oh 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 friends william and kate middleton's wedding there's another huge overseas new jewels taking place between the g.o.p. and he will fact it's 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 that bear more than forty counties are paid but affected by the tornado yesterday we have a tremendous loss of life we have many many enter and many haue and damaged or destroyed all over mississippi but everything just got dark and all of a sudden the car started spinning and we just grabbed hold of the steering wheel in each other and took it because glass was flying everywhere and the car started spinning and we hit a. light post and it broke the post to be in our car in the car flipped over on its eight and i think it probably only lasted about fifteen seconds but it seemed like for everything through to. be very clear it's one church cross between august twenty million dollars. oh you know you have locations where people who

are. 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 thousand nine hundred eighty four and the death toll still rising and storm could surpass that high watermark easily and also three nuclear reactors browns ferry 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 we're hurling massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere to go to this chart this is this is just from one nine

hundred fifty five to two thousand and ten the three fifty number is redlined across here because this is the number the dr jain's anson who is. one of the lead climate scientists in the world works for nasa so the ones who 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 to four hundred parts per million of carbon dioxide the atmosphere now is 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 magna carta. the first colonization of north america it's thomas jefferson planting his garden where 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 was 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 there are more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere than in the last fifteen 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 or moisture in the atmosphere combined with the extra heat and the more powerful the storms grow instead of seeing tornadoes that are one hundred feet wide like we all grew up with we're now seeing tornadoes that are on. 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 and it's becoming more and more common not just in the united states and all over the planet in just one year just last year we saw a record breaker breaking floods drown australia pakistan and nashville tennessee record breaking floods gushed across europe inundated in an area of that continent the size of germany and france. 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 i saw a deadly heat wave sweep across russia and israel igniting hundreds of wildfires across both countries and december where winter tornadoes but across the state of arkansas illinois kentucky indiana missouri and tennessee oh oh. course those same storms threw off tornadoes in the midwest dumped record amounts

of so far in the northeast shutting down american cities for weeks and then 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 hundred americans dead in one of the worst storms our nation has ever seen this 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 here the hottest year ever on record to close up the hottest decade on 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 house of representatives who are all self-proclaimed global warming deniers that's what millions and big oil campaign contributions gets us industry and politicians. europe and the rest of the world knows for a fact that 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 and 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 and as we saw yesterday mother nature always wins.

it's sad for our daily poll your chance to tell us what you think here's today's question are the violence are in it is enough evidence for climate deniers to understand that our planet is entering dangerous times your choices are yes the storms were so strong three nuclear reactors lost our lives and it 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 log on to target dot com let us know what you think the poll we open until tomorrow. do you hear the wedding bells coming up full coverage of a very special study and i'm not talking about the royal circle. let's

not forget that we had an apartheid regime. i think. even one well. whatever government says if it can find safe get ready because their freedom. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for life you think you understand it and then you've lived something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything

you thought you knew you don't know i'm charging welcome to the big picture. for. her. and all.

yes into that and we're making some of the futile attempts to bring justice and accountability. i have every right to know what my government should do if you want to know why i pay taxes. i would characterize obama as the care was met a version of american exceptionalism. new numbers show the economy slowed down in the first quarter of this year growing at an easily one point eight percent rate lot of us are pointing their finger at rising gas prices that are taking huge bites out of consumers' wallets but get this exxon 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 washing 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 these transnational corporations are parasites and don't care that when they do best america gets worse are literally handing exxon mobil and the and the like the other companies billions in subsidies every year to screw us over with and gasp and republicans in congress won't let us stop it that's why some democrats have seized the royal wedding thing i like the relationship between big oil and the republican party the democratic congressional campaign committee just launched a website die for political marriage it features john boehner dressed like the queen and reads please join special guest speaker john boehner and celebrating the sacred and lasting union between the republican party and they will send your wishes to the happy couple don't forget our speedy. for more on the marriage

between republicans and oil executives i'm joined by william united described assistant director of the center for energy and environment the competitive enterprise institute where you could see you can see you can this or have. oil companies is making profits like nobody's business right now the world is a washington over the point the saudi arabia actually cut back their production not the raise prices because they said that they couldn't sell it and yet well prices are going through. the you know it's a fairly. reasonable conclusion on the part of a lot of people including this administration including some republicans i believe rockwell so this is good but what we're seeing is speculation are seen as manipulation of the market we basically have a giant we have an oligarchy got a handful jack properties controlling markets. what is that a good thing that a good thing will certainly do that would not be good but i will note you commented

that saudi arabia voluntarily or intimated that they could not sell their way to financial times last week but will be just today president barack obama implored the saudis to increase oil production. when the price only orders of oil there's no there are no refineries in the united states that don't have oil we've got her teacher reserves are topped out and five 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 spike could have years ago three years is the same thing it was goldman sachs campbell in economic news well 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 late zero eight occurrence so it was just suddenly so much at economic activity to double the price of oil in six months we'll if you were quote unquote of the prices across the board i mean the metals be it food commodities be it liquid all right man so he did.

