as in schools in so is this just a case of republicans believing that privatization is always better. not exactly turns out that governor christie used to be a lobbyist for edison schools corporation and he routinely lobbied the state on behalf of private schools and now as governor that same. mr christie is giving the ultimate kickback to his former employers he's handing them the state's entire public education system at over eight hundred million bucks so doesn't this just reek of corruption and what effect will his education privatization agenda have any jersey for more on this i'm joined by conservative commentator david david welcome back thank you for having me on tom it is a pleasure or thank you david as as you probably know thomas jefferson didn't even want on his tombstone the fact that he was president united states he felt his most important complement was creating the university of virginia which would be free

for anybody who could attend a rino who had the intellectual capacity to attend. why do you hate thomas jefferson. well first and foremost i don't hate thomas jefferson but you hit the nail on the head when you said anyone with the ability to attend intellectual ability and therein is the problem see these corporately private schools as they were provide a very good alternative to the public schools where you have individuals who may be mainstream and you have individuals who can't even speak english. very fundamental learning disabilities and they are pulling the class down now a parent should have the choice to be able to send their children to this excellence alternative and as everywhere and in america has a choice right now. assuming a lot of celebrities but. right that's exactly why the voucher program is so good

it evens the playing field so not just for the elite and it is a viable alternative particularly for parents who out their children to learn basic math solving skills you know i get it and of the haven deal of those then you realize what you're calling for here what you're suggesting is that we should be funding a system that will that will basically ghettoized the public schools that will take the kids who don't have learning disabilities who don't have english as a second language and put those of the for profit corporate schools because that you know they're not going to take those kids that are not profitable those kids that they have to really work hard to teach and so they'll be able to claim wonderful outcomes and the kids who are the more problematic and the more expensive are going to get dumped into the public schools and therefore this public school you know it's a self-fulfilling prophecy of public schools failing hold on the on the real view of the well but that's what you just said tom in two thousand and six i represented

a school a corporately owned school in suffolk county long island for developmentally disabled and emotionally challenged joe was a for profit or not quite literally it was for profit and i want to tell you something this school quite literally performed miracles these children matriculated some of them graduated and became civil servants some one on to college i know of one what was the average annual the ocean as a school. you know i want to tell you that i'm very glad you brought that up because at the time in suffolk county the average income the median income for families was seventy seven thousand eight hundred some odd dollars however the average income of the parents who sent their children was fifty five for fifty three years some odd percent in other words a common sense is killed are just just per year hear me out they earned on average thirty one percent less than the people who sent their children to public school

they sacrificed for the betterment of their children and if they were if they would have been on the line their children they may have been the dependence on the state or any number of things and they paid how much the fact of them the fact of the matter is i was as i don't know what the two asian costs ok what i can tell you right now right now as a board member of a not for profit private school i can tell you that schools for learning disabled kids typically it's a wish an runs anywhere from ten or fifteen thousand dollars a year up to ninety thousand dollars a year and in a for profit it will see a typically of probably forty or fifty thousand dollars a year for kids who have severe learning disabilities but that's it and what dad does it become productive members it's worth it rather than them being on the dole to that that's not what's going to happen with this program chris christie is proposing i disagree sir it was a program when he was lobbying for it and it's a better program now that he is actually trying to bring this good idea to

completion how could it how could it be that taking a school and saying ok we're going to we're going to add to this school a highly paid c.e.o. a bunch of stockholders who have to have profits paid to them and administrators who are looking out to make sure that the profit is there adding that what does that have to do with education profits don't make better because your comments real you might say the same up all of a system that we presently have particularly in new jersey where it. it's been hijacked by code linkers finance historical revisionists about one third of these young men and women who are graduating are absolutely unemployed perhaps even untrainable what's the purpose of that tom why don't we hold their feet to the fire we make an investment in these young men and women and then they become good and productive citizens your ear and there are agents of the system the problem with our schools in america but you know if you're if your argument was right then why

