welcome back to the big picture i'm sam sacks in for tom hartman coming up in this half hour a balanced budget may sound like a good idea but it loses much of its appeal when you realize what this republican plan will actually do to our country oh and while they're out if they want to buy pizzas a batch of all has anyone told the g.o.p. that kids can go and in tonight's daily take tom will once again explain why the

one percent he did step up and prove their patriotism. screwed we all are with the work republicans are doing in congress this week first there's what's going on with nutritional standards for school lunches the old phrase kids eat your fruits and vegetables is being replaced by a new phrase courtesy of the republican party kids each are pizza and french fries earlier this year the u.s.d.a. set of guidelines to make school lunches healthier for children but this week house republicans unveiled a spending bill so blow up those new healthy guidelines under the new republican plan tomato sauce on pizza will still be considered a vegetable as well french fries yes right now tomato sauce in fries are considered

vegetables under current guidelines and republicans want to keep it that way since you know new regulations are so burdensome. i mean schools can serve pizza and french fries every day and meet the basic nutritional requirements for school lunches somewhere herman cain is rejoicing unclear when someone will break the news to republican leadership that's made those are actually fruits or tell them the story about when ronald reagan tried to do something similar night in eighty one and classify testifies about shovel in failed thanks to a public outcry. but republicans taking a stand for pizza is harmless compared to what they will be voting on later this week and that is a balanced budget amendment and if you really want to know the dark vision republicans have of america's future and then you need to know what a balance a budget budget amendment would do here's shine some light on this is so darpa mahanta editorial fellow with mother jones magazine so arthur welcome having me

great to have you on so let's for people to know let's define what a balanced budget amendment is. it's really just as simple as it sounds in one sense it would require the federal government to spend no more than it takes in every year now the ways in which this is radical or that the amendment would restrict the government spending whatever it whatever it takes and for that it would restrict the government spending based on what it spent in the previous year now paul ryan who's the republican budget chairman he drew up he he had a budget that was pretty much slammed by liberals by democrats as being a pretty a pretty drastic budget in terms of cost and items that republicans and some republicans to. just give you a sense that budget would be unconstitutional under the sort of balanced budget amendment that republicans are pitching now this is radical that's all right but

this is radical polar and so there was a study. if you want to cap it eating percent spending at eighteen percent of g.d.p. government spending. according to the center on budget and policy priorities who analyze what a balanced budget amendment like this would do fifty fifty million people would be put out of work. it would kill the unemployment rate but it would shrink our economy by seventeen percent yet according to a c.n.n. poll earlier this year seventy four percent of americans support a balanced budget amendment so why is that are they just not know what it is i mean what's the deal with i think i think what the deal here is that republicans are really good at pitching these budget ideas in simple terms for instance and they often use an argument that budget the federal government judging system is just like budgeting for your family you know trying to figure out how much you can be able to spend on vacations. on sending your kid on. sports equipment for your kids all this kind of thing the fact is though if the federal government actually

spent like family spent. then. families always spend more than they take and they take out loans all that sort of thing republicans personalities right republicans have really mastered the art of couching the budget in these simple terms when in fact it's much more complicated than that. you just wrote a piece on this for mother jones and you talk about. bruce bartlett who used to be reagan's former budget advisor what was hysterical a balanced budget amendment that it's completely work unworkable and a complete catastrophe. now that's created this image of it's pretty much exactly this is a guy who's who's tripled the national debt ridden triple the national debt and these are and these are things that bartlett in his writing and his analysis he'll embrace he will say you know i i was i was a proud jack kemp guy served in the reagan administration for bush but the kinds of

the kind of budget irresponsibility he's seeing on the republican side now he traces back to a desire on the republicans part to tax to soon act broad tax cuts without ever paying for them and he sees this is a very irresponsible thing. that a balanced budget amendment would be sort of another huge iteration of basically so i mean. reagan tripled the the. bush added george w. bush another six trillion dollars. so the republicans are and are screaming that we need to balance the budget is pretty ironic but it's completely parker see which are so they consistently added to the so what so we can get rid of that argument that they want to but they suddenly care about that since one thing they have been consistent on since reagan is tax cuts for wealthy people and the thing about about this their balanced budget amendment is that to raise taxes on anyone it's going to

