on the alone a show for real headlines with none of the mercy i can live out of washington d.c. now people across the country are moaning and groaning because today is the deadline to send in your taxes we'll speak with representative dennis q signature about the shocking number of people who don't pay and we'll see if our system needs reform there are a few people who not only pay up but actually say they should be taxed more we're going to introduce you to one of the members of the patriotic millionaires for

fiscal strength and then anybody who loves to play online poker should listen up because your favorite web site might not be there anymore we'll have details on the president's crackdown on online poker sites i will determine if you really has the right to say who can play what in the world leaders came together in washington this weekend to discuss inflation debt crises how to get the world back on the right financial track artie's lauren lyster of bring us all the details about the i.m.f. and world bank meetings and then what is going on with the g.o.p. there are emerging front runner seems to be the donald and quite frankly the rest of the early presidential candidates aren't your typical g.o.p. material either so is the entire party getting a facelift before the two thousand and twelve election is that a g.o.p. it revolution now rick has got all of that and much more on tonight's show but first let's move on to our top story. now if you live in the u.s. and you abide by your patriotic duties then you're well aware that today is tax day and we got an extra three days this time around but i don't think that kept anyone

from procrastinating staying up until the early early morning hours then waiting in line at the post office today all to get it sent in and a matter what your schedule was if you pay your taxes i'm sure that you'll find this news that i have about to give you to be rather to. concerning the i.r.s. released out of the head tracked the tax returns of the four hundred highest grossing comps i guess watch in one nine hundred ninety five the richest four hundred americans paid on average about thirty percent of their income in federal taxes now that number is below seventeen percent and it's not like they're making any less money quite the opposite while their combined wealth was just over six billion dollars in one nine hundred ninety five by two thousand and seven it was almost twenty three billion and that's not all and also turns out that thanks to the loopholes and breaks within our system forty five percent of u.s. households will pay no federal income tax this year so how do we fix the system that clearly is broken and to discuss this with me is us congressman dennis kucinich congressman thank you so much for being here today to be with you is there

any doubt in your mind that this is a system that needs reform of course in its reform because it the way it's set up it's transferring the wealth of america into the hands of a few and there's another dimension is to attach people who aren't complying with the tax laws between fifteen and sixteen percent of people don't declare an estimate of over three hundred billion dollars it's lost annually to people who just are. basically cheating on their what is the solution do you think that we should get rid of all tax breaks all deductibles just have a flat rate i think that first of all we need to and we need to repeal the bush tax cuts which made it possible for people in the top bracket to get away without paying a fair share and we have to really look at the way we're addressing taxes where the burden of taxation contrary to popular opinion has actually shifted to lower and middle income people who actually end up paying about four hundred thirty four dollars more a year over a period of time then they would be for the so-called tax reforms and where they

transfer the money up to the top so we need to revise the tax code but we need to do it in a more progressive way so that if you make more you pay more but republicans have already said that is a nonstarter because president obama of course unveiled in part of his deficit reduction plan. and last time around the lame duck session obama basically kate that he wanted to end the bush era tax cuts at least for the wealthiest americans and he caved and now once again he's brought the idea to the table republicans are already saying it's not going to happen but if he caves again well you know fair is fair we're all enjoying the benefits of living in america people who make more out of paying a little bit more we have to look at the theory of community in terms of taxation but if some people are trying to do everything they can to avoid paying any taxes at all and are making a lot of money that's not really fair to the rest of society so the bush tax cuts were really about taking the wealth of america and send it right to the top and when government becomes simply an engine for the fish and acceleration of income to

the top through the tax code through wars through energy policy through our banking policies and what you have is less with the markers and that really is the core issue here how do we protect our democracy which tax with tax laws that enable to rich get richer the poor get poorer and so then would you understand why a lot of americans would be frustrated right now right if you look at it actually we're paying lower taxes than we were about ten years ago but there's such a strong feeling of anti-government sentiment and i think there's a lot of resentment right now because well there's not a lot of trust in government and you feel like you have absolutely no say why should i pay my taxes if they go to wars that i don't support right i mean i can understand it as someone who opposes these wars but i also have to say let's let's ask ourselves what is our theory of government if we believe in we the people which are those famous words that begin. our most sacred document if we really

