video them to my. mind hold. on a sense for you now with the palm of your. on the. blogs are going to washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture but wisconsin governor scott walker pushed his school privatization plan today here in d.c. back home his republican buddies are scrambling to pass as many radical laws as they can before the state's voters try to recall them this summer will their proposed legislation hold the outcome of that vote plus a mother's day was not so happy for some moms especially single unemployed mothers

why competing in the workforce may be new much harder for these women versus their married toher firms and american veterans who fought for everything are finding little to nothing when it comes to this country's loyalty to their service. wisconsin governor and skin koch brother a lapdog scott walker is in washington d.c. today he'll be the keynote speaker at a summit to promote education privatization has right wingers call it school choice it's unclear if walker will also be sunny autographs or posing for pictures or writing his own kids the move for the all the right wingers who are now falling over him since he had the so-called courage to screw over average working joes and janes in his state last time walker was in d.c. was because chairman of the. government oversight committee and richest man in

congress and former small time criminal darrell issa wanted to honor him with an appearance before congress or busting up labor unions in wisconsin meanwhile his walker is being treated like a rock star here in d.c. today his republican co-horts back in wisconsin are scrambling because they know their days are numbered this summer six republican state senators will face recall elections for supporting scott walker's anti-union efforts those elections could begin as early as next month so right now these guys are trying to pass as many radical laws as they can or they still have their jobs first up on the fast track agenda legalizing concealed weapons after all they need to get a nice kate back to all the n.r.a. lobbyists in the state to finance their complaint campaigns in the right a defend against the recall campaigns to keep their jobs it will be interesting to see if any of the two hundred fifty people on the terrorist watch list were able to buy guns in america with ease last year but also now be allowed to carry those guns and others sure it's going to go to more wisconsin because the republicans also have to

jam through their giveaway to the telephone industry blowing up a slew of regulations that keep telecom giants from screwing over wisconsinites i think i see didn't telephone fees coming down the pike wisconsin considering many republicans will be facing tough elections they obviously have to do something to prevent progressive citizens from voting so they try to pass a law that require voters to resent photo i.d.'s at the polls over one hundred seventy thousand seniors don't add driver's licenses and would be affected as well as poor people and college students who don't drive and don't have eligible college i.d.'s and the republicans want to move the primary elections from september to august when most college students are on vacation or out of state so they can vote . that bill by the way alone will cause the state five point seven million dollars to implement seems like a waste of money in a state that's supposedly facing a massive budget deficit and therefore has to cut or at least says it has to cut teachers' pay at that again five point seven million is

a small investment for republicans to ensure students and poor people and older people can vote also on the fast track agenda a bill to end early release for state prisoners that will also cut down on progressive voters in the polls by keeping them in jail longer and use more business for the booming private prison industry pays for the sobering reality that we have the highest imprisonment rates in the world wisconsin republicans are doing their part to keep people in prison you have armor and finally there's also legislation pending that would privatized more schools selling off the state's duty to provide free quality education to children to millionaire charter school c.e.o.'s who care more about the bottom line and actually preparing kids in wisconsin for the jobs of the twenty first century that means more teachers losing their jobs and good for the republicans the teachers union losing its political influence coincidentally the teachers' union in california is staging sit ins all this week to protest education budget cuts and closing as those schools their

course this is really just an extension of the war on labor that scott walker started at the beginning of the year and is now trying to finish before he loses all his republican foot soldiers to recall campaigns republican state lawmakers hope to pass all of these radical laws in the next eight weeks with little time for the people who is constant have a genuine debate over them or frankly even to read them and now one bill not a single one of these right wing dream laws would create one job not one job but it's pretty clear job creation doesn't top the list for other kinds of busting up unions kickbacks to their corporate campaign donors at. joining me now to discuss this effort by republicans and the broader consequences of their war on organized labor and democracy is bob barr executive director of the industrial union council of the a.f.l.-cio bob welcome to be here great to have you here with us first of all what do you see as this agenda and to what extent is it metastasized nationwide

well. interestingly enough we get reports every day because we're trying to track this we're working on it we're working on it with our members and all are allies and states across the country and you can take the wisconsin agenda and you can go to ohio and see that you can see what they just did in the state of florida you can see it playing out in the state of missouri so across the country it's a fairly concerted coordinated campaign by the right to implement this agenda is a whole lot different than some of the things we face the national level in fact we can talk about this could couldn't it be argued i realize that there's the as it erick the legislative council alec miran legislative exchange council changing thank you. this writing many of these laws there are other right wing think tanks that are providing them almost none of them have actually been written by republican legislators or elected officials but you could argue that this really began in one thousand nine hundred one rust when reagan busted patco in and openly declared war as though it was certain oh certainly i mean i eat you you look at

