republicans and religion will never be out of our schools if republicans have anything to do with it and i still you take how state conservatives are laundering money from huge corporations to keep schools faith based. who screwed seniors one thing that paul ryan isn't touting in the republican budget that he wrote in john boehner and pushed through the house of representatives with every republican before voting in favor of it is that it includes a hidden thirty four trillion that's with a t. that's thirty four billion million thirty four trillion dollars tax hike on america's senior citizens. by the center for economic policy and research shows that if the republican budget plan isn't acted in over the next seventy five years as medicare is phased out senior citizens will have to pay thirty four trillion

dollars more out of their own pockets to receive roughly the same health care and while the government is saving money that thirty four trillion world goes straight into the bank accounts of the for profit health insurance companies and likely bonuses for their multi-millionaire executives so why isn't the republican budget plan being billed as the largest tax increase on seniors in the history of the country for more on this i'm joined by mark weisbrot co-director for the center for economic policy research and weekly columnist for the guardian newspaper in the u.k. all right welcome back thank you great to be here great to have you with us first of all just just to set the table here what is the ryan plan really to the medicare the republican plan that was passed by all but four members of the house of representatives all of the four republican members of the house of representatives well it basically fixes the government is going to pay. for medicare starting in two thousand and twenty two. and it says

this is what we're going by fixes you mean establishes as opposed to repair yes and it gives you a voucher for that and then you have to purchase you will have to purchase your insurance from private insurance companies and that's where they have big tax that you mentioned i think a tax is a good way to put it just like a tax except you end up paying it to the private insurance companies and providers and so that's really it comes in because if you look at the congressional budget office which is nonpartisan their projections for what happens to health care costs that covers of smaller and smaller part of what seniors have to pay until seniors are paying you know more than half their income. for health care out of their own pocket that's assuming they can get insurance at all it is because of the seventy five or eighty five year old person with high blood pressure to our next good it can find insurance company to take any amount of money that's right there's no

guaranteed but you know either way would be an affordable and so that's the the problem that's the thirty four trillion talking about it's just a transfer over the seventy five year period from seniors it to these private companies now there's another five trillion as well actually that goes from seniors to the government so this is a scenario neutral so there's a nine altogether so just a basic question here you know there's a lot of numbers being thrown around about medicare and and and it's going to go broke tomorrow no no it's next week now what's next and what's the situation with medicare how short is it how much of a medicare tax increase would it take to just say ok going to keep it running maybe close the the parties of the government cannot close a bit allow the government to negotiate for drugs you know just some basic cleanup stuff what are the real numbers well the problem is not so much the real you know it's. not so much that it's it will run into trouble but the problem is that that's

because of the projected health care costs for the private health care system in the united states and so medicare costs go up with that so we have this problem that we have health care costs that are control as compared to any other country in the world in fact you can and when we have this on our website you can plug in any other country's health care cost that has at least a high leases high life expectancy as we do so any of the rich countries but also some that are not so rich like kosta rica but is it all the o.e.c.d. countries. without ego alyse do unfortunately our life expectancy is about their high compared to the whole world anymore. and so you put in any of those any countries that have that. life expectancy were ours are higher and our deficit for the federal government turns into a surplus so in other words it's not that medicare has a problem it's that our health care system that's right and the solution isn't to

go after medicare the solutions to fix the health care system are you talking about some of the single payer system or the supplement our own system like met like the veterans administration and we have both social system of the v.a. and we have single payer with medicare. medicare is much more efficient than the private system that's another part that's in the reason why the ryan plan explodes you know we've tried this already we've got in the ninety's we had medicare plus choice and we can still he's holding private corporations medicare advantage right now still in both of them turned out to be much more expensive than medicare so it really is the private health care system that is the is the program did the i know there was a lot of sturm and drang when the president basically said ok the the holes that they drilled into medicare where they could allow private health insurance companies to come in and fill these holes are costing us a fortune. stupid we're going to get rid of them and of course the republicans all