believe in that then we have to have a government of all the people not just a few and if the tax laws are written to benefit a few at the expense of the many which is what the tax laws are right now on a day like today which is tax day you come to understand. and we have to have a more progressive tax system where those who are making a lot who have been blessed should pay a fair share and where those who are struggling to survive should not be paying the same rate and also we have to get rid of these tax breaks there are so many people say well those who are making a lot more you know that there are more that they're helping to support this economy but you know what they get more tax breaks and the middle income and poor people don't get those kind of tax breaks the system is fundamentally unfair but do you think that there is a way to reconcile it because he said that it all depends on what you think the function of government is write what you think the ideology is behind our government and while it says that we the people there's

a lot of people out there that say no it's my money i earned it i'm an individual and the last thing i want to do is for it to go to the government you have to have an educated society taxes pay for public education you have to have a society which is healthy taxes help pay for health care you have to have a society which ensures that your seniors are not going to live in poverty taxes help to pay for that as well as having a separate account for so security we need to realize that the roads that we drive on that the services that we enjoy from the air traffic controllers to make sure that people are able to get to where they have to go and safe safely and you know me let's make sure of that with the recent changes we have to realize government performs some essential functions for all of us so if we say well look i don't want to pay any taxes at all because i have a lot of money and i want to hold on to all of it but i can understand it thinking that you have to think about what is going to have a nation which mean to be an american what does it mean that we participate collectively in this democratic experience san francisco to be about selfishness it's just about everyone's for themselves and the whole idea of government falls

apart and the whole idea of a nation falls apart so taxes are one way in which you measure the health of a nation right now america is not a healthy place because those who are making the most and i think their fair share ok so how about the fact if we step away from intervene. and also we step away from households and we look at corporations in this country too we know that they're the bank of america's the exxon mobil's the g.e.'s that paid absolutely zero dollars in taxes last year so it's no longer you know i think a lot of americans would say that this is a corporatist state that the people have somehow lost their voice they have their importance to the corporation when i was making before if the tax laws are written so the corporations get away without paying any taxes at all can we fix it absolutely and what it takes to fix it is that people have to challenge the congress to strip these tax breaks where the corporations pay a fair share it's not fair for corporations raking billions of dollars to find a way to hide their income earner send their profits off shore which is what's

happening in many cases the corporations have to pay a fair share and they're not and to me that's a form of cheating on taxes if you if you decided to look for every way to beat the tax man or if you have your friends in congress writing the laws that help your particular cause then work your loyalty it's woman. what's your concern about our nation and its corporations just feeding. truck tax trough and avoiding paying a fair share of what they're doing or taking the whole burden of taxation and shifting its everyone else that's not fair the burden of taxation should be shared equally if we're going to have a nation that calls itself the markers it's absolutely not fair and i at one hundred percent think that it needs to change but it's going to take a strong congress that's actually willing to change as well congressman thank you so much for being here tonight progressive taxation and thank you for being here now since have tax day to day which so many americans dread and most try to avoid by using those loopholes whenever possible let's look at this from another

perspective from those who want to pay more that's right as a group called patriotic millionaires for fiscal strength and they originally formed last year during the debate over extending the bush era tax cuts but now the battle over the budget has come. front and center on capitol hill again they've written a formal letter to president obama to harry reid and to john boehner asking for taxes to be raised on those earning over one million dollars a year and they write it as quote loyal citizens it's not something we hear every day in this country so we wanted to find out more earlier i caught up with one of those patriotic millionaires entrepreneur ron barrett i first asked him why it is that he wants to pay higher taxes. just wants to be higher taxes i don't believe this is for the next person but we have only three options we can cut spending and raise taxes or we can go bankrupt. in study that just doesn't seem to be working and i don't want to see just to go bankrupt do you think that we really started to

