planet right now in this country that we we have been short changing our policies of safe and secure storage to china it's time for a plug and mr alvarez that we're out of time with thanks so much for being with us thank you for having me on appreciate it coming up the war of the middle class continues as well as the bombings in libya just a few topics will knock out in our weekly rog. let's not forget that we had an apartheid museum right here. i think the feet of one hundred twelve.

whenever the government says to keep you safe get ready because of their freedom. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear see some other part of it and realized everything you saw. i'm sorry this is the.

are you ready to rumble on the panels that i jimmy weinstein deputy editor and and the daily caller dr right erica nudie a democratic strategist here in washington d.c. and brian darling former republican strategist who now serves as the director of government studies at the heritage foundation and the sort of right to my radio show from ok let's get started for the past week the united states and a half dozen other countries have been dropping bombs on strategic locations in libya and forcing a no fly zone in the northern region of that country to keep moammar gadhafi from

attacking civilians united states has been at the forefront of this effort spending more than eight hundred million dollars on a war in libya it is frankly never planned so it was a cost of one hundred eighty tomahawk missiles fired over libya and replacement cost of an american fighter jet that crashed in eastern libya on tuesday and all of this happened without a mandate from congress or instead speaker boehner the house of representatives spent most of last week baiting how to take five million dollars away from n.p.r. . without a word about gadhafi so is the u.s. involvement in the war in libya unconstitutional right. i don't i don't believe it to be unconstitutional i don't believe it to be an act of war military it the president is commander in chief of the armed forces he does not have to go to congress every time mean gauges and hostilities. well if he were to drop boots on the ground in libya or any other country for that matter that's a different story as well as dropping bombs on people's heads in

a different well first of all we're talking about a coalition is not just the united states and i can't believe i'm defending president obama but in the rubble but i mean in i think it's disingenuous for you to criticize speaker boehner so much because he did complain that there was a lack of consultation with congress if you get started right nancy pelosi said that she's confident she's happy with the current level cogitation she received from the president but speaker boehner wasn't so i'm more worried that it's it was a partisan notification no one was home as a partisan or i think that's part of it i mean they are they are all great but i think there's a minute they have first of all they have i think you have to say that is an act of war i mean we're shooting at people and things and if there were people flying and shooting at us over america we certainly wouldn't say that it was an act of war i think the bigger issue here is that it shows i mean i think that it shows the complete parker say in this budget debate that we can spend eight hundred million

dollars on something that you know has no and has no exit strategy what happened to going in and trying to plan our exit strategy before going to war and then we're going to debate about five million dollars of those and suddenly get us out of that i mean this idea that the military budget and what we spend on defense doesn't matter is ridiculous it doesn't matter and even i would say further the reality is that we're now doing a three front war and we can't sustain this how much longer we don't have really a great way to get out of any of this it's like using a hammer. could get a splinter out of your years if you if you can you just need to be if you can develop a few points to be made here one is that i mean eight hundred eight hundred million eight hundred dollars is nine years in total that says it was we just confiscated thirty billion dollars from colonel gadhafi i think we maybe could use some of that money to pay for the kind of really taking sprees it was i thought he just wrote we just froze it we could be consider using it to to pay for this conflict and thirdly i think you know people have their reservations about this conflict but one thing

you know show that it's great to have an altruistic power if you're beaten down oppressors masses of this world that come with you defense this is the in this narrative out there that america is anti muslim is absurd this is the sixth time in the last two decades that america has put boots on the ground. planes in the air and defend some of muslim peoples so so this is you know for that matter that that should be i mean well i would say afghanistan and iraq well i would have to say that the taliban is no longer in charge of afghanistan that's a plus not only are they are in control of about a third of the well in kabul and have literally correct me in the least of the hope today that they can fight off the taliban i think we're getting into a kind of i really i mean are we talking about regime change there's a lot of leaders in this area of the world that are kind of looking around really nervous and people can make it to get a little upset when you start talking about regime change and what we've spent on this so far and what we've gotten for it we still have the same coffee problem

there's still work going on and we don't know i mean this is a loose coalition of people we don't know if they're going to be anti-american pro-american message mean coffee's not you know my favorite guy out there but you know it's not small that he's actually like you know what i mean what i believe he could offer price for human rights and yet i think the big picture on this is the you know when you look at dynamic players they tend to start lots and lots of wars and. we don't i don't want this to be a dying empire and i don't think that we should. clearly this is not a dying empire and if you look one of the problems is that the president president obama has not stated the mission clearly to the american people he has not come out he's not have a statement of the american people in the world saying six years exactly what we're doing or however going to move on to the next topic at speed a war of publicans or because he waging a war of their own here at home through budget cuts to programs that help the poor and middle class while giving away tax cuts the millionaires republicans are essentially stealing from the poor to the rich and finally john boehner and his band of merry men on capitol hill republican governors are on the front lines of

