oh and some are going to washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on a special edition of the big picture even before we started doing a regular your take my take segment i received a lot of feedback from many of you on a number of different big picture stories and ideas that we've covered over the show over the last few months so that i will revisit some of these segments in a special best of edition of the big picture and joy.

you need to know this there's a secret to paul ryan the republicans who are arguing for even more tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires frankly don't want you to know about it's a secret that every republican president since ronald reagan and even to a certain extent bill clinton didn't want us to know and that secret is that supply side economics that we sometimes call trickle down economics or reaganomics doesn't work in fact it only works to do one thing create a massive wealth inequality and it screws over ninety eight percent of us and rains down money on the other two percent who use that extra cash to speculate on wall street and crash our economy supply side economics has never ever worked

anywhere it's never been tried anywhere in the world it's never worked. trickle down economics only produces a nation of p.r. it's yet here republicans are trying to pass a budget. they will embrace an even more radical version of reaganomics further slashing the tax rates for america's oligarchy and leaving the rest of us pick up the tab by dropping our health insurance taking food off our tables and readiness retire and poverty but for the first time in more than thirty years we now have an american president who is actually refusing to embrace reaganomics perhaps the most significant part of president obama's speech last night was when he said this and worst of all this is a vision that says even though americans can't afford to invest in education at current levels or clean energy even though we can't afford to maintain our commitment on medicare and medicaid we can somehow afford more than one trillion

dollars of new tax breaks for the wealthy. think about it. in the last decade the average income of the bottom ninety percent of all working americans actually declined meanwhile the top one percent saw their income rise by an average of more than a quarter of a million dollars each. that's who needs to pay less taxes. they want to give people like me a two hundred thousand dollar tax cut. that's paid for by asking thirty three seniors each to pay six thousand dollars more in health costs. that's not right. and it's not going to happen as long as i'm president. as the

president said the bottom ninety percent of us in the last thirty years have seen our incomes rise by a measly one percent that's it this one percent economist david cay johnston recently did some really great research in writing on supply side economics and taxes and came up with some of these startling results i want to share with you take a look at this chart shows income growth for the bottom ninety percent of americans between one thousand fifty and one thousand eight hundred before reaganomics and after reaganomics nine hundred eighty to two thousand and eight is going to blow your mind and it's exactly what paul ryan and the republicans as well as those millionaires and billionaires like dick armey and the koch brothers that fund the tea party are trying desperately to hide. between nine hundred fifty and one thousand eight. the bottom ninety percent saw their incomes grow over seventy five percent thirteen thousand dollars seventy five percent pay raise between one nine

hundred eighty and two thousand and eight after ronald reagan the bottom ninety percent saw their incomes grow about three hundred dollars as president obama said a one percent pay increase this is the bottom ninety percent of us before reagan we made seventy five percent over thirty years increase after reagan almost thirty years one percent. i know you think america's wealth has grown dramatically since the one nine hundred eighty s. so if that growth isn't being reflected in the wages the bottom ninety percent. were as it were all the money oh. well it went to the richest of the richest americans it went to reagan's campaign contributors america's all of ours let's take a look at how the top one one hundredth of one percent point zero zero one percent did thanks to reagan. from nine hundred fifty to nine hundred eighty. this

top one one hundredth of one percent had average income or an increase in income of two point four million dollars. about eighty percent pay raise that was about the same as the bottom ninety percent seventy five percent. after reagan. one thousand ad from one thousand nine hundred to basically today their incomes went up. by nearly twenty two million dollars that's a four hundred and three percent pay raise for people who are already the wealthiest americans so thanks to reagan the bottom ninety percent of us got a one percent pay raise all the top one one hundredth of one percent already read of already rich people got a four hundred and three percent pay raise. this is already happened. this is what the republicans don't want you to know. but there's more you know republicans are always saying that the wealthy pay the most taxes and that almost

fifty percent of the country doesn't pay any charges at all because it over going to. so why. a large group of poor people indeed don't pay any federal income taxes they still pay tons of other taxes in fact of the include payroll taxes gas taxes sales taxes property taxes they pay more taxes than the rich as a percentage of their income take a look at this chart. showing the taxes of the average working and single american . compared to the four hundred richest people in america with an average income of twenty six thousand dollars the average income the average worker pays just over six thousand dollars in taxes that's twenty three percent c. average person the average is twenty six thousand now that at this level would probably not pay any federal income tax but they are paid six thousand dollars in taxes twenty three percent of their income on the other hand the tough for him. hundred richest people in america are the campaign contributors to the republicans

