the chaos that's flying these days before you take off for memorial day weekend there are new rules to protect your rights when it comes to booking flights. buckle your seat belts "the cycle" is set for an on air takeoff. so when i hear allegations of misconduct, any misconduct, whether it's allegations of va staff covering up long wait times or cooking the books, i will not stand for it. not as commander-in-chief, but also not as an american. none of us should. if these allegations prove to be true, it is dishonorable, it is disgraceful, and i will not tolerate it, period. our veterans deserve to know the facts, their families deserve to know the facts. once we know the facts, i assure

you if there's misconduct it will be punished. >> a fired up commander-in-chief speaking at length today about the widening va scandal and vowing any misconduct will be punished. those remarks at the white house came after an oval office meeting with veterans affairs secretary shun shin and rob nabors. preliminary results could come as early as next week. that, however, is not enough for some lawmakers and critics who continue to call for shinseki's ouster. for now president obama is expressing confidence that the man at the center of the scandal will fix the problem. >> rick shinseki, i think, serves this country because he cares deeply about veterans and he cares decently about the mission. i know that rick's attitude is if he doesn't think he can do a good job on this and he thinks he let our veterans down then

i'm sure that he's not going to be interested in continuing to serve. at this stage. rick is committed to solving the problem and working with us to do it. >> tonight congress will vote on a measure to give shinseki broader power to fire individuals who may be involved. it's expected to pass the house with bipartisan support. this stems from allegations that va hospital employees tampered with data and built off the books waiting list to hide long delays for veterans that needed care. that may have resulted up 240 deaths. the va's inspector general said as many as 26 facilities are under investigation. let's get right to nbc's white house correspondent kristen walker for the politics of this. >> reporter: good afternoon. we heard southeast strongest comments yet from president obama about the va scandal. the first time he has addressed the issue in over three weeks, a lot of his critics saying he

should have done so sooner. but he reiterated the fact he has tasked his deputy chief of staff rob nabors to join secretary shinseki in getting to the bottom of exactly what went wrong and how veterans were allowed to die while they were waiting for care. we also learned today that the president has ordered the final results of that review within a month. the other headline out of this is that president obama did stand by secretary shinseki. you're absolutely right. despite the mounting calls for his resignation. but he did leave the door open for secretary shinseki to offer his resignation pending the outcome of the investigation. now, president obama was asked directly if secretary shinseki had offered his resignation today. president obama declined to answer that comment directly. white house press secretary jay carney was also asked the same question if secretary shinseki had offered his resignation. carney said he wouldn't comment on a private meeting. republicans as you can imagine were quick to come out and

respond to president obama's comments. senator john mccain said that they were wholly insufficient. priebus said president obama has offered talk and no real results. anticipating the fact that there's going to be ongoing political fall out especially as we head closer to the mid-term elections. >> it is important that our veterans don't become another political football especially when so many of them are receiving care right now. this is an area where democrats and republicans should always be working together. >> reporter: and deputy chief of staff ron nabors heads to phoenix today. the results of that investigation expected within a month. >> thank you so much for that.

joining us now is retired army lieutenant colonel anthony schafer a veteran with 30 years of service. great to have you. i want to ask you the big question right off the bat. there was a survey asking military families if shinseki should resign. 17% said he should. the president sticking with him right now. is that the right call? >> i don't believe so. as much as president talks about talking to veterans officials he should talk to veterans that suffered through shinseki's administration. let me be clear on this. general shinseki had ample opportunity do what i call leadership by walking around. this is all deservable. all these things are observable. instead of doing what was necessary to lead the organization he allowed the organization especially the bureaucrats one of which he fired recently a veteran of 40 years to essentially run a paper organization where everything looked great on paper but

clearly in the field where the rubber meets the road things were badly off track, people died. you pointed out 40 people have at least died from this and no one took notice. this is far too critical of an issue to keep the man in charge to allow this failure to foster itself and become so prevalent. >> the president said the issue that disturbed him the most is the manipulation, the book cooking. here's what he said. >> that's the thing that right now most disturbs me about the report, the possibility that folks intentionally withheld information that would have helped us fix a problem. because there's not a problem out there that's not fixable. if somebody mismanaged or engaged in misconduct, not only do i not want them getting bonuses i want them punished. >> the structural problems in the situation can be fixed. it's not easy but can be fixed.

