so that's all they're using the phrase of why not on the down side talk about job killing bank of america they they just announced thirty five hundred layoffs why are we talking about job killing bank of america why isn't the mean it's you know let's stop the semantics companies not rich people by and large are employing people they hire employees because those employees make them money they don't create jobs they hire people to do work and they do it because there's demand for their goods and services not because they got tax breaks let's just start being upfront and honest about this and stop the front line franklin's focus group job creator nonsense and get back to plain english. coming up as our nation's capital prepares to honor the late dr martin luther king jr memorial this weekend one has to question as dr king's dream for black or quality in america has been achieved.

drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions it's time to break through get through it and made who can you trust no one who is you and you with the global machinery to see where we had a state controlled capitalism is called sackfuls when nobody dares to ask we do our t. question more. fit. for.

welcome back to the big picture i'm tom hartman coming up in this half hour as we draw closer to the memorial dedication for one of the nation's greatest civil rights leaders as a growing racial inequality in america i'll speak with one of dr king's former speechwriters on the state of his dream and later internet it's really take i'll tell you how means testing that phrase is the new secret weapon for republicans hell bent on destroying social security and medicare. yesterday the martin luther king memorial opened up here in washington d.c.

it was the culmination of a twenty five year effort to have dr king and his influence immortalized in the nation's capital the memorial features a thirty foot high granite statue of dr king that will be known as the stone of hope president obama will be on hand sunday at the memorial for an official dedication ceremony today that marks the forty eighth anniversary of dr james historic i have a dream speech take a look. i have a dream. that run being. this major on the road ride thought. and live out of town meeting up in korea. we're all grieved through good news well ok but then i don't know man are created. however the dedication comes during a troubling time for african-americans in america who are questioning whether or not dr king's dream has been realized and we have century after his death according

to a new washington post poll only thirty six percent of african-americans believe dr king's dream has been realized down from sixty five percent when president obama was inaugurated and african-americans have been hardest hit by this economic recession between two thousand and five and two thousand and nine african-americans have seen a fifty three percent decline in their total wealth whereas white americans saw a modest sixteen percent decline even more staggering today the typical white house hold as one hundred thirteen thousand dollars in total wealth and several african-american household on the other hand just over five thousand dollars a shocking wealth imbalance along racial lines in america so as we honor dr martin luther king jr this weekend right would he say about the current economic system set situation for african-americans in america and what do we need to do to make sure that that dream is fully realized joining me now is professor clarence jones attorney as well as a former speech writer and personal advisor to dr martin luther king and author of

behind the during the making of a speech that transformed a nation professor jones will be on hand of this weekend's dedication professor jones welcome back to appropriately thank you very good to see you very very nice to see you thank you for joining us again in in our conversation you were one of our conversations with great minds your over the website conversations of great minds are grown and it was fascinating conversation you talked about helping reverend dr martin luther game put together if that spoilage though you look at some of this career and i'm wondering. your thoughts on the state of the dream that he expressed in that speech where. you know that's. the dream the dr king was the prophetic. hope. and his belief that america could be the best that it could be. his dream

essentially was that. america would be able to see the glaring contradictions. between the way in which he treated some twelve percent of the population grows african-americans and the precepts and principles enshrined in the declaration of independence. and and and the validity of his dream. still has merit it has merit because. he has such a belief in the put and the actual and potential goodness of the spirit and essence of the american people. given it given that if you give them the opportunity to clearly see what the issues of if you give them the opportunity to see more reality versus immorality if you do if you think that

picture to them clearly that he believes that there was something so decent so basic in the american. sakal. or let's be very specific occurred in the majority of writing his genius and the power of his dream was that no matter how compelling and just and. he made the case for ending racial segregation and and and you know racial discrimination there was no way that twelve percent a minority of a population was going to impose that on the majority population simply wasn't going to happen ok and spite of what some of the black nationalists might say you know you can go arm and try to take on a white man and it simply was not going to happen ok his genius was to the verge of a program of nonviolent civil civil disobedience in which he would get

