well i'm tom hartman in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture. the death toll continues to rise after a series of turbulent tornadoes tore through the nation's southeast region yesterday the escalation of natural disasters be a warning call from mother nature to all of us meanwhile as the world's attention focuses on prince william and kate middleton's wedding there is another huge overseas new jewels taking place between the g.o.p.

and big oil that adds so little to ever live happily ever after and republican paul ryan failed to mention one thing about his medicare budget plan about the fact that it's going to cost seniors thirty four trillion dollars why hasn't the republican party mentioned this hidden fee. you need to know this planet earth is turning on us yesterday violent storms lashed the southern united states spinning off tornadoes and killing more than two hundred eighty people injuring more than a thousand others at least one hundred ninety four people were killed in the state of alabama alone yesterday prompting alabama authorities to declare a state of emergency arkansas georgia tennessee all declared states of emergency it

was some of the wrath brought to us by mother nature yesterday the sheer force of the wind was captured on camera as it lifted a roof off a building as if it was a piece of tissue paper but there are more than forty counties are a greater threat correct tornado yesterday but you have to remember a lot. life we have many many enter many hound and i think destroyed all over mississippi everything just got dark and all of a sudden the car started spinning in we just grabbed hold of steering wheel in each other and took because glass was flying everywhere and the car started spinning and we hit a. light post and it broke the post up to been our car in the car flipped over on its head and i think it probably only lasted about fifteen seconds but it seemed like for every show to prove i mean there's one church here crossed. almost twenty million dollars completely gone oh you know you have locations where

putin's. miracle. there were reports of over one hundred thirty tornadoes touching down in just one night last night in america it was the biggest and most deadly storm to hit the united states in nearly forty years and more than three hundred people were killed back in one hundred seventy four and the death toll is still rising and storm can surpass that high watermark easily also three nuclear reactors of brown's three nuclear power plant were knocked off power by the storm luckily the n.r.c. confirmed that the backup generators came on properly to just barely avert a fukushima like disaster right here in the united states. so how much more evidence to climate deniers need to understand that our planet is entering dangerous times as a result of our pollution the facts can't be denied were hurling massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere pillar of this chart this is this is just from one nine

hundred fifty five to two thousand and ten the three fifty number is reglan across here because this is the number that dr james hansen who is. one of the lead plane and scientists in the world works for nasa so the ones we go above this number the planet will hit a point where it's not appropriate for human habitation so here we are we had this point in the one nine hundred eighty s. three fifty we are now almost four hundred parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere now let's take a look at the bigger picture for those who think that man has nothing to do with the current higher levels of carbon in the atmosphere to later this year we are the year one thousand and the signing of the magna carta the first colonization of north america it thomas jefferson planting his garden we're worried about two hundred seventy parts per million. and then we started pumping

oil out of the ground we started digging up coal like crazy and we certainly using it to run our factories and heat our homes and this is what's happened in the last hundred fifty years this is just up to the year two thousand to three forty and as i just showed you we're now all the way up to four hundred or near close very close to it today there are more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere than in the last if dean million years on earth and we've only been around one hundred sixty five thousand years as these gases accumulate the heat of the planet we're just coming off the hottest decade ever recorded last year was the hottest year ever recorded that heat evaporates more water into the atmosphere and the more water more moisture in the atmosphere combined with the extra heat and the more powerful the storms grow a set of seeing tornadoes that are one hundred feet wide like we all grew up with we're now seeing tornadoes that are on wide like last night instead of scenes storms once a century or the storm of the century we're seeing similar storms only they're

called the storm of the decade or the storm of the year freak weather is becoming more and more common not just in the united states but all over the planet in just one year just last year we saw a record breaking floods drone pakistan and nashville tennessee record breaking floods gushed across europe inundated in an area of that continent the size of germany and france combined we saw the biggest rainstorm in a thousand years submerge brazil spawning the deadliest mudslides that nation has ever seen china was flooded last year as well we saw a deadly heat wave sweep across russia and israel igniting hundreds of wildfires across both countries in december where winter tornadoes but across the state of arkansas illinois kentucky indiana missouri and tennessee well with deadly consequences and of course those same storms through of tornadoes in the midwest