great exposé of how goldman sachs which just came in that whole thing but let's let's go back to the oil companies we can disagree on that and erg reenters 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 as 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 outlet it's still in business actually we sold it years ago the airlines at the time that we were running and paid us a seven percent commission actually start out that one dollar seventy one was so but now it's zero i never got an 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 greet on this issue to a certain extent. that particular subsidy will depletion allowance actually it's

for all minerals extracted from the earth so it's not just you will destroy the other there but there are some major differences in the amounts that are assigned to different minerals and oh well the e.u. is always very good you know this year it's actually nineteen million barrels a day just in this country alone that's about twenty five percent of the world will use it will demand but you know this is example of corporate welfare and indeed it's it's one for the companies to turn to reap this quarter will fair but it's also wrong for every company every industry every corporation to reap the benefits so i think it's wrong to just single i'm not going to argue with you that there were in any case let's let's go do well probably is i mean i think we ought to take one of the more holistic look at it and fuel subsidies though is it may because we're filling our cars or cadmium or you know we're told it was irreversible but i mean that doesn't imply that it's not wrong across the board it goes but it you know we could start a trap but clearly here's the thing that concerns me most about honest attempt with the oil company what the oil companies have been doing literally since john

rockefeller why. when you know you have the cuyahoga river to catch on fire dr rockefeller thought it was in the seventy's but it was the ultimate consequence of that both your companies have always done and the coal companies as well is they internalize the profits and they dump on we the past taxpayers the costs the extra allies the costs if these quote so-called extreme allergies we're paying for the cancers we're paying for the asthma's 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 we're calculating that a certain person certain people die of cancer every year as a result of burning hydrocarbons so we're simply going to add that to the gasoline tax they've got to about i think it's six or seven dollar gas and why don't we do that why don't we get that money back from that. new two points that we're spending . on. first of all a divide between pollution is traditionally described them that the sulfur dioxide your nitrogen oxides to carbon monoxide and greenhouse gases i will note that the

fuel companies already do pay for that particular pollution this particular pollution but the first comment that mentions going to deed that there cannot of the is regulated both out there have paid for the extra values that i don't think it will do the regulation and if you do those costs which again is going to affect demand for so it is it is felt in about a month so it is accounted for these of the seven to eight dollars a gallon oil tanks. was that word as learning far as i'm so i guess at least yeah i thought it was what it was was it was not a stupid policy it was a you know let's not import oil worst but we're not a billion dollars a day right out of the united states and so it was going to be we're right we don't like this this is stupid but but william i'm sorry we're out of time it's a pleasure i would have preferred to give you the last word but. the clock after four months of corporate is 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 knows in economic decline c.e.o. mike duke admitted yesterday that is 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 arabs and the have nots in america is growing wider and wider thanks to republican economic policies and coming twenty two our 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 world economist and professor of economics at the new school university graduate program in international affairs max welcome to the program. thanks for having me thank you for joining us is any quality his income inequality y. actually 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 one 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'm delighted to be here to talk with you about look 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 set up that the. that there is a concerted effort to crash the economy that the oil companies are helping crashed 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 of 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 there's some 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 context on the various dislocations or problems that it causes 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 so that willfully doing it but i don't think they care much one way how it breaks as long as they maximize the quarterly revenue which is their sort of fiduciaries burden and driving ammo in a 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 space equipment 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 of wealth wise and 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 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 excellent schools access to medical care affordable higher education and 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 an 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 equality an opportunity enhancing system that we once enjoyed max we 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 of 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 is this tag we're it we have to get out and get involved so there's an action and way to 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 on your experience lets 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 looting our pockets to pay off their campaign contributors and 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 owl and then amble it into a wal-mart loaded 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 to

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

i think for a moment even on the well. we have the government says there are people safe get ready because you get 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 or see some other part of it and realize that everything is ok. i'm sorry welcome to the big picture.

and get. into a little. doodle to bring justice and 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. well go back to the big picture i'm sorry marvin coming up in this half hour it's clear the g.o.p. did not get the memo about risk. your elders play the other screwing over fifty five to be over fifty five population out of thirty ford really in dollars. 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 apparently not to the n.r.a. .