is a possible congressman wrangled that this this piece of the fence appropriation bill is so unconstitutional that it will be challenged in court and is that the spring court might just look at it go cannot give me a minute this is a joke or it could be a brick. i think clearly that it violates the constitution but i don't think that we should wait for that i think this gives us an opportunity to set the record straight we haven't had the courage to defy any president that had us in foreign countries exposing our troops to him without justification and without the congress' approval if there's oil there you can depend in effect will be there and as long as there's no personal sacrifice because in the american people have gone along but now we can even have an excuse about who we go to shoot who that it kill who the enemy and i think if we don't get it this time imo most happy that it is just so clear cut that this is no restrictions on the president at

all that we give it everything to the president it violates the separation of powers in such a way that because really it's for all of its rights and therefore we have done by islands through our relationship with the people that we represent so i'll be calling out to the spiritual leaders and say hey you're involved in this too you know these are god's children which are looking about and you may not have a kid in this fight but you never can tell him it best if you're at. congressman ryan we have just just one minute left very quickly do you think that now that this is seen the light of day that there's some publicity being shined on it that it will be taken out of the senator in conference or that it it this will not end up being signed by the president. i would not. hope those things but as a member of the house i can tell you i'll voices are going to be very loud and clear

even though when the minority that doesn't mean we've got to roll over on this one and we're talking about the entire defense authorization and this thing was slipped in without a hearing without anyone that supports it being proud of it and quite frankly if they get away with this it's our problem when the once and that allowed it to happen and i can promise you that you've got a lot of voices and if we don't get a response from the american people they don't care much about the united states constitution and i refuse to believe that there were very well said congressman charlie rangel thank you so much for being with us tonight. thank you tom in george orwell's book one thousand nine hundred four big brother famously said war is peace and george bush took this to heart when he started the war on terror literally take a look at that infamous orwellian bush ism. we talk about really coming up that.

but the truth is there's nothing worse for a nation and was war as james madison our fourth president of father constitution said no nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of her factual war. it's wednesday which means it's time for the lone liberal romel or i take on two of the city's most savvy conservative political commentators to debate the week's biggest issues on our panel tonight heather serve up and sort of strategist and managing owner of the for forty group public relations and amanda carey reporter with the daily caller either amanda welcome welcome to the poor to the rich see both of you let's start right off newt gingrich has officially joined the two thousand and twelve republican race for the presidency though he's entering the race of quite a lot of baggage he's currently on his third marriage after cheating on his first wife while she was recovering from cancer back in one nine hundred eighty he also

cheated on his second wife with just been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the one nine hundred ninety s. but at the same time trying to keep president clinton out of office for an extramarital affair the woman with whom he was cheating on wife number two is now wife number three with a five hundred thousand dollars if he's addiction and given his track record she better stay away from doctors so alliance of the someone like john edwards who was also caught cheating on his sick wife has been blacklisted from politics forever if the republicans are rallying behind newt gingrich a serial adulterer i don't think there's any you rightly well that was how you might have perspective there is. i think if he's dead in the water i mean yes but not because of his wives of each. the water because he came out and talked about conservative socially no i think he was he was already. no shot because of his history of anybody knows that if you are unfaithful to your wife you're probably going to be unfaithful to the country or state you know whoever you represent so i don't know the rationale that was used to impeach clinton yeah i mean i don't think

they had a chance and all this other stuff that's come out with tiffany is and with his criticizing the ryan plan it just all works against him to them are. we have a point was to i mean you know david vitter for example i mean this guy this blows my mind i don't understand it david vitter was on the d.c. madam's list he was patronizing prostitutes he does a press conference he goes back in the u.s. senate you can sustain an ovation from the republicans in the senate and he gets reelected by his constituents that's what the republicans i think i mean that well i mean if you're asking you know who is worse john edwards i would say that there's really no contest about equally bad at that because the biggest difference here is that john edwards is hiding it while running for president and hiding it from the american people and i think that puts him on a whole nother level now with newt gingrich was it pretty well i think right so this time around with newt gingrich is already out there and he had his john edwards moment he well back in the ninety's when all this came out i mean it's old

news and it's out there he's being open about it and you have to give him credit i suppose but again my my you know john ensign it took him forever to leave office mark sanford never stepped down never stepped up he just waited out his term took the paycheck schwarzenegger had his kid with his mistress living in this house with him for ten years and i mean has been made public is running for governor not even californians would vote for maybe i don't know i mean it's like you know david vitter got reelected you know john ensign thought he would get reelected but you know what you're saying is that republicans who are unfaithful tend to be elected more often three on. is that is that because the christian right is so much more involved with the republican party than the democratic party and democrats are less likely to be church going and republicans are more like the standards are lower no not a lower different republican can claim redemption through confession you know i'm

