oh i'm so in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture all of a lingers on whether president obama's or paul ryan's budget plans will dig the country out of its debt there's another budget plan that eliminates our deficit and actually creates a surplus in just an year break down the numbers of the people watching plus if you ever wonder who's behind the wheel of the plan to run over unionized workers here's a hint it's the same group that gave michigan governor rick snyder the idea to fire

his state's elected officials and city staff and our union workers to blame for america's debt i'll talk to the author who wrote in and hire book backing that up and. there's a lot of talk about budget plans around capitol hill these days most of that is focus on two budget plans in particular president obama's wish trims down the deficit by repealing the bush tax cuts and also tragically cutting spending on critical government services that help the poor and the republicans budget written by paul ryan that cuts down the deficit sorta by privatizing medicare cutting even more government programs that help the poor and somehow includes another massive tax cut for millionaires and billionaires and while. these two budgets have

garnered most of the attention in the mainstream media there's another third budget can split in around out there that actually is what is best for our nation it's the congressional progressive caucus is budget it's been named the people's budget it was a subject of paul krugman sunday op ed in the new york times in which crewmen said the only major budget proposal out there offering a plausible pam plan after balancing the budget is the one that includes significant tax increases the people's budget from the congressional progressive caucus which unlike the ryan plan which was just right wing orthodoxy with an added dose of magical thinking is genuinely courageous because it calls for shared sacrifice as crewmen points out later the people's budget is projected to yield a balanced budget by twenty twenty one and the proposal achieves this without dismantling the legacy of the new deal which gave us social security and the great society which gave us medicare and medicaid so what is it that paul krugman knows

that the rest of us don't. let's take a look at the so-called people's budget proposed by the progressive caucus first the bottom line this budget reduces our deficit by five point six trillion dollars that includes one point seven trillion in spending cuts and three point nine trillion in more revenue where do these cuts come from simple the department of defense the people's budget ends our foreign wars brings our troops and clogs up a black hole of defense spending that is not actually making our nation any safer and with these new savings the budget invests more than one point four trillion dollars into a brand new jobs program that focuses on job creation education clean energy broadband infrastructure housing research and development basically unleashing the twenty first century redevelopment of america that's long overdue and putting tens

of millions of people back to work to make it happen the president's budget and the republicans budget do nothing about our foreign wars only the progressive budget to us but that's not all this budget immediately strikes down the tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires got extended at the end of last year the bush tax cuts and then put in place a new tax system that levies a millionaire tax with a top rate of forty nine percent meaning america's all of guards will be back to paying their fair share as they did during the forty years of economic growth in america that saw the rise of the middle class from one thousand nine hundred in one thousand nine hundred eighty it also makes billionaire hedge fund managers and trust fund children like paris hilton who earn their living sitting around the pool collecting their dividend checks pay their fair share too because instead of capital gains being taxed at a measly fifteen percent be taxed as regular income just like you and i are taxed

on the money that we're. as far as corporate taxes go to progress have budget closes corporate loopholes ands taxpayer subsidies to big oil companies and keeps wall street speculation in check by taxing derivatives those little complex financial instruments that wrecked our economy three years ago the people's budget creates a public option for people who can't find out insurance in the private market which will force abuse you for profit health insurance companies to actually compete in the marketplace and finally unlike the republican budget the people's budget keeps intact medicare medicaid and social security in fact it raises the cap on social security to make sure that the rich are paying the same percentage of their income as you and i are to keep our promises to america's retiring generations so what do all these details translate to a budget surplus by two thousand and twenty one just ten years from now take a look here's the this is very straightforward here's the president's budget here's

the house g.o.p. budget and here's the people's budget the progressive caucus budget by twenty twenty one we're we're actually showing a surplus but ryan budget in the president's budget are both still in deficit both of them are going to take some years until they actually show you know a balanced budget so the progressive caucus the house progressive cards for ten years we can do this all this without throwing the working class of the bus and really not hurting anyone including the reserves of the rich will hardly notice a couple of bucks are missing and their billion dollar paychecks and as paul krugman said achieving savings with out dismantling the new deal. the most important thing that this budget will do though is reduce reduce the wealth inequality gap in america which is higher today than it any other time in american history except for right before the great depression this budget will slay reaganomics for good and it turns out this is exactly what the american people want