america to see as i said earlier this contradiction between reality how to treat people in its precepts well and then so that we would be able to make progress not get this when that eighty eight percent of the population began to see that it was in its self pictures right there so so now let's talk about the jobs i think that i think there is no question i think there's no question that you don't need me your you are doing a very eloquent but the statistics are devastating and i know and have put for a long time and have been for a long time becoming worse or just got misread been worse in standard english and i think part of the problem i think part of the problem is that we haven't had enough truth tellers. and we haven't had enough organization of people based on the truth but let's i probably differ from many of my friends i consider myself

to be perhaps a progressive but to see i'm i don't paint a broad brush on the tea party. i don't assume that everybody going to the party people is a bad person but they don't like african-americans and they don't want i think they just don't see their self-interest. i mean think about it they are electing people to congress. who want to cut spending who literally want to dismantle social security. right now i've seen these tea partiers and i understand it and i've seen some television clips i mean i just i don't know i've seen some television clips or the so-called prominent members of the tea party going back to their districts and in effect some of the people saying oh god we didn't know you were going to do this right by the way when i when i was on the plane coming here coming from washington i heard there was an earthquake the very

first thing i thought oh don't let this happen. twenty five years to have a monument but more also martin i said don't let the earth quake distort the. very first thing i'm sure you find i'm sure of this but i'm concerned that the hurricane me may mess up the day there isn't really on the twenty eighth well we'll see ok it's going to be so but. in any case in there we have about two minutes left how how do you think that dr king right now would respond to president obama and to the economic situation and to the members in congress who seem hell bent on destroying the economy simply to destroy the obama presidency. first of all he would be. he would respond with tears of joy over the election of president obama's support for president i think he would. want

to. counsel the young brother i think he would want to sit and have a one on one conversation with him. and to and to say that there is there is a way in which he can address the serious economic issue particularly in its affects the african-american community i think that president obama may be somewhat constrained the fact that he's an african-american he does want to move to doesn't want to be too aggressive as to be perceived as quote an african-american president but i think the fact of the matter is he was elected by all of america and he's a president for all the people but he would dr king would be i think i would imagine some tears would be coming down that statute over the situation of unemployment because it's it's much worse now than it was years ago and years ago when he was one of the most prophetic and one of the most. persons

on the issue of poverty in america it's now the polarization of wealth is just so much greater than it was when he was alive and it's been growing steadily for those thirty years. dr just very very quickly we just have a thirty seconds ok last time we talked you had been flirting with the idea of challenging not you personally but you know should there be a challenge to president obama it seems that there's a general consensus there should be and i had raise i have raised that question of one point and then i wrote a blog on the huffington post and having another coming out on thursday which pays tribute to the opening but. yes there was disappointed with his leadership but i want to make it very plain that while it is appropriate for those of us who care deeply about the president for us to offer constructive criticism ok i you can correct it myself after i wrote that and i went back and second time that's

a hold on i think i was an extreme and so i will survive very very concerned about what might happen particular with the supreme court if. oh gives the officer ok some right thank you so just thank so much for showing up and burn something great to have you here with us forty years ago dr martin luther king jr gave us a vision of the future and while this week we are immortalized in the manning granted we need to continue to fight to make his dream a reality for men and women of all races all around the world. coming up in tonight's daily take how republicans are cleverly turning social security in a soon to be phased welfare program. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions through get through who could made who can you trust no one who is you know in view with global machinery see where we had a state controlled capitalism is called satchels when nobody dares to

ask we do our tea question more of. your take my day is our segment on the show where you have the opportunity to make yourself heard here on the big picture our first coming comes to us from the

