delinquency rates, three times the national average. at the height of this jobs crisis nearly 1 in 4 miami residents couldn't find work. not to mention an aging population in need of health care with no one to fill the jobs. as those of the east and midwest live through winter this seems like paradise. but it's paradise in peril, not yet paradise lost. that's why we've come to miami for our next stop on the 30 million jobs tour for this wednesday, january 25th. well, good wednesday afternoon to you from the motel here in miami, florida. it is obviously stunningly beautiful down here let alone for january. this area a stranger in its own way to what is happening throughout the rest of the country and for that matter the very state in which it resides

and for that matter much of america. i am dylan ratigan. it is a delight to be seeing you on this the second leg of our 30 million jobs tour. it does mark the beginning of week two. thank you so much for being with us. we've got a tremendous amount to cover in this particular hour including a recap obviously of the president's state of the union address where albeit briefly he addressed the massive housing crisis that is a huge barrier to growth in this country. >> tonight i'm asking my attorney general to create a special unit of federal prosecutors and leading state attorneys general to expand our investigation into the abuse of lending and packaging of risky mortgages that led to the housing crisis. >> right on, mr. president. but it is time for more than rhetoric. and for the millions of struggling homeowners in florida and around the country the president offered this band-aid. >> i'm sending this congress a plan that gives every responsible homeowner the chance to save about $3,000 a year on

their mortgage by refinancing at historically low rates. >> we need big solutions because this is an enormous crisis that we created in the actual boom years through the corruptive banking system and the reduced lending standards of the past decade. make no mistake about it. this problem is directly tied to our push for 30 million jobs. in fact, i can think of no single barrier to the functioning of our economy and our prosperity that our failure to resolve housing and our banking system. remember, for as long as the american dream has existed it has been homeownership. that has been the store of wealth and that dream has turned into an utter nightmare for too many in this country trapping them in effect. people cannot move now to where the jobs are because they cannot sell their house. and for many, they owe so much more than the house is worth that they could never recover it

and as a result are fearful to move. these are called the under water homes. here in florida, that is almost half of all mortgage holders. let me repeat that. 50% of the people in florida with a mortgage are unable to leave their home to find work because they are under water in their mortgage. that is not only a tragedy. it is double the national average. that is why this if you will is a hot spot for the problems in american housing. what we need to hear from the president and from all of our leaders is a large scale collaboration with state ags in a much broader investigation that covers all facets of the mortgage industry and the more than $13 trillion in debt that we all still bear that was manufactured in that bubble. one of the state ags leading the fight for this investigation is delaware attorney general bo biden. also with us here in miami is jack mccabe a nationally recognized real estate analyst

who runs the firm mccabe research and consulting and, bo, i'd like to begin with you. what is the domain of law, the authority of law that you or any attorney general has to conduct an investigation into the totality of the $13 trillion that is the debt in the housing market? >> well, look. for me, as a chief law enforcement officer in my state, chief prosecutor and chief consumer protector, we have a broad jurisdiction. as you know, we filed a case against kind of the nerve system of the entire mortgage backed security process, the mortgage electronic registration system. we can delve into origination, securitization, the servicing pieces. most ags across the country have the same jurisdictions. eric schneiderman in new york has the martin act which has broad, broad, the broadest securities jurisdiction. so that's why it's so important as you said for us to work in a collaborative way and work together and to hold those people who are accountable to feet to the fire and beyond the accountability we

don't, if we don't resolve this we'll never get to 30 million jobs. jack, give us a sense of what the liability is of failing to resolve housing in florida and for that matter the country. >> we're looking at a sideways economy similar that japan had for a decade. right now here in florida we're five going on six years into continued dropping prices, unemployment that's right around 10%. got as high as 12.4%. we have people that can't move for jobs. we have people that can't sell their homes because they don't have the money to come up with to pay the bank off for what they owe from what they can sell it for. >> and we spoke yesterday with elliot spitzer among other people about why we don't really want to deal with this. why the republicans don't like to talk about it at all and why the democrats when they do talk about it do so very cautiously. quite simply, if we were to reveal the potential fraud in the $13 trillion worth of debt,