alec and you look at the timing of all of that it does go back to that or in some cases for people who are my age is a bit of deja vu here though it's more extreme it's more dangerous reagan didn't go as far as these people are attempting to go it wasn't as far and wide spread of the state levels it currently is in the country today we are more polarized today than we were back then and i think it is a very dangerous situation but i do think that what is going on in wisconsin today as a as a analogy for the rest of the states is that the things they're doing they're already angry there are folks are angry and the working people of that state are angry with what's happened this isn't what they intended what that will. and this will i think further infuriate them i read. a comment the other day that. if this trend continues eventually all the transnational corporations that have shipped our jobs overseas will bring them back as will be the lowest labor cost country in the world you know people who make it i mean there you've got

republicans who want to do with minimum wage oh yeah you know they want to go back to three dollars an hour or so and then they might think they've already exempted a bunch of bunch of industries. you said we could talk about the national you know bigger picture here what is that think the bigger picture is really you can almost juxtaposed the two agendas that came out the other day house democrats put out of making in america generally how you create jobs and how we have to invest to do that and republicans in the senate put out an agenda that was you know get rid of regulatory problems and do a whole lot of other stuff that didn't have much to do with investing in creating jobs i mean we seem to be in the specious the debate that somehow we're going to downsize our way to success as a country that's not how the us are government employees firing government employees but not investing even in our private sector i mean we have huge infrastructure needs i've spoken with you about this before that can employ people right away we have things where we make those investments to make sure we make those things in this country with buy america last i want quibbling over this stuff

it makes no sense why would the republican party which has. done such a very very good job would branding itself as the all-american rough and tough ready to rumble call boy marlboro man already. why would why would it be that a they would for years now oppose made in america provisions tariffs and thing as you know. any kind of quote protectionist legislation that might bring american jobs back while. labor stand overseas labor standards overseas environmental sinners and b. that they keep getting away with it but i think for the first in the first in the first case it's that you you know. they put on this cloak of the moral man cloak and the yankee dream cloak and so that's what we are but when you take it off what do you find you find transnational corporate interests that want to take our jobs anywhere they can make money make things cheap and ship them back in this economy taking away our ability to make those things and the jobs and the good jobs in this economy mean that this is what happens when we get to the point where government

becomes exposed and people are really getting a good eye view of what that really means it's almost like it's all a t.v. set you know and it's all it's we've learned we've learned now since he left the presidency that karl rove was actually behind george bush by the ranch in crawford that bush didn't want to ranch visit for a horses and so there were never any horses at the ranch does that make it a ranch i don't know any way but it's like it's all smoke and mirrors on the republican side these new voter id laws i think another way to screw workers certainly there i think you offered really examples of people that don't have driver's licenses and they have other forms of i.d. and things of that nature but i you know i think people really should be concerned about what this isn't it it's clearly spelled out in some of the right wing pieces that have come out about how they have to target this because we don't want those people voting because they won't vote for us rightfully so yeah and that's ultimately the bottom line. the recall election in wisconsin there's an effort in michigan to recall rick snyder. there are others around the country i don't know if

there's any going on in florida but it is an effort in ohio to go with a ballot initiative against some of the things the governor has done right right right kill those so you know in the half a minute or a minute we left it what do you see this spreading is this in the. oh well that you know we had you know i don't know how many thousands of events that occurred nationwide in april fourth and it was originally was you know it was sort of in solider with council but it rapidly spread people understood it isn't just about wisconsin it's about us it's about our community and you know you started with the term it's the war on labor well i want to be clear it's the war on working families . in the middle class yes and labor unions are our members are clearly part of that and we're the one line of defense and a voice that speaks for working people that speak broadly not just maybe the people that have contracts and agreements so that has really. drawn a line and made it clear and the cloak has come off as we talked about earlier so

we think it is spreading we know it's spreading from the actions that have happened the things that are underway and how people are fighting back on their own terms of the state and we're working to help them do that and they continue but they suffered greatly in your career talking with you i guess that was causing republican party figures if they're going down they might as well take the whole state with them unfortunately the strategy is screwing over millions of workers not just in wisconsin but elsewhere around the nation. coming up why being the head of household is hurting single moms in the job search. let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right here.

i think running on well. we have the government says they're going to keep you safe get ready because you give them their freedom. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for like sleep 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 you thought you knew you don't. charge welcome to the big picture.

