who wins the white house. coming up next. ♪ why not make lunch more than just lunch?

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in a presidential election year, it's easy to overlook the down ballot races even as they

move into their final stages. these races matter more and more as control of congress becomes more fluid and contested, especially on domestic issues. with the exception of a few brief interregnums the democrats controlled both houses of congress and then came the so-called republican revolution in 1994 that turned capitol hill upside down and democratic sweep in 2006 that seized control of the house back and the tea party backlash of 2010 that gave president obama the most obstructive and implacable in generations. the nature of which took a while to sink in in the oval office. president obama said, "i think there were many times in my first couple years when i kept on sitting there trying to see if we can negotiate some sort of." as the last two years have illustrated the republican party makes congressional control

arguably more important than ever. we wanted to hear directly from some of the democratic candidates in house and senate races because these are the people who hear directly from the voters. which is the reason why we invited five candidates to join us this morning. here with me is rob, paul ryan's challenger and hakim jeffries and cynthia dill and nate, democratic congressman from new york's 23rd congressional district and joining us from phoenix is kirsten, a democratic candidate for the new ninth congressional district. nice to have you all here. >> nice to be here. >> i want to talk about the role that incumbency plays and this is especially true for two of you. rob, you're running against an incumbent whose name is familiar and rob you're running against tom reid. former mayor of corning, right? a republican. and he's the district has been

redrawn and he's not exactly in the same district. for both of you running against incumbents, the dynamic of this election so far has been about the economy, the republicans making the case, the economy is bad, it's barack obama's fault. vote barack obama out. but, of course, we have divided government and congress has been, you know, playing quite a role in the economy, look at the debt ceiling a year ago. how does that play in your district? are you making a case about the economy and tying it to the incumbent. >> since paul ryan has been our congressman, we had a mass exodus of jobs and a gm plant close in jamesville -- >> which we heard about and the misrepresentation of the facts and we had a chrysler plant close in kenosha. that combined over 12,000 jobs that we lost. so, i'm pointing this out to people and i think due to his speech and the outrage that was generated among the people and

former uaw members in janesville, it is front and center. >> that's interesting. a lot of local backlash to that line in the speech? >> absolutely. because people are looking and they look at this and say you either blatantly lied or he didn't know the facts, which as your congressman, is unacceptable. >> we were looking at amazing and sort of heartbreaking slide show over the last day of production of that plant, december 23rd, 2008 and pictures and signed signatures. nate. >> yeah, absolutely. i think congress has been totally obstructionist and you had that jobs' bill on the table that was just discussed for a year and no action actually taking place. my district is very much like robs. we have a lot of manufacturing and a lot of agriculture and a lot of major decisions that need to be made in this congress and i'm running against an incumbent, tom reid who is in the sea of galilee scandal, as well. >> it's true. all right. but he was part of it and when

he was part of it, it just showed he was part of that culture in washington. this whole tea party movement went in there to change washington and they ended up becoming part of the problem. you xwknow he's still taking taxpayer trips overseas and not taxpayer, not just taxpayer funded trips and paid by lobbyists and special interests and he has become part of the problem. what voters are concerned about, status quo doesn't mean that fairness pays off in this country. there isn't fairness in this country and working and middle class people feel like they're being left behind and this status quo, they're continuing that. >> we talked about the american jobs act and some of the job losses in the district. cynthia, hakim you're here in new york and kirsten you're in arizona and i was remembering back in 2006 the democrats very successfully nationalized that election, a lot around the iraq war and opposition to the iraq war and a feeling of exhaustion. let's say everyone at this table

wins and we have a democratic majority in both houses. what is the agenda? kirsten, when you say to the foekz in your district, i'm going to go to congress and if you put democrats in charge, we will do -- what's the fill in the blank there? >> well, chris, you know, when we're walking and talking with voters in our district what we say is the only way to change washington is to change the people we send there. unfortunately, from arizona, we have been sending a delegation that is more interested in partisan bickering than actually solving problems. i'll tell you, chris, voters are concerned about one thing and one thing only in arizona, jobs. one-third of arizonans are worried they can lose their jobs some time this year. they wake up in the morning and they don't really think about being a democrat or being a republican. they think about whether or not they're going to have their job. whether or not they can pay their mortgage and put their kids through school and have a safe and strong economic future. that's what they care about. >> when you talk about economic