that could precipitate a meaningful restructuring in the banking apparatus, in the entire banking system. how do you manage the necessary ruthlessness to do this and still have the necessary compassion to know that you don't want to bring the banking system to its knees any more than you want to bring the american homeowner to their knees? >> you hit it on the head, dylan and said it better than i can. but here is the issue. i'm a prosecutor. any time i'm prosecuting somebody they need to know that i'm more eager to get to the bottom of the facts than they are. and that i will. the situation we have had here quite frankly and this goes across all party lines and a whole host of entities, that the other side, specifically the too big to fail banks believe, this is me just speaking, believe that many of us on the enforcement side are as scared or more scared than they are of peeling back the onion. if you start these investigations with the other

side in this case the too big to fail banks believing that we are as or more scared about peeling back the onion as they are, that's a fundamental, fundamental problem. and that's why you see courageous attorneys general like nevada, martha koklian in massachusetts two name two who are actually doing something. we need to act here. words are nice but they're getting kind of old here. we need to act and investigate, file cases, file complaints, seek indictments if the facts take us there. we need to act. that is what people are sick and tired of. us talking about this. >> air nodding. >> absolutely. we've seen a lot of rhetoric from out of washington in the last three years but all they've done is put a band-aid on skin cancer and thrown pocket change at a multi trillion dollar problem. things are not getting any better. people are hurting in this country and they don't get it in washington. they need to do something to

help the american home owner and all they're saying is let the market work out is what the gop says. what the current administration is saying is, we'll give you a little bit of money. here's $1200 from a class action suit. it probably isn't half of what your mortgage payment is. and god bless you. good luck. >> go ahead? >> that's why i said, when asked earlier this week by the members of the press corps following this issue that i'm not onboard for this settlement. you know, it's simply from my perspective i can't do the complaint i filed in chancery court here in the state of delaware last fall which goes i think to the nerve center of the entire industry but i can't sign on to other aspects of this settlement. that's why i made it clear to my federal partners and my state colleagues that i'm not onboard for the settlement as it's drafted. i think it speaks to the -- you spoke jack to the issues as to why it is problematic. from my perspective there is not sufficient accountability. there's not sufficient relief. it doesn't move the ball.

it doesn't move the economy. and most importantly it doesn't get to the bottom of the facts. look, you cannot -- you cannot, you cannot when you're investigating things give away a -- that is allow the party you're opposing to flee to the easiest issue. that is take the plea on the easy crime before you have investigated the big crimes. my analogy is, dylan, this is like a consumer protection case. you can analogize it to criminal cases or consumer protection. you cannot have a situation where you say in a home improvement scheme that, look. i know you've got us on the wiring. you know, you know you've got us on that but we also built the foundation. we also built the roof. and, you know, we also have other problems. we'll settle for you on the wiring issue but as long as you settle on the roof and foundation and give us a plea on that. you can't -- you just can't do investigations that way where you give away the wine -- look.

this is the one thing the banks have admitted to on the servicing side. how do you let them take a plea or a settlement to that before you've gotten to the bigger stuff? >> and just for the benefit of everybody that's enrolled in this conversation, for proportionality, the uninvestigated liabilities in housing amount to according to the federal reserve $13.5 trillion. that is $13.5 trillion. remember, if you spend a million dollars a day every day since jesus christ was born you would not spend a trillion dollars just to give you the size of that number. meanwhile the settlement they're talking about is $25 billion with a "b" which is less than 0.2 of 1% of the safe harbor i presume, beau, that is the sort of data you're looking at, the wiring if you will is that 0.2 of a percent without the investigation into the foundation and the roof.

correct? >> that is exactly right. look. they don't believe that too big to fail banks, and i'll probably get a lot of hate mail for this but so be it. too big to fail banks simply don't believe we have the guts to get to the bottom of this. and i'll tell you, my little office, we're going to keep plugging away on this. you're going to see connell o'harris continue her hard work, martha coakley none of whom i speak for but all of whom i respect continue to work on this. i applaud the president's comments last night and the resolve to continue investigations. my questions on the investigations, and i've asked my federal partners this, i'll be part of the task force, but the questions i have is how many fbi agents are you going to put to know? how many investigators? how many prosecutors? those are the hard questions i have. i told those folks i'm willing to work with them on this.