cut spending and we may feel like only now we're starting to see this debate at least happen in our government but no real austerity measures have been placed upon us yet those are. not yet here any of the kind of rhetoric. i would expect to hear is really we're going to be on a tour through the kind of cutting edge to be consistent. and then of course you can look at some figures released from the u.k. last week that shows that retail sales went down there that household income went down after they did knock those austerity measures and so the debate only heats back up i guess one of my big questions for you is yes we are now in this fiscal crisis and we have to get out of it but it's the government that got us into this crisis right it's the government that spent too much irresponsibly so now you want to give them more of your money you sound very trustworthy more than most. well the government we're democracies the government is us so we can't blame it on the

government as. they are the people who we elected. to be the responsibility for. now have you gotten any response i know that you and the other our patriotic millionaires wrote a letter to president obama to harry reid and to john boehner saying please factotum or any kind of payback. will certainly i haven't heard anything directly if there was one senator who needed speech on the senate floor i think it was john but he could be wrong who basically gave one of the stock responses which is if you want to pay more taxes just write the government itself and send it in and the problem with that is that if. we we can solve the problem just by asking people to voluntarily paid more is our little group just just send in more money essentially treating it like

a charity that we may take time to problem we're going to have to all pull together in order to six this problem and there's also probably going to be coated with should pay if we're going to get our souls out of this and how do you know that if the government does raise taxes especially on the wealthiest americans how do you know they're actually going to use that money to fix our deficit and fix our budget woes instead of car another war. i do know that. i do. and i'm sure it's right that some of the catch twenty three that we all find ourselves in here you know one thing that i think is very interesting by the way that you label yourselves in this group is that you are patriotic millionaires you say that you are a loyal citizens and i think that really shines a light on a deep division within this country right because if you specially look at the right if you look at republicans what's patriotism to them is the fact that you can do whatever you want on your own and the government isn't interfering in it you

know it's unpatriotic to tax your citizens even more so do you think that we can ever actually come to terms of those two sides can come together that it's either about we're in this together as a country or we're just in this for me and you do see this possible and i like to think it's possible and fundamentally an optimist by nature. and. the way to do that is with education you seem to a lot of people who choose to the right end of the political spectrum is just that and this is one of us and one of the things. we really agreed on was and we just lean on so. the right place to save the constitution as a guide to what we should do all right in the preamble of the constitution it says that the reason for establishing this union is to promote the general welfare so. this is not this idea that we should all work together towards

a common good is about is notice again it's the devil's in the details of course everyone likes to pick and choose which words they want out of the constitution now my last question here is i know the group originally formed over the debate over extending the bush tax cuts last year now obama is allegedly again offering up the idea of ending tax cuts for the wealthiest but we know the republicans are not really looking so kindly on that so if obama caves again how disappointed were you people will that make him lose your vote. however i will be very very disappointed whether that will actually cost him my salute you know it's a long time between now and november twenty two l's. so you want to help. are all i want to thank you very much for joining us and patriotic millionaires that want to pay higher taxes to help get the country out of the red i think that there should be more people like you out there thanks so much. we have much more tonight on

taxes coming up we'll take a look at some famous politicians who've been caught red handed for failing to pay uncle sam that's in just a moment and then cracking down on gambling the u.s. government shut down several online poker sites last week so is this yet another overreach by the obama administration julian sanchez a research fellow at the cato institute joins me next to discuss the issue. let's not forget that we are in the fourth quarter. i think. either one well. we have to go but they're going to keep him safe get ready because of the freedom.

of a charmer over here broadcasting live from washington d.c. coming up today on the big picture a. new web site makes twenty four seven live streaming news towns what to do about it ongoing financial. unlimited high quality videos for download. and stories you never find on mainstream news.