but when you have this sort of lying that's outrageous. >> absolutely. this is where i think the president is correct. he cannot be held accountable for something he does not know but i fault shin again for this. this is my point. shinseki should have been out checking to make sure the books were accurate. again this was something that was observable. vets were not getting the care they needed. people were trying to get in. one of the things the president mentioned a veteran should not have to fill out 20 pages of forms to get the care they need. the application process blew me away. you're face an uphill battle over and over here, the president is correct that's why shinseki needs to go. we need to get someone in here who can adjust these things. >> tony, the va scandal, to me is just another example that the u.s. government has become so big and so bureaucratic that it's almost -- it's virtually impossible for any president to actually manage but on top of

that you have a president that doesn't have a lot of management experience and he's is your rounded by folks that don't have a whole lot of management experience. so when this ends up becoming a crisis they respond politically versus given a managerial response. it goes right to the narrative especially from republicans that the president is a few steps behind a crisis. president obama seems to have found out about this at the same time everyone else did, through the news. he's always a couple of beats too slow in taking action and i love your thoughts on this. is this out of president obama's control or it is your sense that the administration and president obama could have and should have responded earlier to this? >> he's had about three weeks now to respond in some form so i do agree there should have been a response more rapidly. with that said, now he should have fired shinseki. but, look, the bottom line is he's had time to respond. we don't need another

investigation to prove that people died. it's obvious. so we need to get to the nug of what the issue is. the system is not work. the veterans are not being well served. those who are serving them are corrupt. the cooking of the books proves that. let me be clear. there's an issue where we can combine the defense department health care system, veterans health care system. elevate but equal. it's not. it didn't work in the old days regarding north and south and segregation and not working here. you have an unequal system where active duty veterans get better care than folks who are retired and out of the military. we could look at cost savings, efficiency, take that efficiency and build more capacity. this was actually done, looked at a commission last december, november/december last year. this is not a new idea. people can do immediately to move down the path of correction. >> colonel that's something i want to ask you about. inadequate care for veterans is not a new found thing. i'm reminded by the 1985 born in

the u.s. lyric by bruce springsteen. it said man don't you understand this is something we've seen in america for a while. talk about this. this idea of separate but equal. we need to combine the active duty care with the va care. is that feasible in the coming years and what would that take for that occur besides executive and congressional action? >> it takes someone who is in charge to make that happen. you have with diversity of authority which results in chaos which we're seeing now. for example, i served 30 years. my medical records go back to when i was a kid because i was a military brat has not been transferred to the veterans administration even though there's a system that they invested $1 billion in trying do this one system for all the records which failed. it's a matter of willingness and this is something congress can do and should do to fix. again separate but equal does not work. fort belvoir down here has the new walter reed center. huge facilities.

last time i was there was completely empty. you need to combine the veteran side and the active side so they both can get the best care possible. these things can to be done now immediately. congress can follow up with legislation. >> next time you come on i wish you would tell us what you think. >> and be passionate. >> thank you. up next, super tuesday results. what they mean for the mid-terms and the answer is a lot. "the cycle" rolls on for wednesday, may 21st. er the worl, but they don't yet know we're a family. we're right where you need us. at the next job, next adventure or at the next exit helping you explore super destinations and do everything under the sun. 12 brands. more hotels than anyone else in the world. so wherever you want to be, whatever you want to do, chances are we're already there. save up to 25% and earn bonus points when you book at wyndhamrewards.com.

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if you look at my democratic opponent this year it's clear she would be no different. she's a partisan's partisan. who has been practicing party politics since she learned to talk. >> as you said, as you said so many years ago, it is my number one priority to make sure mitch mcconnell doesn't see another term. >> oh, boy. it's on. key match ups in six big states set on super tuesday and the outcome could help decide who rules the senate comes november if there's an overall winner last night you would have to say it's the reestablishment back in a big way. kept those pesky and whacky tea party folk at bay and kentucky senate minority leader mitch mcconnell crushed tea party candidate matt bevin. his leadership is on the line against democratic challenger allison grimes. she also won easily last night.