i am happy to do it and i hope we'll get somewhere on this. >> you couldn't have more whole hearted support from certainly jack and myself and i suspect quite candidly hundreds of millions of americans, the simple act of finding out what actually happened and identifying the fraud and the transfer of the potential fraud that is as yet uninvestigated from the individual and the banks to our government is perhaps the case of our time and of our generation. your office may be small but it is mighty and we appreciate that. thank you so much for talking to us today. coming up here the state of the union through the eyes of our president claiming it is getting stronger. well next we'll ask our wednesday megapanel for their assessment and what we can do to bring jobs and prosperity, collectively, back to this great

country of ours. and then a little auction 2012 for you. the sun light foundation shining a light on the super spending this election cycle. they are our guests this hour and the spending is no better recruiting vehicle for getting money out so have at it, boys. plus, what if your car's speedometer reads 40 miles per hour even when you're stopped at a red light? you probably get your gauges checked, wouldn't you? well, we're connecting the dots on what that has to do with 30 million jobs coming up. do stay with us as we continue from south florida. ok! who gets occasional constipation,

diarrhea, gas or bloating? get ahead of it! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defend against digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. hit me! [ female announcer ] live the regular life. phillips'. [ female announcer ] live the regular life. but you go in pieces.

[ female announcer ] you can't pass mom's inspection with lots of pieces left behind. that's why there's charmin ultra strong. its diamondweave texture is soft and more durable so it holds up better. fewer pieces left behind. charmin ultra strong. isn't some optional pursuit. a privilege for the ultra-wealthy. it's a necessity. i find investments with e-trade's top 5 lists. quickly. easily. i use pre-defined screeners and insightful trading ideas to dig deeper. work smarter. not harder. i depend on myself the one person i do trust to take charge of my financial future. [ bell dinging ]

it is time to turn our unemployment system into a reemployment system that puts people to work. it is time to stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas and start rewarding companies that create jobs right here in america. innovation is what america has always been about. most new jobs are created in startups and small businesses. so let's pass an agenda that helps them succeed. we've subsidized oil companies for a century. that's long enough. the rest of us are not bailing you out ever again. >> well, we said it here on monday that the state of the union would sound a lot like the state of the obama campaign. however you look at it, it looked very strong last night. it sounded exactly like that with the president delivering a ro rousing campaign style speech

touching on everything from the tax code to employment and housing and energy. even his two biggest rivals had to give a nod to the rhetoric before firing back. >> basically adopted a lot of thoughts that we've had on the campaign trail. unfortunately, what he says and what he has done are so dramatically different that you have to be a little surprised. the biggest difference of course is that he -- he seems to think america is on the right track and things are going well. >> he has a lot of good rhetoric. i like a lot of his rhetoric. we're in a state that has a lot of unemployment. we're in a state with a lot of families whose houses are currently worth less than their mortgages. we're in a state where foreclosures are a real problem. so his rhetoric was terrific but his actions haven't been. >> well, everyone talks a good game but as beau biden just told us especially when it comes to things like housing, we need people to step up today and begin playing a good game. we have learned the hard way all of us that unless you address the underlying structural problems like housing, like trade, like our tax code, rhetoric from either party is

little more than pandering to voters. i want to bring in our miami megapanel. jonathan capehart and imogene weber. and renowned economist and friend of the show, peter marisi. your thoughts as an admirer of america, as a foreigner, in a strange land, on the nature of the rhetoric that you heard last night. >> well, i think it's a campaign tour. it is an advantage for the prds that he gets to beat up on his opponents as it were, republican contenders for president. in saying that, to me a lot of it was about romney. romney wasn't named but let's face it. the attacks, romney personifies the problems. >> with the tax code. >> i find it very interesting if n romney is the nominee there will be a debate about the very

nature of capitalism and that will be very interesting around the world because the world will be watching. >> it was a wonderful confluence of events. the occupy wall street movement didn't pop up because mitt romney decided to run for president. it popped up because people are very concerned about income inequality and being screwed by a system. >> two sets of rules. and yet here you have a president who is trying to address those things and is likely to face an opponent who embodies as you're saying everything that the folks, the occupy wall street people can't stand about what's happening but also as we've talked about on this show before, you know, the common line between the occupy wall street anger and the tea party anger, a system that is not working whether it's the government from the tea party perspective or if it's wall street from the occupy wall street perspective and the wonderful confluence of events is that all of this neatly happens to happen last night in washington with the state of the union address and allows the president to basically give a campaign speech in the august

house chamber. >> that is living if you're a politician i'm sure. peter, at the end of the day we all can endorse the president's rhetoric. i think we all fundamentally agree to not having two sets of rules, to having a culture of investment, to having a culture of equal opportunity. i have been very critical of the president for his failure to resolve banking, which i see is a precursor to the issues, failure to resolve trade in the tax code, a precursor to those issues. what is your assessment of the actions of this administration relative to reforming things like trade taxes and banking in order to deliver on the promise in a speech as grandiose as last night? >> they simply haven't measured up. on banking we still have the problem of banks too big to fail. i'll see if he keeps his promises if citi bank needs a bailout because it really is still too big to fail. we need to chop them down to size and that hasn't been done.