cording to a new study out of duke and harvard university's it turns out that ninety two percent of americans are democratic socialists or do i mean by that all the study revealed that americans vastly underestimate just how large that gulf is between the rich and the poor in america today the top twenty percent of americans control eighty four percent of the wealth most americans thought that number was around sixty percent they were way off but here's the kicker when americans were shown two charts the first being a chart that shows america's wealth distribution the second being a chart that shows sweden's wealth distribution ninety two percent of americans preferred sweden's economic model take a look at why is the gap between the rich and poor narrower in sweden than in america because the top income tax rate there this is the top here is the top in sweden the top income tax rate in sweden to the mind bogglingly rich pay up to

fifty six percent income tax and the people's pleasure paul fills the wishes of ninety two percent of americans by jacking up our top income tax rate to forty nine percent much closer to the swedish. no matter how you look at debt reduction balancing the budget preserving key social programs strengthening our defenses reducing wealth inequality public approval whatever the criteria the people's budget by the progressive caucus blows all the other budgets out of the water it's hands down the right choice for our nation and the more of us who start talking about it and i think it up and the more the mainstream media will focus on it so call your congressperson call your two senators and tell them to support the people's budget is the best way forward for america.

crazy alert people who don't care of the middle class for a thousand dollars alex turns out the despite his high profile campaigns to shut down the government defund planned parenthood and n.p.r. and repeal of obamacare a lot of people actually don't know who house majority leader eric cantor is at least in jeopardy contestant stuff last night although three contestants on the game show were stumped when alex threw back asked for the name of the house of the republican house majority leader no one even attempted to guess. in two thousand this spurgeon year and won his primary by two hundred sixty three votes now he's house majority leader. eric cantor. not a good sign for a guy who probably dreams of being president though i'm sure a throwback would have we face phrased the question with the answer to say he is the guy who wants the war on women and things medicare should be privatized then

maybe somebody would have correctly guessed eric cantor. coming up next the cat is out of the bag on who supports the right wing's union busting tactics so what are american middle class workers up against. let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right. i think. either one well. we have the government says we're going to keep you safe get ready because of your

freedom. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so silly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture.

we're learning more and more about who's behind the nationwide right wing efforts to screw over organized labor reason article by any croll in mother jones magazine identifies an organization known as the state policy network appears to be behind many of these union busting policies from tennessee to iowa to nevada in fact michigan recall governor rick snyder got his idea to take over cities in his state and fire the elected officials and replace them with his own czars known as financial planners from a state policy network think tank operating in michigan. so this is what

progressives are up against a well organized national campaign by republicans to take on american working working americans for more on this i'm joined now by any editor of mother jones magazine and you welcome thanks great to have you here with us tell us about the state policy network i think most people probably never even heard of this it's little known snot on the political radar but it's a hugely influential sort of constellation of conservative free market think tanks that were founded by the same conservative ideologues behind the heritage foundation behind the reagan revolution in fact the intent of these this network was to bring the reagan revolution to the state level to influence the legislators and get you know the kind of policies that they wanted a union anti-tax implemented in the states whether they're starting to accomplish that i think there are there are thirteen states i believe that that have republican governors and legislatures something close to that i mean we've seen this without michigan indiana. and it's moving around the it's moving around the

country this is exactly what the network was put there for the the state takes that i chronicled in the story in there in all fifty states and they're all basically pushing the same agenda you know the board of the state policy network said we're comrades in arms they were there they've been laid the groundwork for quite a while for this legislation but when you had a wave of republicans elected around the country as you said you saw this legislation gets passed tracked and now the kinds of bills that they want the reforms that the right wants are now moving their way really quickly through to the states and i'm guessing you're familiar with naomi klein's thesis of the shock doctrine. these guys have been for a long long time just waiting for disasters to happen disaster capitalism and these cases big disaster governments and then once once there's a problem that's for them an opportunity is that what's going on here yeah they have this these kinds of legislation and these ideas. on the shelf waiting for the

moment when they can put them into action when they have friendly like minded legislators and place who can put these bills on the table and get it passed in wisconsin is a great example of this you know last fall we saw the entire government there flip gov you suddenly the senate and what do we see we see tax breaks for corporations we see regulation stripped away we see the collective bargaining bans come into place right off the bat and this really isn't just about no no no it's not about labor at all it's the the policies that the state policy network pushes and that its members push range from health care environmental regulation commerce all across the board the union battle is just one piece of this but i mean you know they want to privatized state run health care programs they want to convert public education into charter schools they want to privatized it across the board to what extent is the is that you know obviously there's been