mcconnell/grimes fight will be the priceyest by far of this cycle. the latest msnbc/marist poll shows it too close to call. david perdue and jack kingston will run off. they were the most mainstream republican candidates in the primary field. this will make it tougher on democratic challenger michele nunn to turn georgia blue. tea party also came up short in idaho. eight term republican congressman mike simpson easily defeated bryan smith in the second district race. the takeaway, no unelectable o'donnell, engels or aikens so far. republicans are giving themselves a better shot at actually winning elections. for super tuesday results we got super size expertise. the senior editor of new

republic d.c. and erica here at the table. thank you for joining us. bryan i want to start with you. you and i were on the hill in 2010. we saw the tea party storm take washington. but the establishment fought back. the empire strikes back in a huge way last night. how do they do it. where did the funding come r from. how were they able no billize their voters. how were they offset the tea party wave that killed them in '10 and '12. >> after 2010 and 2012 republicans led by mitch mcconnell and his allies decided they needed to stop walking lightly around these outside groups backing unelectable conservative candidates and really take the fire not conservatives per se, but to these groups and to these candidates and that want included money and harsh rhetoric, that included brutal campaigning and it was effective. as you said there's no christine o'donnells and no todd aikens

this year. whether having embraced the conservatism but not the tea party whether these conservative candidates can win. >> no fun for the media. >> so boring. >> still early. let's not say there's no todd aikens yet. >> i watched grimes victory speech last night. i thought she was phenomenal. let's take a look at a little bit of that >> he claims that kentucky will be lost if we trade in his seat for a kentucky woman who he believes will sit on the back bench. well i'm here to tell you tonight my fellow kentuckyian, aham not an empty dress, i am not a rubber stamp, and i am not a cheer leader. i ham a strong kentucky woman who is an independent thinker, who is kentucky's next united states senator. the decisions i make will be what's best for the people of the commonwealth of kentucky. >> i really thought she was terrific. one of the thing that struck me is contrary to what consultants

used to advice female candidates to do, she's running on being a woman and i think it sets up this great contrast with mitch mcconnell. it's tough for him. she's the perfect candidate to go up against him and to win this race that's what you need. >> it's easy to look at the two of them. if they stood next to each other. she's young, full of energy, a woman. he's older, white, male, gray hair so you look at the two of them you can see very two different candidates and two different choices for kentucky. you are 100% right on bringing up kind of general consensus of consultants is we told our candidates don't respond, don't bring up the sexism and keep running like you're a normal candidate. and, yeah, but be who you are. there's a big sea change particularly since even 2008. you look at the way hilary was treated and she started taking the cracks in the glass ceiling so much sarah palin could fundraise and push back against

sexism. from there it's been steadily moving in that direction. one thing to note is right now the 2014 election, women are going to be ones that decide who controls the senate. 2016 it's a woman that's basically going to determine the white house if she's in, if she's out, what will she do. looking forward we're at a historic time. we may not have the numbers in the house and senate but if you look at who is determining the way politics are going that's women. it gives us a platform to talk about gender issues and take a stand back against some of the claims. it's an uphill battle for women. >> bryan, if we're looking for that whacky candidate that might say something that will make the media lose their minds, it might come out of georgia where we have david perdue in a runoff against jack kingston. they are the most moderate guys but extreme candidates and they are going to spend the next couple of months spending millions of dollars attacking to the right of each other trying to get that conservative vote. it makes me think this is

endemic of a problem the gop has in the mits of a civil war trying to find out how far to the right they could go. the current primary system in a lot of these places is the general election not the way it was supposed to be. would they be better off if they could eliminate the primary and thus sort of eliminate this further and further right ward tilt to the right? >> i think they would love to if it wouldn't anger the same voters that they hope will turn out for them when the general election rolls around. i also wouldn't sell chris mcdaniels in mississippi short just yet. and i think also in georgia we have another issue, similar issue as we do in kentucky where democrats have a fairly strong female candidate who if perdue and kingston end up sort of getting like very far out on the right over the next several weeks they are going to have a

hard time running in the general both as conservatives and as a man against a strong female candidate. >> it's interesting to compare the primaries today to like 2010, for example, where senator jim demint famously said i rather have 30 marco rubos in the senate than 60 arlen suspecters. we know how that year turned out. luke was hitting on this earlier republicans were wanting someone that could win the general election more than anything else and they kicked the flawed tea party candidates to the curb. we're done with this. i want to start winning. it makes the chances taking the senate much higher. >> one thing that's in play is that in order to appease the base, have these victories they moved their candidates further right. the establishment candidates, kingston in georgia is a great example. this guy was endorsed by the tea party to hair the house appropriations committee. he's the one that said kids