posts aren't. you guys welcome to show or tell to show we've heard what our guests have to say on the topic now we want to hear. just go on to you tube to video respond or to twitter first part of the question that we post on you tube every monday and on the first day of the show your responses please let your voice be heard. well tax day has finally come and the majority of americans aren't millionaires so it's not something you can say that they look forward to each year and i know what a lot of you are thinking others you don't know how can i even afford to pay this right now but before people start trying to outsmart the government we do recommend that you probably should fess up and just pay up because getting caught by the i.r.s. for tax evasion isn't any fun and i'm not speaking on behalf of myself but rather

on behalf of a group of individuals who consistently think that they are above the law politicians so let's start with some of the smaller guys gary miller he's a representative from california's forty second district and he's got quite a reputation and in fact he's one of the most corrupt members of congress so what a citizens awareness group discovered miller evaded his taxes after selling land california they weren't going to let ten million dollars in profits go without notice so gary just because he tried to use some fancy rhetoric doesn't mean that people are going to take you at your word they do investigate things now the f.b.i. has been conducting an investigation on miller and according to the awareness group grew a conviction is heading in his direction next up we have bill campbell former mayor of atlanta. sure he was praised for the way to be cleaned up atlanta but he also served jail time for illegally acquired cash and of course not reporting it now the damage to have years in prison think thousand dollars in fines and a hefty bill of the i.r.s.

sixty two thousand dollars in fact now on to the better known it tax evading politicians this list would obviously not be complete without charlie rangle if conundrum came about with the new york times discovered a sweetheart deal wrangle had leases on several low rent apartments in manhattan no way there is also more of this he also failed to pay any sort of taxes on his villa down in the dominican republic and when confronted wrangle said it was because he didn't know how to speak spanish and i guess everyone thought that that was a legitimate excuse because all regal got was a few pointed fingers a slap on the wrist and then he stepped down as the chairman of the ways and means committee but maybe congress knew the media would handle his punishment and his public humiliations. the chairman of the house committee that writes writes the federal tax code has failed to report rental income taxes for the last ten years that's according to the new york times and without going into all the details the question i think a lot of people have is here you're the chairman of the house ways and means

committee that writes all the tax up and you have problems paying your taxes just because they reported the new says problem would be does that mean that the country has a problem but i mean when you talk about a volley of the public trust you've had since march this is of your own. oh i wouldn't think that you would know what it's worth. is being in this could be so. yeah the media really knows how to slap a congressman when he's down but you know this story wouldn't be complete if we didn't include perhaps one of the biggest names when it comes to corrupt politics the investigation into jackie started as a limited inquiry into indian casino lobbying but now we have has become a much bigger case involving primarily republican lawmakers an aide suspected of accepting favors in exchange for legislation. that's right not only to jack get

into a big mess with a few casinos but he also had one point seven million dollars in unpaid taxes but the governor wasn't ok with mr ater off getting off scot free so he pled guilty to one count of tax evasion and was sentenced to almost six years behind bars so there you go those are just a few examples of dirty politicians and keep in mind these are just the ones that have gotten caught can you imagine how many more suits out there are doing the exact same thing just goes to show that even those who claim to be serving their country are probably just trying to rip it off. last week the obama justice department led a massive crackdown on online poker sites where the f.b.i. indicting eleven people on charges of fraud money laundering and illegally operating online gambling sites now these websites included three of the largest most popular online poker forms full tilt absolute poker and poker stars and the government also filed a civil suit seeking to recover three billion dollars from those companies i want

congress passed a law in two thousand and six barring financial transactions from being made to online gambling sites a lot of sites just simply move their operations overseas and set up third parties to collect the money and you can say that their business has suffered an estimated one point eight million people participated last year according to poker scout and some organised. nations say the real number is much larger so why the sudden crackdown i could it backfire for this administration here to discuss it with me is julian sanchez a research fellow at the cato institute joined thanks so much for being here tonight was a pleasure so these are the three or three of the most popular sites for online poker how you know intense is that below in terms of if you're if you're a poker player you know what kind of damage has that done already well i think the most serious damage is done to people who have money in those accounts and people who make their living essentially as professional poker players so those people i think are panicking right now because they've essentially discovered in effect that they've been laid off and also that the money that they don't they have from