yell he's destroying medicare and actually what he was does destroying was medicare advantage to the core programs. how much more is there to go how much and how much more program is left in medicare that needs to be stripped well v. . the most recently passed health care reform would take out a lot of that and. so. that's you know i think not the biggest problem the big problem is that you know the ryan plan would make that almost the entire thing gets rid of medicare as we know it right so it flips it upside down eight it takes the problem and calls up a solution and then amplifies it or thanks for dropping by and i think if you're sure your insights in the great work you guys are doing. conservatives and billionaires are betting that the time between now and the elections in november of next year that amount of time is long enough that we're going to forget what they've been up to and they're betting that most people are paying that much

attention that more and more people are watching sports on news and that then news on t.v. or people are listening to music and politics on the radio and in the most americans they call themselves independents i call them low information voters really just make up their minds in the final weeks of a campaign based on the ads we see in t.v. and so these cons are betting that they can buy up all the air space saturate the ads carpet bomb us with television ads so no matter how terrible their pet republicans aved now they can get the real likelihood any year and a half let's hope it's a bet they lose. reason f.b.i. numbers show the two hundred forty seven people whose names are listed on the so-called terrorist watch list were allowed to buy guns last year in fact since two thousand and four i was fifteen hundred people on the terrorist watch list have been able to

buy guns expand our explosives with a ninety percent success rate so we'll stop these guys at the airport i won't let them fly but we don't have a problem buying handguns and dynamite democrats have a problem at the very least senator frank lautenberg has been trying for years to close the loophole that lets potential terrorists buy firearms and each time he's been shut down by the republican party and n.r.a. backed politicians so there's this just reek of republican hypocrisy joining me now is law is no wolf last resting the. constitutional attorney and gun rights activist and all welcome to the program. ok great glad to have you with us should be one terrorist watchlist be able to buy guns. you know some of the known peer's not the not going to somebody you think didn't need it here only you have been there it's not that it didn't you know we

don't have your if you come to your do you think it's not me how do i have to admit it would have logged in. my should you be denied it and your current. right well if somebody is suspected of being a. drunk and you don't want them to have a drive that's a very imperfect metaphor because typically we arrest few people a few times but it was in that case are you saying that we should allow people who are on the terrorist watch list to fly by that logic. if. no no i'm i'm really sorry i'm i'm going to. describe is not work and so i'm i'm i'm a rabbit thank you for dropping and being with us nothing like a country full of well armed terrorists who have to drive instead of flying makes perfect sense but there's really

a bigger picture here the gun craziness we see today fueled by a multi-billion dollar weapons industry and their trade association the n.r.a. is not at all what the founders of our nation and the framers of our constitution frankly that in mind back in seven hundred seventy six and year that the declaration of independence was written ben franklin helped edit that along with john adams and john j. it was written by thomas jefferson franklin also was the president of the constitutional convention in the state in which he lived his adopted state pennsylvania of philadelphia and he signed the constitution of pennsylvania in seven hundred seventy six and here's a phrase this is a quote from his article eight of the pennsylvania constitution seven hundred seventy six this was essentially the basis of our second amendment it said that the people have the right to bear arms for the defense of themselves and the state and as standing armies in time for peace are dangerous to liberty they ought

not to be kept up and that the military should be kept under strict subordination to and governed by the civil. and we accomplished subordinate in the military to the civil power by making the president the united states the civilian commander in chief of the military. and we established that people had the right to buy guns or to own guns so that they could defend the state or themselves in the second amendment series of decisions over the years of this there's but there's this whole world of thinking out there that the reason why the founders wanted that right to have guns and shrines in the second amendment was so that someday we could take on the government if it ever got oppressive which is nonsense it was the farthest thing from any of the founders minds first of all secondly it wouldn't work try taking on black hawk helicopters in the u.s. army i mean that work or it wouldn't work it hasn't worked in a lot of places in the world it's not going to work here and and third the real

argument at the time was whether or not we should have standing armies during time of peace thomas jefferson in seven hundred eighty seven when james madison his protege the father of the constitution the united states constitution and seventeen eighty seven when the u.s. constitution was written madison mailed it jefferson was in france at the time he was the u.s. envoy to france mailed it to his his mentor thomas jefferson and said what do you think you know if you put jefferson in a long list of law i like this and this and this and then he said and now i'll tell you what i do not like here it is i will now tell you what i don't like first the omission of a bill of rights providing clearly and without the aid of soft isn't for freedom of religion freedom of the press protection against standing armies restriction of monopolies jefferson although we didn't get the restriction monopolies just look around you of corporate america and he didn't get the elimination of standing armies but he threw out he got everything else he got

