hey hey. hello i'm john berman in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture are republicans taking victims of hurricane irene hostage just to shut down the government a panel of experts and finance loan liberal ron will weigh in on this issue as well as another very important question he's discussed more in america what is. in one of the best ideas out there on how to keep wall street and check raise much needed revenue something called a financial transaction tax so why is it that when president obama proposed just that during the height of the financial crisis his own advisors shot him down more

on this explosive story coming up later. it's wednesday that i went on alone liberal and go up against two expert political commentators to debate the week's biggest stories so far on the annals and jamie weinstein senior editor at the daily caller and brian darling columnist the human events contributor to red state the governor and director of global studies at the earth which punish you three more titles for i don't know if you more. ok another hostage scenario brewing here the government looks like it may shut down the the continuing resolution failed today in the house of representatives. there was a group of how many cantor ed stuff the billion dollars for. hurricane relief and earthquake relief which were going to include his own district in there in the republicans apparently revolted from that and on them so there was

some democrats who were not happy with this either. and in the meantime there's about seven b. . dollars in the senate they're saying seven billion dollars a disaster really the house was saying three and a half but that's not even the short term so is the government going to shut down you know how unreasonable you know where is this thing going it's just i'm not one for small fish tragedies and this is what in my mind this is small fish strategy seven billion dollars so effectively nothing percent of our national budget for big fish strategies which is our long term fiscal and tighten reform but that's a fight over a trillion of that really that's the fight the fight seven billion for femurs not a huge fight for me i you know i've read some of the press on this mcconnell is dismissing any notion that the government would shut down over this the person who's raising the fears of a government shutdown is harry reid so i'm not sure they go to who wasn't able to get it you know or eric cantor the he's the or he's not the whip who's the whip.

what's his name mccarthy mccarthy it would be foolish to be on it but it would be foolish if they forced a shutdown or a fight over this but brian why did they even call a vote if they didn't have the votes well the democrats are they blocked only four democrats voted in favor of this continuing resolution that would keep the government going so let's be honest it's democrats who are blocking the government forty cars in the show thirty eight republicans are broke with her and ridership after after eric cantor said i'm not going to put a billion dollars in here and then his district gets hit with an earthquake and a hurricane and now he's put in a billion dollars and well there are members that won't vote for politics no member of some members won't vote for continuing funding for obamacare there are very principled reasons to vote against continuing resolutions that continue wasteful spending so some members republicans will vote against it on that basis but the democrats in block blocked it because they want to see

a government shutdown and they want to blame republicans you know i have this theory about the difference between the seven billion dollars and the three billion dollars is that you know three billion dollars in chicken feed. it's going to put a bunch of people to work which is going to lower the unemployment rate which is going to make the economy better which is going to make it hard. that's actually right you would imagine how many people you think three billion dollars are put to work magnify that by seven hundred trillion seven hundred trillion dollars we didn't put under a seven hundred billion dollars which is very many people who are three million well it saved or created. it certainly didn't lower the unemployment rate to where the ministration expected. jobs i mean hey that's something i think the three billion is not going to get obama elected or elected or not. and it's not made up number i mean it's just based on the c.d.o. projection that is not based in any facts it's just based on projections so you know and i think we're kind of wandering into the inside the inside the beltway.

as i see it so i love it let me move along if i may in which there was a point where you know i just want to make the point that this is clearly part of the obama strategy and democrats' strategy they need somebody to run against they need a straw man the trying to make republicans the bad guys and blaming them for shutting down government with democrats voted down the continuing resolution well and so did some republicans if they say they have their if cantor and boehner have been able to hold their party they this would have passed and you and i both know it but if you take the straw man out of that sentence i don't disagree with you i think the president is going to run a harry truman campaign is going to run against a do nothing congress republicans on the campaign trail talk a lot about freedom here's ron paul talking about free. but what he should do is what he wants to do and assume responsibility for himself but my advice to him would have a major medical policy but not before you send him that he doesn't get pennies that he needs a nice intensive care for six months who kate that's what freedom is all about taking your own risks this whole idea. here i think you're. so as in the