for. your world. and get. into it over it would make you into the brain just the sort. i have every right to know what my government would you want to know why i pay

taxes. but i would characterize obama as a charismatic version of american exceptionalism. yes day it was mother's day sue happy late mother's day to all the moms out there and others around the country enjoyed the perks of their day some were still facing the reality of joblessness in america still struggling economically and hardest hit are the hardest working people among us single moms as of last year the unemployment rate for single mothers was over fourteen percent that's compared to an unemployment rate of just over six percent for married mothers who want to participate in workforce on top of that single mothers have a much more difficult time accessing unemployment benefits because most states

restrict pain out benefits to people who had to quit their job to care for their child so what we do to make sure the next year's mother's day isn't saddled with high unemployment and economic woes for single moms across the nation here to offer some answers is heidi hartman no relation to protect the president of the institute for women's policy research heidi welcome thank you it's a pleasure to be here nice to meet another heart i think it's as i said we're thinking how just how bad is it for single moms over all the really bad i mean first of all this is a horribly deep recession supposedly we're almost two years into the recovery and we have very few people recovering their jobs that we did a calculation last month men have recovered about nineteen percent of the time they had lost women overall only six percent i'm sure for single mothers it's an even smaller proportion this is a recovery that so far isn't giving us the jobs we need. we talk about the work for how does it work first hurting the single mothers well of course work first was

something that we did in one thousand nine hundred six was to find this yes when we tried to end welfare as we know it you might remember the old phrase ok we did we have the welfare and what we do instead of helping very poor people welfare was essentially a system that i remember when i moved to new haven to go to actually first to support my husband through law school and not to go to graduate school myself but all my friends were working in the welfare offices caseworkers and if you were poor and you had children you can go to the welfare office and get money but it would have been through the war on poverty l.b.j. literally cut poverty the united states in half and for half years right and it was amazing because really only entered a whole new middle class family believed in and in giving people help them and what we did when we ended welfare as we know it and we've created work first we decided that the job market is the answer to everything and of course when we did that ninety six we were in the middle of

a boom we didn't see employment for women talk about until ninety eight two thousand then we had two thousand and one recession so it was a boom period and the single mom said hey we're getting the message you want us to work yes if you help us where we can if you give us subsidized child care if you subsidize our wages you know we expanded the earned income tax credit which allows women and to who have low wages to get a check from the government in form of tax return even if they don't owe taxes they get that so we put in a number of things in place that essentially help the working poor when you're poor so we shifted our money from the very bottom the very poor to the income scale a little bit and those people did a little bit better under that working first system if they could work back when there were jobs when there were jobs now really since the last recession in two thousand and one we never really recovered fully then this really. big recession hit all of us when when the republicans and bill clinton and not a small number of democrats ended welfare as we know it in the ninety's the quoth

the they were all thought of using was f.d.r. from nine hundred thirty three after he was inaugurated he made the comment that the very best welfare program was a job yeah but then what he did in his first ten days into office was the start of the civilian conservation corps and hired one hundred thousand americans and put them to work you know digging digging holes and put trees it up and it seems like if we really believe in work first and if there are jobs in the private sector that we should be seriously considering the government as the employer of last resort why is there so much resistance to the great question i mean exactly in the thirty's f.d.r. created about four million jobs and we have a program but we eliminated just recently but it was part of obama's stimulus package and it actually created almost half a million jobs and in less than two years now thirty five states use this money it

was called the emergency fund for welfare and they used about one point three billion for generate almost half a million jobs a quarter of a million jobs so that was very impressive that's that's what he spent in iraq afghanistan and weak i know it was subsidized jobs and they actually created more jobs than they thought they could so it's a good example of how you can create jobs using public money and these jobs were mostly private sector jobs often the money went to a nonprofit the nonprofit got you a private sector job sometimes the employers themselves simply asked for the subsidy it is different states could set it up different back in so i can be done back in seventy eight my wife and i searched me for abused kids in new hampshire it's still there it's called the doing themselves children's village and it was a nonprofit corporation nonprofit organization still is and. jimmy carter had this program called seed effect i think maybe jerry ford started. and what it said was any nonprofit could hire somebody and the government would pay their wages for the

first year and we hired a gardener we hired a janitor we hired we hired two or three people and two of them stayed with us for years after that you know they did such great jobs and it took people out of unemployment gave them a job and also help nonprofits you know were struggling tremendously as the been any discussion about bringing back like you like takes the secret program was such a successful program it was successful and no it was kind of the villain. because they've also had a big section of it that went to state and local government and that was good to be waste waste waste because you know as your last government we don't need government well of course people are learning in wisconsin if you need. government is very important i mean you know when i walk into a restaurant i don't want to be poisoned yeah well actually my local government check out those restaurants and make sure they're not that it might rely on you know a pretty big supporter of government so but the bottom line is that we're not seen