on trade what he announced last night, a special task force, he really already has that. that's what the u.s. trade representative does. he simply has not gotten tough with china on currency. he's acknowledged it needs to be done and he hasn't got it done. the stuff on energy is blue sky. we'll be using petroleum for a very long time as we develop solar and wind. and not to be developing america's domestic oil and gas. last night he said he'll open up 85% of our reserves. all i can say is on that one, show me. i'm from missouri. >> you do have to acknowledge, though, peter, that the president's probably best asset is his opponents romney, gingrich, and santorum along with -- all campaigning in florida today. we woke up this morning in our hotel to a cascade of negative super pack funded ads. i'll just reverse the order starting with you, peter. how much of an asset to the obama campaign is the republican

opposition and what could the republican opposition do to call the president out on the breach between the magical words of his speech and his speeches and the failure to address the bank restructuring trade agreements and the tax code? >> well, i think they need to get away from attacking each other and giving the president more ammunition coming down on romney for example and more saying, well let's look at the trade numbers since you became president. let's look at the employment numbers since you became president. and let's really look at how dependent this country remains on foreign oil and how oil rigs have left the gulf and gone to other countries. but you know don't count on the gop opponent being easy. if it's romney, it's a tough hill for him to climb given his background. but if we're going to debate the nature of american capitalism, watch out for gingrich. a state college professor is a heck of an opponent for a constitutional lawyer. i'd gladly take the president on and put gingrich in my stead.

>> jonathan, your thoughts? >> where to begin. look, i think the republican opponents whether it's going to be newt gingrich or whether it's going to be a mitt romney, the president is going to have a tough re-election campaign to begin with. the economy is still bad. he shouldn't be in as good a position as he is and the only reason why that is, is because well newt gingrich and mitt romney. they're not doing themselves any favors. and the other thing we're witnessing in high relief is the difference between campaigning and all the promises that you can make. you know, as peter says you can make all of these promises on trade and currency and everything but as president obama discovered once he got into the white house, governing is completely different and so i would hope that either mitt romney or newt gingrich wouldn't make wild, outlandish promises vis-a-vis trade or currency manipulation. china promises that they wouldn't be able to fulfill once

they got through the door and saw -- >> i heard the line last night about the corrosive nature of money and politics. i thought obama or maybe his speechwriters have clearly been watching the dylan ratigan show. very interesting. rupert murdoch has just tweeted and said that he thinks romney's tax returns are going to be a problem and watch the gop establishment panic now. so i really think it will be very interesting in florida. $10.5 million is about to be fired at us in terms of super pac ads. we're in for a fascinating ride. we really are. >> as we set up for tuesday the polling basically a dead heat in this state right now between newt gingrich and mitt romney although the momentum obviously is with gingrich as he comes off of that victory in south carolina. thanks to you two for coming down. next up we'll connect the dots on the reality of how we measure where we are versus the rhetoric when it comes to unemployment in america. # [ other merv ] welcome back to the cleaning games.

let's get a recap, merv. [ merv ] thanks, other merv. mr. clean magic eraser extra power was three times faster on permanent marker. elsewhere against dirt, it was a sweep, with scuffed sports equipment... had it coming. grungy phones... oh! super dirty! and grimy car rims... wow! that really works! ...all taking losses. it looks like mr. clean has won everything. the cleaning games are finished? and so are we. okay, but i just took a mortgage out on the cabinet. [ male announcer ] clean more, work less, with the mr. clean magic eraser extra power.

so i used my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in mind. ♪ [ male announcer ] the citi thank you card. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, with no blackout dates.

we're in florida, paradise is literally in peril from housing to health care to employment. but all of this is not only at risk in florida. it is the entire nation that we occupy together and what's worse the tools that we're all using to measure the health of our country are not accurately doing the job so before we reset the dash board that is monitoring our country, unemployment, gdp, we need to understand why the current gauges are so desperately in need of being reworked. we've all heard of gdp growth and the hype it generates once a quarter when the government reports the state of our economy. did it go up a point? did it shrink a little? cable news talks about it like it's life or death. and it's not all garbage. >> gdp. >> gdp.

