hello i'm john are going to washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture next month is the two year anniversary of the supreme court's citizens united decision so corporations go to party hard because the days of buying our elections may soon be numbered congressman ted deutch joins me to talk about what he's doing to help make sure the voice of the ninety nine percent is pretty loud and clear who's protecting consumers some banks toure's right now no one that's because senate republicans

again filibustered richard cordray to head up the consumer financial protection bureau so what's the real reason behind the filibuster and finally over one hundred pages for rest around the nation yesterday for participating in the ninety nine percent movement i'll talk with one of those arrested patriots about the successful day of action in the nation's capital a little bit later. you need to know this push to overturn citizens united and kick corporations out of our elections is picking up steam last month congressman ted from florida introduced a new constitutional amendment to overturn the supreme court's citizens united decision and give congress and the states the power to again regulate election spending essentially outlawing for profit corporations from buying our democracy it's called the occupied of that sort short for outlawing corporate cash

undermining the public interest in our elections and democracy now that amendment has been picked up in the senate too by senator bernie sanders we have state introduced his own version of the occupied amendment identical language this is the first constitutional amendment ever proposed by center. sanders during his two decades in congress reacting to a recent move by senator sanders congressman deutsch said there comes a time when an issue is so important that the only way to address it is by a constitutional amendment congressman representing the one thousand nine hundred of florida joins me now in the studio to talk about this moment and how we can all make sure it passes congress congressman thanks for being with us tonight it's great being with you thanks for having me the rights protected by the constitution of the united states of the rights of natural persons and do not extend to for profit corporations that's right revolutionary idea it's. it seems to comport with something that people like jefferson and washington and franklin and madison and

jay i just respond and help the obligatory question why this amendment why now well if you look at what's been going on in this country if you look at the occupy movement people protesting in cities throughout america standing up for the ninety nine percent and really one thing is clear whether they're protesting in new york or in washington or in south florida where i'm from or whether it's the seniors that i represent who can't believe the decisions in washington are still made that that say we should cut medicare and social security in order to preserve corporate tax breaks everyone i think knowledge is the biggest problem here is that corporations for too long have occupied our nation's capital and our state capitols we won't file this amendment because it's time to return the democracy to our people that's that's really what this is about seems like a reasonable start. on my radio show and on this t.v. show i spent a lot of time debating conservatives it's one of the things that i. enjoy doing it

and it's makes good i think in a light and see she's been doing it for nine years and i've debated a lot of tea parties and you know from the beginning i have yet to find a tea partier who will defend corporate personhood in fact it seems that when you get to the level particularly of the grassroots people you know they'll go through the whole you know regulation i mean they've got the talking points down but when you hit corporate personhood they still start go away to men and i mean so the the right of the right and of course the left of the left but right across the middle even i mean i find it outside of just the people who make a living as a as a corporate shill you know the think tank folks i'm finding it hard to find anybody who is opposed to the idea of blowing up the concept of corporate personhood has this become in congress a partisan issue what kind of response are you getting from your from your colleagues it really isn't a partisan issue the when you stop to look at it anyone who thinks about the

constitution and especially some of my my conservative colleagues who love to talk about the framers and the and the framers intent it was never the intent of the framers of the constitution that for profit corporations which are created for the purpose of making money should have the same constitutional rights and protections that were given to people like you and me that was never the intention and so they understand that if you go through everything we're trying to do here even from the far left to the far right you're exactly right people are fed up with a congress that they think and a government that they think is really owned by corporations and banks or as a result of citizens united that that's only going to get worse this is the time where we have to change that and so far what. do. and number has not yet been assigned this has it or has as we we actually are directing people to the occupied

amendment dot org where they get all of the information that they want about the amendment the text of the amendment some analysis of the amendment some questions that most people ask about it we introduced it i introduced it just a few weeks back by senator sanders just introduced it in the senate and there is this this growing sense that the problem with citizens united the citizens united decision wasn't just that corporations were given the ability to spend freely it's that corporations were were given a further extension of personhood and then their ability to really step in and control elections and control our democracy is what people are really reacting to and that's why we've got we've had tens of thousands of people come to the website in just a few weeks this is growing on facebook and twitter people are really i think they really appreciate that there is an opportunity right now for us to take back our

democracy and and that's why this is it's going so well that as great as you know the concept of corporate personhood i mean arguably has been around since the dartmouth case back and eight hundred fifteen but in one thousand nine hundred six when on steroids not in the decision but in the head no written by the by the clerk of the court john chandler banco davis and. which asserted that in the fourteenth amendment to says no person shall be denied equal protection under the law because corporations have historically that her for two is artificial persons that included them. why not simply amend the fourteenth amendment to insert the word natural before the word person because there are there are other things that we need to do besides that if under the if we simply look at amending the existing language to clarify that it's natural persons it doesn't give us the opportunity to do the other things clearly that are necessary right now the

