folks. welcome back to the big picture i'm tom hartman coming up in this half hour republican congressman phil gingrey is initiated a full fledged war against union workers with bargaining rights claiming that their privileges to negotiate on the clock are a waste of taxpayer dollars and is there truth to the theory of just another with a vote for or just another republican effort to weaken the union organizations and

the way we surf on the internet is in danger of a certain disgraced lobbyist gets his way so you really is why it matters just a few minutes and later a daily take on why the land of the free and the home of the brave are no longer the picture perfect images of. the war on organized labor continues house republicans are opening up a new front against federal labor unions going after something called official time official time is a phrase used to describe the time federal workers who are also union representatives to union work like bargaining and meeting with employees also getting a paycheck for the federal job and a house hearing yesterday on this issue probably in congressman phil gingrey said official time is not fair to the government or the taxpayer and or solar to the benefit of labor unions and their employees. serve as its representative or steward

additionally taxpayers pay for absolutely no official productivity on their own behalf federal employees use official. or game theory fails to say or see is that official time doesn't just benefit unions or benefits all federal workers who are lucky enough to still be unionized and collect better checks and benefits because those union officials can do both jobs and proponents of official time argue that if you get rid of it and labor disputes will be far costlier outside the office and more likely to end up in court so is official time really a problem for taxpayers are republicans just looking for another way to take a lack of unionized government workers ahead of the two thousand and twelve election joining me now to offer his take on it is dan gainor vice president t.-bone pickens free market fellow at the business and media to dan welcome evening evening nice to see you again twenty nine men would be alive right now in a sea coal mine. in west virginia if they had had official time if

they had allowed if that's the extent wasteful element and one official had been able to draw a paycheck and yet act on behalf of the other words as being a safe way to disclaim two point nine it's trillion hours use the year for bogus union work i'm consistent there's no obvious of a union there it's good because if i'm paying for this is it i don't care if they're playing world of warcraft or a third or a union job on my you know my don't they're doing union leader on federal the rationale for this is this is that these are most of these federal jobs are open shops if you can choose to be a member of the union and pay the dues or not but they all get the same benefits so since you've got a bunch of people who are basically freeloading we're picking up the slower you don't have the altar of the the separately the simple easy alternative is to say ok we're going to go to close shops if you're fed no you know you're going to give it would still it's created this buddhist. monopoly we're government workers and

the unionized ones and the people who run government officials negotiating it's a cozy little cartel where they're working together using our dollars so the result is we've gone from two thousand and five to two the two thousand and ten we've gone from about seven thousand people in government making one hundred fifty thousand dollars a year to eighty two thousand people government making under fifty thousand dollars a year you who rely on government fact that's you who don't like the t.s.a. who complain a lot about how mismanaged zen is suddenly want even more government control and these government then you are serious totally scattershot in this thing first of all you've got more government employees who make a higher wage and i'm guessing that had you gone just five thousand dollars above that number your numbers were to start to break down but making higher wages because government employees tend to be if they're going to work for the f.d.a. or the e.p.a. or one of these agencies that are keeping us alive and well they tend to have college educations or master's degrees or ph d.'s and therefore they're they're

more well paid the fact of the matter is and we all know this that people who work in government jobs are actually with the identical levels of education and experience make less than they do in the private sector the study that is agree on that although there are look there are a postcode is that this is also the benefits which are outlandish compared to the protests even when you include the benefits the private sector employees are making more money than public sector the difference is the public sector employees have more job security and they have more job security because these unions and you guys now want to strip away the union so we don't lose your user were both perfectly legal to have a union but should i tax dollars go to pay for union fun movie should not it's a point of fact it works out to if it's two point nine million hours a year which is the most recent number if even if we're paying twenty dollars an hour you know those you guys are earning more than that you know that still fifty million dollars a year we're in times of crisis so you want union employees you want you want guys who are representing their fellow worker. who have volunteered to help there to

represent their fall fellow workers or who have been elected let's keep in mind unions are democracies workplaces are typically kingdoms there are good got one guy up there you know you're fired but unions are democracies they elect their leaders so you get somebody is elected and you want that person to then be forced not to take a paycheck no i want that person to have an adversarial relationship with his boss which ultimately delegate that was this is right no i don't i think we're going down the line there and then what i did have to go get fired we have a there's a long history of unions that are going to be slightly added one hundred thousand more government employees than the one you know under obama why do we have an over an employee's who are earning you talking about the census no i'm talking about current numbers indicate this huffington post number so so i'm going to figure they're probably low but in one hundred in iowa the republicans are not only are we as a society paying for you you want you want to see that was there is a benefit to us in that i would rather benefit the benefit to us really simple than

