america's mourning turns to anger and debate as the florida students rachet up their response to gun violence. meanwhile, president trump's response, arming teachers, is straight out of the nra playbook. and everything's bigger in texas, even the wind. that's leading to an energy revolution across the nation. here is the question. why would the trump administration stand in the way of it? i'm ali velshi. >> i'm stephanie ruhle. what a week. american's pain. more than one week after another mass shooting incident targeting

our kids, it is stoking rae ini emotions on all sides of the gun debate. >> many have made the case for more common sense controls on gun sales. president trump started off the week talking about strengthening background checks for guns and banning bump stocks, which are devices that go onto a semi-automatic rifle. then he changed his tune and called on all, quote, adept teachers to carry concealed weapons into classrooms or at least those who are adept. in other words, more guns, not fewer, which is right out of the national rifle association's playbook. just listen to the nra's chief, wayne la pierre. >> they want to sweep right under the carpet the failure of school security, the failure of family, the failure of america's mental health system. and even the unbelievable failure of the fbi to stop a bad

guy with a gun. it takes a good guy with a gun. [ cheers and applause ] >> except the good guy with the gun didn't go in the building. >> every year wayne la pierre's organization spends tens of millions of dollars to lobby lawmakers who will always change the conversation from guns to mental health or the fbi, from restricting sales to increasing sales. the nra exists to promote the interests of the gun industry. and it's not to say that there weren't failings at the fbi. there were failings with the mental health system, which by the way this administration isn't funding to a greater degree, it's funding to a lesser degree. but it's never apparent to the nra or its supporters or recipients of its support to talk about guns or guns ownership. the fact is our mass murders seem to be tied by study after study to the number of guns we have in this country, but that's off-limits. >> another reactionary angle to

this is corporate social responsibility. we've heard from a number of industry leaders, we heard from jeffrey sonnenberg from yale saying that ceos have to stand up here, they have to have some sort of moral compass. and i understand what he says, but this is tricky, because if you're a ceo, if you run a company, who are you beholden to? the american people, your consumers, your employees? we know blackrock, a massive investor, is going to take a closer look at investments they have with gun manufacturers. guess what, steve feinberg, the founder of cerberus, he's the biggest owner of a gun manufacturer out there. cerberus is a huge client of the banking industry. as ceos look at this and possibly take a position, they've got to figure out how to balance this with who exactly their stakeholders are. >> at least they are not fully in the pocket of gun lobby. the thing that people need to understand, the nra, we've been looking through its financials, it has over $300 million in annual revenue, a lot of which comes from contributions, grants, royalties. a lot of it is tied to the gun

manufacturing industry in this country. there are other lobbies, we know that. there's a pharma lobby, there's a corn lobby. we use drugs and we eat corn but we don't have a membership card that says you're a part of that lobby. we don't like it when those lobbies write our legislation but that's kind of what the nra is doing. we need to start to think of the nra not just as a membership organization, which it may or may not be, but as the gun lobby in america. i agree, i don't know why companies would take the lead on this. they may be the only hope because they're not beholden to the nra. >> they may be the only hope. some of them are dropping partnership programs with the nra. enterprise holdings, you know it, they run enterprise rent-a-car, they run aalamo, thy run nationally. th first national bank of omaha had a co-branded credit card with the nra. they're dropping it. metlife is dropping their relationship. enterprise is as well. remember, we say it all the

time. money wields power. money talks. these are money relationships that are walking. >> there's another story about money that we want to talk about, it's about predatory lending. >> without a doubt. this story you must pay attention to. it was revealed last week that the consumer financial protection bureau dropped, finished, said forget about it, a lawsuit against a large payday loan operation accused of gouging its clients. golden valley lending, an online firm in california, was accused of charging interest rates, please listen, as high as 950%. and remember, who goes to payday lenders? the most vulnerable people on short term loans. mick mulvaney, president trump's budget director who is now also running the cfpb and a harsh critic of the agency, he took the unusual step of requesting zero dollars for the bureau's second quarter budget and wrote that it will no long push the

n envelope against payday lenders. pushing the envelope against companies that prey on lenders is exactly what we should be doing. payday lending was marketed as a way for people can get a loan in a check as long as you have a job and a valid form of identification. you can pay a $15 fee and take out a two-week loan. the industry markets these loans as a quick. saver when an emergency hits. almost like an advance on your next paycheck. seven out of ten borrowers use payday loans to finance recurring expenses like rent, groceries, and electricity, or to pay down previous payday debts. see, payday lenders make their money off repeat borrowing at loan shark rates with effective rates averaging 400% annually, some rates as high as 950%. that would mean someone taking out a $300 loan could end up