message boards over at tom arbonne dot com of your wrote since the usa supreme court was never supposed to make it was a veto any laws that exist and what is the role of the u.s. supreme court supposed to be. well the answer is that it's a that is laid out in the constitution in plain black and white it's the first court where the nation goes for cases involving disputes about treaties and basters controversies between two or more states between a state and citizen of another state between citizens of different states and between foreign states read article three section two of the constitution is literally their second they also an article three section two the supreme court is the final appeals court when everything else has been exhausted if two people have a lawsuit and it goes up through the courts and it has to stop somewhere that somewhere is the supreme court and they and they alone get to make the final decision on who wins and who loses both in civil and criminal cases but they have to do it under the laws passed by congress and signed by the president and they

have to do it the way the congress says they have to do it as the constitution says the supreme court shall have appellate jurisdiction both as the law in fact with such exceptions and under such regulations as congress shall make you might notice that there's not a single word in there about what's known as the doctrine of judicial review the power of the courts to decide what is and isn't constitutional that's not the constitution the greatest threat facing america today is too much power that has been grabbed by the supreme court and institution that was supposed to be the third of three co-equal branches of government but alexander hamilton federalist seventy eight called the weakest of the three branches of power but has turned itself into a monarchy it's time for congress and our president to step up and put the supreme court back on equal footing with the rest of the other two branches of government and he to pass a law endangered issue review or amend the constitution take that power away from

the supreme court every story the vision that our founding fathers had of this country a nation where five unelected guys in black robes couldn't make work kill or laws of the way. our next comment is from the viewer rant line the republican spin machine has been in full swing blasting president obama's new jobs plan and it won't even be released the jobs plan until september sixth it is this year points out republicans love talking about jobs well sort of to be fair to the rich folk into party of treason if you would be not ever heard him talk about jobs is about using jobs how we have too many federal employees that's one of the candidates for president and gaiters all like yeah a lot of people are going to use this job of this bill but hey soupy times are tough that's the only time i've heard republicans talk about jobs is cutting jobs. and today over thirty million americans don't have a job or are stuck with a job that pays so poorly that they're broke too broke to buy things that would

stimulate the economy but the great republican why is that our country is broke that there's not enough money in america to put people back to work. very very depression hoover and the other republicans tried to say the same thing the government couldn't help us out of a depression because our country didn't have the cash when f.d.r. was inaugurated he called them out on saying that plenty we have lots plenty was at our doorstep. but i refuse to be the language is in the very sight of the. really. big the really the be a. man behind. them. i mean found it a bit. of an educated. being a. good. idea to make out of public opinion. about.

f.d.r. then went to point out who was really a blame for the republican great depression. the money. in the company. we. think. we still have those money changers today the bank stores who have robbed the middle class blind and made sure that there have to campaign contribution checks to the republican party are big enough and influential enough to prevent them from ever being held accountable let's hope president obama's new job plan proves to the g.o.p. that this country is not broke and we can put americans back to work by investing in infrastructure and helping the long term unemployed get their jobs back. our next comment came to us via facebook will wrote i think it's past time that ninety

nine percent of this country or everyone who's not in over a million or zillionaire or billion or realize that we are in this together no matter what you call yourself republican democrat and a tea party or we need a new unite or die in movement it really is us vs the our guards who are truly hell bent on turning the us into an iron rand libertarian acid test where we serve our billionaire masters so you know it's really that simple will you are absolutely right it really is that simple for a great start on that go to van jones as website and rebuild the dream got to work that's it for your take my take tonight if you like your comments or questions for this segment of the big picture listen up we want to know your send us your comments by visiting the martin facebook page but twittering at tom underscore apartment or in the champ room on the message boards or the blog tom hartman. you can also leave a message general rant line by three sixty three zero six agree disagree sound off

its all welcome the remember that your comments may be used on the year. republicans are very crafty in the ways they want to get rid of social security and medicare well some like congressman paul ryan are overt in their plans to privatizing title means and social security and medicare as we know it others are a bit sneaky here they're sneaky strategy and really it is incredibly sneaky because it sounds so reasonable is something called means testing as in only paying our benefits to people who need them and withholding social security checks for millionaires. the way i think the more fortunate in our society needs to participate is by taking away some of the benefits they don't need and i would include that not only benefits in social security. and medicare which both