require two thirds majority is so right that there is right now now the distinction between between that version of balanced budget and what we're likely to see on friday. based on points that were coming out today the amendment that will be voted on on friday will it have that two thirds vote in crime in other words. it's a somewhat softer version of the earth these earlier amendment which required a two thirds majority in both the house and the senate in order to raise any revenue from tax increases or do you think they're kind of lowering their sights or do they think that this might have a chance of i don't i i i frankly i don't think they have any real sense that this will happen and even if it were to make it out of the house it would still you know run into a brick wall called the senate where the democrats still have control i think they see this as a very he sort of dog whistle if you will to a lot of their supporters around the country. you know there's no there's no

obvious reason why they had to bring this idea back into the play this week it's really curious. you know between everything going on the super committee between issues going on with trying to come up with another spending bill for the rest of this year. they definitely have their hands there. will be watching this at some great insights or thanks for thanks for coming. as we just talked about despite the devastating consequences of a balanced budget amendment it's still wildly popular among voters after all its sounds reasonable a balanced budgets sounds like a good thing but remember this is brought to us by the same party that passed the clean skies act that allows for more pollution in the healthy forest back that allows for more trees to be cut down so when it comes to messaging and using certain words republicans or experts and we all need to know this because

it's ruining our democracy here's what tom had to say about it recently for progress is to be republicans they need to know how republicans talk luckily republicans occasionally let their lingo slip aipac nine hundred ninety six when newt gingrich's gopac memo was leaked which instructed republicans on what specific words to use when talking about other republicans and conservative policies and which words to use when talking about democrats and progressive policies the memo reads language is listed as a key mechanism of control used by majority party we believe that you could have a significant impact on your complaint and your campaign and the way you communicate if we helped a little that is why we have created this list of words and phrases when talking about republican pat campaigns newt gingrich wrote use these words commitment dream family freedom liberty passion prosperity strength and vision success he wrote

next time you watch a republican actually he did write that i did this time at a republican you watch a republican can play can't campaign and play a little drinking game with how often you hear these words he used a game memo then lays out the words to be used when describing democratic campaigns words like bizarre bureaucracy coercion corruption devour and danger liberal pathetic shame taxes welfare. these may seem like trivial words they don't have an effect when it comes to political messaging words are extremely important as right wing pollster frank luntz pointed out during the health care debate back in two thousand and nine. if you call it a public option the american people are split if you call it the government option the public is overwhelmingly against it they don't like it it's a great point and i'm from now on all can call of the government because it is. so called news took the bait and executive bill sammon sent out an e-mail to his team of talking heads saying friendly reminder let's not slip back into calling it the

pope would gobshite always use the term government run health insurance or when brevity is a concern government option whenever possible by sheep the talking heads over at fox news obeyed frank a lot some self is quite a wordsmith back in two thousand and six luntz wrote a memo for republicans identifying certain words they should never say and instead offering replacement words as once writes in his memo sometimes it is not what you say that matters but what you don't say from today forward you are the language police from today forward these are the words never to say again and here they are this is the republican game plan actually there never say government instead you know rule that out and say washington never say tax reform instead say tax simplification never say estate tax instead say the death tax never say

capitalism instead say free market of this is this is the republican main is to is to is to always go in that direction never say undocumented workers instead say illegal aliens never say drilling for oil instead say exploring for energy never space school choice and says a peek will operate to ninety in education and never say health care choice instead say the right to choose even if it is there's a very very systematic manipulation of language in the american political discourse this is the republican game plan laid out. and this is the only way they can win elections this and disenfranchising people keeping people from voting voter id laws and things like that but basically this by boiling down often complex issues where the right answer can only be found through rigorous debate and turning them into quick easy to remember catch phrases and buzz words let's eliminate the

debate around how much people like paris hilton should state taxes stead just call it a drug death tax let's eliminate the debate over how we should handle undocumented immigrants and instead dehumanised them by calling them illegal aliens forget about debating the safety of deepwater oil drilling after the b.p. gulf disaster now well companies are just exploring for energy. you know the sad thing much of this is worked and sure enough we've stopped having rational debate in this country emotional words are used to grab people's attention and transform their minds and it's largely these little sound bites some commercials on t.v. replace the role of debate among the electorate president obama's boil down to a socialist but a little discussion of what a socialist really is i don't trust americans no rich people are called job