freedom to die alone or as in the case of ram ron paul's own campaign manager rick snyder. she's back into the. as an eight when he raised like sixteen million bucks or something for ron paul. he died he went to the hospital got the money four hundred thousand dollars in debt ron paul some of his staffers tried to raise money to pay off the debt they raised thirty two thousand bucks and the family still stuck with the rest of the bill and they're still trying to pay those things so that's ron paul's definition of real rick perry has a definition of here's rick perry. as we go forward america needs to be about where you need to be about freedom from overtaxation freedom litigation bring over. regulation and ok so that freedom to keep from the government keeping our air water and food safe freedom from the government taxing us to pay for roads bridges and police officers and freedom i guess and lawyers being allowed to sue if we get injured f.d.r. had a definition of freedom he laid out nine hundred thirty six this is new deal was taking

hold he said and old english judge once said necessitous men are not free men liberty requires opportunity to make a living a living decent according to the standards of the time a living which gives man not only enough to live by but something to live for so what this freedom mean does freedom mean like some of the oligarchy in this country are claiming it absolute freedom from government don't worry we'll take care of ourselves war is freedom mean some the freedom from what franklin roosevelt talked about but there is some basic basic ground upon which we all stand that's necessary for us to i think it is the negative liberties which that our founders intended obviously f.d.r. is a definition does not match or is not a match match i know exactly match with what our what our founders intended there was a list a bill of rights much of much of which were were negative liberties as long as you know there are certain balance between government freedom and security so it's not

complete freedom but it is ok to use another rick perry term to get the government out of your life as much as possible so you can live your life and live in they'd be a free man to make your own course in the world so freedom for you means. no public schools. no i support civil war because i don't think it's a natural right it's not a right and heron in the government certainly not a right that was that with this country out of hell if we have a right to be free. we are in agreement that we have a right to be free yes. yes but a bit more present now we have to define what the term right what you're talking the difference between perfect freedom. and some of the some of the things we give up in order to form a social compact well yeah and that's that and that's the point humans have never been able to exist independently in fact and in you know jefferson one of his diary starts about the the ultimate penalty that

a native american tribe would inflict on somebody who was you redeemable was banished because when they were banished and they were alone they would die but i saw your speech on this issue i think was last week at it was an angry g'day or something new. writing it was a republican bob franken fighting fighting bob ney was a progressive republican but that was back in the early in a lot of republicans were that that was not a definition of freedom that i think in fact in many ways it's a definition of the opposite of freedom it's which would be catered to say to to to get people to to give up their freedom to them we will take care of you it's the parental instinct just give us up your freedom we will take care of you we will be responsible ok so you give up we have we have two ends of a spectrum at one end it's ok you're on your own period you know it's it's you know does annoy it's whatever you know it's is that they are if but that that's actually one it is we're not going to do anything ok or we'll have an army and maybe the

police department and the other and is we're going to own everything you know the the old soviet union which i wonder does this or maybe in some years about maybe there's still some god is not worth even i maybe even i was going to say even cuba you know his name is now but so and somewhere in between people organize themselves and governments and societies and they decide you know in order to be free the need these are the things we need seems to me that in order to be free in order to be free to pursue your dreams in order to be free to to have the. in order to be free to to to to you know to have relation you know to marry and raise a family and you know whatever it may be in order to have that there are certain free that wants for you know that you have freedom from want that you don't you shouldn't have to fear that if you get sick or you're in an accident that sort of wipe out what you what if there's not enough doctors in any given society now does