walking the blood of jesus and a democrat could get away with it i don't know about that i mean there's no question that you can it was incredibly unpopular with social conservatives never would have done won iowa cuter than a giuliani same problem never would have made it very far it didn't make it very far was never popular social conservatives because it was you dressed up inside a sleigh. there are nations so you can really do a modern nation hit its debt ceiling treasury secretary tim geithner is now using extreme measures to keep our nation from defaulting on its debt and spiraling into a great depression because all this can be avoided if republicans agree to a clean bill just an up or down vote on the debt ceiling that's it instead republicans are using the debt ceiling as leverage to screw over working people by cutting trillions of dollars out of the social safety net programs so the public is playing games with financial disaster the question is when did it become conservative to crash the u.s. economy and i'm taking it i am getting at the neither of you agree with mice or pro proposition we have to look at the democrats are going to i mean everyone talks

about what the republicans are doing to hold the debt ceiling hostage but democrats are doing the same thing i mean conrad has said that any you think i guess of it the thought of it will have to come with increased revenue a more taxes so they're doing the exact same thing and whereas republicans they want to cut spending and you know it's cutting to well let's let's have a period of time a program you do you have actually want to cut spending actually you have to do and that's your number two the debt ceiling was created one nine hundred seventeen it begs the question do we need that that ceiling can we just get rid of it i don't think it's a false sense that there's accountability where there is no accountability and we've all become very dependent on. government the government is huge and we all keep on asking for more and we just totally reworked you know right now our g.d.p. is around fifteen trillion we're getting a fourteen trillion dollar debt so it's about ninety percent of g.d.p. in one thousand nine hundred five after world war two we're one hundred twenty nine percent of g.d.p.

over the next four years we work that down to we're pretty much was at normal until reagan became president and we did it without cutting any spending in fact we were spending like crazy we did it by growing our economy what's wrong with doing the. speech he got yeah you got it right now we have to cut spending medicare is why i think it's because medicare is the biggest driver of the national let's just look at government leaders those air drug companies just like the woman you have the solution that cuts spending but it's so wrong that we do it i think that we do i mean you want to say medically around you i mean like you i don't know it's you know what are your own expenses tom if you find out that you know you're spending more than you're bringing in do you just keep on borrowing of course not you get yourself into a big hole and you would be on the show anymore but you know you have your experiences with the american good but my point about medicare is that the republicans set up this bomb in medicare with medicare part d. where they said the government cannot negotiate for it so literally the government into medicare in some cases has to pay ten dollars for an aspirin whereas the

veterans administration of the marketplace and say hey you know this year we're going to buy twenty million tablets of c. programmer whatever you know or you know give us what's your lowest price that i think that's actually bratz what's blowing up medicare and that that's going back again to the government being so huge that you know back to canada will go on the sunday says enough failure but i think it i think republicans and democrats are both to blame for a huge government you know i mean george george w. bush did it and it was very likely to decrease the size of government actually increase the size of government you know you need to and don't know it very few people have the guts to stand up we have paul ryan he's getting a vis rated by everybody he is were saying that we need to make them cut taxes or. oh my god i have been there i'm very modest says the twenty sexually yeah we think all of us would agree though that we have to make some changes in order to be sustained. we do yeah yeah i will say the state of vermont is those step closer to becoming the first state of the nation to creating a universal single payer health care system yesterday

a committee in the state house was set up to work out the details of the health care benefit packages will be available free of cost to all for moderates meanwhile back in america is for profit health insurance industry recently learned that major health insurance companies are rolling in the dough with the first quarter to eleven signal seen a fifty two percent increase in profits and humanise in a twenty two percent increase that money is not trickling down to better care which cheaper premiums instead steven cherry hensley c.e.o. of united healthcare has taken more than a half billion dollars in the last five years or so people are disowns simmons presidents homes and the private jets the c.e.o. of united health group stephen him slate is salary three point two million dollars incredible gross profits of the private health insurance industry that is the core of the problem here years ago i think the president of united health care made so much money that one in every seven hundred dollars that was spent in this country on health care went to pay him throw up. did you hear that pretty striking it's

pretty amazing got a little gasp out of the sealed cygnus ed hanway annual revenue nineteen point one billion dollars two hundred ninety two million dollars in net income his salary twelve point two million dollars a new report released today warned employers that health care costs are going to continue to rise eight point five percent next year in all probability still two years before obamacare goes into full effect and fifty two million people without health insurance in america so it's a pretty obvious that the status quo for profit health insurance which isn't working for america shouldn't be taken some lessons from vermont but i mean i'm glad you were. that is night percent of people with out government funding of health care are insured so it's very interesting to see that that's the status quo and yet you still have this bill that's being introduced they have no idea of going to pay for it to provide for all of those people ten percent of the population because he doesn't have health care and that is provided for those ten percent of