previous winnings is also frozen and it's not clear when they're going to be able to get it if they're going to be able to get it so the government essentially could just take that money well now it's frozen right now but what if if if as they are demanding they end up getting a three billion dollar. settlement from these companies whether there's anything left to pay the folks who thought they'd want to. do is unclear which is a little a little odd when you consider that. gambling are always defended on the grounds that they're to protect you know people from themselves and you know i don't know how you feel very protected by having thousands of dollars they thought they'd won but they've been counting on to pay their taxes snatched out from under them what do you think this is really about right because this congress passed a law back in two thousand and six and we know that the online poker websites have been doing very well since then i mean for three billion dollars i feel like it's not really that good enough of an argument to say that this is really about revenue

i feel like the obama. administration should be going after how about you know corporations that use a lot of tax loopholes and pay nothing i mean going to reuse it is a boring answer and a sexy answer the boring answer is there's a law passed in two thousand and six and didn't actually become affected until the middle of two thousand. and you could just say well it takes time to build an effective legal case and so the fact that six or eight months later we're starting to see the indictment come down is not surprising the slightly sexier answer that people on poker discussion forums are banding about is that we're starting to see the district of columbia actually just approved online poker and gambling through its lottery board. right now has been working on pushing through a law to legitimize and regulate gambling in that state the problem is these these sites have a big user base a big head start and so if you're a u.s. company that's looking forward to maybe being able to get into the game you're a huge disadvantage unless there's some way to clear the field this is certainly

a big benefit to them now i'm curious what role do they really play in this as you mention of course the nevada there has been a bit of an effort to try to push for legalizing this type of online gambling cesar's even got involved but do the casinos also see these online poker sites as competition do they also lobby congress to say hey get rid of them well i mean you see in you you see action a lot of different countries attempts to regulate online gambling by requiring sites that run online poker to have brick and mortar establishment as a way to pay for incumbents but you've also seen again casinos like the win form deals with. these some of these online poker sites and it's entries actually across brand these are also pretty big supporters of the poker sites of the world of poker and all these other physical poker tournaments they often send a big chunk of the contestants again because these are international physical tournaments so there's a combination of competition and cooperation is there also

a moralistic argument here i mean a lot of people especially the people on these sites would argue that poker isn't illegal poker doesn't even count as gambling that's a fairly it doesn't compare to some of the other games out there because poker is a game that requires skill well it's true right i mean there are professional poker players nobody's a professional roulette player. so there you know i think i think there is actually a pretty good argument that this isn't quite like other kinds of pure chance gambling and the thing is a lot of the federal law itself is actually incredibly vague about exactly what kind of games are prohibited which is why the indictment in this case is not actually targeting the gambling itself what it's doing is charging the executives of these sites with essentially money laundering and fraud because a you know centrally misled banks about the nature of these shell companies that they set up in order to you know essentially get banks to process payments to them i'm sorry whenever i hear that somebody misled the banks rather than the banks misleading or just kind of stop listening but let's very quickly to look at the

people that play online poker i mean i know kids in high school if you i know a lot of people in college that were of saskin as you said started making a living off of this you could say this is these are younger people right they're probably not dirt poor they might even be progressive do you think that this is something that could backfire for the obama administration you know under the illusion to see i mean certainly the online poker community is sort of up in arms these are again people who are technically sophisticated enough to be doing this on the internet and sort of but some see the local. hangout and also we often are fairly affluent sometimes because we love money playing poker and so this actually could be a case where the sort of the sleeping giant is awake and because the law that passed in three people out but it wasn't actually having an impact on people's ability to play online until now you might suddenly see a lot of people saying it's time to get politically active all right as soon as something finally hits close to home and affects you that's what

a lot of people do you wake up we'll see what the future of online poker is in the states thanks so much for joining us. now still to come tonight congressman says that i pad is killing thousands of jobs here in the u.s. we take your task for his stupid comments in tonight's cool time segment and then trying to solve the world's financial problems. maps and world bank held meetings hearing can see over the weekend but many believe it to help cause the economic meltdown to consummate our she's one of those perhaps markets that. we. would have a. safe.