a multi arguably multigenerational certain twenty thirty maybe even forty year project if it goes back to the early you know get a coke and chose your own hors richard mellon scaife it always goes. to what extent is it about achieving this ideal the kind i ran and libertarian objectivist fantasy that has frankly never worked in any country in the world versus just good old fashion hey you know if we can kick we can privatized the schools us our bodies can make a pile of money on those schools we can privatized the power plants us in our bodies can make a pile of money on those power plants i mean or has it over time even more from some sort of idealistic positive vision of america into a gimme because a certainly seems like there's a lot of gaming going on right now. creation of the network i think had ideological and ideological foundation i think you you had funders you were talking about the

bradleys in wisconsin the corps foundation these are pillars of american conservatism that have been funding these kinds of right we know works for decades and so i think you have that but you also have the opportunists and the prophets years in the short term who see these networks and these waves of republicans elected into office as a chance to you know whether it's outsourcing make money or cut deals for their power plants or their corporate buddies and then a chair and they get campaign contributions and you're reelected and there's a lot of there's a lot of pieces at play here but i think both of those that you mentioned cut come in effect it's not just politicians and neil bush raised. thirty million dollars close to that from a chinese businessman in the saudi prince for his privatized school program you know the putting the schools and i mean it's just this is really quite extraordinary is anybody pushing back i mean here we have in every single one of

our fifty states one of the state policy network institutions they've got employees they've got offices they've got phones they've got you know the customized legislation is anybody pushing back no one's really pushed back so far i think right now we're starting to see. an uprising of sorts specially in michigan wisconsin new union centric states against not only to state policy network or the affiliate in that state but also alec the koch brothers you know people are really just starting to grapple with what they're up against if they're on the left and they're seeing these think they're seeing the coax they're seeing the bradleys they're seeing alec and they're just getting a clear picture of it i think you know us in the media as well or try to open things up as well and make it clear what they're fighting against do you think the average american gets it not yet i think they're on the. way but i think there's more work to be done reporting in an organizing tool to fully understand what the

conservative movement has built all these all these years and it's really it's it's it's it's an amazing it's an amazing creature they've created and thanks so much for granted what you did to have you with us and he's reporting proof of the new the union busting that we're seeing around the country is not just a coincidence but instead a coordinated attack on democracy in the workplace and elected union answerable to its members and that attack is coming from well financed sources but the question is are these armies of right wing think tanks justified in going after unions or public unions what's really bankrupting america professor daniel to solve all think so he's a professor of political science professor at city college of new york and author of government unions and the bankrupting of america and he joins me from our studios in new york professor professor diffs all of a welcome to the program. thank you tom it's my pleasure to be with you thank you for joining us in a in a recent report that you authored you praised governor scott walker for saying and

i quote we can no longer live in a society where the public employees are the haves and the taxpayers foot the bill are the have nots. did you really agree with that i mean that the teacher that makes fifty thousand bucks plus health benefits as i have but the gangsters who wrecked our economy and still collect multi-million dollar bonuses are the have nots. well i think what governor walker was picking up on is a divide in the broad middle class between workers in the public and in the private sector and in so far as public sector workers only constitute about twenty percent of the labor force the other large part of the labor labor force which is in the private sector feels left out and you can imagine that say for instance public sector pensions are quite high compared to what most people can expect to receive in the private sector and he was i think picking up on some of those frustrations

of private sector workers so what use it sounds like what you're saying is because you and i both know that these the situation was reversed thirty years ago before reagan became president in the private sector you could make a whole lot more money well even now private sector public sector employees make less than private sector employees of the same level of experience and education but thirty years ago there was you know much better pay much better benefits in the private sector and now after thirty years or reaganomics thirty years of offshoring thirty years of insane trade policies we've been seeing you know public public service or private employees rather just basically wiped out many and reduced to poverty and all that's left is the is the government jobs they're the only ones that are still left with a decent decent salary and a decent pension plan shouldn't we instead of saying you know hey let's let's take it away from these guys like we took it away from the private workers should we be

saying let's actually bring everybody back up to where they used to be before reagan started all this. well that might be nice but i don't think they are i don't see any movements of their being forthcoming the private sector you know the people in wisconsin were shouting about that. i believe they were shouting about it but i don't see a strong overall labor movement other factors in society that would push us back to where we were thirty years ago at the same time many of the policies that businesses had in place thirty years ago like defined benefit pensions turned out to be a disaster just as taxpayers who bailed out g.m. and chrysler can actually have solders over pension plans and the private sector is of course been buffeted by virtually all i agree i should julie all of us trying to change the generating profits for these companies.