the g.o.p. war on the middle class in maine for example governor paul le page is stealing from the poor by raising property taxes raising the retirement age for state workers and freezing health care funding giving to the rich by changing the state tax law in a way that only benefits means four hundred wealthiest campaign contributors citizens so when is the g.o.p. going to admit that where are the jobs platform they came in last year has been replaced by the let's not bite the hands of the millionaires and billionaires and feed us a jet stream to you a place that seems like it's another great imagine your imaginary war for the democrats to to clean it out of your working first congress it was. general general michael moore and his rebels are going to take take the fight to to america and the fact of the matter is that america has huge financial problems and there have to be cuts in there has to be entitlement reform while because we are in tremendous debt

along to we started going to that when ronald reagan cut taxes that riddle the long term unfunded liabilities excess of fifty trillion dollars we did a story this week ten weeks isn't rich but we did we went there i got the reason it's let's roll back the reagan tax code just do anything happened in your life you can remap game with and plan for millionaires we let me get this out we did a story this week about the federal government jobs and what they're offering they're offering in one department one hundred fifteen thousand dollars for someone who can manage their facebook. i'm sorry that's a problem we should be cutting that those salaries to those type of things that is not here mark i can guarantee you i can find some idiot job at general electric that should probably should be the bureaucracy lot more for facebook management the private sector and i'm going to absolutely actually. shopped around you can cost a fortune if you want to get somebody to do social networking really working for you but again for you if you're going to be good i think the thing is that we've seen a lot of the a lot of what is it happening and where this these budget problems came from

weren't caps cuts to corporations in the first place and to the rich yes we passed a bunch of tax cuts i can't argue these and we don't have a way to pay for him so when republicans are all saying that we need to be fiscally conservative and we need to be paying attention to our money we're going to let you guys pay less in to the kitty and we're going to give you guys the break those of you that are rich and we're going to get off the backs of the middle class and exactly what happened response in the budget shortfall came from our passing tax cuts and then going in and making the workers and the state employees pay for it which they agreed to do and still strip their collective bargaining rights the big problem we have in this country we don't have enough government we have too much government taxes already too i say and i think the american people think we have too much debris. trillion dollar debt as a nation right now so this is just because reagan gave all that money to. president obama's budget and he thirteen trillion dollars in new debt in the next ten years

oh i think you know he gave in and he kept the bush tax cuts if you rolled back i mean before the bush tax cuts clinton actually had a budget surplus does anybody remember there is a raise and you're these are not rich people who like three fourths yes ground searches are easy it is easier it is just more government regulation and i place a raise taxes taxes too don't forget and reagan did the same thing reagan raising taxes and mentioning the fact that there is at least fifty trillion unfunded liabilities that are going to come in. in fact over the next year if you're years if you're talking about social security medicare and medicaid and social security is not part of the budget and. you have to you have to account for it and have to pay for it all you have to do is right now if you make over one hundred six thousand eight hundred dollars a year and you already believe and secondly any we're going to secure securities all you have to do is say bill gates you've got to pay the same amount that genie you and i socially and the promise of the new medicare night more years if you just adjust their rate on which people you say can be like to say that you know we've

already funded social security but they are counting ious and i watch dumb and dumber and i know that that they say that i users that is very curious that is not how it works in real you know the treasuries are any good it's an iou it says very sure we'll say we have to pay there so ourselves yeah so it's not that i mean it's not either that's what he's not here in this for money only very point seven trillion dollars of the treasuries then china. will try to hold right holds a very small percentage of our debt are foreign owned that isn't a huge percentage of all the debt that's out there but one thing i think that's very important to note is you talk about these evil rich people will be evil rich people will you say maybe i should say you know around taxes no they're not under tax they're the job creators you taxes have a job here and you see our government going to a great many people who buy things and run the shop workers i mean let's get back here for a second here when we were awarded people for actually doing work not just for opening and you think american dream was that if you work hard that you could do more and better to be successful that now you can work more and have your benefits

and be paid class and have your rights so there isn't a problem with a month's worth more than a banker right here and it was nice that you have to be hired by somebody in the rich keep your generated erikson job creators going to us through what he says he will be trading on e bay trading on welfare or whatever and it's as they're buying things people who are working are just because they're not until this is the money isn't just created out of thin. where it's it comes from so i own a business i'm not just going to suddenly if i get a tax cut and say gee i got an extra hundred thousand dollars i think i'll hire two or three people know i'm going to say you know where's the swiss bank account or a million dollars so you're going to expand you start you start you only expand if there's demand and there's always demand of people have money in their pockets that's what created jobs. how do we want to manage where we just have a demand problem in our economy and it's not true is x. to not if you have too much government to just to just to end the topic here. in my