anything come you know the government's going to fix this no i mean we but we did it in the thirty's we did in the seventy's with the program you mentioned and we did it in a small way with this emergency fund for town it just in the last two years of araa but we're not doing much now we have to we have to wake up or we have to wake up our people heidi thanks so much for coming in there's been talk of great could be a very shit very serious media. a lot of work to do a lot of work to do flowers a nice card breakfast in bed all the things that mothers deserve bottom others day but let's keep up with the let's keep up with us but first let's make sure that our nation does what it's supposed to do and make sure the single mothers get the opportunities that they need to enjoy their lives and raise their children in a happy home this isn't just for their sake it's for all of ours by the way there's a history to mother's day you probably didn't learn in school. and i just i have to share this with you it's not apropos to the jobs part but i think it's fascinating and you should learn in school we all should have learned it in school well there's

that there is a woman by the name of julie award how she was born eighteen thirty nine she was an abolitionist she was working to end slavery she was a suffragist she was working to empower women to give women the vote in fact she was the president of the american women's suffrage association she visited the white house in eight hundred sixty one and met with president lincoln and afterwards wrote the battle hymn of the republic you know my eyes and seen were in that song i mean so people think of her as the author of the battle hymn of the republic is this very military woman but after after the war in eight hundred seventy cheese the person who started mother's day and she started it as an anti-war you know looking at the horrors of the civil war as an anti-war effort ends and with her mother's state proclamation for peace and i share with you what she wrote this is this is just the first paragraph it runs for three paragraphs you can you can look it up in the first paragraph is incredible she said our rise then

women of this day are rise all women who have hearts where there are bad tism be of water or of tears say firmly we will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies our husbands will not come to us reeking with carnage for caresses and applause our son shall not be taken from us too on learn all that we have been able to teach them of charity mercy and patience we the women of those of one country will be too tender to those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure their. to allow our sons to be trained enjoy theirs as extraordinary the true history used to be called mother's day of peace before the greeting card companies got a hold of it now it's great to honor mom but wouldn't it be great if mothers all across the country said no we don't want our children trained to kill their people

enough of the whole military industrial complex enough of the wars it's just and little. crazy crazy a large golf digest magazine is trying to organize a golf match that will shake the very foundation of american politics and magazine is actively campaigning for a faceoff between two avid golfers speaker of the house john boehner and president obama already more than ten thousand buttons have been made to advertise the dream dual on the links but considering how busy these two guys are it's unlikely the showdown will ever take place speaker the house painter as it up on his plate between wrangling the tea party together and all those happy hours with lobbyists and president obama he's busy doing stuff like killing osama bin laden. coming up a supply of jobs is being added to the economy can it actually meet the financial

demand of american households. for. five. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else or see some other part of it and realize that everything you saw. i'm sorry this is the.

back of the big picture i'm tom hartman coming up in this half hour two muslim passengers proved no threat at all the crew of passengers kicked off a delta airlines flight with no explanation as of yet no apology why is this type of discrimination apennine in our so-called all created equal country plus even though the unemployment rate crept up this last month the number of jobs that actually did increase but other pain the many job seekers are holding out for and getting a great education and a well paid career are no longer being promised for most of this country's most deserving and bravest it's nice to really take our veterans are being pushed out of the american dream.

last week ended with new job numbers released from the month of april even though the unemployment rate ticked back down to nine percent now that there are more people looking for work in america our economy did add more than two hundred forty thousand jobs last month highs again in five years the good news right now. as investigative journalist any crawl pointed out a recent article when you look a little deeper into the job numbers some troubling flaws are emerging in the. american economy about a quarter of all the jobs lost in the bush great recession were nine to thirteen dollars an hour of low wage jobs and hamburger flippers and maids yet after the recession nearly half of the new jobs created have been these same low wage jobs on the other hand when it comes to nineteen to thirty one dollars an hour higher pain jobs forty percent of the jobs lost during the bush recession were in that category

but since then only fourteen percent of the new jobs we've created are those higher payments so the new economy is bottom heavy with low wage jobs and poor in higher wage jobs and almost completely nonexistent among the new jobs are the middle paint jobs that work in factories building things were that was crucial to building a middle class america so even the arc economy created a lot of jobs last month are we in trouble in the future here to talk more about this issue is and equal investigative journalist associate editor of the website tom dispatch and reporter for mother jones magazine and he welcome back thanks great to have you with us how is the american job market changing well it's slowly rebounding as we saw this past month with april's job numbers but we were scratching beneath the surface when we're actually analyzing what types of jobs are we getting what types of jobs are filling that huge fifteen million jobs up is that from this this recession.