were our schools not failing in the one nine hundred fifty sixty seventy s. and eighty's the simple answer to that question world today john the simple answer that question is that it's a different world today and what's different about it is that we have massive inequality between wealth and between rich people and working class people in as states now and we didn't that c.e.o.'s made thirty times over now they're making the kinds what seeking the public has nothing to do with that it's inequality it has everything to do with every country around the world go to a quality trust. u.k. you can see the graphs they they went state by state and united states and states with the greatest inequality have the highest rates of teenage pregnancy their highest rates of drug abuse the highest rates of people not trust each other and the worst performance in schools and this and the states with the lowest inequality rates were where they are more equal you have better performing schools we have a poverty problem in america we have an inequality program problem in america and our school failures are a symptom of it and through and privatizing our schools so that chris christie

chris christie's buddies can make money off these kids is no no no tom it is a guy not going to do is celebrate alternative and the issues that you're saying you only exasperate them by lowering the bar rather than raising it i am not suggesting we should lower the bar trick to late not denigrate ok and unfortunately we have gone to the lowest common denominator rather than striving to get ahead it's a great alternative to parents who truly want the best for their children and we. should help them along now it's a great opportunity for chris christie's abilities to make some money don't you don't you find it bizarre that this guy used to lobby for edison inc and today understanding the eight hundred million dollars two years after he was lobbied isn't well spasms out of crime is next. no sir it is not it is called belief in one's convictions and he believes passionately us and so do i and i have to tell you something both my sister alice and her husband sam are school teachers and are

very active in the union but that's in new hampshire and it's a different ballgame hampshire is one of the most to see through all states in the united states check out the check out equality trust that org you can see the stats you know or read the book the spirit level because he has your daughter the most states know it's it's because it doesn't have massive poverty it doesn't have a bunch of billionaires because david does not have the problems that we have here david i.e. our social programs and our illegal alien problem. has more than a share of illegal aliens where david we're out of time but thank you for being thank you for having me on as always it's a pleasure and thank you your viewing audience you're welcome chris christie should be proud of himself in my opinion he works two years as a lobbyist on behalf of private schools and you comes government hands over new jersey's public schools from his former employer to be privatized i guess he is officially the best governor money can buy.

one thing that was conspicuously absent from the republican debate last night beside the word middle class was the issue of climate change perhaps that's because all the crank candidates are firm climate change deniers except for one mitt romney last week mitt romney caught a lot of flak when he said this. or that. and immediately right wingers led by rush limbaugh went on the attack against romney signaling that there is no room in the republican party for anyone who believes in manmade climate change and you can bet that is the debate continues romney will continue to be hammered on his belief in climate change and

why is that and how did it come to be that republicans are so hell bent on trashing climate science and denying global warming here to offer his take is conor friedersdorf the associate editor at the atlantic and founding editor of the best of journalism conor walk of thanks so much for having me thanks for joining us every freshman republican literally every newly elected republican in the house of representatives in the last election one hundred percent of them denies man made climate change exists how did climate change become a party line issue. i think that it's a reflection of the larger sentiment among in a tea party years among some conservative republicans that the establishment is antagonistic to them that you know they would regard the establishment university professors and coastal leap send people in media and there's an idea that all of

this is just ideologically driven and that you can't trust any of it and this is just another example another outgrowth of bet it comes from the same place as people who say that you can't trust anything that appears in the new york times. it isn't really a scientific judgment so much as a cultural reaction to this idea that there's a whole swath of the elite that is entebbe mystics work that well. perhaps there is a possible there's a second level here politicians rely on campaign contributions which typically come with strings attached like denying climate change you know. and that seems like one of the things that is driving the politicians but i don't understand why that would for example drive conservative talk radio to the forefront of climate change denial you know what's what's the overall agenda here why would the right wingers and talker is is the reason that you just laid out the reason why the right wingers and talk radio are doing it but the politicians are doing it has it taken so much money from big oil for example and big coal let you know i mean i don't i

don't want to speak to like politicians are doing and i haven't looked through all of their campaign contributions certainly some of them might be motivated by campaign donations that's why these companies make donations to influence people but i think among some politicians they're following the voters more than leading them and i think that you know talk radio hosts rush limbaugh is one that i mentioned in an article that i recently wrote on this subject but they've got two things going for them here it's a good issue for them one because they're able to lash out at the establishment. scientific establishment and you know in london and taken a stick to. scientists to people in universities it's just a cultural divide that you can't get around the other issues that they're antagonistic to some of the policy solutions that. global warming and that people who believe in global warming and climate change going to put into place cap and