should be sweeping categorioka cafeterias to pay for their lunches. if you're the gop how do we kind of appease the base, start to put in at least some adults. jack kickston has served 30 years in appropriations, so i assume he knows how things work. but there is something to be said. there's eight members of the senate that previously had zero experience in politics. so at the end of the day that voters still do want people that have been tested, that have been vetted and know the ropes. >> bryan, erica, thank you so much for joining us. up next, a development this afternoon in the ongoing benghazi investigation. this one involving democrats. more on that in your news cycle next. do not go anywhere. o it.

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the new cycle begins here in washington after more than two weeks of considering a potential boycott house minority leader nancy pelosi has named five democrats on a house select committee on benghazi. the investigation is expected to continue all the way to 2015. >> another day another donald sterling revelation. the "l.a. times" reporting the embattled clippers owner tried to cover up the scandal by telling girlfriend v. stiviano to say it was not him on those infamous tmz tapes. this twist comes from a leaked copy of formal allegations list. accuses the clippers organization of destroying evidence and lying to nba investigators. 2.5 travellers will take to the skies this memorial day weekend just as the government is proposing new rules from tent

travellers. it's about making those hidden fees known upfront. tom costello has the details. the transportation department is heading this up. which fees are coming under fire. please say all of them. >> reporter: yeah pretty much. here's an important context. that's the airline industry has been pushing congress to essentially dismantle existing requirements for them to put the fees out there and disclose taxes and fees and essentially the airline industry wants to be table advertise fares without including the fees. some would call that deceptive. the d.o.t. has come out and said okay the next roll out of our passenger bill of reits will require you to disclose all of the fees upfront, what potential fees might be like. for example, baggage fees, seat selection fees, carry on baggage fees, ticket surcharge, boarding early fee. then in addition disclose if a partner carrier, a co-shared airline is flying the route and no fee cancellation charges if

you cancel a reservation within 24 hours of making the reservations but that flight is still a week away you can cancel the flight without penalty. here's the important part. they would require these online booking websites like travelocity and kayak and google they now be treated as ticket provideders as well. as ticket originators. a long list of fees they have to couple with if you check one bag, two bags, carry on a piece of luggage all of that would have to be split out so you could see it. we talked to the guy who owns farecompare.com. i would get carpal tunnel syndrome if i had to include all those fees on my website. but the secretary of transportation tells us he

really believes knowledge is power and that consumers should know upfront what all the fees are likely to be before they are pulled into buying a ticket that, in fact, may only be the beginning of a long, long list of eventual fees. guys, back to you. >> making travel more complicated. say it isn't so. turning now the digital realm. remember this 2010 political ad pitting china against the u.s. >> that was about debt but it sure fits for today's cyber wars. no tanks or planes but breaching fire walls. now it's become a real issue. the house subcommittee on counterterrorism held a hearing this morning on the cyber attacks and earlier this week the department of justice filed charges against chinese officials of spying on u.s. businesses. china was not too pleased with being acaused of cyber spying

and likeened the u.s.'s actions of a thief yelling catch the thief. why is this so hot. president of crowd strike services sean henry is joining us. there's two aspects to this. there's espionage, the government spying on each other. then theft of intellectual property which the united states does not do. that's the biggest difference no one is making the differentiation here. the chinese are trying to confuse this by lumping this whole discussion to government espionage. so help us understand the extent of what the chinese are capable of and how good they actually are stealing all of our secrets. >> the china government has tremendous capabilities in the cyber realm. they have the ability to steal intellectual property, research and development, corporate strategy, financial data, et cetera. and the u.s. government has very clearly laid out that there is to be a red line. that corporate espionage is not acceptable while nations have