>> gdp. >> gdp is a good way to compare apples to apples. are there transactions? but we need to realize exactly what those apples are. gdp is commonly thought of as a balanced statement of our national wellness. how wealthy are we? but it's not. just look at the numbers. gdp has grown 46% during the past decade but the average american family income has actually gone down by 7%. the economy is more productive. it's bigger but that growth has not translated into more money for most americans. gdp lets politicians and big business grossly over state prosperity. the director of the media lab describes it as confusing your net worth with your income. >> gdp is kind of an income statement for a country. for any government. but it is not a statement of wealth. we don't have a balance sheet for our economy. so looking at gdp as a statement of income we don't have a balance sheet to tell us what are our real assets?

are they growing? are they in decline? are they flat lining? >> his work shows real american wealth peaked around 1970 so we need to take stock of what our nation's real assets are and the proper gauges to measure them. what's best is the right tools already exist. we have information on the growing inequality gap provided by the oecd ranking the u.s. fourth in the largest income inequality behind those countries you see there including mexico. the brookings institute is working on a happiness index to track the lack of social mobility. a swedish study already shows just 8% of american men in poverty will rise to the top income bracket in their life times compared to 12% in the uk and 14% in denmark. what happened to the american dream? the official unemployment rate is overly optimistic. the real unemployment rate is not around 9% but double that. according to friend of the show peter marisi that includes the under employed and those settling for part-time gigs and

college grads not using their college degree. while we get housing reports on foreclosures and home sales, harvard university's joint center for housing studies has already crunched numbers to show the devastating loss of home equity in this country. home values are down 8.6 trillion dollars during the past decade. that's $8.6 trillion with a "t." and we at the "d.r. show" are well aware any time you tell someone the system they've been using in this case going back to the 1930s with gdp is broken and not giving you the appropriate measure they instantly get defensive. there is nothing more fundamentally disruptive to the status quo power apparatus than a new reality and new tools of measurement that provide a clear picture. but the very status quo that is using these old instruments is killing us. so it is time that we rewrite the script to remeasure our

economy for if we don't use the new script today we will most certainly be looking for it tomorrow. if you want to come out and talk to us today, here in florida, about any of this, we're meeting lots of folks along the way as we discuss our book "greedy bastards" which continues to be a focus of wonderful conversations in the evenings. tonight i am looking forward very much to joining the folks at books and books here in coral gables at 7:00 p.m. eastern time if you're in south florida do come out. there is more information on dylan ratigan.com as there always is where you'll find most recently highlights from last week's event at the commonwealth club in san francisco. a full recording with pictures and i do hope to see those of you in the region today at coral gables at books and books tonight. coming up here another broken gauge. maybe the most significant one. an electoral system that does not measure the true intent of

the electorate. the congressman who is out to change that with us here next. c'mon dad!

i'm here to unleash my inner cowboy. instead i got heartburn. hold up partner. prilosec can take days to work. try alka-seltzer. it kills heartburn fast. yeehaw! it kills heartburn fast. excuse me. him? he's helping me get back to normal. hey, i don't even live in a floodplain. but i've got flood insurance, so i'm covered. how's that? nice. flood insurance, it helps make your home a home again. or, your me a me again. ooh, check it out fred, new foundation. got any of those in my size? [ female announcer ] only flood insurance covers floods. for a free brochure, call the number on your screen. ♪ home was an airport lounge and an ipad ♪

♪ made sure his credit score did not go bad ♪ ♪ with a free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ app that he had ♪ downloaded it in the himalayas ♪ ♪ while meditating like a true playa ♪ ♪ now when he's surfing down in chile'a ♪ ♪ he can see when his score is in danger ♪ ♪ if you're a mobile type on the go ♪ ♪ i suggest you take a tip from my bro ♪ ♪ and download the app that lets you know ♪ ♪ at free-credit-score-dot-com now let's go. ♪ vo: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com™. prego?! but i've been buying ragu for years. [ thinking ] i wonder what other questionable choices i've made? [ '80s dance music plays ] [ sighs ] [ male announcer ] choose taste. choose prego.