a bill of rights in fact he threatened explicitly james madison and numerous others there's dozens of letters that jefferson wrote around this time rod being from france that he was going to pull the entire virginia delegation all three members of the virginia delegation out of the constitutional convention and refused to ratify the convention or the constitution if there wasn't an agreement that a bill of rights would be attached. and that that bill of rights would in part ban a standing army because he had seen over and over and over again that governments have been brought down by military coups think pakistan for example general wilders that was actually the whole circus that so so. the second amendment was originally founded and that language in pennsylvania is constitution that ben franklin signed in seven hundred seventy six that said standing armies there in times of peace are the route to liberty. but in the debates that part got dropped off so they simply said well it will have regular a well regulated wall called militia and that's why the second amendment says that

the right to bear arms as is all part of the necessity of a rather regulated militia so the bottom line is it was never intended overthrow the government the chilling phrase of the world the militia movements are simply wrong and what's going on here is the national rifle association and smith and wesson these other weapons manufacturers they're making enormous profits and they're making those profits at the expense of people like you have real difference . coming up a daily take on how keeping the faith is screwing america's public school systems but accommodating private institutions. let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right here.

i think. either one well. we have the government says they can say get ready because of their freedom. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so bleak you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear sees some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't i'm sorry is a big issue. for

. early on. and get. into that only we would. do the work to bring justice for accountability.

i have every right to know what my government would you want to know why i pay taxes. well i would characterize obama as a charismatic version of american exceptionalism. and. it's time for the good of the very. oddly good senator harry reid the senate majority leader announced yesterday that he would bring the repeal. the house republicans budgets. privatizers medicare to the floor of the senate for an up or down vote basically is forcing the republican party to own their own radical ideas by voting to privatized medicare as you know that no one can win in two thousand and twelve o five form if they accomplish selling off medicare to for profit health insurance

c.e.o.'s who want to add millions to private bank accounts good jobs that are the back john mccain the man who is almost president is much of a student of history what's the solution to the libyan war continues to drag on our interview with the press a.f.p. yesterday mccain said i think we could do the same thing we did in the afghan struggle against the russians there are ways to get weapons in without direct u.s. supplied supplies. let's arm the rebels even though we have no clue who they are just like we armed the afghans back in the eighty's that were covering the well with give you know some of them on all those weapons and they eventually went on to become the taliban that we currently are fighting a war against them. i think i figured out john mccain solutions are always about continuing wars not ending. and the very very ugly republican oklahoma state

representative sally kirk the state house yesterday passed a proposal to eliminate the from of action in defense of that measure representative sally kern offered and roche's argued about how black people simply don't work as hard as people she said i've taught school and i saw a lot of people of color out of the study hard because they suck big government would take care of them. with braces talk like that i'm afraid to see how you run your classrooms and it's very clear. that impenetrable wall that our founding fathers built in between church and state is starting to crumble today conservatives around the country with the crude help

of corporate x. hacksaws are chipping away piece by piece at this wall of separation and they're not going to be satisfied until the entire thing comes crumbling down to see exactly what's going on at the church of florida or the republican controlled state government is letting corporations suck money out of funding for public schools and diverted to private for profit religious schools that are making c.e.o.'s filthy rich and can teach our students our radical new curriculum basically corporations. whole separate entity or corporations are giving school vouchers to parents to send their kids to private schools and the state is then turning around and giving those same corporations dollar for dollar tax breaks for every voucher they end up. you see it's against the constitution for public money to pay for private religious institutions but if that money is laundered first through corporations by way of catch bricks and private religious schools and the politicians they own can skirt

the law and as states lose out on critical tax revenue thanks to these vouchers they then have to cut back on funding and shut down public schools so private schools wealthy c.e.o.'s when religious schools when corporations with massive tax breaks when the public schools and their students lose out big time and our founding fathers like thomas jefferson went to great lengths to make sure that the government doesn't outsource work to churches are rolling in their graves as they watch the slow creep of christianisation airport like school system it's simple today's republican party wants to get rid of public education in america that the tea party brags about how they were destroyed a department of education and at the same time republican politicians want to hand off as much money as they can to religious leaders so they'll go their support from the pulpit at election time is two reasons why this is going on conservatives today