worked against each other for thousands ever years from a national security perspective. this type of commercial theft which provides china the ability to compete unfairly against u.s. and quite frankly worldwide companies because it's not just the u.s. being targeted it's worldwide that's not acceptable and the u.s. will take a stand. >> is there a clear line here because the u.s. has spied on foreign companies overseas but they are saying that there's a differentiation because we were not ultimately trying to get their intellectual property, we were not trying to benefit, one specific company although the information we gleaned from these foreign companies theoretically helped all american businesses. >> u.s. is not taking data stolen from foreign companies and providing them to u.s. companies which gives them an unfair advantage. u.s. companies are not profiting from research and development in hundreds and billions of $and manufacture more cheaply and sell which is what china is

doing. it's a v-very different piece here. the commercial sector is not benefiting from any of that. >> let's talk about what you said china is doing and why. the company is mentioned as targets is alcoa, westinghouse, allegheny, u.s. steel, united steelworkers union and solar world. what do you think the chinese are looking for and what would they do with that information? what's the end game here? >> well this particular case we're talking about manufacturers of raw materials. but quite frankly this goes across every industry vertical, every sector. the retail sector, financial services sector, health care, communications, transportation. it really is just about getting a competitive advantage. we've seen companies and my organization we've done investigations where we've seen companies targeted in advance of a merger or acquisition with a chinese company. a couple of months prior to that deal being consummated the chinese government is inside their corporate networks, they are stealing data so when they sit down at the negotiation

table they know tans in advance of the test. that's not fair. it's not competitive. it's not the way business is done. >> sean, who play as more important role in stopping china. is it the companies themselves or the u.s. government? >> i think at the end of the day the companies are going to be responsible for protecting the networks. the u.s. government is really not in a position to block these attacks. they are not monitoring the gateways. there aren't filters sitting in the isps which would filter out this malicious traffic. the government has the opportunity to have the type of impact we see here with the indictment of five individuals where they throw down a red flag, they say time out. we tried diplomatically to have a discussion. it's not work. government has an opportunity diplomatally, economically and law enforcement to have an impact. >> thanks for breaking it down. up next is the solution to america's inequality easier than

everybody thinks? >> all across america battles are waged across the states. decisions affect us. many of these stories go untold until now. join us as we take in all in on the road capturing the small town stories that make up our bigger picture. >> you don't change america by changing washington. you change america by changing the states. >> all in america on the road in the conservative heartland all this week on 8:00 on msnbc. 'll y as he goes back to taking tylenol. i was okay, but after lunch my knee started to hurt again. and now i've got to take more pills. ♪ yup. another pill stop. can i get my aleve back yet? ♪ for my pain, i want my aleve. ♪ [ male announcer ] look for the easy-open red arthritis cap. reckless seeding... ...failure to disappear.

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0. we talk a lot on this show about the growing gap between haves and have knots. one that has citizens increasingly concerned. take the fact that ceo pay is skyrocketing while workers wages stagnate. back in 1989 corporate ceos were paid on average 58.5 times what their workers were paid. today it's 280 times the ratio of the pay of the ceo to the typical worker. how do we change that. what if the fix is actual lly staring us in the face. companies like southwest airlines and proctor and gambling are already doing it.

joseph, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you very much. >> i enjoyed reading this book and one of the things most fascinating to me you look back at our founding fathers and showed they had a deep concern for inequality. i have a quote from john adams where he said property monopolized or in the possession of a few is a curse to mankind. we should preserve not an absolute equality this is unnecessary but preserve all from extreme poverty and all who are from extravaganza riches. this idea that you focus on in this book of broad base capitalism and citizens share was sort of started by our founders. >> absolutely. broad based land ownership was their inequality policy and they did many things to do it. with the homestead act abraham lincoln took 20% of public land to make sure there were families throughout the western part of the united states so they would have economic liberty. the speaker of the house of

representatives after the homestead act passed he said the future of this shares in corporations being distributed to workers because we ran out of land. >> define for us what is broad base callism. how do we encourage its spread. is it marxism. >> it's not marxism. broad base capitalism is every citizen owning enough property to have economic liberty. it's an idea that appeals from the tea party to the republican party. to the democratic party. in practice what it means is since the early 1900s the u.s. government has provided modest tax incentives for employee stock ownership plans, for profit sharing plans. in the last few administrations, since the first bush administration those have been cutback. now oddly we find ourselves in an interesting situation. most of the inequality is

explained by concentration of capital ownership and capital income. so why not broaden capital ownership and capital income just like they are doing at proctor and gamble and southwest and google. this is the idea. radical tax incentives for every business so that they will have an incentive time pleament share plans for narrowedle class workers. it's the essence of the small r republican idea in american history and the essence of the idea that the founders had about solving inequality. it's total opposite of redistribution of wealth. >> professor, your went exactly where my question was going which is one thing that has stuck out to me since the economic recession we had in 2008, we heard a lot of companies that were laying off people saying listen we have to lay these people off, we have to get lean and mean and once we get back on our feet we'll rehire. they have gotten back on their feet. they have not rehired.