trade a carbon tax these are things that conservative republicans don't want to happen rather than make what i would regard to be a more responsible argument that even if climate change is happening these things aren't necessarily the right way to go unfortunately folks like rush limbaugh are just denying the phenomenon entirely and telling their audiences that it's actually a conspiracy to rob them of their freedom or can were in that given that and given that environment in which the base of the republican party lives you know the air they breathe can mitt romney win the nomination or the presidency as a believer in man made climate change it seems to me that he can't it's not to say that the issue won't hurt him on that but we saw in two thousand and eight when john mccain won the republican nomination despite the talk radio rates extreme antagonism toward him you know rush limbaugh doesn't actually speak for the average republican primary voter but if you did john mccain never would have won the

nomination perhaps someone more conservative than george w. bush would have arisen back in two thousand and bob dole probably wouldn't have gotten the nomination in one thousand nine hundred six either. the results of elections prove to us that despite the fact that a guy like rush limbaugh is the most popular talk radio host on the right and maybe the most popular media figure he still can't determine the outcome of the primary elections but according to polls fewer and fewer americans care about climate change is that how republicans are getting away with these basically big oil and. they call talking points about climate change and is that a consequence of all the money of the things these front groups these think tanks that have been funded by oil billionaires and coal companies have been just pouring all of those doubt into the media. well you know i think. the economy is the biggest thing that is influencing people's beliefs here i think that. again

all of the solutions we hear about to climate change are things like cap and trade or a carbon tax that people think oh my god gas prices are high enough already acting hardly afford to fill up my tank in order to get to work or to take the kids on our summer vacation and so people are naturally and take mystic to the idea that we need to use even less energy and you know people mistrust experts and i think that there is. good reason to believe in climate change i don't think that the scientific establishment is lying to us but you know we have to admit that it is something that we have to rely on experts to tell us and it isn't completely irrational for the american people to have some antagonism toward experts i think that it is rational to look at the last few years and to look at all of the status from figures that told us that getting into iraq would be a good idea of establishment figures that told us that we needed to bail out banking institutions you know sometimes you can trust the establishment in other times you can't and it's not so easy for the average person who doesn't have time

to study the issue just going about living their lives to determine one from the other that's an excellent point excellent point connor thanks so much for being with us on the case thanks for having me or shit wildfires tornadoes flooding heat waves you name it extreme weather is becoming all too frequent all around the world but don't expect that to change the minds of many republicans when it comes to climate change what will change their mind though election reform it literally pays off to deny climate change in america today to get the oil barons like the koch brothers out of our apollo. and i guarantee that the ranks of climate change deniers in our government will shrink dramatically. coming up main street america is on life support while wall street is making a full recovery so much so in fact that the banks are are crowded up to their ears in billions so will they share the wealth or stand by and watch the us has so well saying.

let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right. i think rock from a beautiful morning well. we have the government says they're confused safe get ready because their freedom.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so silly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew. i'm sorry is a big issue. it's

the good the bad and the very very incontrovertibly ugly or good the superior court of pennsylvania wal-mart maybe one of the biggest corporations in the world but it couldn't throw its weight around dissuade three pennsylvania judges marc was ordered to pay one hundred eighty seven million dollars for denying their employees meal and rest breaks the court said because of pressure from the home office to reduce labor costs and they bail ability of significant bonuses for managers based on store profitability wal-mart's scheduling program created chronic understaffing leading to widespread were us resprayed violations or is one hundred eighty seven million bucks as pocket change for them trying to work with this case is still a victory for working americans and today's anti worker climate will take any victory with. the bad texas governor rick perry rumors are swirling about perry

jumping into the republican race for president and in a recently under uncovered interview from last month. rick perry explain why our nation in his opinion is facing economic difficulties. from time to time we have to go through some difficult times and and i think we're going through those difficult economic times for a purpose and that to to to bring us back to those biblical principles. you know you don't spend all the money if you you work hard for those those six years and you put up that seventh year in the warehouse to take you through the hard times because at the end of the day. it's slavery and we become slaves to government to write those biblical values unclear how many hail marys are included in governor rick perry's economic recovery plan and the very very ugly herman cain