well g.m. and chrysler both defaulted on their pensions to their workers and had to be bailed out doesn't it was over pension plans the pension plans were fine at the. end and beyond that again why why this drumbeat to say let's reduce everybody to the lowest common denominator what happened to america what about lifting people. well i think that there's also a side that is there to lift people up which is that part of the problem with public sector unions is the inefficiencies that they introduce and to the day to day processes of government and for thinking about middle class people that depend on government services on a regular basis we want those services to be efficient and effective and and worth every tax dollar the limited as a vehicle pay in the sense that it costs to send a letter from hawaii to maine is inefficient are you trying to tell me that the fact that social security has never ever in seventy years failed to write

a check is inefficient or you tell me that our military is inefficient that our veterans administration socialized medicine system is in of fish. i think you're conflating two things mostly what i'm writing and i'm talking about government losses any yes you are but we're talking mostly about the state and local government employees ok trying to tell me the teachers are inefficient. i think that there can be reforms in education that's why it's one of the top priorities nationally and in state governments throughout the country i'm assuming if you're talking about isn't a familiar with all of the research that has been done that shows that when you compare charter schools private for profit corporate charter schools to public schools when you're comparing apples to apples same economic and demographic backgrounds of the children at the for profit private charter schools actually end up lower than public schools in terms of outcomes how could they be i'm not sure that that's the case that adult absolutely is the case i have for over twenty years

been and i'm the president of the board of directors of a private school i'm familiar with this industry i've written seven books on it it would do your research well. i am doing my research and. rather than engage in ad hominem attacks i'm saying that there's a large bait about the merits of charter schools there is up in the national the national and state governments throughout the country that issues about teacher tenure are on the table because people on the right and the left believe that there can be greater efficiency in a better product delivered in terms of education throughout the country and that there's widespread agreement the teacher's union stand in the way of much of the reform i have and that widespread agreement is there because there are people like yourself who are out there saying oh it's the teachers union when before ronald reagan came along and put bill bennett who's who is proclaimed goal in life was to end the department of education in charge of the department of education and now we've got people like neil bush making

a profit on privatized education that our schools are working just fine thank you very much. well i think the nation at risk report was something that set off an alarm bell of performers throughout the country in the mid eighty's it's also important to remember that teachers unions and other unionized workers in the public sector are much different than the private sector and didn't frankly even exist before the really the early one nine hundred sixty s. than one nine hundred seventy s. and some states public sector union ism didn't even arrive until the one nine hundred eighty s. professor de salvo thanks for dropping by tonight my pleasure you know there's frankly nothing courageous about going after the working class or teachers and service like a pat themselves on the back for taking on the unions but the real courage is telling millionaires and billionaires to get the hell out of our government and off of this divide and conquer nonsense we need to unite and go after the real leeches in our economy the banks toure's. just.

the. it's the good the bad the very unbelievably i'll believe first the good shepherd smith of fox news really this guy is the anomaly the one reasonable anchor at rupert murdoch's infotainment outfit while the rest of the talking heads of the network a turn of birth or is a shepard smith used to show last night advocate for rationality take a look. well he has produced a birth certificate it shows his mother gave birth to him and why it is state and sealed by the state of hawaii it is confirmed and fox news can confirm the president of the united states is a citizen of the united states period today now only if he can get his colleagues on. the ballot donald trump transitioning from the birth or issue the donald is now going after president obama's education records in an interview with the a.p.

trump said the president about the president but heard he was a terrible student terrible how does a bad student go to columbia going to harvard i'm thinking about it i'm certainly not going to do it let him show his records so we have trump looking for the president's birth records now his education records what's next his dental records of residence flossing habits are terrible just terrible and the very very ugly congressman allen west this reality republican was speaking at a women's of them last week when he made this out of left field take a look. at the women here paid teachers to say with the west. that you actually need to come in a lot fuels and straight through the adult way of the wall into the fight or use those who have a go on. the cove it put it. all of these women who have been doing to me

to bring a little more of this incredible we let them know that we're not going to be at it because of service. that would mean for the. neutering american men allen was makes the very very ugly list so many times i'm thinking about naming after it and after him blatant sexism from allen west anyone surprised that's fair if you're. going out the state department is not only requiring a picture of you but also a snapshot of your life when applying for a passport and why officials are now calling for work history and addresses after the break.