own answer to my own rhetorical question you know what's going on here. and i think frankly that the democrats are stupidly ignoring the jobs issue they're talking obama's talking about what's also figure out what we can cut they should be screaming about it and suddenly in october november of two thousand and twelve the republicans are going to come out and they're going to be all over jobs and it's going to be a problem for the democrats it concerns me tremendously a group of house republicans that introduced a bill that would cut off food stamps to an entire family if any member of that family goes on strike against as his or her employer so if you're a low income union worker who depends on food stamps you know how to choose between standing up for your rights in the workplace and food to feed your family meanwhile america's largest corporation g.e. which bail out money from bush by the way announced it made fourteen billion dollars in profits from page of the york times today and you and i taxpayers oh them g.e. over three billion dollars along with the american people put up with this actually

wrong. on the bill on the bill part if you are on food stamps before you go on strike you are actually grafted in so you will not lose your food stamps it's only if because of your going on strike that you have to have that you're losing income to go and food stamps i mean i guess all conservatives would be good to get was like why do i would start to keep looking for their own why should the government pay for people who are not working why should we pay for food stamps for people who are just going on strike because. i believe people that are that are of low income wage earners collectively i mean what do they have lack of they can't hire a lobbyist like he to go and lobby for better wages or what they have left is their ability to show up or not show up and strike and their voice says when you take away that ability for them to negotiate and try to get better paying jobs if there weren't the ability to strike it that it would take this away or have some economic consequences then what would be all making which i now regret oh i can't handle if i know you might actually do you agree on something i think we all probably agree

that corporate welfare is a bad idea and if we have all these energy subsidies and other it's tax credits and they're going to these big companies they shouldn't get in there shouldn't be getting bailout money tarp money that was a big mistake so i think we can all agree that the government shouldn't be just throwing money at these problems in the names of creating jobs where the in fact my take on this is that is that there is a populist revolt in america that corporations during the eisenhower administration are paying thirty percent of the cost of government right now at six point six percent that's insane and that's brought up the tea party and that's where you know it was consonant eventually those people are going to get together and whichever party starts talking to them is going to start winning elections a bit more and you know i'm hoping as the democrats you're probably very you know america the twenty first century is bringing back debtor's prison score to the wall street journal people who can't pay off their credit cards can be thrown in jail in a third of our states and since that heart started two thousand and ten over five thousand arrest warrants were issued in just the nine counties in the wall street journal looked at against people who owed as little as

a thousand dollars in credit card debt the situation is so out of hand in indiana that police are falling behind on executing arrest warrants for actual dangerous criminals because they're so bogged down with the quest from banks there's a throw out of jail debtors into jail actually out of work that or is it that you so a few years after the financial crisis were massive fraud was perpetrated by wall street not one banks are in jail reagan by the way put a thousand of them in jail couldn't him but tens of. hundreds of thousands of americans are being set up with better. prison these multibillion dollar corporations really need even more elf screwing the american people. i mean i agree that people really we shouldn't be reinstituting something that went out of vogue an eight hundred thirty three you know debtors prison not a not a great idea but from my understanding of the issue i don't think it's we're not talking about a large amount of people that are being locked up we're talking about people that are probably not showing up for their court date to come in and at least present their case and how much money they owe but i do agree it's probably

a bad thing if they're locking up people for owing you know one hundred fifty baht sort of thousand so the biggest the biggest problem here is that is that most of these people don't know that they've been notified the fact it's the same bad bad paperwork with the mortgage companies in minneapolis star tribune a report a number of cases that's happening in minnesota where some people were and very low dollar amounts just like you mentioned and i think the concern here is that what's happened is that some of these companies have been notifying people in a way that they're not used to seeing it or transferred they think you know there's no way out of that company i've never heard of that company money what is this they don't know what it is and the name and partly message and what's happened is that there's no way to prove i mean you you know a lot of these people don't know that money to that person or even if you do but you could still go to jail and there isn't that are not on these private companies that are essentially using the government i think after that i agree that they don't know the company we're getting so they throw it away because they've never heard of the company over you i mean if you don't come in for

a court date that is problematic they're not going to jail for a long period of time i'm not very happy with this but then again because. it was created because of. this so that is if there is a new good you get a lot of it out of anyone when there is over your head if you're oh yeah here's my answer to you know do these corporations really need help the yes they do and karl rove and the u.s. chamber of commerce are going to be rushing to their aid next year to get as many. republicans look as. recently sure of arizona's own rambo sheriff joe arpaio displayed a massive show of force when he executed a search warrant phoenix on a homeowner suspected of. this is a rapid take a look at this. this was the scene in book read two weeks ago armored vehicles a swat team riot gear all part of a raid. on an alleged cockfighting ring and right all of this against an unarmed