insecurity, right, the national election is happening at the same time and when you're talking about economic insecurity the fault of the person at the top of the ticket. what surprises you that you're hearing from voters, right after we take a quick break. do anyth♪ ♪ i can do anything today ♪ i can go anywhere ♪ i can go anywhere today ♪ la la la la la la la [ male announcer ] dow solutions help millions of people by helping to make gluten free bread that doesn't taste gluten free. together, the elements of science and the human element can solve anything. solutionism. the new optimism.

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and it removes up to 90% of surface stains in just 5 days. for a smile so white, you won't just be the ex-girlfriend. you'll be the one that got away. crest 3d white glamorous white toothpaste. life opens up when you do. and try 3d white brush and rinse. talking to democratic congressional and senate democrats cynthia. how do you respond to the fact that voters are feeling economically insecure and you're campaigning to go to washington and help change that at the same time republicans' mesening about the source of that economic insecurity is very straight forward. it's barack obama. what is your message to them? >> my message is that the republicans are wrong, it's not barack obama who is obstructing the ability for americans to get jobs. it's the extremist in the republican party who made it their life's work to prevent any success on the part of the president and democrats. so, what i tell voters is that there are these packages up on

the shelf, bills waiting to be passed that could provide a veteran's job core and could provide tax fairness and help the refinancing of homes and that could build infrastructure projects. these things are just waiting to happen, but we need the votes. so, they need to send people like me, people like the fine candidates at this table so that the president can have the support and the congress he needs to move the country forward. >> do people know about those bills? i feel like, when you tell a voter there is a thing called the american jobs act that would tell x, y, z. >> what they do know is this republican leadership and the house of representatives and that tea party conference has blocked the ability of the president and the american people to move forward in a productive way. now, notwithstanding the tremendous obstructionism that is evident to people on the ground that i talk to day after day after day what we are pointing out, congress not

withstanding has been made. that 4.3 million private sector jobs have been created under this administration that the automobile industry in detroit was saved for the good of the country that we have seen foreclosure rates at a four-year low. so, progress has been made not withstanding the obstructionism but, of course, more has to be done. the president inherited a catastrophic train wreck and the only way to get it back on track, the people doing the democratic parties then. >> one of the things i found interesting in my district is that people are concerned about public sector job loss, as much as they are private sector job loss. they see republicans part of that problem. you look at school districts in my district and i have el mira only a city of 30,000 people. 200 job losses in just teachers alone. that is hurting these communities and hurting people across this entire district.

we're losing middle class jobs and that's a huge problems and i think republican people are se republicans at fault for that. >> kyrsten, you are in a new district and political dimensions and it's a real 50/50 and you're one of the number one swing rank district in terms of how the electorate is. when you say we need to see people who solve problems and not bicker, can you simultaneously say i want to work to save problems and this party on the other side that will do nothing, but stop at nuthing to destroy the democratic party? >> well, you know, chris, i just served seven years in the arizona state legislature, really, if i can manage that, i can certainly handle congress. the truth is, there are opportunities to work across the aisle. the problem that we faced in congress is that there is so many extremists who are just like my new tea party opponent

who are more interested in partisan gridlock than in finding shared solutions. you know, chris, i have an opponent who want to eliminate the department of education, right? no pel grants, no student loans. it's hard to find common ground with those individuals, but i believe that you can always find a way to reach across the aisle and solve some problems. what we need is a congress that has folks on both sides of the aisle that are willing to do just that. >> chris, i was a small business owner and provided excellent wages and benefits and i can tell you not this overregulation of small businesses that people like to talk about. my businesses were located in the northern suburbs of chicago and i had a lot of success. the greatest impediment i found to my business, a health care crisis our nation faced and the republicans response to addressing that was do nothing. now, we have a president that