amendment says the corporations are people that the rights are only granted natural citizens it says and this is important because corporations aren't people congress has the ability to regulate them they don't have the same rights as individuals congress can regulate them corporations can't claim constitutional privileges in order to fight back against cell health and safety regulations and consumer protections and it says specifically the corporations for profits can't use their money in elections all of that at this moment i think is is critical to state clearly unequivocal are you getting pushback that you're essentially legislating in a constitutional amendment rather than providing a framework out of which legislation can arise no because we're we're actually doing we're not legislating but we are providing a framework and the framework starts with the the section i remember that says that corporations are people and that and that they can't use their money in campaigns

the last section of the amendment establishes the framework and says that individuals and groups of individuals can be regulated because it's not enough for us to keep the corporate money out we also have to ensure that c.e.o.'s aren't in a position to spend tens or hundreds of millions of dollars of their own money in order to influence elections it establishes a framework for congress to do that that's vitally important as well so so we don't have billionaires running our elections instead of just the corporations that made the billionaire exactly right. seems like a really important. thing is article three section two of the constitution which establishes the supreme court says that the supreme court schol exist or shall operate under regulations as the word the constitution is established by congress the only time the best of my knowledge that congress is attempting to regulate the supreme court was in thirty six when roosevelt tried to change the number of members of the number has been the only controversy all time and say. anything to

have any debate about doing by going around that way instead of this way. well yes but it was a very brief debate because we thought again that that at this moment in time there needs to be a there we can't we can't try to get around this we can't try to finesse this we need to tackle this head on and the perception of people all across america who are losing interest in losing faith in our democracy is that their voice doesn't matter anymore and the way to give them that voice back is to strike at the issue that most upsetting which is the corporate dominance of our government you know and i'm totally with you on this it's. this seems like the most important issue of our time in the minute we have left what can people do. to help to help the effort that you and senator sanders have an issue sure i appreciate that i do encourage people to go to the web site the occupied amendment dot org is it with the occupied amendment

dot org and sign the petition. that's that's important because it shows it will show all of all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle how important this issue is to the american public i also encourage people to reach out to their elected officials my colleagues and encourage them to sign on to the occupied amendment and to get the corporate money out of politics that's how tom you know that's how you build a movement and people are i think are so ready to move in a positive direction i think this is one way that they'll be able to express themselves and at the same time restore that sense of optimism and faith in our government our democracy totally agreed congressman thanks so much thank you very much i'm going to expose the great work you're doing it's no coincidence that these constitutional amendments to overturn citizens united are gaining momentum with the ninety nine percent movement in the streets later in the show we'll have the latest

in the ninety nine percent movements recent day of action in washington d.c. . it's time for daily pull your chance to tell us what you think according to the latest polls out of massachusetts democratic senate candidate elizabeth warren as a seven point lead over incumbent republican senator scott brown so we'll lose with war and win this important senate race your choices are yes win even though crossroads g.p.s. karl rove's little thing there is jump in here and you mounts a billionaire money into the race or. it's never for sure let's continue to give warren all the help she needs she'd make a great senator marvin's dot com and let us know what you think the poll will be open until tomorrow morning. next another day in the senate another filled filibuster from the republican. all explain how banks ash is corrupting majority rule in the upper chambers.

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

tonight people who need a new people or signing a new credit card contract and people who are opening a new checking account still don't have anyone on their side making sure that they're not getting screwed by banks toure's that's because once again senate republicans filibustered president obama's nominee richard cordray to head up the newly created consumer financial protection bureau got a majority of senators to back it. the democrats couldn't get the sixty votes needed more than fifty but they couldn't get the sixty votes needed to overcome a near unanimous republican filibuster senator scott brown from massachusetts was the only republican to approve cordray and that's probably because a new poll shows brown losing by seven points to elizabeth warren the person who created the consumer financial protection bureau after the filibuster president

obama said this to reporters. i will not take any options off the table when it comes to getting richard cordray in as director of the consumer finance protection board and i want to repeat what i said earlier. this is a law that was passed by congress that i signed into law. that is designed solely to protect american consumers. i don't think there's any concern consumer out there i don't think there's any american out there who thinks that the reason we got into the big financial mess that we did was because of too much regulation of wall street or the financial services industry. i take it back i'm sure there are some folks in the financial services industry who make that argument although i'm not sure that they make it with a straight face so what exactly is the beef the republicans have with cordray and with consumer financial protection in the first place. for more on this i'm joined by in ohio reporter and blogger with think progress again welcome back could be back thanks to all so great to have you with us so what possible reason would