man and his chickens now there are reports that are all of this of so the steven seagal could get some good scenes for his new law enforcement reality show on in fact seagal was seen riding in one of the tanks so what should our pio have done in this situation here some possible answers ate nothing but the roosters do their thing be reacting. ruby react like any rational law enforcement officer and send in a few cops to investigate. c. call the pentagon for air support from fighter jets and tanks what do you think. of my injuries i'm just surprised that they chose steven seagal he's so nine hundred ninety s. i think michael vick would have been a good option and that would get a lot of ratings michael vick going in really a dog fighting fighting rings so here i won't charge erica i don't know that care really think they are capable of acting rationally i mean obviously going to handle it in the appropriate manner but you know over califate they say the only thing i don't i don't call again a ninety's action hero probably

a little bit more than was necessary for the situation and like you know i love the steven seagal show he's a great actor and watches reality show it's pretty good it's entertaining you should watch it and if i take it is the joy is this is that he just wants to be out there all the time or he's going to be running for governor of arizona pretty soon and he should either be given his own reality show or look out jim. betty. thank you all. all for joining us right here thank you i think we're. coming up here to corporations like bank of america getting away with over it using over one hundred offshore tax havens to make huge profits and pay no taxes a little class picks up the slack the theory behind personhood and tries to be able to.

let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right here. i think from a beautiful morning well. we never government says there are that keep you safe get ready because you get your freedom. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so bleak you think you understand it and then you glimpse

something else and you hear see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you don't i'm sorry is a big issue. for . five. yesterday one hundred members of the u.a.w.

descended out of bank of america in detroit jammed up a lobby and shut down the bank why because bank of america didn't pay its taxes in two thousand and nine bank of america made four point paul four billion dollars in profit money left over after the end of the year and paid zero taxes that's right now about none zilch maybe that's why the brain could afford handing over a nine million dollars bonus to their c.e.o. brian brian moynihan back in january even president bob king justified the u.a.w. as protest by saying quote anything that would help the middle class bank of america posed when workers are struggling to pay childcare and feed their families bank of america in two thousand and ten made seventeen and a half billion dollars from credit card a.t.m. fees. similarly the new york times reported today that america's largest corporation g.e. made fourteen billion dollars internationally and over five billion dollars in the

united states again in profits and the money left over after they paid everybody else everything else but instead of going to axis they got a three billion dollar tax benefit that's as in from you and me so how is it that an extremely profitable corporation like bank of america pays nothing in taxes and g.e. even gets money back whereas you and i are paying up to thirty five percent in tax rates rise of the corporations paid thirty percent of the cost to government the one nine hundred fifty s. but the day pay only six point six percent with you and me picking up the rest well it's not a rhetorical question it's a real question and there's a real answer it's because of something called corporate personhood for six thousand years of human history with few exceptions people didn't have rights inst charge or be in charge of government during those times was either a king who held

a hereditary title of power a theocrat who claimed to divine claim to power or a warlord who would seize power by and by brute force and all the kings theocrats and wards have rights privileges were trickled out of the people at the privilege to have food or to get married but even these it's usually required the permission of the king this is a futile societies were organized and run from six thousand years. but when our founding fathers here in the united states set out to create this country they borrowed an idea more than two thousand years old from the greeks known as democracy it also took a good dose of it from the iroquois confederacy a native american tribes up in northern new england and a democracy takes that system of feudal government and flips it upside down instead of the top the people hold all the rights and the people organize the government to represent them they are granted privileges to churches and corporations that's why

the first three words of the constitution are we the people our founders knew that the best defense against tyranny the best defense against the rise of kings theocrats and warlords taking over america was to keep the power in the hands of the people but over the last century and a half america corporations have steadily staked out more and more of what should be rights exclusively belonging to us to the living human bein's going to corporations for example the first amendment right of free speech it turns into the freedom to influence elections the corporations are claiming that in fact once the supreme court gave them that right trans national corporations began to care about the carve up our tax code create loopholes and legalize offshore tax havens something that wasn't happening back in the fifty's corporations now are the new kings and their agenda is to radically remake america into

a neo feudal system which is why you're seeing things like the spectacles in wisconsin ohio maine and other states where corporate owned politicians have come to power luckily people are starting to take notice like the u.a.w. in detroit and the us uncut movement taking on bank of america and people showing up to occupy state houses from madison to lansing. when we once and for all stand up and say that corporations are not people and thus do not have rights then we will again be the america that our founders envisioned a government that lincoln said is government of the people by the people and for them that's the big picture for more information on the stories we covered tonight visit our website at www dot com or r t dot com also check out our you tube page and dot com slash the big picture and you tube dot com slash tom hartman and this entire show is available for free pass on i tunes and don't forget the mocker see begins when you get out there and get active when you show up tag your it monday.

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