paying 2,558 bucks in fees alone. lenders say they need to charge high rates because they carry higher rates of default. borrowers are expected to pay the total amounts they owe within a period of weeks. but a whopping 80% of borrowers say they cannot afford to make full lump sum payments. they roll their balances into new payday loans within the two-week period. it's no wonder at least 12 million americans taking out payday loans each year wind up spending $9 billion on loan fees. even so, payday lenders insist they do not market their product as, quote, long term financial solutions. yet according to the pew charitable trust, the payday business model encourages borrowers to pay fees that don't count towards their loans. critics say that fuels a cycle

of loans, renewals, exorbitant fees, and even more debt, which is kind of the point. it should come as no surprise that 15 states have already banned high cost payday lending. why this is not a higher priority for the trump administration is anyone's guess. this just blows my mind, ali. if mick musclelvaney says the c doesn't make sense, fine, get rid of the agency, it doesn't mean you have to get rid of going after the bad guys. >> many of you out there watching us probably don't fit into the demographic where you experience payday loans. but if you get into that demographic, it is really hard. it's a model that fuels a cycle of debt. you just can't get out of it. it sounds like a relief for you when you need money for a short amount of time. people end up stuck in these loans. you think you're paying off interest, you're just paying off fees. and the interest rates are hundreds of percent a year. >> that's exactly how they make their money.

while they're marketing, we're here to help you, that's not how they make money. they make money because people go back and back and ask for more payday loans so they can pay back their old ones. >> i think you know the answer to why mick mulvaney doesn't fix this. >> i'm not going to say i know the answer but i will point out mick mulvaney received $63,000 for his campaigns from payday lending groups as a congressman. corey lewandowski, when he was lobbying for a payday lender, saying get rid of the cfpb. mick mulvaney, get it, you've got donors, you need to feed them. but payday lenders, the most predatory business practices to vulnerable americans. >> you would be shocked the degree to which payday lenders lobbies have an influence on this administration. >> it's a disgrace. >> the industry says we're providing loans for people who

don't have other ways out of this. well, there are. and particularly with people who are having trouble paying their utilities, their heating, their energy bills, you can always go to those companies, and many state and local governments have options for people who are borrowing money to pay for their utilities. payday lending really is a last resort. >> send us a tweet, we'll help you find a resource. >> absolutely. president trump's war on obamacare continues unabated. in january, the new republican tax law eliminated the individual mandate, the obamacare rule requiring most americans to either obtain health insurance or pay a penalty for not doing so. now the trump administration is proposing a new regulation that would expand short term insurance coverage on the individual market. this is billed as a move that offers cheaper alternatives to expensive plans. but this is the catch. this has always been the catch. these now expanded temporary policies would not cover all of the essential health benefits of that every policy under

obamacare had to cover. that was the biggest rule under obamacare, you can't sell substandard insurance to people. >> if people are going to buy insurance, they need to be covered. >> right, for things they don't know they'll need to be covered for. this is a return to the insurance situation before obamacare became law. lots of people will carry on about the increase in premiums during obamacare, and they're not wrong about that. i want people to think about before obamacare, not during obamacare, before obamacare. >> all of the uninsured people who had no access to health care. but here's what we do know. obamacare enrollment for 2018, 11.8 million. it's stunning. that is only a 4% drop from 2017 despite the trump administration's cutting the budget, shorter term enrollment period. we know 16 states increased their enrollment from last year. and according to ap analysis, 60% of enrollees live in states that president trump carried in the election. >> right. so the idea here is, this

administration continues to try to winnow down the group of people who are in the pool for insurance, which makes them much higher risk, which makes their premiums go up. we'll keep a very close eye on this as we have been doing. what happens to those of you who don't get your insurance through your employers, like we do and like most americans do? that's the problem. it's not a big group. but they're a vulnerable group. >> we know a couple of employers want to fix it, amazon, berkshi berkshire, jpmorgan, they're taking a run at it. we'll see what they're going to do. coming up, lockheed martin is so big it is practically an arm of the u.s. government. in fact it gets more money from the government than many of our federal agencies do. and the power of wind is blowing through texas, bringing electricity to thousands of homes and businesses across the state. why texans say that president trump needs to take notice.

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do you know, the environmentalists never talk about that. i wouldn't exactly say it makes your farmlands look beautiful, you've got all these windmills all over the place driving you loco when you look at them, right? >> who cares what they look like? >> i look at windmills and i think, wow, free energy, that's beautiful. welcome to "velshi & ruhle." >> maybe he's talking about an old man who's shouting at them, going loco. >> that was then-candidate donald trump, by the way, ripping on renewable energy sources like wind. as president he continues to champion coal to the exclusion of renewables. >> that's not sitting well with many in the great state of texas, a solidly red state more famous for its oil and gas than things like solar and wind. but texans excel at producing energy from all of the above. they're pioneers when it comes to producing wind power here in the united states. msnbc's david gur reports. >> reporter: deep in the heart of texas and trump country, the