should be means tested as we let the age of so security gradually rise to age seventy by the year twenty thirty two and we means test the benefits people who are at the top end of the socioeconomic spectrum can stand to sacrifice a little bit in terms of the benefits they receive to put back in and starting security every a bipartisan effort to make sure that social security stays adjusting the age looking at making benefits. sure this seems reasonable i mean why should billionaire warren buffett collect an eleven hundred dollars a month social security check why should billionaire charles koch get medicare thus the means and means testing if somebody has the means to pay for their own retirement or health care then they are eligible to get a social security or medicare system it sounds as i said so very reasonable especially with so much stress already on the system because when bush added medicare part d. he forbid the government from negotiating drug prices so medicare is painful retail

for millions of pills at the v.a. the veterans administration for example can buy it wholesale for pennies on the dollar so the average person. looks at this is as you know means testing seems to make sense but in reality needs testing is the poison pill that will kill off social security and medicare as we know it and that's why these guys are pushing it's or why will we kill it off because once you means test these critical programs as in only give benefits to people who have who actually need them don't have the means then you just turn social security and medicare into welfare programs. and there no longer the cover ever put every person in america insurance programs they were set up is and we all know what happens to welfare programs eventually they get cut take for example what happened to lyndon johnson's great society welfare

programs that cut poverty in half in the one nine hundred sixty s. by the bubble driven go go nine hundred ninety s. very few people were thinking that maybe one day they would need welfare maybe one day they would need long term help because the country may have a severe recession or even another great depression so predictably fifteen years ago president bill clinton drank the republican kuwait and pledged to end it welfare as we know it fundamentally changed the way welfare was administered in the united states by placing strict new requirements on impoverished families to collect benefits as a result he did and welfare as we know it and he didn't end poverty and his welfare reform ripped huge chunks of the social safety net away and that social safety net is now it wasn't so badly needed back then but it's now pretty badly needed but no longer exists as this chart shows the ruritania years of the one nine hundred

ninety six when clinton signed welfare reform into law sixty eight percent it was would be ninety six years sixty eight percent of families living on poverty receive some sort of federal assistance to get by to pay their bills to put gas in the car to put food on the table but today in the midst of the worst economy since the great depression and persistent joblessness while we have millions more people facing economic disasters only twenty seven percent of families living in poverty can qualify to receive the assistance that they need and the rest now have to max out credit card after credit card just to hold out of their homes cars and desperate livelihoods. there are no special interest groups no high priced lobbyists no deep pocketed bank stores who care about welfare programs in fact all these guys are trying to hand public assistance programs over to wall street so billionaire campaign donors can skim a little bit more off the top if you watch fox so-called news they devote huge

chunks of programming to railing against the nanny state government handouts and welfare queens and his poor people can't afford to hire lobbyists or made campaign contributions or even buy the things advertised on the quote news frankly nobody gives a rat's ass about welfare is the in and eyes in america right along with poor people us when it comes time to cut welfare is always the first thing to be put on the chopping block just look at what's happened so far this year it's a pitot with a list of things that republicans want to cut welfare programs food stamps child health care energy assistance to low income families help for single mothers you name it if it helps poor people republicans want to cut it and they're not even shy about it many of them brag about it so the moment medicare and social security are means tested and does become a welfare programs then one day

a year or two or three or four afterwards they will go on the chopping block to instead of one hundred percent of seniors getting social security checks they will drop the ninety percent but seventy five percent and fifty percent then twenty percent just like clinton's welfare program reforms and soon no one will get them after all we need to end welfare as we know it right. so the point it very straightforward here is don't buy into this means testing gimmick because it will be the beginning of the end of medicare and social security these are insurance programs always have everyone pays in everyone get something up and we need to keep them that way that's the big picture for tonight for more information on the stories we covered visit our websites of thom hartmann dot com free speech or. also check out our two you tube channels there are links to tom hartman dot com

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