if you've got good people doing good work on behalf of you and me and making sure that our drugs are safe and our food is safe and that our cities are safe and all those other things the government does protect in the commons if you've got good people doing that part of the price of that is making sure that there's a decent relationship between labor and management and there's a cost associated with that should not you when you make it so be free when you make it sukkos eat it to work together the only people in dipping are the taxpayers there is nothing cozy about their house and silly calling these people that they sorry if you if you get elected to be the union shop steward you don't get a paycheck anymore is not going to make it less you know you have to go make them on the lawyer if you have to make if you during union leader of the union time not an expert on your digits so so they should they should not do their job they should just step away from the workplace they should only do it on saturdays at midnight they want to work if they're going to get flexible hours in government but they're having to negotiate with other people who are also government government workers.

so those government workers are working on if you live so the interview that you guys got all the work i had to i'm going to have to pay its own its own negotiators and not the tax bill and unions are already paying their their their their their lead people by and large these are these are not that this is not just that category of workers yes by and large this is but it's far as i'm concerned the equivalent of playing computer games or work it is something that should be done on the union workers for this no union work is not something taxpayer should have to pay for it should be paid for by their union ok i'll let you have the last word on that and it's good to have you know. i'm beginning to think that somewhere in a meeting room inside the capitol building here in washington d.c. there's a list titled ways to screw over working people and one by one republicans are moving down that list checking off each item they also seem to have a list like that in wisconsin new jersey florida michigan indiana and a handful of other states of the right wing reagan worshipping governors a second list tax hike specifically targeting working class families await paul

ryan already proposed that. paid no attention to the man behind the curtain killing net neutrality net neutrality is a policy that prevents corporations from carving up the internet and giving higher bandwidth or faster speed to websites that pay them more money and less bandwidth or smaller sites they can't afford it essentially straight restricts what you and i as internet servers are able to access when we log on who makes corporate internet service providers like a.t.v. rise and time warner really rich every time democrats in congress have tried to pass net neutrality legislation they've been shot down the fog from think progress has been digging into the forces at work stopping net neutrality legislation and has followed a familiar and eerily familiar name that could be orchestrating the opposition that man is ralph reed better known for his association with criminal lobbyist jack abrams off so how is relf reid sabotaging a free and open internet answer this question. investigative reporter

a blogger at think progress or joins me now from california lee well come back it's common very nice to see you great to see you too thank you lee first remind our viewers who didn't see the movie casino jack and by the way if you haven't you probably should just who ralph reed is well ralph reed was the executive director of the christian coalition in the ninety's and after that after he became kind of a kingmaker in republican politics he moved into the lobbying world and he partnered with his old buddies from the college republicans jack abramoff grover norquist and some others to basically scheme and deal and really recruit some sorted clients to push a very sophisticated lobbying strategy where they're taking money from casinos and then at the same time tricking evangelicals to be against their own clients so they form kind of a racket where they're collecting money from both sides in one case they collected money from a sweat shop owner and

a site and islands while collecting instructing evangelical voters to lobby against a bill that shut down the sweat shop owners factories where there's forced abortion forced prostitution so. there is a huge racket but a scandal which kind of blew the lid off all this expose the e-mails expose the documents how they shifted money around from corporate clients like microsoft and enron to create all these friend groups whether they were evangelical groups or anti-tax groups that they basically sold support to corporations it's have so incredible and not just front group but kind of astroturf groups or or you know what look like grassroots groups like the evangelicals the churches that ralph reed was able to convince churches and church goers in america that they should lobby the government to keep in business sweatshops that had forced abortions and forced bras i mean just make your head explode hot and i watched the movie casino jack and

i can't figure out why ralph reed didn't go to jail along with jack abrams off. how did how did they how did he stay out of jail and b. what does all this have to do with net neutrality. well it's a good question of how he got to stay out of jail you know what's interesting about the iraq scandal was basically he erupted when actually hundreds of obvious do on a daily basis it's what's a nominal to me is that a remark was the only one this happens on a daily basis what happened in the past few months in a lobbying campaign against regulations on for profit schools they were basically using the same tactics as a rock used for many years so i mean that that's a that's a whole nother book maybe on why there aren't more investigations and prosecutions on this type of bribery but on to the comcast and cable and net neutrality issue ralph where you dropped off the political radar after this big scandal and after he lost his run for lieutenant governor in two thousand and six no one ever heard of