gets in and passes the aca and this will do a lot to help people get started in business. >> how does the affordable care act play in your district? do you talk about it much? what do you hear from voters about it? >> it comes up quite a bit because with paul ryan having write this kill medicare budget the solution is medicare for all and that's how we get the small business of entrepreneurship going, again. making an environment where they're not worried about having to pay horrendous amounts of health insurance costs or not have the kind of protection for their family that they need for fear of bankruptcy. >> do we have a medicare for all consensus at the table? medicare for all? >> wow, okay. >> i think the affordable care act to this broader war that is playing out with progress for the many, which everyone around the table is articulating and prosperity for the few. the notion is you have entitlement programs that have been successful, medicare, social security that are under attack by the republican party, by paul rien and by the

extremists on the right that really threaten the capacity for average, ordinary, everyday americans to move forward. that really is the stakes of this election and the more that we can emphasis that in our own district and across the country, the better we'll be in november. >> the affordable care act you asked how it plays out in the various races. in maine, the first thing our tea party governor did when the supreme court announced that the affordable care act was constitutional, but the medicaid extent, the waiver issue might be out there was try to throw people who have health insurance. like 27,000 people. so, the affordable care act comes up over and over again when you're in a state being governed by tea parties because their goal is to take as many people off of health care as possible and a great opportunity for progressives and democrats to talk about it. >> we now heard the phrase tea party 15 times, guess something about the poll on that phrase. i want to talk about the era of big money and superpacs and how

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including behr ultra, now through september 5th. running an ad, because it points to a fascinating set of circumstances, specifically in maine you're the democratic nomy and a republican nominee and then an independent running very well known in the state, two-term governor and hosted a talk show at some point, television show. very well known name recognition and polled quite early in the early polls, although you told

me those are old polls and a super pac ad taken out by whom on your behalf? >> well, a republican super pac by the name of freedom works and while it's unusual in a lot of respects, it's also erroneous in one regard and that is that angus king supports extending bush tax cuts for everybody. so, he's on the side of the republicans when it comes to tax fairness. i support the president's view that we should extend tax cuts only for families making less than $250,000. but the ad itself certainly a phenomenon in politics, at least in my lifetime. i've never seen the republicans do something to help me like they did in this ad and i understand from news reports that today a new ad is going to be rolling out from the same republican superpac. i haven't seen it, but hopefully it takes about my great legislative record. >> well, this is a fairly cynical attempt to essentially get democrats to split the vote of democrats between angus king

and yourself paving the way for a path to victory for charlie summers. >> right, nothing really good to say about the republican candidate, so, what they're going to do is repeat what happened in the governor's race which is impossible given the circumstances. >> kyrsten, are you seeing a lot of money on both sides. are you seeing super pac money or dark money from groups like freedom works for cross roads. is that a specter that looms in your race? >> well, we're not sure what's going to happen in the general election in this race, but i can tell you, chris, i just went through a very hard-fought primary. there was a super pac against me in the primary. it was a shadowy group from tennessee. we don't know where the money came from and we have no information about it, but we do expect that to play, again. as you mentioned, chris, i'm on the red to blue list which the democratic campaign committee has listed 50 seats across the

country as their top priority to switch from republican to democrat, or in my case, a brand-new district that is pretty evenly split between democrats and independents and republicans. so, we do expect to see the specter of secret outside money in this race. from our perspective, we think it is more important to do a good job of defining our selves and the folks that we serve early on in the race so that people aren't swayed by some of this shady -- exactly. >> are you seeing that kind of money, nate? >> in my district, one of the big issues s is fracing and th stuff is, it has a big risk to our water in the area. congressman reid, the american petroleum institute is sending mailers into the district and pacs and super pacs are contributing to this race. i'm seeing it already. also, i want to mention even before this citizens united era

the influence of money and politics is there. my opponent. i raised $500,000 already from individuals my opponents raised $6750,000 from corporate political action committees. we need to be pushing, especially as progressives here, too, for public financing of elections and get the money out of politics. >> how much time, give me an estimate, of your time spent waking and working. i'll go around the table, do you spend raising money. be honest. >> 75%. >> well, you know -- >> we're in a a different situation, but we raised over $1 million in heated primary that was necessary to get the message out. districts have grown 717,000 people in the size now and the cost of media in order to be able to broadcast -- >> how much time? >> i would say greater than 50%. >> we spent about 25 hours a week in call time and the rest