creators with little discussion about how jobs are really created new tax plans like nine nine nine or praise for their simplicity rather than either their effectiveness or their just plain old flat out stupidity. one french political thinker alexis de tocqueville ventured to the united states early nineteenth century eighteen thirty four as i recall to observe firsthand what life was like in the new democratic nation he made this observation which he wrote his book democracy in america the greatest of america lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation but rather in her ability to repair faults throughout history our nation has repaired our falls through debate through an informed electorate making the right decisions but in a scorched earth bid to win elections republicans have just strongly that american tradition and replaced it with political manipulation and until we bring back the

real debate until the corporate media calls out republican talking points and you and i call people who throw phrases around like job creators illegal aliens then we frankly won't be able to solve the complex problems facing our nation we're americans so we'll start acting like americans and demanding that our politicians and most importantly our media treat us like the well informed citizenry that thomas jefferson. the next what makes you a part of the one percent and what makes you a part of the ninety nine percent the answer in tonight's daily to. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians to make decisions to break through get through to be made who can you trust no one who is in view with

a global mission would see where we had a state controlled capitalism is called fascism when nobody dares to ask we do you are a key question more. the good the bad in the very very good to simply ugly good. lancing mayor virg bernero as mayors from around america dispatched their police

forces to a big occupied movements mayor pinero in lansing michigan is doing things a bit differently he's welcoming the occupy the last month may have been areas spoke at an occupy lansing rally this continued cordial and cooperative relations with the occupiers ever since and his staff thinks that the rest of the country should follow their example. i think that i could buy protest has really been a model for the country in terms of how they've conducted themselves and in the relationship that we that we establish with them. i think mayor bloomberg in new york city should learn a few things from lansing the bad. rick perry with the wheels ready to come off the rick perry presidential campaign at any moment governor good hair stopped by new hampshire today for a town hall event and it looks like perry put sheriff joe arpaio in charge of security because people were asked at the door if they were u.s. citizens apparently no foreigners were allowed in fact even journalists were asked

about their citizenship at the door steve people from the associated press tweeted out press checked in for rick perry new hampshire town hall arrested for us citizens told only citizens allowed the perry campaign later clarified the policy and said that non-u.s. citizens would be allowed in as long as they are monitored by an official with the company hosting the event at all times this is bad on numerous levels one voters in journalist should have to bring proof of citizenship just ask governor perry a question to anyone should be able to see how our democracy works where the democratic model for the rest of the world right in three. three let's see. i think hoops. in the very very ugly u.s. district judge henry wind. this is a p. resident i need of macklemore and her two kids or three of the forty four million

people in america who depend on food stamps to do enough food to eat unfortunately when bill clinton ended welfare as we know it back in one thousand nine hundred six a new federal law was created that forbids anyone who's been convicted of a drug felony from receiving food stamps benefits for life so with her and her kids facing starvation and even macklemore has been convicted of a drug charge in the past lied under application to receive benefits and u.s. district judge henry wingate figured lying to feed your family should get you three and a half years behind bars that's what he sentenced macklemore to last week and that's think progress reported also last week a bank teller who perpetrated a three million dollar mortgage fraud scheme in all mississippi was sentenced to just two and a half years in prison so to recap lying on your application to feed your starving family gets you in prison one year longer than running a multimillion dollar mortgage scheme or something really screwed up about our

criminal justice system and it's a very very ugly. so with thanksgiving a week away republicans in congress have. given millionaires a lot to be thankful for. they protect them from tax increases given more corporate welfare more so-called free trade agreements congress's big good to the super rich after all more than half of all congressional members are millionaires. but there's one group of richer americans who went to congress today to say thanks but no thanks for all the goodies patriotic millionaires for fiscal script for fiscal strength a group made up of millionaires who want to see their taxes go up the senator on capitol hill today to meet with lawmakers and demand that any gang of twelve deficit reduction deal includes tax hikes on millionaires and billionaires so it looks like the message of the ninety nine percent has been picked up by the one

percent a few weeks ago tom weighed in on this phenomenon of the one percenters siding with a nine ninety nine percent and calling for tax hikes on themselves and is the subject of tonight's billeted the banker one percent in chicago had a little message they wanted to get out to the ninety nine percent movement camped out on the streets below to someone at the chicago board of trade poured leaflets out the window to rain down on the demonstrators below the leaflets read we are wall street and it's our jobs to make money go ahead and continue to take us down but you're only going to hurt yourselves it's going to happen when we can't find jobs on the street in a bar has what we're going to pay you are it's. as we all know today that's not a threat it's a promise wall street has never had a proper taking what's not there but it was the trillions they took when the economy blew up as a result of the housing bubble seen by the trillions more they took from the taxpayers when they demanded bail out wall street just churns other people's money