with all the talk of gdp, unemployment, and the other outdated gauges we are using to grade the state of our nation, our next guest wants to focus on the ultimate out of whack measuring tool, our electoral and governing systems. the election machine as we all know is supposed to in a democracy gauge how well this country is doing and what the intentions are of the voters. and yet it is being manipulated by gerrymandered electoral districts, closed primary systems, and the power to prevent true debate being controlled almost entirely by money, most of it exchanged in

secret. representative ted deutsch says it has never been more evident that the system and the electoral and governing process is broken and that a constitutional amendment, the 28th, is the only way to keep the super rich and the corporations of this world from completely drowning out the voice of the people in our electoral process. we call it auction 2012 around here. and joining us now is florida congressman ted deutsch who has introduced his own amendment declaring indeed that corporations are not people and it's a pleasure to see you in person. >> thanks. great to be here. >> let's get to the chase. your amendment effectively overturns citizens united. >> right. >> and says corporations are not people and then says that nonprofit money whether union money, koch brothers money, nra money, sierra club money, should be allowed but should be regulated by congress. that raises a lot of skepticism from people like me and others. explain to me why we should

tolerate nonprofit, union koch brothers money any more than we should tolerate corporate money. >> first let's talk about what it does do. it says the corporations aren't people and can be regulated by the people through congress but also specifically says that for profit corporations who are formed for no purpose other than commercial purposes, everything they do is commercial in nature should not be allowed to spend their money in the political system. that leaves nonprofits and individuals which the amendment provides should be regulated by congress. the whole point here is that those groups are groups of individuals whether it is a labor union or a church group the naacp, the nra, sierra club, those are groups of individuals. they should be subject to limits just like the koch brothers. we need to limit their influence. we need to get the corporate dollars, for profit money out all together. >> and why is it -- what is your argument against somebody like myself who says, listen. any money coming in is a quid pro quo and that that fundamentally corrupts legislation?

>> sure. there are an awful lot of people who contribute to political candidates and campaigns because they, and i know this sounds a little quaint and old fashioned but because they believe in that person. they believe in the -- in the ideals that person is putting forth and the views they have to change the country. we want to give them the opportunity and continue to do that. we just need to be able to tackle the corrosive influences the president put it last night of money in politics and the super pacs bombarding the airways right here in florida right now as i'm sure you've seen. >> presume you are the occupied amendment, what, it stands, i have it here somewhere. >> outlawing corporate cash undermining the public interest in electionans democracy. >> assume that was to pass. >> right. >> and now it has been constitutionally amended such that corporations are not people and as such they don't have the same rights as people. >> right. >> and now the responsibility for regulating independent billionaires from meg whitman to mike bloomberg to nonprofits like the koch brothers to the

nra to the sierra club to the unions has now been granted to the united states congress who by the way is the least trusted group of people in america outside maybe the media. >> right. well we're not waiting. we're not waiting until the amendment is passed to come up with the system that will give some confidence back to the people and restore democracy in this country. the amendment when it passes will get the for profit dollars out day one. but by then we will have also envisioned what this new campaign finance system should look like whether it's strict limits, what those limits should be. the ability to -- the necessity to disclose our amendment also requires full disclosure. there are a whole host of issues that have to be tackled in the way campaigns are run and the way that they're reported. all of this is vital but that's part of the debate that has to happen right now even as we're moving forward in these constitutional amendments. >> and how has it been going for you in washington, d.c. as you've been advocating these ideas? >> well, it's been terrific. in just a couple months the

cosponsors are coming in on a regular basis. senator sanders has introduced the occupy amendment in the united states senate. there is a real momentum. because people hear it from their constituents every day, this frustration about what's happening in congress and the failure to respond to the needs that you brought up in this show the housing crisis, the health care crisis. it's because there is this sense rightly so that corporate special interests control the process. that has to change so we've seen great support. >> the critical alternative i suppose to what you're suggesting, which is congressionally regulated transparent, nonprofit, individual contributions, the elimination of corporate cash, the alternative to that would be a national public financing of elections. >> right. >> why would you prefer what you're advocating relative to those who might advocate for public finance? >> i, again, think part of the discussion we need to have right now in envisioning what the system should look like is going to focus on public financing at least in some part as well. but we can't even have the

rational debate until everyone comes together and states clearly that for profit corporations have to be out of the process. it's interesting. the president gave a state of the union address last night. teddy roosevelt in his address to congress, in his message to congress in 1905 said that corporations should not be permitted to spend their money in politics. the tillman act was the result. now even that's under assault. soon if we don't act, soon corporations are going to be able to give directly to candidates that would be even worse. we will eliminate any possibility of restoring people's confidence. >> well, congressman, thank you so much for giving us your thoughts and ideas, educating us to the process a little bit, and also for your leadership on what obviously we here view as the central issue. thank you so much. >> welcome to south florida. >> thank you. congressman ted deutsch. up next, primary concern. the super packs out in force here in lovely florida and our friends at the sun light foundation are on the ground

with us with an auction 2012 update right after this. my mother froze everything. i was 18 years old before i had my first fresh bun. the invention that i came up with is the hot dog ez bun steamer. steam is the key to a great hot dog. i knew it was going to be a success. the invention was so simple that i knew i needed to protect it. my name is chris schutte and i got my patent, trademark and llc on legalzoom. [ shapiro ] we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. go to legalzoom today and make your business dream a reality. at legalzoom.com, we put the law on your side.