republicans have for wanting to filibuster the the director of the consumer financial protection bureau you know it's funny yes i have a lovely quote here and i actually brought a written down because i would be wanted to make sure i got this one right this is senator mike lee republican from utah and he said i feel it is my duty to oppose this confirmation as part of my opposition to the creation of the board itself now no let's be clear what so it's so it's not cordray that they're objecting to it's the entire idea of protecting consumers yes. literally literally yeah i mean this is the this is the age see what this does is it protect us against credit cards that overreach of protections against mortgage companies that overreach it has the power to eliminate some very abusive practices and then called for star betray ssion where corporations say you're not allowed to go to real courts you can only sue them in fake courts that are run by other corporations it has all of these powers that are just about making sure that consumers aren't powerless against big

financial corporations and you know you have a number of republican senators who i think been very clear saying our problem is we don't want that to exist so we don't want anyone in there this is this politically this baffles me in republicans have always done a good job of in the background dancing to the tune of corporations but out front they're talking about things like we're going to protect you from gays or we're going to keep god in the you know the they figure out these issues so that they don't have to talk about the economic stuff but here they are just right out front i mean you know right out in front of god and everybody on issue after issue after issue saying you know that there were the night there with one hundred percent with the one percent and screwing ninety nine percent over and over again how you know i understand this is got scott brown running you know what why aren't more republicans i mean not one other republican in the. us would stand up for for consumers what you know what's look at what has happened over the course of the

last year you know the republican house and all on almost all the republican senators voted for a bill that effectively eliminates medicare it phases out over a period of turns it into a voucher but it does more than that actually phases the program out because the vouchers lose value with each passing year so they want to get rid of medicare they held the whole nation hostage in this bizarre debt ceiling fight in order to try to put through a constitutional amendment that would permanently entrenched the tea party's values now they're hold the they're holding the tax cuts for the middle class that we need in order to keep the economy going into the next year hostage because they want more tax cuts for the super wealthy so today they said the you know if you want to extend those tax cuts you have to cut back on the length of time people who get unemployment benefit it is like. that people's heads have to be explored no exactly so i don't think it's out of character for the person who started it can they win an election based on this or are they just assuming that americans are not change.

this is why it's important for people to be informed i mean people are going to make a decision in november and when they make that decision you know they need to have all the information at their fingertips and a piece of information that i hope folks take you know keep in mind is that there's sawmill acted officials who are pushing for consumer protection who believe that middle class people need to get ahead and there are some people who believe that the first priority of the government needs to be make sure that rich people don't pay taxes seems like this is just a totally partisan. we just have a minute left but real quickly the president could appoint him could appoint cordray on a recess during a recess but during the last recess the they maintained the house in the senate in session by having somebody show up every day to prevent probably judge. this nomination do you think that during the christmas break the the republicans are going to continue to refuse to go into recess so that he can do

a recess appointment and is there a way that he can force them into a recess yes so there's a tradition that goes back to the clinton administration that the senate has to be out for three days of congress be out for three days but it's only really a tradition there's even a u.s. court of appeals decision saying no it doesn't matter how long and on top of that there's the roosevelt precedent theater roosevelt recess appointed someone during a very brief one day recess when the congress broke at the end of the year it's about to be the end of the year congress is about to break president obama need to invoke the roosevelt prasad it and he needs to recess appoint richard cordray. thanks so much for showing up thank you always great to be well informed on these issues and you do a great job but republicans further put the screws to the middle class today again filibustering an extension of the payroll tax cut for one hundred sixty million americans once again just to protect millionaires and billionaires from a tiny surtax meanwhile house republicans are moving forward their own plan to extend the payroll tax cut by attaching it to approve the approval of the

controversy old keystone x.l. pipeline president obama obama already threaten to veto any bill that combines the payroll tax cut with the pipeline but republicans are moving forward anyway socially saying yeah i will give you your tax cuts but you have to choke under clouds of pollution to enjoy which segues perfectly into our next story the ninety nine percent movement took their message to k. street yesterday to fight back against all the corporate corruption in our government over a thousand people including many unionized workers took part in the day of action dubbed take back the capitol braving the relentless freezing rain patriots shut down several blocks of k. street yesterday forcing the lobbying outfits to close up shop for the day unfortunately sixty two patriots were also arrested for engaging in civil disobedience all told well over one hundred american patriots were arrested in. police crackdowns yesterday as an officer in san francisco as officers and she's been services were raided the local occupation they're taking seventy people away

in handcuffs joining me now to talk about wednesday's successful day of action in the nation's capital is robert c. j. haughey executive director of arise chicago and one of the sixty two patriots arrested yesterday and christa ran a participant in the days of action welcome to both of you thanks thanks thanks for joining so much for joining us sir let me start with you reverend what what happened yesterday and today bring us up to date well yesterday there were thousands of people who marched to k. street and the idea was that we wanted to shut business down as usual we understand k. street is running our government that people are fed up they would like to reclaim the government to be for the people and by the people and so as thousands filled a certain intersection we rallied and chanted and saying together for a good forty five minutes or so and then after a while everyone left the intersection with the exception of eleven of us who