the pizza shop c.e.o. who wants to be president just can't seem to pop its foot out is mouth when it comes to talking about muslims first cain said he wouldn't let muslims serve in his administration of the law and he told glenn beck that you really want to consider hiring muslims but only if they took a loyalty test well he has that other religions are exempt from then after the republicans debate last night cain was asked whether his stance toward muslims is bigoted since he does not apply the same standard to other religions and this was his response. though it does a lot of people saying it. is a constitutional. right. to take. care. no harm and driving the speed limit is careful and cautious excluding an entire world religion from your cabinet that's bigoted i wonder how this guy handle pizza orders at his last job if you want parker that or are you

a member of al qaeda and that's very very. don't get in a car wreck in jefferson county alabama. or if you do don't expect the county sheriff to send his deputies out to see if you're ok that's because beginning this saturday jefferson county will no longer dispatch sheriff's deputies to traffic accidents because the county can't afford it what else can the county no longer afford about a third of all the public employees one thousand jefferson county public workers will soon be told to go on without pay nobody knows how long because the county can't find the money necessary to cover their salaries this is what a county on the verge of bankruptcy in america looks like a well jefferson county is scrounging for nickels in the couch cushions wall street giant j.p. morgan chase just posted the biggest quarterly profit in the history of that bank

five point six billion dollars for three months add that to the seventeen billion in profits the bank made last year and it's pretty clear that j.p. morgan chase is sitting on amount of cash and a lot of those profits are why those jefferson county sheriff's can't afford to check out traffic accidents here's how the bank's toure's screwed the county. back in two thousand and two jefferson county officials were looking for a way to update their leaky and crafted sewage system estimates for a new sewage system or around two hundred fifty million dollars and a group of county officials with close ties to wall street had a great idea on how to finance it they take out some loans from j.p. morgan chase only instead of taking out safe fixed rate loans kinds counties traditionally did j.p. morgan chase of the county officials went with the dangerous adjustable rate loans sub prime loans for

a coyote those same loans that millions of homeowners were bilked into buying during the housing bubble that eventually crashed our economy. j.p. morgan chase knew these types of loans would increase their profits and the elected county officials figured that by the time the interest rates went up on the sewage system loans they'd be long gone out of office but what this deal did is a turn a two hundred fifty million dollars sewage project into a five billion dollars unpayable debt to wall street of course just like jefferson county j.p. morgan chase found itself in financial trouble two back in two thousand and eight when their subprime mortgage holders like jefferson county couldn't pay off on the exploding mortgages that paid hostle them to buy at the same time the entire stock market went into a nosedive the j.p. morgan chase however was saved by a twenty five billion dollars bailout her to see you and me that the taxpayers of jefferson county they got swat and that's why banks there's a j.p.

morgan chase are making historic profits while jefferson county police can't get paid the twelve million dollars the jefferson county needs to avoid laying off public workers represents just about one week's worth of profits the j.p. morgan chase made at the beginning of this year sixty eight minutes worth of j.p. morgan chase profits could make the county whole this story tells the tale of two economic recoveries in america wall street's recovery and main street's recovery take a look at this chart that shows banks their profits right back where they were before the economic downturn a complete recovery and wall street it's not just wall street it's corporate america in general a full recovery since our economy blew up in two thousand and eight so while the big wigs are back to business as usual what about the rest of us here's a chart showing average working americans share of the nation's income.

this is this is quarterly profits here. in the billions and here's the workers share of the national income this is from this year of labor statistics notice something interesting here that happens in two thousand and seven. right there and of course right after the bush tax cuts back in two thousand and four so all those profits the corporate america in particular wall street is collecting they are trickling down to the rest of us but then again why would they just as reagan said it would happen. frankly breaking a law that there is no trickle down fairy and trickle down economics just produces a nation of peons. why should we have expected the very same banks toure's who had no problem were paid off millions of homeowners refeed off counties ripping off states refute off entire countries why should we have expected those banks toure's to pull money out of their treasure chest out of their pockets and

help us like we helped them. this is what a wall street dominated america looks like a pay a place where a handful of wall street executives take home billions of dollars jefferson county goes bankrupt. as the big picture for tonight for more information on the stories we covered visit our website it's on our common r c dot com but also check out our youtube pages at youtube dot com slash the big picture artsy and you tube. and this entire show is available as a free video podcast on i tunes and don't forget democracy begins when you show up when you get involved get out there get active tag you're it sort of.

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