and skins their vig out the top and they've been doing it in a pretty outrageous way what once was considered both in moral and illegal for the last thirty years since reagan stopping force in the sherman antitrust act is now normal leading to an explosion on wall street. it started back then continuing to this day of what was then called m. and a mergers and acquisitions business from one hundred forty seven three one hundred seventy nine before reagan and then a as america got wealthier and wealthier that wealth went to everyone we all got wealthier but then came fat cheer and reagan and milton friedman and i and rand in this bizarre notion that playing games by rules that work for everybody is just a quaint idea and instead the world should be reformed to make it easy for the predators as a result over the last thirty years most of all the new wealth created in america was just the top one percent when reagan first began to really corrupt capitalism

as i noted in my book on equal protection most americans didn't even notice that greed is good sounded reasonable to many people and for the first time in history school kids started saying they wanted to grow up to be rich instead of wanting to grow up to be somebody who changed the world like washington lincoln or martin luther king jr. but then after reagan kicked off today's massive concentration of wealth the top one percent just started taking more and more they took it all after all reagan made it legal in the last generation the richest one percent have seen their incomes almost quadrupled while the average americans have seen their paychecks increase by only a dollar twenty three cents the average wealth of the top one percent is two hundred twenty five times greater than the average wealth of the typical family thirty years ago the typical c.e.o. made about forty times more than the typical employee now they take as much as two

hundred times more than their employees and wall street as much as two thousand times or ten thousand times more than their employees take take take but after thirty years we're now clearly seeing the results of trying to play a game with no rules are rules that are so skewed as to make things easy for the rich and hard for working people it's why working people took over madison wisconsin so i working people are taking over cities all across america and because in that reagan era so-called free market capitalism was all the fad from here to thatcher's u.k. to pinochet's chile we're now seeing the ninety nine percent result in nation after nation after nation but even though the one percent sitting high above chicago think it's their job to take from everyone else a majority one percenters actually think their job to give. earlier this week filmmaker michael moore expressed the mentality of most one percenters want to give

back to the nation that made them so well. that even though i do well that i don't associate myself with those who do well i am devoting my life to those who do who have less and who have been who have been craft upon by the system and that's how i spend my time my energy my money i'm trying to up in the system that i think is a system of violence it's a system is unfair to the average working person in this country and it was a mistake to ever give me a dime from the day and michael moore isn't alone warren buffett for example famously called for his taxes to be raising taxes and calling for it for years noting that there is class warfare going on in america all right and it's his class the rich class of one percent us that's when. but there's more as i said there's actually a majority among that one percent who are on the side of the ninety nine percent a

new survey of millionaires by the spectrum finds this sixty eight percent of millionaires people earning more than a million dollars a year in this nation support increasing taxes on millionaires that's right most millionaires want their own taxes to go up you know it's the it's that old interview with the german businessman who said i don't want to be a rich man in a poor country because over the last thirty years millionaires have pretty much gotten whatever they wanted from free trade deals that make c.e.o.'s incredibly rich by working wages to enormous tax cuts that created huge national deficit to corporate welfare in the form of wall street bailouts and big oil subsidies but now that a majority of millionaires want their taxes to go up they can't even get republicans in the senate to drop their filibuster and allow a debate on the issue the point is it's not about how much money you make that makes you the one percent from michael moore to warren buffett their money a patriotic one percenters it's about whether or not you think it's the job of the

rich to give back to the country that made you which or if it's just the job of the rich to keep making more and more money. to make more money and they can spend in their lifetimes their children's lifetimes their grandchildren's like times or their great grandchildren's lifetimes while the nation around them deteriorates it's not about your bank account it's about your patriotism that ninety nine percent which is the most patriotic thing happening in america let's just hope our politicians catch on so. that's the big picture and more information of the stories we covered visit our website at harvard dot com free speech or give. also check out our to you tube channels there are links. to this entire show is also available as a free video card. and we have a fried tom hartman i phone and i pad up the ops or you can send us feedback at twitter underscore hartmann on facebook underscore hartmann and on our blogs

message boards and telephone comment line at samarra dot com and don't forget as tom always says democracy begins with you get out there get out there occupy something tag your it. down the official anti allocation join a phone call touch from the. lunch i'll see the lights on the go. video on demand all season long road calls and r.s.s. feeds now in the palm of your. question on the call. me

he. he. says.