have an unholy alliance of corporations who see big box and transforming free public education into money making for profit private education and to conservatives today have an unholy alliance with the religious right to figures if we're going to push kids into private schools they may as well be religious schools it's about reeducation. and it goes beyond was just happen in your floor last year the texas board of education voted to completely rewrite american history with a conservative slant and since the texas board of educational standards it had massive buying power for textbooks and political agenda sets the standard for school book content nationwide then we all end up feeling the effects of this politically motivated we right students will now learn that our founders thought merging church and state was just fine but the american revolution was a christian revolution they'll be taught less about the importance of martin luther king and the civil rights movement and more about the black panthers and violence

during the civil rights group and also learn more about civil rights legislation that republicans supported rather than the legislation that republicans filibuster to learn about the unintended consequences of progressive legislation like the new deal the great society affirmative action title nine at the same time learning about the benefits right wing movements and groups like the moral majority and the national rifle association i'm not making this up they're putting the moral majority in the n.r.a. right into our textbooks right there where thomas jefferson used to be the learned that the communist witch hunts by republican joe mccarthy were justified and productive to learn that the economist milton friedman the guy who inspired reaganomics and crash their economy is just as important economics as adam smith the john maynard keynes the learned thomas jefferson's ideas didn't inspire the

american revolution but instead religious thinkers like john calvin and st thomas aquinas did. jefferson wrote the declaration of independence is not important to enlightenment thinking but neo calvinists who argued that rich people are chosen by god to be our leaders are in fact to a large extent their stripping jefferson out of the textbooks altogether. i guess that makes sense considering that thomas jefferson was the most vocal about separation of church and state and about the importance of free public education or two things that these right wingers are trying to dismantle students will also learn the jefferson davis the guy who started the american civil war had legitimate concerns of it with abraham lincoln and it wasn't just about slavery i mean you can't make this stuff up and michele bachmann was spewing out her conspiracy theories about reeducation camps it turns out in a way kind of twisted way she was right our students will be completely reeducated

in coming decades thanks to a handful of right wingers in texas who've managed to whitewash american history no pun intended but that's not all in tennessee republican lawmakers are trying to revisit the scopes monkey trial to force teachers to teach that evolution is on an even footing with the world having begun six thousand years ago even though the and i are of the scientific community has accepted evolution as simply the way things work so from somewhat off public schools to for profit private schools the majority of which are religious schools that were seen in florida to retell in american history through the eyes of ronald reagan to discrediting the science of evolution in favor of religious answers that question things like global warming or raising an entire generation of right wing zombies right now today in america that's vastly different from the one that our founders created. in one thousand

nine hundred eight when president thomas jefferson wrote because religious belief or non-belief is such an important part of every person's life freedom of religion affects every individual religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faith or of no faith undermining all our civil rights moreover state support of an established religion tends to make the clergy unresponsive to their own people and leads to corruption within religion itself erecting a wall of separation between church and state therefore is absolutely essential in a free society how much clearer could president jefferson have said it and regard to public education in eight hundred sixteen jefferson wrote how important it was that we institute in his words a system of general instruction which will reach every description of our citizens from the richest to the poorest and one of the republicans in the texas school

board don't want our kids learning about jefferson seven hundred ninety eight jefferson wrote whenever the people are well informed they can be trusted with their own government but unfortunately it's a big day conservatives are going to great lengths to make sure that the people are not well informed and as a result our country and our small d democracy are more in peril than ever before. as the big picture for tonight for more information on the stories we covered visit our website. at r.t. dot com also check out our you tube page is that you tube back obsolescent the big picture and slash tom hartman and this entire show is available for free podcast on i tunes and don't forget democracy begins when you get out there when you get active when you show up tag your it will sort of.

wealthy british style some times right in front of the. market. i know what's really happening to the global economy with much stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to cause a report. you official. called touch from the top story. which i'll see life on the good. video and tomorrow she's among the old girls and says for you with the palm of your . question.

he seems to be able to either you believe the. problem.