they hold their capital for a plethora of reasons. what can the government do to get those companies specifically that have gone lean and mean that hoard their capital to inject it back into the economy. >> i think the government can come up with tax incentives to allow companies to invest their capital in profit sharing plans, in employee stock ownership plans that will likely improve productivity. when you mix capital equipment and capital knowledge with workers who have a share we typically see improved economic performance. >> really fascinating concept. i enjoyed the book so much. thank you. i'll be chatting more with the professor after the show about how combat inequality. we'll make sure to post that extended interview on our website thecycle.msnbc.com. a different kind of revolution under feet. one of america's most acclaimed chefs of blue hill joins us with

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and back when i wasn't eating right, she got me drinking boost. it's got a great taste, and it helps give me the nutrition i was missing. helping me stay more like me. [ female announcer ] boost complete nutritional drink has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to support strong bones and 10 grams of protein to help maintain muscle. all with a delicious taste. grandpa! [ female announcer ] stay strong, stay active with boost. a if i mouse 19th-century french chef told me tell me what you eat i'll tell you who you are. what woe say about america, a land of overeaters consuming lots prove seesed food with no cohesive food tradition. he has to acknowledge there's a revolution underfoot, an army of chef activists trying to transform our eat hag about its. the gospel of farm to table is crucial to these folks as we rethink how we eat but one chef

activists say farmers will grow what they think will buy. we need new ideas how to improve what we eat and he's fighting to make that happen. welcome dan barber. the winners of the james beard award for america's outstanding chef in 2009. and the author of "the third plate." you have spent years combing new niche farms, right, trying to figure out how we can re-imagine how we should eat. in our dream world how should we be eating. >> thank you for the introduction. >> well deserved. >> the future, by the book i dome the conclusion this is a delicious future if we can continue to reconnect with farmers. chefs especially this revoluntary lux has begun with chefs because we're in pursuit of the best flavor. it's to our advantage.

we're incentivized selfishly. in the end it proven through the stories in this book that great food and great farming is one and the same. if you're pursuing the best flavor you're pursuing the best agricultural decision and the best food for our future. it's an inspiring message especially for a chef. >> growing up we were shown photos whether it was in school or in like cartoons pilates of like a gigantic piece of meat with a side of vegetables. >> that's the iconic -- >> over the years we're hearing that's not the case. you have this theory of three pilates. what does that mean. >> you just named the first one. and we got to get away from that. increasingly americans are. we can't afford it. we can't afford it for our health, environment and it's not that tasty.

second plate is like the farm to table movement plate where the architecture, the steak is grass fed or local and the vegetables are organic but the architecture is almost exactly the same. still a big hulking piece of protein. we need to flip this notion of a protein centered plate. i'm not arguing the steak. i love a steak. toure', you listening. i love a good steak. but i don't love it three times a day. >> you know what else we love here on "the cycle," that is beer. and you say could beer be the answer of which i would say of course it could be. but you talk about a crop of barely malt which is a replenishable crop barly malt. >> so funny you say that. a you read the book. b, i was shocked as you.

here we are getting into the intricacies of the book. you have to be. the explosion of local microbreweries, local brewers are looking for local barly malt. what i learned was that 100% of the barly malt was coming from europe so they're looking for local farmers and farmers are growing barly but they're feeding animals. and they're in selling at a profit to barly malters so it's delicious and we support it. >> i tasted that beer at the restaurant and it's amazing. >> kind of a central idea is that we need to think not just about the sort of asparagus or the well-known vegetable or crop copping out but we need to think about the crops that help to replenish the soil so that asparagus can be really delicious and some of those crops, one is barly and you have