him and we stopped seeing his name in the news but he didn't stop lobbying and as documents that i uncovered and reported on think our story today showed over the past couple of years the cable industry which is thought very aggressively against net neutrality is a very important regulation that you just spoke about they've been paying millions of dollars at the same time roughly it's all business partner tim phillips has been organizing tea party and social conservative opposition to net neutrality which is ironic because the modern tea party movement wouldn't happen if it wasn't for net neutrality because they've done it largely online through new media and different websites that require equal access to the internet it's absolute incredible and and the and now ralph reed has christian groups and and tea partiers and grassroots people who believe that they're trying to help their country and take it

back has them out there lobbying in favor of some of the largest corporations in america becoming more profitable. like i said it's a racket i mean if you look at the kind of ads they're putting out they say oh look bank balances allow the government to take over a.i.g. and then they took over the car companies and now with net neutrality they're going to take over the internet and tell you what kind of websites you're going to read i mean it's literally one hundred eighty degrees from the truth net neutrality protects the tea party from being able to read whatever website they'd like to read they can read a militia website or they can read and progress that order then you try to give them that freedom but because. powerful cable companies have money to front groups whether it's ralph reed or you know there are actually democratic astroturfing groups that are supporting this is well they've pulled people into thinking that this is some kind of evil conspiracy and that tea parties a tea partiers who believe in freedom and liberty you need to fight this this is incredible and are the koch brothers involved in this well they're tangentially

involved because the koch brothers have provided a lot of seed money for at least part of groups i don't think they really care about net neutrality but because they prop these groups up and then these groups except money they're kind of what i would call coin operated front groups although they have a a singular purpose like helping the koch brothers they'll take money from other corporations and do a little side projects what americans for prosperity which is generally associated with americans with the koch brothers did was they seem to have taken some of this money or at least worked with some of these groups and then put out a lot of propaganda saying that net neutrality has something to do with communism and socialism and even glenn beck who invited americans for prosperity on his show and push these attacks that's incredible leaf on but thanks so much for the great reporting that you're doing for bringing us up to date on. good talking to you tom thanks great talking with you too think it looks like this is yet another case of corporate billionaires brainwashing the average people so they'll vote against their own best interest and in this case it's our free and open internet it will

fall victim to ralph reed's misinformation campaign. after the break ideally take on the tragic transformation taking place in america and most of us are completely missing. this number given that we had an apartheid regime. i think. even one well. we have the government says they're going to keep you safe get ready because you

have your freedom. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so. you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else here sees some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't i'm sorry there's a big picture. it's

the good the bad of the very very proud of who are good lawyer ugly the good former reagan economic advisor jol slemrod day in and day out we've heard the republicans saying that tax hikes will kill the economy but now the man who helped create the tax hikes or tax cuts says me joel slemrod is deep bunking this myth in an interview with bloomberg news today slemrod high g.d.p. countries are high tax countries again this is a former reagan adviser saying it's. odd to say that it's just hard to say high

taxes are the kiss of death for economic growth. amazing first david stockman now joel slemrod slowly reaganites one by one are realizing their economic philosophy is wrong let's hope this realization reaches the house republicans so. the bad surprise surprise sarah pail the gubernatorial. witters bus tour is tailor made for this list so what you say this time well while it ellis island visiting the statue of liberty that most iconic symbol of america's embrace of immigration pale in thought it was best to criticize immigration reform specifically the dream act take a look. at. that. actually the dream act makes people wait ten years to become a u.s. citizen with loads of background checks as

a requirements along the way you think with all that time on the bus he'd actually have time to read some of this stuff and the very very ugly republican jeff landry a congressman from louisiana was invited to the white house yesterday along with other republicans to negotiate the budget but landry declined the invite saying i don't intend to spend my morning being what should what a president who's failed policies that put our children and grandchildren a huge burden of debt. all right so just how do you intend to spend your morning other than bashing the president getting lectured by big oil c.e.o.'s who for big you from compromising that's very very ugly. this was senator rand paul last week speaking out against the constitutional abuses of the patriot act on the floor of the united states. we do have

a right to privacy and you have a right not to have the government reading your piece of bill every month we do have rights and we should protect these and we shouldn't be so fearful that we say well i'm a good person i don't care just look at my records if you do you're setting yourself up for a day when there will be a tyranny when there will be a despot who comes into power in the united states and uses those rules that you said all on having to hide when and this was rand paul a few days later on the sean hannity radio program i'm not for profiling people on the color of their skin or on their religion but i would take into account where they've been traveling and perhaps you might have to indirectly take into account whether or not they've been going to radical political speeches by religious leaders that it wouldn't be that they are islamic but if someone is attending speeches from someone who is promoting the violent overthrow of our government