remained. krista. first of all you you are currently unemployed right correct i have conservatives on my show constantly who come on and say things about people who are at your college graduate people who are college graduates and are unemployed for example yet i believe it was the day before yesterday dean gainer was on the show and here's what he had to say. i think. many of them are people over one hundred twenty thousand dollars in debt from student loans for getting a fine arts degree and jobs and if you only pay twenty five thousand dollars well you know either you were not educated somewhere along the way that you're not could be overpaid this kind of money or you just did something foolish the idea being that instead of the right thing so you get a degree in history look i came from a blue collar working class background i wanted to be one of those americans who pulled herself up by her bootstraps i was valedictorian of my high school and i

went to school for civil engineering i have a master's in civil and environmental engineering and i don't have work right now. that's a sad commentary on america on the state of our of our economy is that and i honor your academic achievement just for the record although frankly even if you had a fine arts degree i think that's a good thing because what it does about your bill is well absolutely and it also demonstrates that somebody is able to stick with something for four years and there's a lot of skills that come along with those that translate into a range of other jobs but that's a whole no there are no colleges about persistence and discipline these are the holidays that service well as citizens and speaking of persistence and discipline you've been persistent in holding the chamber of commerce accountable you just came from. an occupation of the chamber of commerce so i have it right there christmas party yes it was the there was the republican national convention christmas party held at the chamber of commerce so it was an opportunity interesting

juxtaposition it was perhaps less ironic than it could be and this was an opportunity to catch speaker of the house painter again we've been working all day to try to catch his attention and say. jobs need to be on your agenda you set the agenda for the house. the one percent is on your agenda right now the ninety nine percent need to be on the agenda we need jobs we need good jobs we need a future for our country. when i had left we had not encountered him yet he's probably in the back with the. cigarette i don't know we'll see but. reverend it seems to me that there are tremendous similar eddies between the bonus army of the one nine hundred thirty s. and the they didn't call the occupy movement back then they called it the hoovervilles but there were they were all over the country the largest one was in seattle back the mayor of that hoover bill was

a fellow by the name of jesse jackson who had a history of a nine hundred thirty five. i find just amazing. something cosmic about that what are the and of course the bonus army was camped out from the lawn of the white house all the way down the potomac forty five thousand people and herbert hoover ordered him. what's his name the general macarthur to ride through them do you see similarities between then and now and then i mean that's set up the roosevelt presidency could this be setting up something really extraordinary in the next few years political i believe it is there is a righteous anger out there and people feel as if america has gotten off track we truly are serving the one percent and we're leaving the ninety nine behind it was the one percent that drove our economy into the ditch and now the ninety nine percent is suffering people are tired of suffering they want good paying jobs like

chris people want to live in their homes securely and they want to be able to send their kids to college as well and so people are here to make a stand and i do believe this is a historic moment krista how much for the for the for you and your peers in the movement how much of this is about moving forward as in let's get some good jobs and how much of it is about looking back as in why aren't some of these banks years in jail well i think that we have the same spirit as much of the i. i movement although we're a coalition that involves many different parties we're on the same page with regard to what's happened with the bankers but we are definitely also looking to the right chicago or you know you said we we meaning the take back the capital yes this particular action yes. so we are certainly also looking forward

we are looking forward to having good jobs for our citizens we're looking forward to young people in my generation contributing as citizens and as workers to our country with the energy and ideas that we have we're looking forward to doing good work and we're looking forward to making sure that older workers people of color people who are typically marginalized by the economy but even more so today also have an opportunity to share in the wealth that this country has to offer us over crystal river harvey thank you very much both of you for being here with us tonight thank you for having us very interesting even though over one hundred people were arrested yesterday given the recent successes of the ninety nine percent movement from city council's passing anti-corporate person legislation to now deafening calls to throw banks years in jail to the recent populist tone of the president one thing is clear the movement is winning and that are how many people cops throw in jail let's keep it up.

crazy alert step away from that but ana a muslim cleric in europe has banned women from touching phallic shaped food scored into an egyptian news website the cleric issued the ban on women touching long slender fruits and vegetables because they could cause women to think of sex or the list of forbidden foods includes bananas cucumber zucchinis and carrots but that doesn't mean women can't still enjoy these foods as one cleric said foreman wish to eat with women wish to eat these food items a third party preferred li a male related to them such as their father or husband should cut the items into small pieces and serve this is just crazy i mean who looks at you cumbers and bananas.