people who don't have it they're saying no everybody has to totally revamped their but they're used to and take what the government offers you which may be less than what you desire they're not going to ban anybody from buying health insurance and every country in the world that has single payer health insurance or for universal health plans also allows private companies are for secondary insurance it's just that of all of the thirty four we see deviations the thirty four most developed nations the world thirty three of them make it a felony to offer primary health insurance for profit basis it has been rising it's interesting that ninety percent of her monitors though i have health insurance while i was as a godsend person to dr jasser program i lived in vermont for ten years and when howard dean became governor he did this thing called dr besser which is medicaid and he tripled my recollection is correct the number of low income kids and there's a lot of in vermont there's a lot of poverty in that state who are eligible for you know health insurance so i i'm guessing that your number includes everything you know about this this whole debate that's the conversation so many times are but i'm trying to figure out what

the argument is it is the argument that vermont is trying national health care so why should we be arguing is the. rest of us that one in every seven hundred health care dollars is going to one guy steven holmes like his predecessor dollars that are you. carrying fact make a ton of money if their life nationalized health care yes i don't think that's a really good argument i don't think i think it's a great you know are you married you've got you've got leeches they're taking twenty to thirty percent of all health care dollars and they're bankers they don't give a single kid a shot they don't look at anybody's throat they're paying just your pov you have it all of corporate or so you know it's not about any c.e.o. i would not there's a lot of companies that are very well run and you know it very marginally did. let's try this experiment i say let them try it you know states are laboratories of democracy but i don't see that as an argument for saying you know six hundred fifty thousand you know every minute on health care i mean arizona passed a immigration law. that went through because there is that it well alex. there's

a there's there's groups pushing that state i just don't buy it as they try to so i just don't buy it sounds more like they should become part of canada actually well you know this is how it happened in canada since has one passed a single payer health care system and then every others are the province of we want to go under the influence that is going to have to be part of canada where i say where they say they want to you know i just goes actually a minute but you know. what this is. ok what's going to walk up to in wisconsin you know i read to same sex couples this week walker announced the state will no longer to federal law that gives individuals and same sex relationships the right to visit each other in the hospital where i was granted them back in two thousand and nine thanks to a law passed by democrats and now walker saying it's unconstitutional since it doesn't serve the public interest therefore he shouldn't have to be found it isn't granting more rights to people in the public interest isn't the idea of progress giving more rights and not taking rights away it's going to. look one thing you forgot the fact that in two thousand and six people of wisconsin pass

constitutional amendment saying that they were against same sex marriage and they didn't want the same rights of marriage given to same sex couples that's constitutional amendment that was approved by the people and then a democratic governor in wisconsin said oh well we're just going to i'm going to go ahead and challenge that and say that same sex call there was a. right but like that against the will of the people and so while he's saying as and i'm not going to end this because it's goes against the constitution and also of course city that you just uttered is that you can actually have power of attorney and anybody can go visit you can you can states out which power of attorney to a same sex partner to a friend to a neighbor to me. decisions where in hospitals we already have. thousand places in federal and state where the word marriage is involved typically with me out here and this is not about rights as you know it's about getting the stature of marriage too high. so it's a silly argument basically is that the people of wisconsin said we don't want gays

to get married in the state we don't have rights in the state and therefore i think are you going to larry just as you will hear it was just constant it has to go to hell when the people of mississippi said you know we don't we don't want to african-americans have rights in our state we think of slavery i don't agree that you can equate the two but i think that we're talking human rights versus you're not you have that's a nice it's a very i don't even think this is like the rights that i think that you know i personally don't have a problem with it but i think that examining the confusion of the law that a governor put into into place is completely to demand there's no problem with going back here meaning it if it is unconstitutional as you know the argument being made that is i think the attorney general said it is unconstitutional and then we go back to the real problem and their thought process repeal the original ballot that's what you want if wisconsin if the people of wisconsin want to repeal of that amendment then let's go through the process and make it happen once again about the state you can do what they want to you know just concentrate on what it wants to do and you know the people who passed this amendment if you're amendment i don't mind

i've seen how you could change you know you're both gays right and there and i would say that a lot has changed in the last three or four months since the people of wisconsin figured out what the republicans are up to and we'll see what happens when i don't have it live in a place where you can vote and thank god for ok this week the tea party turned on speaker john boehner they're unhappy with his budget compromising and plans to raise the debt ceiling and some tea partiers are even calling for a primary challenge to the v.p. speaker of the house so the question is what friends does john boehner have love to washington d.c. there's a quote for a there is this i can see this graphic here there's this trust inside kids eric cantor who also will die. ties to fight against the working class or be bought enjoyed the monocle bar they provided a shoulder to cry on or see him in the hollywood tanned she was not a loser best customer or the like of. course i'm not about the hollywood man girl i'm going to be that the price of a car and you are i going to go and i'm going with nancy pelosi keep your friends

close and your enemies closer here than you see the future of those so he and other sarah amanda kerry thank you for having us thank you both for being here so great after the after the break the gang of six is breaking down just like the previous gang of six did a gang of fourteen the gang of twenty explain why gangs and government just don't work come from i still it. let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right now that. i think rock from a beautiful funny well. we

have the government says they're going to keep you safe get ready because you give them freedom. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so. you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear see some other part of it and realize that everything you saw. i'm sorry is a big. fight . for. for.