of the time meeting voters and, so -- >> i spend about 25 hours a week and, actually, i have a big, rural district. the places where i can't get cell services i relish the lack of cell service. >> kyrsten, how about you? >> i spend a lot of time fund-raising. the good news about, the good news about arizona is that the majority of my donors come from within the district. i get to spend a lot of time talking to voters about what they care about. but, i'll tell you, it's expensive. we spend almost $1 million in the primary. we have to do that same amount, again, in the general. >> i will tell any viewer that is watching when you hear call time which may sound like an innocuous phrase, it is a soul sucking enterprise with a telephone and a printed out sheet of paper and a staffer being like, get on the phones, get on the phones as you call through and ask people for money. i watched people do it. if you ever thought running for

office is a glamorous enterprise, you should watch someone do call time. more on what those dynamics look like, after this break. [ male announcer ] this is rudy.

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[ female announcer ] and try aleve for relief from tough headaches. all right. candidate forum lightning round. democratic challengers and in some cases not challengers running for congress, i want you to tell me one thing you'd change about washington. >> i think we need to get out of the out of touch washington insiders like paul ryan who never worked outside of washington, d.c., and never had a job in the private industry and i think we need to change the culture and get rid of those type of people. >> put in place a job creator, the entire argument at the rnc, which seems to be, which seemed to necessitate if you followed to vote -- >> i think we need to end the permanent campaign. there is a time for politics, but once the campaigns end we have to get to the business of the american people and what we've seen over the last two years the campaign continued when it was supposed to be time to govern. hopefully coming out of the election we can get back to

turning the economy around. whatever the outcome is, the president will be re-elected and take the house back in congress and we can move forward. >> cynthia? >> we need more progressive women in the congress and we need people who are going to stand up for small families, excuse me, working families and small businesses. that's what we need for the country to really move forward in a way that's productive and healthy and can bring prosperity to families. >> one thing you would change about washington? >> i would absolutely bring back fairness to all the policies we have out there. instead of having a ryan plan that attacks children's health and tax education, we need a budget that focuses on middle class people and actually invest in the 21st century economy and infrastructure and education system and make sure rich pay their fair share in taxes to pay for it. >> your opponent wrote the ryan budget. kysten, you get the last word. >> what we need in washington are more people who are focused on common sense, pragmatic

solutions. that's a pretty simple thing to achieve. just elect different people. people have a proven track record of standing up for middle class families and who are interested in solving problems. >> if only gridlock can be dissolved unilaterally. >> it was really a great pleasure. >> thank you so much. >> thanks for having us on. >> what you should know for the news week ahead. [ thunder crashes ] [ male announcer ] if you think all batteries are the same... consider this: when the unexpected happens, there's one brand of battery more emergency workers trust in their maglites: duracell. one reason: duralock power preserve.

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just a moment what we should know for the news week ahead. a quick update on the subject we follow on this program. after months of pleading and cable news hosts such as myself, ben bernanke on friday hinted

forcefully at further easing from the fed. he called the job market "a grave concern" and despite already low interest rates more the fed can do to combat unemployment. a report showing creating as many as 2 million jobs and inflation near record lows, the fed hasn't done more. what should you know for the week coming up? you should know while professional fact checkers look forward to running the democratic convention daniel brook dug up another misstatement in mitt romney's speech. >> everywhere i go in america, there are monuments that lists those that have given their lives for america. no mention of their race, their party affiliation or what they did for a living. >> in fact, brook points out that there is a world war one memorial near his house that list servicemen by race. white men in active service and the other list include colored

men in service. memorials that do mention race, party affiliation or what they did for a living at our twitter account or e-mail them @upwithchris. when the democratic delegates m to update the platform they have to decide to tweet the section that renounces the bush section of balance of power we will not ship away prisoners in the dead of night to be tortured in faroff countries or detain without trial or charge prisoners. without the reach of the law. under executive order biz the obama administration, the cia can carry out rendition of prisoners, and the president signed national authorization act which preserves the possibility of worldwide

indefinite detention, and should know that a secret prison system in afghanistan is exempted from freedom of information act, although we got an inside look on the ground there. and the mother of all preholiday weekend news dumps, eric holder announce the justice department will close its investigation into the cia's torture and abuse of detainees without bringing any charges, the aclu says "continuing impunity threatens to undermine the universally recognized prohibition on torture and sends the dangerous signal to government officials that there will no be no consequences fof their use of torture or other cruelty. "yet another entry in a shameful record. and as we barbecue, labor day was made a federal holiday six days after president cleveland sent 12,000 troops to break the pullman strike, firing on and killing some protesters.