this is mary. who has a million things to pick up each month on top of her prescriptions. thankfully, her walgreens pharmacist recommended a 3-month supply. now, mary gets 3 refills in one and for 3 months she's done.

ask your pharmacist about a 90 day supply and how to save with the prescription savings club. individual memberships are just 5 dollars. enroll today. walgreens. there's a way to stay well.

but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. the president is copying that idea.

i'm glad to hear that. >> i agree with mitt romney. >> reagan criticize d newt's ideas and rejected newt's ideas on leadership and character gingrich is no ronald reagan. >> well, we've been on the ground in florida for less than 24 hours. got in late last night and already we have been utterly bombarded dare i say berated by negative political ad after negative political ad. a few of them from the candidates themselves but the vast majority from unaffiliated, uncoordinated, unassociated, secretly run super pacs. in fact, as of today over $18 million has been spent on the ground here in advance of next tuesday's republican florida primary. $11.5 million of that from the top super pac supporting mitt romney and newt gingrich and our next guest has been tracking the astronomical spending and is calling for action. with us now is sun light foundation's policy director

john wonderlich. what action are you calling for? >> legislative reform to get disclosure for the new money being spent in our politics. the disclose act was introduced and failed. we've written a new bill called the super pac act to require disclosure forall the dark money flowing in. >> and specifically how would this be different? >> it would be different because we would know who is giving money to all of these groups that are now paying for ads outside the campaigns because as it stands now we really have no idea where the money is coming from. >> you mentioned the disclose act failed. what is the explanation as to why this wasn't done already if everybody is so worked up about citizens united in the first place why wasn't this just a quick piece of legislation obviously fix the problem, move on with our lives. >> republicans for years had said they were supportive of disclosure and transparency for money and politics but republicans in the senate narrowly blocked the disclose act the end of 2010 and it failed by basically one vote and then throughout all of 2011 the issue basically disappeared and now suddenly is resurging

because the flood of money into our elections we were all worried about is starting to come true. >> the new piece of legislation is called what? >> the super pac act. >> if folks want to learn about it where do they go? >> sun light foundation.com. >> you say money is way more influential and important in a state like florida than it was in iowa or new hampshire or for that matter south carolina. why? >> the reason is that florida is not a retail politic state. you can't win florida by going door to door and meeting in town halls and diners. the media and the ability to buy ads is much more important at this point in the race. so that's why we're starting to see the spending ramp up in ernest and why we're seeing king makers from outside the campaigns come in with their seven-figure checks and start to dictate who is going to win the race. >> another variable is open voting or early voting in florida which means people can go today and cast their primary ballot as opposed to waiting until tuesday. how has the combination of unrestricted, secret money in

american elections, married to the need to go to the media, to communicate in a megastate like florida, married to early voting, affecting this dynamic? it sounds like a nasty stew. >> absolutely. we're seeing an enormous increase in the amount of outside spending going into the election. between romney's and gingrich's outside groups and then we're seeing unions get involved as well and ron paul. each of these groups is ramping up their ad buys and they're far more negative than they were earlier in the cycle as well because when there are only a few leaders if you can make your opponents' negatives go up you'll be the one to benefit. it is going to be much more negative and we're just seeing the beginning. >> the sort of same thing the president benefits from which is whether you like this president or not or you think the poverty numbers or unemployment numbers or the housing numbers are dissatisfactory he simply has to be better than his opponent. he doesn't actually have to fix the problem and inside the primary they have the same advantage and it's all of our disadvantage in the process correct? >> absolutely. for now obama i think is content to sit back and watch the