the gang of six is no more yesterday senator tom coburn dropped out of that gang a group of three republicans and three democratic senators given the task of writing the two thousand and twelve budget and figuring out a way to raise the debt ceiling coburn said he's out because he doesn't believe an agreement can be reached any more so now it's up to another gang this one headed by vice president joe biden to come up with a budget hopefully before we default on our debt and to send in the economic chaos

with all these gangs are out of makes you wonder whatever happened to the old fashioned idea of open debate on the floor of the house and the senate and all are elected representatives taking part to determine the best path for america why are we instead relying on game since when did gang rule come to america. china relied on gang rule back in one thousand nine hundred sixty six with its own rose to power he created a gang of four to basically run the entire country during the cultural revolution his gang rule lasted for ten years before the cultural revolution fell apart after mao's death and the gang of four was put on trial for crimes against the state and slapped with life long prison sentences turns out government by gangs didn't work very well but here we are in america trying it over and over again our constitution says our politicians should make decisions and it doesn't say anything about a gang of six guys sitting in

a smoke filled room with martinis hammering out the best path for the other three hundred million of us or for that matter the best path for the other four hundred twenty nine members of congress yet that's exactly what happens over and over and over again with disastrous results especially for progressives in two thousand and nine a gang of six senators on max baucus as finance committee was given the power to write the health care reform law problem is when you take that a bit of a congress and stick it in a room about cameras and you take the american people out of the debate and in their absence special interests worm their way in that's baucus is gang of six took a combined eight million dollars in campaign contributions from the health care pharmaceutical and insurance industries it's no wonder that the final result of the negotiation was a bill that didn't have a public option and they gave the health insurance companies fifty million new customers that they could screw over and extract phones from to give to their

c.e.o.'s for some reason even though they had huge majorities in the house and senate democrats outsourced writing a signature piece of legislation the health care bill to three right wingers and three so-called moderate democrats who promptly threw all of the progressive ideas into the fire on the first day. and in the end the gang of six still couldn't get any republicans on board to support it then there was the gang of fourteen back in try two thousand and five this kang tried to figure out a way to break a democratic filibuster of bush's ultra hard right wing supreme court nominees in the end democrats and the gang of fourteen gave in and allowed samuel alito to be conferred with a supreme court decision that's led to disastrous consequences in the years since then and there was the gang of twenty back in two thousand and eight when lawmakers were brought together to create a new energy plan for america one that was supposed to limit offshore drilling and

end all the oil subsidies kill the eleven men who died of a deep water horizon one of blew up but the residents of the gulf were still dealing with all that oil and poison that game. and in two thousand and seven there was the gang of twelve entrusted with creating a comprehensive immigration reform bill that worked out brilliantly hey and just the last five years we've seen very well just how bad gang rule in congress is and yet here we are in the midst of economic turmoil on the doorstep of default and we are relying on another gain to lead us out of the wilderness a gang i might add that's received over a million dollars for each of the major industries big oil wall street big agribusiness so i'm not holding my breath expecting a cut it will subsidies or cut the number of billionaires and millionaires who pay a maximum fifteen percent income tax because of the bush capital gains tax

giveaways and i'm not holding my breath for a cut in farm subsidies to the giant ad companies as they keep pay and off more and more and more members of congress it's kind of like you know the old the old joke we've got the best congress money can buy it's really a tragedy. so i say it's a good thing that's on tom coburn dropped out because given the history of gang rule in the united states congress the end result of the gang of six was likely to be pretty damn worthless instead let's go gangbusters and bring back open debate to the floors of congress where our representatives know that they're being held accountable we can see what they're up to and then and hear everything they have to so then maybe democrats will start acting like democrats and more importantly our government will start acting like our founding fathers imagine that

would be a refreshing change. as the big picture first and i for more information on the stories we covered visit our websites at samarra dot com an r t dot com also check out our youtube page is at youtube dot com slice now big picture and youtube dot com. and this entire show is available as a free video podcast on i tunes and don't forget democracy begins with you when you show up when you participate you get active that's when it all happens tag you're it.

let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right here. i think. on the oil. we have the government says they're going to keep you safe get ready because their freedom. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly is that you understand it and then you limp something else new fears you some other part of it and realize that everything is all you don't know i'm john harvey welcome to the big picture. the

first. film. for. the first. time.