dump record amounts of snowfall in the northeast shutting down american cities for weeks. and don't forget what happened in japan as some of the latest climate change research is uncovered a link between changing weather patterns melting glaciers changing tectonic balances and producing free kurth quakes and then there's what happened last night a couple of hundred americans dead in one of the worst storms our nation has ever seen as april is over already shaping up to be the worst month for tornadoes in the history of america so we've seen the worst tornado storm ever some of the biggest snowstorms ever some of the worst floods ever some of the deepest heat waves ever some of the worst earthquake sever all in just the last year the hottest year ever on record to close up the hottest decade out record if these facts don't slack in the face of the reality of climate change and maybe the tornadoes will so again i ask how much more evidence to climate deniers need to understand that our earth is

entering dangerous times as a result of our pollution and by climate change deniers i'm talking about every single newly elected republican in the united states us representatives who are. self-proclaimed global warming deniers i took millions in big oil campaign contributions gets us industry and politicians. europe and the rest of the world knows for a fact it what we're seeing unfold around the world is far more than freak weather it is actually the result of manmade climate change only in america were billionaire barons like the koch brothers that polluted our public debate and bought off our politicians only here is there any doubt that manmade climate change is actually occurring it's becoming painfully very painfully clear what's going on here and soon it'll be too late to reverse the damage we're doing to our planet as we saw yesterday mother nature always wins.

it's time for our daily poll your chance to tell us what you think here's today's question are the violent tornadoes enough evidence for climate deniers to understand that our planet is entering dangerous times your choices are yes the storms are so strong three nuclear reactors last our last night barely averted disaster or no every new republican in the u.s. house our climate deniers and get millions in big oil campaign contributions so far seventy five percent of you voted no on the ground in samarra dot com let us know what you think the poll be open until tomorrow. do you hear the wedding bells coming up full coverage of a very special wedding that not talking about the what else are.

let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right. i think. either one well. whenever the government says they are keep him 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 blame something

else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything is ok and you don't i'm sorry welcome to the big picture. and you know.

enjoy it only when there were three mechanisms to do the work up to bring justice to accountability. i have every right to know what my government should do if you want to know why i pay taxes. but i would characterize obama as a charismatic version of american exceptionalism. and . new numbers show the economy slowed down in the first quarter of this year growing at a measly one point eight percent rate of us are pointing their finger at rising gas prices that are taking huge bites out of consumers wallets get this act. sun mobil just posted a profit of ten point seven billion dollars in the first three months of this year

b.p. rang up a seven point one billion dollars profit as the gulf coast is still oil and halliburton cashed in a five point three billion dollars profit as well as the national economy slowed down in the first three months are the world's largest oil corporations are doing better than ever started to seem like he's transnational corporations are parasites and don't care that when they do best america gets worse we're literally handing exxon mobil and the and the like the other companies billions in subsidies every year to screw us over at the gas pump and republicans in congress won't let us stop it that's why some democrats have seized the royal wedding theme to highlight the relationship between big oil and the republican party the democratic congressional campaign committee just launched a website to hype the political marriage if you choose john boehner dressed like the queen and reads please join special guest speaker john boehner and celebrating the sacred blastin union between the republican party and big send your wishes to

the happy couple. for guitarist p.p. . for more on the marriage between republicans and oil executives i'm joined by would have been described as assistant director of the center for energy and environment the competitive enterprise institute really good to see again good to see you can this or not. oil company is making profits like nobody's business right now the world is a washington over the point the saudi arabia actually prop back their production to raise prices because they said that you know they couldn't sell it and yet well prices are going through the roof. the it was a fairly reasonable conclusion part of a lot of people including misadministration including some republicans i believe are a wealth of this that what we're seeing is speculation seems manipulation of the market we basically have a giant we have an oligopoly got to and for drag operators control in markets. where is that a good thing that a good thing will certainly that would not be good but i will note you commented

that saudi arabia voluntarily or intimated that they could not sell there was a financial times last week it will be just today president barack obama implored the saudis to increase oil production i think we put a price ownership world there's no there are no refineries in the united states that don't have oil we've got our strategic reserves are tapped out in fact people are saying that he should drain them to try to drive the prices down but it's you know frankly i don't think it's going to make any difference what accounted for the oil spight two and a half years ago three years is the same thing it was goldman sachs campbell in a one whale i mean i don't believe that was the case i think it was more the forces of supply and demand with respect to tuna a few years ago that was before the economic crash before the the late zero eight occurred so it was suddenly so much at economic activity to double the price of oil in six months if you were close to the prices across the board i mean metals be