german energy company eon operates turbines. while, yes, it's windy, there's another reason this has become one of the largest wind farms in the world. >> texas has made wind energy a priority. >> reporter: eon's executive says this red state has been downright progressive. there are incentives and new transmission lines. and the costs have come down. i wonder how you react to the national conversation about renewable energy, when you hear president trump hold up clean, beautiful coal, for instance, while you're here working on renewable energy. how do you react to what he has to say? >> actually it's quite small minded, if you ask me personally. you just look around you, look at all the landowners. this is small town america that gets a real benefit. >> reporter: donald trump won texas in 2016 and it's gone republican since 1980. the state's former governor, rick perry, is now president trump's energy secretary. when it comes to energy policy, in administration and texas are

not on the same page. >> i don't want to just hope the wind blows to light up your homes and your factories, as the birds fall to the ground. >> reporter: renewables including wind are the fastest growing sector of the energy industry. wind power generation is expected to grow 50% by 2050. a wind energy advocate says texas' success could be replicated nationwide if the federal government didn't have such a narrow focus. it's not either/or, he says, it's not coal/solar. what would you say to him about wind energy? >> it's shocking that the president has been so inconsistent. >> reporter: politicians talk about the coal industry in the u.s. that industry employs 51,000 workers. by comparison, the wind industry employs twice that and there are

84,000 wind turbines across the united states, installed since 2001. the growth isn't confined to texas. other traditionally red states like iowa and oklahoma are among the largest producers of wind energy in the country. rhode island is home to an offshore wind farm that powers 17,000 homes. new york plans to harness its own offshore wind energy to power 1.2 million homes by 2030. >> it's not a political issue. it's a jobs issue. this is about creating new industries, and safeguarding the environment for future generations. >> reporter: back in roscoe, texas, coal is still beginning but its reign is being challenged. this land is part cotton farm, part wind farm. the owner says that diversification makes a difference. >> to have it stationed right here in roscoe, texas, was a huge deal for this town. they've contributed to the

school, they've contributed to the community, the tax base. it's been a big, big help. >> reporter: and proponents of renewable energy here in roscoe say that's the case the president needs to make. david gur aregura, msnbc, rosco texas. >> new york and california, two of the other big energy consumers in this country because they're such populous states, they've got plans to generate 50% of electricity from renewables by 2030. the number of people employed in wind is far bigger than the number of people employed in coal. it's just strange that the president strikes his one note on this all the time. >> wind is our future. and coming up, here is a nice piece of trivia. what company has received more federal dollars than any other corporation? hint, the president is proposing even more. and by now you know i'm not the biggest fan of bitcoin.

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welcome back to "velshi & ruhle." this week, venezuela started taking orders for a new state-run cryptocurrency called the petro. it's president nicolas maduro's latest effort to evade u.s. sanctions on his government. >> high risk gambling, great idea. >> he wants to peg the unit price of the petroto one barrel of venezuelan oil. it released on ethereum blockchain technology, like bitcoin, but unlike bitcoin,

this currency is tied to a government. >> a failing government. >> it relies on faith that venezuela will back it. americans who invest in petros will be subject to legal action. zimbabwe tried this years ago, their currency fell through the floor so they marketed a new currency, and the day it came out, it also fell through the floor. back here in the united states, where people do trust the government, president trump is proposing a 13% increase in defense spending. that's an additional $716 billion, with a "b," to the pentagon's share of the budget. that's putting america's defense industry in a prime position to profit, especially one company, lockheed martin. last year, lockheed sold $35 billion in aircraft and arms to the u.s. government. that is a huge amount of taxpayer money going to just one

single company. to give you a sense of how huge that is, it's about the same amount president trump is proposing for the state department in his budget next year. it is $15 billion more than what he wants to allocate to nasa. >> remember when we were growing up, the military industrial complex, we thought that was a thing of the past, apparently not. this is your military industrial complex, your tax dollars. >> we're talking about monopolies. that's a whole lot of money to someone single company. >> it makes you think about the relationship between the money that goes to the state department and the increase in money going to arms sales. they're different, they're not meant to match, but it is an interesting discussion, just food for thought. >> that does it for us today on this edition of "velshi & ruhle." >> catch us both together every weekday at 11:00 a.m. >> and you can see me a bit earlier at 9:00 a.m. monday through friday. >> and then you can see me a little bit later, monday through friday at 3:00 p.m. eastern. >> that's a full day, take the

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(gasp) (singsong) budget meeting! sweet. if you compare last quarter to this quarter... various: mmm. it's no wonder everything seems a little better with the creamy taste of philly, made with fresh milk and real cream. hey there, good day, everyone. i'm alex witt in new york at msnbc headquarters. here's what's happening right now. what does it all mean? the guilty pleas from a former trump campaign aide, now cooperating with the mueller investigators. how does rick gates fit into the puzzle? following the money. prosecutors surely are. how might the new charges against paul manafort pay off? plus the jared justice files. why is the justice department further delaying jared kushner's security clearance? it's just a really bad idea. there are so many things that can go wrong with it. >> arming teachers? a surviving parkland student opposes that idea. do