they make it average three hundred fifty million dollars a year. they pay a tax rate of a little less than seventeen percent. so the poorest working americans get a tax rate of twenty three percent while the richest americans who often don't even work at all you know the wall there is more just sit on their butts around the swimming pool or collect the dividend checks that pay less than seventeen percent of working americans pay more than a third more in taxes than the oligarchy who paul ryan and the republicans want to give another tax break to and as far as corporate taxes go it was corporate tax rates republicans their way. from state america consider this a to go g. made fourteen billion dollars in profits last year they paid zero taxes no taxes at all and in fact got a tax rebate of over three billion dollars paid for by you and me. let's look at

the corporate tax picture since just since george w. bush came into office and put reaganomics on steroids in two thousand corporations made more than one point six trillion dollars in profits and paid on average fifteen percent in taxes. that's well below the thirty five percent rate that republicans often touted as being too high nobody actually pays that sits back tax collections in the united states of the thirty four o.e.c.d. countries are second to the bottom and in two thousand and eight these corporations meet even more money and paid you guessed it. less than taxes. they made more than one point eight trillion and paid around twelve point five percent. that's what an army of lobbyists paid to buy off lawmakers and blow holes in the corporate tax code for. as pulitzer prize winning writer and economist david cay johnston points out. it's the secret that republicans don't want you know.

this is pretty simple stuff we now know that supply side economics doesn't work. that in fact the phrase supply side was invented by a guy named jude wooden ski who is not an economist he was a republican strategist. but the whole thing i did the whole thing was a hoax george herbert walker bush called it voodoo economics. at least in the primaries he was running against ronald reagan. he at least had the good sense after he was elected president after eight years a record reagan taking us from less than a trillion dollars in deficit over three trillion dollars deficit. you know saying oh well you know we got to make the economy look good you have give me three trillion dollars i'll show you what it looks like to live large any i george herbert walker bush at least had a decent sense to raised taxes a little bit. but really now is the time to run the state through the heart of this

vampire of supply side economics reaganomics trickle down economics whatever you want to call it it doesn't work unless you're the top one percent. now thank goodness president obama started this discussion yesterday. it's up to you and me to continue it. bottom line we need to roll back the reagan tax cuts that's it. crazy or meet the friendly frack or soros talisman energy a company that specializes in fracking blowing toxic chemicals underground to extract natural gas launched a new campaign to make what they do more appealing to children it's a coloring book for kids starring tells when jared a friendly franken soros and his adventures around a pristine environment with. island sun and appy animals and trees that the pictures depict and the only different thing between that fracking does the

environment is produce a vibrant rainbow yes fracking causes rainbows according to alvin energy he didn't know that but i'll overall i guess the friendly fracking source is a better p.r. strategy than shouting your company contaminates water supplies all over the country it's unclear if other industries plan to jump on board with similar campaigns i don't see the nuclear industry as radioactive racoon being a big hit or b.p.'s oily otter. let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime.

i think. the one. we never got that says they're pretty safe get ready because the freedom. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems like you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry there's a big. fat

. while what's going to wash it may seem like we're out of the mill dysfunctional politics that we've all gotten used to the reality is we could be watching something much much bigger actually unfolding something bigger than speaker boehner something bigger than harry reid something even bigger than president obama was still a fiasco me actually be the start of a crisis in america unlike anything his nation has ever seen since the great

depression or even the civil war for more on what i'm talking about i'm joined by neal president and co-founder of life course of course associates and senior associate at the center for strategic and international studies he's also the author of eight books you know what i want to talk about tonight before the tourney we'll welcome back thank you for having me great to have you with us. somebody called into my radio show a couple days ago and i don't know if you noticed the sales of the fourth turning on amazon it was like nine hundred today so that this is a good week. somebody called into the radio show and said i've got to read to you know because i talk about your book all. i moderated and said i got a retainer from the fourth turning and he reads this quote and this is this is something that you wrote in one thousand nine hundred ninety six it was copyrighted in ninety seven so you guys were reading this in the mid ninety's. one of the four scenarios you could bring about the fourth turning crisis he said quote an impasse over the federal budget again written more than