a food commodities be it liquid be a great man so he did. great exposé on how goldman sachs was just a game in that whole thing but let's let's get back to the oil companies where we can disagree on that and erg readers disagree on that without being disagreeable i think the oil depletion allowance for example basically what that subsidy says is we know that the oil in your well is good eventually going to go away so we're going to give you some money so that your business model doesn't break you know i start a travel agency about why it's still in business actually we sold it years ago the airlines of the time that we were running and paid us a seven percent commission actually start out. with so now it's zero i never got a airline depletion allowance i mean what kind of business model is this where we say to a private corporation we the people are going to give you money because we know that your business model is eventually going to run out and we don't want you to go away we'll i think you'll actually be surprised to learn that we agree on this issue to a certain extent. that particular subsidy you oil depletion allowance is actually

it's for all minerals extracted from your so it's not just the will distribute it out there but there are some major differences in the amounts that are asides to different minerals and we well we use our we're a billion dollars a year with exactly one hundred million barrels a day just in this country alone that's about twenty five percent of of the world we're using tor to mint but you know this is example of corporate welfare and indeed it's it's one for the companies to turn to replace corporate welfare but it's also wrong for every company every industry every corporation to reap the benefits so i think it's wrong to to single out now you know are going to have a little in that case let's let's go do well is i mean i think we ought to take on for more holistic looking and fuels companies though is it make it is worth who are filling our cars or cadmium or you know we're told it was irreducible but i mean that doesn't imply that it's not run across the board at all but it you know we could start a trend but clearly here's the thing if you're it's really most about any of that

with the oil company what the oil companies been doing literally since john rockefeller the. and when you know you had the cuyahoga river to catch on fire and after iraq if it was tight it was in the seventy's but it was the ultimate consequence of that but you all companies have always done and the coal companies as well as they internalize the profits and they dump on with the past taxpayers the the costs the externalized the costs of these calls so-called extra hours we're paying for the cancers we're paying for the asthma is we're paying for the for the climate change we're paying for all of these things and the oil companies are paying nothing on this why don't we at least like like denmark did they said you know ok work out here waiting on a certain person certain people die of cancer of years result of burning hydrocarbons so we're simply going to add that to the gasoline tax we've got a but i think it's six or seven dollar gasoline to run on we do that why don't we get that money back from our. new two point that we're spending. on. first of divide between pollution is traditionally described to me that the so for dioxide you're nitrogen oxides your carbon monoxide and greenhouse gases i will note that

if you will companies already do pay for that that particular pollution this particular pollution that the first kind of mention i'm going to deed to their commodity is regulated both that they're up paid for the extra values that i believe with these regulations and to those costs which again is going to affect demand for what will so it is it is felt in about a month so it is accounted for these of the seventy eight dollars a gallon oil tax. was that more gas line and so i was i'm sorry gasoline tax yeah i thought it was what it was was a let's not be stupid policy it was a you know let's not import oil worst but we're passing out a billion dollars a day right now the united states and some of us good people frankly don't like us this is stupid. but william i'm sorry we're out of time it's a pleasure i would have preferred to be the last word but. the clock will say after four months of corporatists republican rule in congress it should be no surprise that our economy is crashing just in time for the two thousand and twelve

presidential election even wal-mart is nose in the economic decline c.e.o. mike duke admitted yesterday that shoppers are running out of money coincidentally so as for one point four million underpaid employees so while the typical wal-mart shopper is around just to buy groceries you know oil executives are swimming in cash how long until the american people realize that the gap between the haves and the have nots in america is growing wider and wider thanks to republican economic policies incoming twenty two of the election will voters go to the polls angry at president obama and a stagnant economy or the kick the republicans out for pandering to the big oil companies millionaires and billionaires and doing nothing for the rest of us here to offer some answers next fraud worth economist and professor of economics that new school university graduate program in international affairs back welcome to the program. thanks for having me thank you for joining us is any quality his income

inequality why should the wealth inequality as well as states becoming a national issue it's been a national issue for a long time it's just the sort of on want one welcome guest standing in the room in the corner causing trouble that we don't talk about and so what my most recent piece that i played to begin to talk with you about looks at income inequality we should remember that the wealth inequality in the united states is always much much worse than the income inequality and of course there's a relationship between the two you know i'm curious what you think of the conspiracy theory that i floated in my setup that he. that there is a concerted effort to crash the economy that the oil companies are helping crash the economy the republicans cut a deal with president obama where he would get a one year extension of unemployment that runs out just you know one year before the election it runs out at the end of this year but the bush tax cuts go on for two years so the billionaires get richer and richer for two years average working people are going to be really out of luck next year and they're going to take it