that freedom include forcing people to become doctors in order to enforce this freedom promote incentivize them so you have a pain that it would if you can afford it don't mean it was a terrible allocator resources so if you're relying on the government to feed you to give your health care you're going to be waiting a long time i'm not suggesting that we well first of all i disagree with health care and that's the experience of every country except the united states government is the prime guarantor of health care and long time to get it you know it really sick sometimes you don't have it and i encourage you to visit other countries we must life liberty and the pursuit of happiness when you promise we may and honestly lately. believe breaded piece i mean these are two different conceptions one will give you something this is the definition of freedom to be just give up your or your freedom to us you believe that i have a natural right to protect myself with a firearm if i so choose. i'm not

sure frankly. i don't he says of the freedoms we have in this country that we are free to own a firearm and have the same weapons of the government has because the government doesn't have the power to take them or you and i would say if you're if you're free to own. i don't that's not that's not fit their yeas it's a certain certainly defeated to protect yourself with or without a firearm i mean you have freedom to protect yourself with a surface to air missile you have a freedom to protect yourself but that you know i don't want to put out an obvious problem that we actually had a great article in the daily caller yesterday and your in your conception of freedom is you know the government should be able to you know make sure that our air is not polluted in an hour and talking about a trace ok so right why not. look at some of the things that the f.d.a. is doing now we covered a woman who needs experimental treatment from sweden actually but but the f.d.a. want to allow this in because it hasn't been approved by the f.d.a. well she's because you know she's not read that article that doesn't involve stem

cells but is that the bush administration reaction to the anti-abortion people just truths so much garbage and i'd say this has to sell this happens all the time because of trial lawyers not people who want to take risks and drug lawyers this was the i didn't know this because that this happens all the time because of trial lawyers suing over drugs that malfunction now people can't get drugs that get to them because the f.d.a. doesn't approve it when the f.d.a. comes out and says for instance this drug has been approved it will say forty thousand people the states you know what it means forty thousand people died last year because the drug wasn't approved and they couldn't get it that's not my mind a definition of free do you think so you think for us to be more free than any pharmaceutical company should be able to throw any drug out that they should be able to get it if i if i could if i were to use it and and even if even if the experimental trials hadn't been finished and you have to be the guy who rules over dead on the side of things if i want to take that risk and want to do it in the last year deficit you better believe i believe is that everybody should also go to

medical school or get a ph d. in and in biology or something like that so they can't begin to get informed decision about a drug really hasn't been fully paid personal decisions. you consumer reports are you an expert in engineering the buy a car note that i. i want experts in engineering to be looking at their car before i buy a new and you will have the experts looking at drugs but if but if you're dying and you why why should the government prevent us from getting drugs that would give us a last ditch effort to save our lives that's how i know if they don't i mean think about the freedoms the basic freedoms we have in this country that make this country great we have the freedom to own property to own things that are our own that we can keep on our own we actually can't own problems yes you can you can well you're a loser property taxes you're looking on the government i agree with you that state governments go overboard taxing too much but you still and i were talking talking too much if there's any property tax at all you can't own government you can't online and i say ok let's say that at least i know i get

a libertarian you're known as i traveled to many countries including cuba and cuba is a place where you can own land they they have a house in your family. you know your parents why they they can get a house to anybody they want they can do it while you live in united states you own that land you might have to pay a fee for it in taxes if you only go but you know it's a real you think a good point you'll be on your taxes for two years and tell me that you all know that you make a good point but that is that you base the freedom that we have that we at least have the ownership interest in a piece of property we have the freedom to speak our minds and not get locked up and thrown in jail if we say something against the government it's ok to do that it's true that in an airport well i'm ok any i'm on the court for looks like the republicans are trying to rig the two thousand and twelve elections with a dozen. as the one we skip apparently a satellite is about to come flying back to earth this weekend and there's a one in twenty one in twenty one trillion chance that one of us will get hit or

that you know any human will so what's more likely someone getting hit by the space junk republican saying yes to anything that president obama proposes in the next fourteen months or levi johnston's new book about the kalends win the pulitzer prize. i think it's. likely less likely that you want to accuse republicans of rigging elections but. this is the same percentage chance that if we had personal more retirement accounts or social security that they would go bankrupt i'd say i don't i don't have a clue what my guess would be. it's more like that if you have my space junk the need for him to thank you janie bryant thing thank you thanks so much for. coming this coming up a new tell all book of how president obama's economic advisors betrayed and is now in the stores for sort of read one particular detail about them sabotage the president's efforts to rein in wall street and they thanks to a their fair share. what

drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions it's going to break through get through it if you hadn't made who can you trust no one who is your view with the global missionary see where we had a state controlled capitalism it's called satchels when nobody dares to ask we do our tea question more.