that's really an offense that we should be going after they should be deported or put in prison so he's against the government spying on american citizens but if muslims are attending speeches that ran doesn't light then they should be deported or thrown in jail again just for listening to one speech or being in the wrong place at the wrong time and listening to the wrong person speak and here in the slammer pursuing that sort of policies like putting the patriot act on steroids if that's just what rand paul wants security against muslims no matter what the cost to our american ideals. if you're blowing up our constitution to keep us safe still blowing up the constitution and for nearly a decade in the name of security our nation has changed dramatically ten years ago we were not a nation that threw the full force of our military in foreign countries without a cause ten years ago we weren't a nation that reserved to resorted to war crimes to gather intelligence ten years

ago we weren't and nation that are radiating gropes people before they boarded an airplane ten years ago we weren't a nation that spied on its citizens and library records and wiretap phones without a warrant ten years ago we weren't a nation that put someone on a terror watch list just because they snapped a photo of famous landmark and ten years ago we weren't a nation that even thought about locking people up or kicking them out of a country just for attending a speech but today we're all of those things and we've gotten here step by step with each new law our actions seemingly insignificant but when combined with all the others produce a radical transformation of our. to say you know they say that whoever brings up hitler first loses the order so maybe this is no last argument for germany in the one nine hundred thirty s. gives us a fascinating insight into how radically and rapidly

a culture can change with very little outcry from its citizens right after the end of world war two chicago based journalist built mayor was struggling with the questions of why good average germans like the local baker butcher and clothing maker sat quietly as their nation was completely transformed into one that became totally and utterly wallace how could this happen to find out he spent a year in germany getting to know very very well an average germans from a baker to a university professor and he found the answer to his question their stories as mayor wrote in his book they thought they were free the title of his book. this is actually a quote from one of the one of these people a professor what happened here was the gradual habituation of the people little by little to being governed by surprise to receiving decisions deliberated in secret to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to add three information which the people could not understand or so dangerous that even if the people could understand it it could not be released because of national

security just like here in america we've all gradually got used to this new security state it's now all around us mayor goes on to share the words of a college professor about how surely everyone would have noticed this great transformation if it had happened all at once when carried out step by step no one really realizes what's going on. he said if the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first of the smiles thousands yes millions would have been a sufficiently shocked but of course this isn't the way it happens and between come all the hundreds of little steps some of them imperceptible each of them preparing you to not be shocked by the next step see is not so much worse than step b. and if you did not make a stand at step b. why should you at step see and so on to step deep into the patriot act seemed appropriate to those of us who are still shocked one month after nine eleven some

of us and with the patriot act in place and war in afghanistan seemed reasonable and with the war in afghanistan then war in iraq is no big deal and with war raging as muslims that it seems reasonable a greater caution needs to be taken over against muslims than one member of congress uses to investigate american muslim communities in america or at the witchhunt you peter king and we're imprisoning muslims about trial torturing them often to death all of the knowledge and complicity of the white house and congress and then a u.s. senator calls for jailing people who attend speeches he doesn't like and sooner or later something happens and we realize what's going on. as mayer's german professor said quote and one day too late your principles if you were ever sensible of them all rush in upon you the burden of self deception has grown too heavy and some minor incident in my case my little boy hardly more than a baby same jews who are in collapses and all at once and you see that everything

everything has changed and completely changed under your nose the world you live in your nation your people it is not the world you were entered on the forms are all there all untouched all reassuring the houses the shops the jobs the mealtimes the visits the concerts the cinema the holidays but the spirit which you have never noticed before because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms of the spirit is changed now you live in a world of hate and fear and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves when everyone is transformed you don't want to strains now you live in a system which rules without responsibility even to god how much longer until we americans reach that moment that moment when we all realize that the nation we thought we knew the nation of we fight and die for the nation that we raise our families it is no longer the america we once knew our nation is on a march toward catastrophe and it will not move off this path on its own we must

take back control and restore the america that our founding fathers envisioned and for a book is written fifty years from now asking why average americans like us did nothing as our nation went crazy it's time for all of us to wake up. that's the big picture for tonight for more information on the stories we covered visit our websites tell marvin dot com of r g dot com also check out our youtube pages at youtube dot com slash the big picture our take on you tube dot com slash tom and this entire show is available as a free video podcast on i tunes and don't forget to mark receive begins with you when you show up. your it will see them.