out on him in the polls. well i do think their son predicting the republican party who would like to see the economy do whatever the economy most likely does that gets them elected for sure i think the big oil companies keep their kind eyes on the prize if you will they maximize profits and sort of social contacts on the various dislocations or problems that a cause is for anyone anywhere us included are really not their primary concern and they would only pay any attention to that if they absolutely had to or if they were led to believe that ignoring it any further would be so painful and so do it serious that it was their best option to address the issue so much for their willfully doing it but i don't think they care much one way how it breaks as long as they maximize a quarterly revenue which is their sort of fiduciary burden and driving ammo and bait basic way of operation so how do we get that under control here in the united states how do we how do we create a situation where we're not at the mercy of a handful of large oligarchy space aquaria large oil corporations. i think we need

to do some difficult reckoning i think most americans particularly progressive americans believe that a period of relative equality with a large middle class and a fair amount of opportunity for people despite their birth and their parents' birth wealth lies an opportunity wise is some sort of natural state of affairs the situation we had the united states from the thirty's to the mid seventy's with a big middle class and a lot of opportunity and a relatively good distribution of income was actually a very delicate and exceptional situation and if you don't rebuild those delicate exceptional situations with good public infrastructure actually in schools access to medical care affordable higher education and a redistributive tax system that helps people lower down the economic why then it goes away it's not some sort of birthright it's not some natural state it's a very fragile social contract in arrangement which we've been actively tearing down for thirty or forty years and never cease to become shocked when we notice some of the secondary effects of destroying that he quality and opportunity and hansing system that we once enjoyed max what you just described is almost to a t.

the progressive caucus is budget and yet the president's budget which doesn't do eighty or ninety percent of what you just described and the democrats budget which does the republicans budget rather which does literally the opposite of what you just described are the two that are being debated right now how do we how do we change the national dialogue in the united states or is it just gone too far. well i mean on some level the powers that be that run this country are looking for the mines by walking around in the minefield that's not a good idea for the long term growth of the economy or for the position the united states in the world and i think part of what we need to admit is that the american middle class and lower middle class working americans have been in a fairly bipartisan circle for thirty five years and part of what you have to realize is you have to pick yourself up they're not going to save you know magical candidates going to come in there and just you often stop you have to do it and you know we always make progress in the united states when the people leading the leaders follow and so however long we wait for the leaders to drag us forward into

a future that's better for them and better for us and dangerous for them we'll wait forever and there was this tag we're we have to get out and get involved citizen action and wake each other up max thanks so much for being with us tonight. my pleasure thank you for having me really appreciate you showing up there are mirror serious let's hope people realize i really do vote with their pocketbooks in two thousand and twelve and realize that is the republican party that's been moving our pockets to pay off their campaign contributors from banks trees on wall street to the oil barons in the gulf. crazy alert takes one to know one a virginia teenager was arrested yesterday for dressing from head to toe as a how and then and go into a wal-mart loading up a shopping cart with twenty six gallons of milk ninety two bucks worth then walking out of the store without paying for that milk and trying to give away the milk.

passers by on the street before fleeing still in his house suit from the police and he was booked and released and is now waiting a court date it's unclear the results are the reasons behind this but i'm narrowing them down to psychedelic drugs fraternity hazing or a chick fil a problem so he's not or maybe all of the above. after the break i'll tell you why the war on terror can't possibly be called least here in the united states of america and we have the g.o.p. along with the n.r.a. to thank. let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right.

i think from a feed of one well. we have the government says to the keep you safe get ready because of their freedom. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so sleek you think you understand it and then something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture.

and get. into a little nearer. to the world cup to bring just the sort. i have every right to know what my government should do if you want to know why i pay

taxes. i would characterize the bottom line as a charismatic version of american exceptionalism. back to the big picture i'm john marvin coming up in this half hour it's clear the g.o.p. did not get the memo about risk. your elders tell ya they're screwing over fifty five the over fifty five population out of thirty four really in dollars plus it's not ok for a wanted terrorist to build or fly in the us but they can purchase a gun is there something wrong with this picture of her.