you need to know this ron suskind book confidence men hit shelves yesterday and the nation is catching window just how many of president obama's progressive policies were actually sabotaged by his closest economic advisers one of those policies was a financial transaction tax credit so it's going to put president obama wanted to push for a new financial transfer transaction tax basically a small tax on every stock or the riveted traded or whenever anything. any kind of financial thing about history not only would a financial transaction tax or f t t or some as they're called stuck taxes this is securities transaction. excise tax whenever it would not only with this it curb excessive speculation in markets and discouraged robots or making millions of trades a day as they do now it would also raise some much needed revenue for the government which was dealing with a deficit problem. but one of the president's top economic advisers lawrence

summers nixed the idea entirely in fact lawrence summers his name repeatedly comes up and so scones book is a person who is not only disrespectful to the president but also the kneecapped most of what the president wanted to do in those first few months in office as the white house tried to deal with the crisis on wall street for more on this and on the on the on the step tax and the this whole issue of economics in the white house as well as what might have happened if the president succeeded in putting in place a financial transaction tax i'm joined by sara anderson director of the global economy economy project at the institute for policy studies sarah welcome great to be here thank you thanks for joining us. first of all it looks like the president actually was in favor of a step tax or an f t t or would you however have. it do you know any details of what he particularly i mean he actually campaigned on that journey he did not campaign on it and we've always wondered what he did think it. because he's been

quite silent on the issue we knew that the administration was not supporting it even though many other countries around the world are right now and so the book really for the first time confirms that at least at one point he was supported this idea that they have a quote which i suppose is through second hand information but saying in one meeting we are going to do this and then saying that larry summers oppose state and the idea was dropped and i think it's an important story especially for progress those who have held on to the spanish see may be that obama deep down is much more progressive than we really see him being in public and it's only these wall street friends like larry summers and secretary geithner who have held him back from doing a lot of things i think this is at least one example of where that actually might have happened the fantasy might actually bear itself out and i think it should give us a little bit of hope that maybe he could return to some of these progressive ideas and especially as we're seeing him now putting forward these ideas like the

millionaire's tax and the buffett rule much more progressive ideas and we've heard for a while we can hope that maybe he can return to some of these other ideas as well he was heavily supported by wall street in the two thousand election and we've learned just in the last few weeks that the vast majority of mitt romney's mormonism and a lot of it has been coming out of wall street so it looks like they're shifting their loyalties. or hedging their bets. to both sides so it's not uncommon for big powerful corporations to just hand their bets by backing candidates from both parties and certainly though we have seen this pattern of i can't remember how many goldman sachs executives are in the obama white house and in ministration but it's a really high number and and so wall street has really stacked that administration and put dampening effect i think on some of this tendency is to have more progressive policies. to this to the to the tax an old friend of mine

she's now passed on gloria swanson. told me that joe kennedy told her that f.d.r. told him that he put him in charge of the securities exchange commission that he created in thirty five i think it was or thirty three or because it takes a thief to catch a thief right it was the week of the news and she she thought that was hilarious actually she was she pretty very strongly dislikes joe kennedy he took a pretty bad advantage over financially in your ways but that was when the step taxes first or the most recent that was its most recent incarnation it was also in place during the spanish american war and from then and sold what sixty four i think it's true and i think the adams and at that point it was generating such a surplus because it was originally put in there just a fun d.s.e. see that it got blown up during one of the you know i don't know how it was during

