hello i'm starving in 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 i'm 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 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 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 the 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 ever been tried anywhere in the world it's never worked. trickle down economics only produces a nation it's yet here republicans are trying to pass a budget. it 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 letting us retire in poverty and 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 a new tax breaks for the wealthy. think about that. 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. there is 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 that shows income growth for the bottom ninety percent of americans between one thousand nine hundred fifty and one nine hundred eighty before reaganomics and after reaganomics one nine hundred eighty to two thousand and eight was 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 so 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 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 increased after reagan almost thirty years one percent. and 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. where is it or all the money oh. well it went to the richest of the richest americans they went to reagan's campaign contributors america's our gross 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 and increased income of two point four million dollars. about an eighty percent pay raise that was about the same as the bottom ninety percent seventy five percent but 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 m. three percent pay raise for people who are already in 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 really 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 oh my god i want 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 if you include payroll taxes gas taxes sales taxes property taxes they paid 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 and the average income the average worker pays just over six thousand dollars in taxes that's twenty three percent is the average person the average of the twenty six thousand at this level the probably not paying any federal income tax but they are paid six thousand dollars in taxes twenty three percent. on the other hand the top four. hundred richest people in america are all of the campaign contributors to the republicans they make it average around 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 mirrors and whatnot just sit on their butts around the swimming pool collect the dividend checks they pay less than seventy 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. and as far as corporate taxes go it was corporate tax rates republicans their way. to do that is from state america consider this even though g.e. 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 nomics 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 their state's 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 aid 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 in new york. as pulitzer prize winning writer and economist david cay johnston points out. it's the secret that republicans don't want to know.

about this is pretty simple stuff. we now know that supply side economics doesn't work. that it and in fact the phrase supply side was invented by a guy named jude wood in ski who is not an economist he was a republican strategist. the whole thing i thought 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 of wreckage reagan taking us from less than a trillion dollars in deficit to 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 anyhow george herbert walker bush at least had the decent sense to raised x. of the 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 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. crazy or meet the friendly fracking 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 talismans barrett a friendly franken soros and his adventures around a pristine environment with. eileen sun at the animals and trees that the pictures

depict but the only different thing between that fracking does the environment is produce a vibrant rainbow yes fracking causes rainbows according to talisman energy it know that overall i guess the friendly frack resource is a better p.r. strategy than touting how your company contaminates water supplies all over the country it's unclear if other industries plan to jump on board with similar campaigns i could see the nuclear industry as radioactive racoon be a big hit or b.p.'s oil yacht or. let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime.

i think it may be the oil. we have the government says if you say get ready because freedom. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear see some other part of it and realize that everything you saw. i'm sorry is a big. fight

. for. what's going on in washington may seem like run 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 is still a fiasco me actually be the start of a crisis in america unlike anything this 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 neil 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 couple days ago and i don't know if you've noticed the sales of the fourth turning on amazon it was like nine hundred today so that this is a good week had. somebody called into the radio show and said i've got to read to you know because i talk about your book all. and so i got to read to you from the fourth turning and he reads this quote and this is this is something that you wrote in one nine hundred ninety six that was copyrighted in ninety seven so you guys are writing this in the mid ninety's. talking about one of the four scenarios that could bring about the fourth during the crisis he's quote an impasse over the federal budget again written more than

a decade ago and impasse over the federal budget reaches a stalemate the president and congress both refused to back down triggering a near total government shutdown the president declares emergency powers congress for since 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 where you were more than fifteen 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 they've been with us for a long time my first book actually that i published was coauthored with pete peterson it was 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 fifteen with medicare medicaid social care all these programs as a share of g.d.p. and we were we thought we'd 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 free. and it's suddenly arriving and suddenly we think we're given this this great recession we're experiencing and given this is probably the fault all over the world suddenly all of the forces there congealing to make 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 yes in great depression no one was thinking about no one thinks about this intel suddenly they think my god it's inevitable lincoln's first inaugural address right third or fourth paragraph i have no intention of 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 he will people do right up to the eve of that event they have a way to talk him out they still try to get along socially everyone tried to be genteel they knew they had this huge underlying issue and today you look at congress you look at the american people you see two hugely divergent visions for what america is 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 compromise was the people 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 go it's 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 cohort is overwhelmingly republican they were born in the early one nine hundred sixty s. they can make a very good during the 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. people on either side of it so this is the group now in there and they're thinking you know they've never had not just as haitian politics they never bought into the system they have highly and we have been measuring their attitudes their idea of government 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 are pragmatists 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 you know baby years ago the great depression eighty years before the great depression of the civil war eighty years before that the great depression of the seventy's sixty's that was due to the american revolution are we purge of another fourth turning of another major crash that could lead to a world order 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 of which always comes out of a 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 i don't remember it didn't even know about it this would be

a story in our arnold toynbee called the great trigger of the long cycle of wars that he signed history those who start the next two or are just too young to remember the last one right or the crisis for that matter so this is the lineup we have we have actually date the fourth 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 came to what you know what are you came up with us and i think you're right thanks so much for being with us you're welcome and for writings. really it really works for three more it should definitely check out neil's book of oratory perhaps for the most important books written as thirty years and explains a lot or seen unfold for its day. here 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 quite a chance to give you my take on it one more time our first comments and i have is from the viewer rant why it's no secret that i'm a huge supporter labor unions here in the united states i think that 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 award doesn't seem to agree with my support for keeping unions strong. the republicans are to the corporations and we all know that but if you're going to sit here and claim that the democrats are not for the unions in your nuts you are stark raving nuts 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 teacher way more about themselves and their freaking pensions come to california so you can make six hundred thousand dollars as a union representative on your pension six hundred thousand dollars part of which

is being paid for by my tax dollars give me a break by either just as group they're just too stupid or just as they go liars. 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 workweek was built by unions unions build america they brought us workplace safety rules germany in fact in germany were the unions are the law requires that the corporate boards. people sit on the board of directors of large corporations if it has more than a thousand employees fifty percent of the represents 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 democracy in the workplace workers need to have a voice and that's a you another viewer tweeted 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. market. where you can carry. around a. great tradition great recession. the rich. are probably very very rich. in other words just in summary what teddy roosevelt proposed in one thousand twell was that a minimum wage

a living wage should be enough to live on and off to raise your kids enough to put them through school and have to have a vacation and enough to have retirement we used to call that the united states the middle class and the debate on the viability of social security is another issue that has many of you talking 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 county saying that so six. serious flush and there's like two point four five trillion dollars of excess gets funded well then if that's the case isn't there going to be checks out to the people who get so security checks that forward your file cabinet full of ious. that's not for the poor it's for doors of paper there's no cash there if there were to cash the contracts would go out or the person demagoguing you know using the so security

checks and the way to demagogue the republicans in the price of their media coverage. perhaps some of this confusion stems from progressive members of congress even president obama not being able to communicate their agenda and 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 and 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 a talking points on social security and must be something more of this i'm not getting from resit truck let me try to set the record straight here on social security is social security is in fact solvent it will be for at least another

twenty five years it's two point seven trillion dollars in savings account that savings account was invested in stead of buying for example stock in the stock market. 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. i don't raise the debt ceiling the social security 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 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 though 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 so it's like two points out of i came to do the math it's a million times and millions you know it's a trillion dollars a trillion dollars a thousand billion a billion is a thousand million two point seven trillion dollars the wall street bankers are looking at that money going up we had this money and we could be churning this money and we could 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 privatizing social security and the bankers will make out like bandits and so they're leaning on the republicans and they're lady on the democrats and there are some democrats who have even 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 this segment of the picture listen up we want to

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