a decade ago an impasse over the federal budget reaches a stalemate the president and congress both refused to back down triggering a near total government shutdown but president declares emergency powers congresspersons his authority dollar and bond prices plummet the president threatens to stop social security checks congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling default looms wall street antics. why. almost fifteen years ago we were more than fifty years ago were you writing those words. you know we forget that the issues we're arguing about have been with us for twenty five thirty years and they've been with us for a long time my first book actually that i was coauthored with p. peterson is called on borrowed time it came out in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight and it had you know those tables all the way out to the year twenty fifty with medicare and medicaid so scared all these programs as a share of g.d.p. and we were we've seen this for a long time and i think the frustration you see on all sides is the fact that this

isn't a new discovery this is like this is a glacier that we've seen coming. and it's suddenly arriving and suddenly we think well given this this this great recession we're experiencing and given this this problem with the thought of it all over the world suddenly all of the forces are congealing to make big choices suddenly unavoidable but it's an old issue and we forget that so many of the crises in our history the problems are there for decades before the event that everyone just thinks well yeah we know i have. it's basic problem but somehow we've always gotten through it you think of the eight hundred fifty s. were americans thinking we were is on my mind yeah it's a great depression no one is thinking about no one thinks about this until suddenly they think oh my god it's inevitable lincoln's first inaugural address right third or fourth paragraph i have no intention of recently slavery in any of the states in

which is legal it is i am not going to go there at all slavery is just fine with me thank you very much you know what will people do right up to the eve of that event they avoided talking about they still try to get along socially everyone tried to be genteel they knew they have this huge underlying issue and today you look at congress you look at the american people you see two hugely divergent visions for what americans are going to be and in the hands of boomers you know we talk about the generational triggers of this era there is no older generation now in power all of the older leaders the people who were children during the great depression or world war two when they're veterans of that war they're all around so all of the compromisers that people are willing to defer to discuss to split the difference they're all gone all you have left are these cultural lawyers you know these people who have always been values first joined by increasing way gen xers born in the sixty's and let me tell you something the house is by far the youngest of the two

bodies and they the tea partiers and all the freshmen who came in in two thousand and ten are you know. over half of them were born after nine hundred sixty seventy percent of them are republican in other words this course cohort is overwhelmingly republican they were born in the early one nine hundred sixty s. they came to a very good during here iran hostage crisis in reagan and even in the electorate as a whole you find people today in their very late forty's early fifty's to be much more republican. the people on either side and so this is the group now in there and they're thinking you know they've never had much association with politics they never bought into the system they have highly and we we've been measuring their attitudes their idea of government and i hope i stay off the radar screen i mean this is the free agent generations they've never really bought into these institutions so you've got these these diehard values crusaders among the boomers

and then you've got these acts or pragmatist who will swing in any direction quickly and we have the generational lineup that we've seen historically well you know we don't want to get to that we only have just a minute left so so very quickly the fourth turning this this every eighty years kind of cycle that you know it baby years ago the great depression eight years before that the great depression of the civil war eighty years before that the great depression of the seventy's sixty's that led to to the american revolution are we heard of another fourth turning of another major crash that could lead to a world war and a worldwide depression. well i you know i hope it won't be bad i hope it will be destructive will be will be. will be avoided to the extent possible in the construct which always comes out of the fourth turning of the normally constructive era will be maximized but clearly the line up is there are elderly are shared by those born after the last crisis right just so i don't know why they don't remember

it they didn't even know about it this would be a story and i don't know it's going to be called the great trigger of the long cycle of wars that the foreign side history those who start the next two or are just too young to remember the last one or the crisis for that matter so this is the lineup we have we are actually date before the turning starting in two thousand and eight we think we will look back and say that really is the trigger for the housing crash in two thousand and six that nobody was paying attention to except well yeah it's kind of when it became you know where you can all look into this and i think you're right neal thanks so much for being with us you're welcome and for writings. really it really goes for three you should definitely check out his book before turning perhaps on the most important cultural bias thirty years and explains a lot or seen it for its face. your take my take is your chance to send in your questions comments ranson observations

about anything we talk about here on the big picture or drink during my radio show and it's my chance to give you my take on it one more time our first comments and i have is from the viewer rant why so secret that i'm a huge supporter labor unions here in the united states i think we played a key role in protecting the rights of workers and advancing many important social issues in their one hundred fifty year history in this country but a war doesn't seem to agree with my support for keeping unions strong. the republicans are for the corporations we all know that but if you're going to sit here and claim that the democrats are not for the unions then you're nuts you are stark raving outs and for you to say they are democratically elected organization is like saying that a board of directors is a democratically elected organization they are not they are out for their own good they care way more about themselves and their frickin tensions come to california so you can make six hundred thousand dollars as a union representative on your pension and six hundred thousand dollars part of