the johnson ministration. i don't know if you saw the the the sixty minutes thing about the you know whoever gets their computer closest to the wall street computer supercomputers can do this in a greater degree in math yes i think it's a trade in value. if a securities transaction tax like this which is now being pushed really hard by like the national nurses association and others if attacks like this was to be put into place it would bring down a good chunk of the financial services industry that's really really profitable right now we but we just learned for example that the koch brothers have gone from being worth less than ten billion to being worth more than fifty billion in large part apparently according to think progress in any way is are for american progress because they're aggressively trading in commodities futures probably a lot of those high frequency trading we don't know about you know reasonable gas. if a multi-billion dollar industry is risky and people who make in some cases one or two

billion dollars a year are going to be impacted by this. wouldn't be make sure it doesn't happen i mean we're talking about two weeks income to what we an entire presidential campaign the interests here are pretty clear there are a lot of people making money off of activity that has no real social value to it it is that you've got the high frequency trading that would be most affected by these kinds of taxes that would be a tiny tax maybe zero point two five percent or so but on each trade and so that adds up for people who are trading every second or so and i think it's a it's an important time to take a critical look at these kinds of activities what is it really contributing to society and i think we're seeing huge momentum around this in europe where they're very serious about getting to the implementation's point in the european rights acts and i think once they have that in place start raising a lot of money off of it that can go towards good things and their financial

markets are still working as they should but people here will look at this issue differently and be much more supportive and hopefully those very narrow interests will be marginalized in the debate but if europe does it with the dax and with the with the footsie with the. frankfurt change in germany. and we don't do it in your stock exchange everybody will just move here for high frequency trading well one thing that's important to look at is some countries already have some forms of transactions taxes so in the u.k. they already have a tax on securities trades. perhaps some of their trading activity left us the results about but they still raise about six billion dollars a year their financial markets are still very robust and so. so it's not as if their markets are going to collapse of the state it's going to checks it's not going to. other people other are there other countries needs other countries is

this hard for to see trading as big a deal as it is here in the united states or am i overestimated how big it is here in the states you're not overestimating how big of a deal it is and it is a huge deal in the in the london markets this as well and i think spreading throughout the world and so it's all the more reason to take a hard look at this and and so i think that for us ordinary people who do ordinary kinds of investing it's a it's a very tiny tax that could be like an insurance feed to try to prevent the kind of financial volatility that crashed our economy and you know led to so much suffering in the world and so you're absolutely correct there's an enemy for medical forces opposed to this and treasury secretary geithner is clearly still opposed to it but i think that that power of the idea and how mexico accomplished outweigh the opposition hope sir thanks so much for being with us tonight thank you to your.

it's time for a daily poll your chance to tell us what you think here is that is question house republicans only want to offer three billion dollars instead of the thirty two billion for disaster relief victims will work choices are yes welcome to republican rule in america where the next hostage could be you or know the democratic party the obama administration are not giving in to hostage takers mr latona. no you think the poll will be open until tomorrow morning. crazy alert on cloud nine space icon buzz aldrin has stepped into a sex scandal eighty one year old former astronaut who was the second man ever to step foot on the moon recently started a new fling with a woman thirty years his junior only problem was. he's been married to a different woman for more than twenty years despite that buzz has been seen making out like teenagers with his new woman and his wife is giving interviews claiming

the buzz is just having a mid-life crisis at the age of eighty one unclear what really prompted buzz's infidelities but i guess he just wants to join the two hundred fifty thousand mile high club. coming up could president obama's words come back to haunt him and palestine's fight to become an independent nation. we just put a picture of me when i was like a million years old until the truth. sets

in and i am get a sense that i love rap and hip hop music and pretty. yesterday . i'm very proud of the role that option c. it's played. welcome back to the big picture i'm john martin coming up in this half hour world leaders gathered in new york city today for the u.n. general assembly meeting the big question this week will post except that as an independent state a new member of the united nations president obama spoke direct.