republican candidates tear each other apart but he also has his own issue because he spent all of 2010 being opposed to outside money. since then the issue has disappeared from the president's radar probably because it's awkward for him since he is now also the beneficiary of some of the outside spending. >> let us go right to that. the president addressed money in politics last night. we hear other politicians talk about it. we just had ted deutsch here. he actually has an amendment proposed in the congress to eliminate or overturn citizens united. your base statement and i think it's dead on is do not think politicians are serious on the issue of money in politics whether it's a republican, a democrat, the president, or the most junior congress person unless they have already actually done something, anything to try to fix it. what could they do? what should be on that list? i mean we talked about the amendment but we know it is a significant undertaking for this

country. what could any politician, the president or anybody else do right now to win your confidence that they're serious by doing something to fix it. >> one thing they could do is release their -- an easy initial step, release the people bundling together checks and giving to our campaigns. on top of that all the candidates should be immediately committing to support legislation to require immediate disclosure of all the contributions and all the expenditures going into these outside groups. that is something we don't have to worry about. the supreme court endorsed that approach to money and politics in the citizens united decision with the idea that we would have some sort of law or regulation to require information shared with the public about who is giving to these third party groups. we don't have it. right now in florida people are going to be voting without knowing who is funding all these outside groups. we have to wait until the end of the month to find out where all this money paying for these ads in florida is coming from. so all the candidates should be supporting new laws so we have the information we need to enforce our election laws and to understand who is funding the

ads. >> for those who have the transparency fantasy, sort of the completion of it would seem to be a nascar style identity where if i'm politician i've got my, you know, my nra badge and i've got my sierra club badge and i've got my oil company badge and i've got my health care badge. is that a realistic thing? could we actually identify in a way that is easily absorbed by the american electorate the identity of the funders of every politician in this country so that people like me and the media could talk about it and use it? >> well the idea of a nascar jacket or uniform is a powerful metaphor. the way we see that disclosure work now is on the internet. what we're looking for is real time, online disclosure of where all the money is coming from so we can follow it. the reason we need that information to be completely associated with the politicians is we need to ask ourselves what all this money is buying. it's not just buying ad time in media markets in florida. these candidates and the president are all approaching very wealthy people and spending their time courting them and

that is going to change the way they approach public policy and the way they make decisions. >> it reminds me of that quote the other day from chris dodd who is at the mpaa saying if we give you money we expect you to do something for it going back to the debate. that was remarkably tone deaf on his part and insightful for the rest of us. >> an incredible sense of entitlement for chris dodd to leave a democratic senate seat in a high ranking position and act as though he can dictate public policy because he's got -- >> based on money. >> unbelievable. >> anyway, a pleasure. thank you so much for all of your efforts and it's sun life foundation.org. >> sun life foundation.com. >> excuse me. still ahead, where the jobs are in florida right now. we say every problem is a job. well, there are lots of problems and lots of jobs. why aren't people snapping them up? we have a look ahead at tomorrow's show next. since 1894, ameriprise financial has been working hard for their clients' futures. never taking a bailout.

helping generations achieve dreams. buy homes. put their kids through college. retire how they want to. ameriprise. the strength of america's largest financial planning company. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you, one-to-one. together, for your future. ♪ diarrhea, gas or bloating? get ahead of it! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defend against digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. hit me! [ female announcer ] live the regular life. phillips'. the sleep number bed. the magic of this bed is that you're sleeping on something that conforms to your individual shape. you can adjust it to whatever your needs are. so whatever you feel like, the sleep number bed's going to provide it for you. and now, the company that redefined sleep is redefining memory foam. save $400 on our all-new memory foam bed. and at our white sale, stock up and save on our exclusive bedding collection.

only at the sleep number store, where queen mattresses start at just $699. what is this shorty? uh, tissues sir, i'm sick. you don't cough, you don't show defeat. give me your war face! raaah! [ male announcer ] halls. a pep talk in every drop. is another way to look at the bean. another way that reveals the lighter, mellower side of our roast. being blonde is nothing new but blonde roast is something new. something subtle. something soft. something with 40 years of roasting experience on its side. introducing delicious new starbucks blonde roast. the lighter roast perfected. ♪

today from miami we've been taking a closer look at this paradise and it is indeed paradise in peril. but not yet paradise lost. the ugly picture of the foreclosure crisis in this state set against the beautiful backdrop that is available in this state. it reveals a tale of two different floridas and millions pouring into this state demonstrates the magnitude of the challenge we face in trying to fix it when you look at the political stakes. tomorrow, however, away from those two issues, we will go back to our basic narrative. every problem, remember, is a potential job. and here in florida, a hu