which is being paid for by my tax dollars cuny avoided by either just as group corrupt or just as stupid or just as big a liar as. a ward first of all unions are what built this country unions are democracy in the workplace and the workplaces are essentially kingdoms the forty hour work week was built by unions unions build america they brought as workplace safety rules in germany in effect in germany were the unions are the law requires that the corporate boards. the people who sell the board of directors of large corporations of has more than a thousand employees fifty percent of the represent fifty percent of the people on the board have to come from the unions and by the way germany has a great industrial economy that's working really well we need to mark racine the workplace workers need to have a voice and that's a you another viewer tweeted that according to your twisted line of thinking we

would have utopia if the minimum wage was one hundred dollars or more an hour well kurt i don't know if we need to take it that far but let me just lay this out this was first laid out actually by teddy roosevelt the republican president back in nineteen twelve this is a this is a tape that was recorded on a wax disk by thomas edison himself this is teddy roosevelt. for. a program where you can fairly. early on. i remarked every. primary tradition recreation of what the rich are. probably very very rich. in other words just in summary what teddy roosevelt proposed in one thousand nine hundred twelve was that a minimum wage

a living wage should be enough to live on enough to raise your kids enough to put them through school and i think have a vacation and enough to have retirement we used to call that the united states of middle class and the debate on the viability of social security is another issue that has many of you talking all over the past few weeks i've said several times that despite what republicans want you to think social security is not bankrupt it's not either bankrupting us as a nation nor is it itself bankrupt but some of you are still not convinced but here you have senator sanders who say that so she. serious flushing is like two point four trillion dollars of tax. cuts funded. then if that's the case why isn't there going to be checks to the people who get so security checks that forward your file cabinet full of ious. that's not funded put forward or as a paper there's no cash there if there were sick cash and checks for it go out or

present demagoguing you know using movie so security checks and a way to demagogue the republicans in the pros but the coverage. perhaps some of this confusion stems from progressive members of congress even president obama not being able to communicate their agenda the social security just fine it's not going bankrupt it has nothing to do with our debt problem in fact and wrote a note on our message board this debate over social security is a bit confusing progressive speak of the fact that social security is solvent for decades running a surplus and has nothing to do with the deficit why is it on the table i understand the surplus or deficit does not affect the budget deficit or the national debt there must be some reason this is on the table and we borrow against the social security trust fund and by making cuts that will somehow improve the debt situation dems and cons of talking points on social security must be something more of this i'm not getting from resit talk well let me try to set the record straight here on social security social security is in fact solvent it will be for

at least another twenty five years it's got two point seven trillion dollars in its savings account that savings account was invested instead of buying for example stock in the stock market what the trouble with it which would be pretty irrational particularly given the last crash we had you don't want to gambling with your social security money and instead of just putting it in a checking account citibank which be crazy what they did was they bought treasury bills with treasury bills the debt of the u.s. government now the reason why president obama said that if the nation goes bankrupt if we you know if we hit the debt wall if the republicans. don't raise the debt ceiling the scary checks may not go out is that in order to get the money to pay those checks the social security department has to take those treasury bills and to the treasury department redeem them say here give me the cash and this and that and the treasury department has no cash so it wouldn't be able to pay the so security fund it so those security fund couldn't be passing out the money the real reason

that social security is on the table and this is the really important issue the real reason why social security is on the table is because of lobbying from wall street bankers two point seven trillion dollars two billion seven hundred. it's like two point seven i came to do the math it's a million times and millions you know it's really you know is a trillion dollars a billion a billion is a thousand million two point seven trillion dollars the wall street bankers are looking at that money going oh we have this money and we could be churning this money and we can just skim a little off the top and so they're trying to do a pinochet did in chile like forty years ago or thereabouts and privatized social security and the banks were make out like bandits and so they're leaning on the republicans and they're living on the democrats and there are some democrats who have even you know gone in that direction i think it's absolutely wrong of course the republicans are all gung ho for this because they're totally owned by wall street if you like your comments and questions heard on this segment the big

picture listen up we want to know your take send us your comments by visiting the tom hartman facebook page but a twitter at tom underscore hartman or in the chat room on the message boards or through the blog at thom hartmann dot com you can also leave a message on our rant line at two two five three six fifty three zero six agree disagree sound off it's all welcome but remember that your comments may be used on the air. let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right here live i think he'd want to live.