things like mustard weed and -- are these things actually tasty? >> well, that's the job of the chef. i think ray lot of this responsibility falls on the shoulders of chefs. we can't just cook with the ingredients we covet. we need to put more energy into this and diners who are willing to experiment and delve into some of these negligented and ignored crops which in the end are st. paulingly nutritious and delicious and better for the ten environment. so when we have a steak dinner we'll appreciate it a hell of a lot more. >> i'll experiment if you're the one cooking. >> major changes in the food environment within my lifetime. when i was a kid, every restaurant would give you bread as soon as you sat down and now a lot of places don't. when i was a kid, there was no water industry. now there's 100 different brands of water but folks like you are battling big food with billion dollar advertising budget and a

truckload of sugar and salt on their side. hour do you fight back? >> they don't produce anything good to eat. not truly delicious so at the end of the day i feel most excited about the future of this because i'm working toward penetrating and exciting people on this context of hedonism and that's a delight. every other movement asks you to give up flings for some type of redemption or salvation. in this case we're talking about the ingredient. >> reason real quick, let me ask you. how important is government intervention. mrs. obama trying to do a lot with this. how important is the government rule. >> mrs. obama has done the great thing of changing the cultural conversation and that's been the most effective part of the last six or seven years. but government intervention and pulling levers that make bringing some of these farmers' pro dues i'm talking about to market and distribution systems

are tough to talk about. very complicated thing to talk about. the government can play a real role in incentivizing that kind of business. like my farmer's farm. they take his barly and he gets an economic return that he didn't get before. those are the kinds of infrastructure things the government can really help engineer. it's critical to the future of food. >> dan, we love the book and we want you to come back and next time bring some food. >> please. >> up next -- some aspirational thoughts from one one luke russert. ask what you can do for luke russert. not what your country can do for you! and a retirement planning calculator. now i know "when" i'm going to retire. not "if."

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in 1961 established the peace corp and kennedy says the peace corp was needed to help nations that were, quote, struggling for economic and social progress. kennedy continued, quote, our freedom and the future of freedom around the world, depend in a very real sense, on those nations's ability to build growing and independent nations where men can live in dig any, liberated from the bonds of hunger, ignorance and poverty. 53 years later, those words still ring true and thankfully, the peace corp is still in service, a living testament to kennedy's dream while america's relationship with the world is not only based on mill tarp intervention and. economic trade by social service. the peace corp has 7200 volunteers in 65 countries and works on issues like health, economic development, and education just to name a few. their service has been invaluable and countless people

around the world have a school to send their kids. adequate is an 25igs, clean drinking water and a chance at a better life. because of people like my mom who in the 1960 ease volunteered in columbia, and a school there where kids are educated to this day. i've been there and seen it. i've seen the enormous opportunity it has bestowed upon those with so little. i've also seen how appreciative they are of those who built it. they say it's the americans who didn't come with guns and bombs but we shovels, textbooks and hope. so in an organization this important, you think it would have a decent budget. for fiscal year 20 14, the peace corp gets $379 million which is a rounding error. in fact, the united states has spent close to $400 million per year on military bans over the last few years. i can consider myself a patriotic american. i fly the flag and have a usa

sticker on me car and i consider the u.s. the last best hope of mankind and i tear up at the marine's hymn and "god bless america" but military bans shouldn't have the budget of the peace corp. a plat this time when america i standing the world in tatters after the iraq war and the latest spy scandal we need to do more to win hearts and minds with so much the developing world under the age of 30, when we still have a chance. it is said that the chinese are waging a war of influence with concrete, not bombs. they're developing impoverished countries to their gain, mostly economic. let's match that. not for profit but for peace. what better way than to do that than the peace corp. as the great steve clemens said in the atlanta uk, we should thank the peace corp for keeping america engaged in real people's lives abroad and not just engaged with arms' buyers and

oil sellers. so let's get that peace corp budget up to a billion and something that has the work its volunteers do every single year. that does it for "the cycle." "now" aalex wagner starts now and i'll be here to talk benghazi. the seats have been filled. let the benghazi circumstance cuss begin. it's wednesday, may 21st and this is "now." sfwhoo benghazi. benghazi. >> benghazi. >> benghazi! we need someone in the roll to defend the truth. >> can elijah cummings and the other members say, this is, in fact, not legitimate? >> make sure this does not become a committee on talking points. >> i've seen how abusive the republicans have bdu