for all its celebration of bosses at the rnc, no one mentioned the small, inconvenient fact that businesses aren't just built by owners. no small business owner and founder can function without workers. tomorrow is a good opportunity to survey the vast landscape of american civilization from roads and bridges to the cars that travel upon them to the new cleaning skyscraper stretching up to the air over ground sdple zero and remember labor built that. what my guests think you should know as we head into the week. van jones of rebuild the treatment. >> we're going into the convention this week, so we'll talk about politics, but totally outside of politics, tickets go on sale on september 23 and 24th for prince's concert. he has not been in cob expert for almost a decade. this is not about politics, he says it's s.t.a.r.t. rebuilding

community from the ground up. very exciting to see prince put on a show. he will do it in partnership with rebuild a dream. >> the republican party should know, especially those who spoke at the convention, immigrant does not arrive to an empty country. native americans are never talked about. tomorrow on labor day, the council workers bill of rights was passed in california, which would give 200,000 basic immigrants, mostly women, to overtime pay, they can sleep if they are livins, the farmworker safety act also passed which allows workers to sue employees who fail to provide clean drinking water and shade only when it hits 85 degrees. what happens when it's 83? i guess you have to put on a hachlt these bills on the desk of california governor jerry brown. if you live there, call him. get these bills passed. >> yes, yes. >> you should compare the actual platforms of the democratic party and the republican party,

i think there were a lot of platitude last week, but if you want to see where the republican party stands on how to build jobs, or not, or the rights of women, or not, you should actually look at their platform, and i hope all viewers will actually compare the platforms of the two parties. >> we spent a lot of time last week doing this show for the republican convention talking about the platform. because it was fascinating to see what happened, which was the platform came out, started to leak, and all of the republicans rushed to the microphones and say we had nothing to do with it. platform? what are you talking about? this is the manifesto document saying what the modern republican party stands for. the thing i've been hammering home on, with the house caucus the way it is, and the way the modern republican party functions as a disciplined body, there is no separation between what the candidate says and what the party wants. >> you think they'll veto what

the party wants on any issue? no, not with paul ryan as his vice president. when the rubber meets the road, the republican party has a backward view of women. >> they endorse 14th amendment due process for fetuses and endorse cutting off federal funds to universities that allow students to enroll at in-state tuition, the entire university of texas system would be cut off from federal funds. that is in the republican party platform, everyone should know that. >> and no rights for rape and incest. >> should know in our president in an online conversation last week basically embraced a constitutional amendment to overturn citizens united. this is an incredible thing. very rarely does the president even begin the conversation for a constitutional amendment. it's a fantastic thing. it's the suspension of the calling out of supreme court of

his state of the union address. i hope the democratic party will embrace this. at the end of the day, if we want to talk seriously about money in politics, we're going to have to amend our constitution to say free speech is for people, not conferenrpor. >> tremendous grassroots energy around and i'm always struck when i talk to people how much it looms. and one of the things i think that's been a little lost as we talk about the superpac, most of the money now, superpacs in the primaries, shifting to the dark money now. at least super pacs have reporting requirements. the reason we know how much money sheldon gave to newt gingrich, he had to report because it was a super pac. i would like to thank my guests today. thank you for joining us. we'll be back next weekend, saturday, sunday at 8:00, eastern time with coverage of

the democratic national convention. i will be part of the coverage. coming up melissa harris-perry. she'll dig deep on a looming health care crisis in america, talk about the doctor shortage that could devastate our system. that's next, we'll see you next week here on "up." ♪ why not take a day to explore your own backyard? with two times the points on travel, you may find yourself asking why not, a lot. chase sapphire preferred. there's more to enjoy.

but they have to use special care in keeping the denture clean. dentures are very different to real teeth. they're about 10 times softer