the only one who's funneled money into education initiatives democratic representative sheila jackson lee has obtained four earmarks for the university of houston since two thousand and nine which has come to five point three million dollars for the school but she's not just passionate about education she also loves her husband elwyn dearly and i mention that he's worked at that university for decades and called it coincidence but elwyn has had quite a few promotions over the years and he now sits as the university's v.p. for community relations and institutional access and he makes over two hundred thousand dollars a year a representative robert andrews it might have taken some cues from sheila leave because he has also secure earmarks for a college with his help rucker's at law school in camden has received three point three million dollars in earmarks i guess is an associate dean of the school that's right his spouse senator tim johnson is a member of the set of the procreation is committee and has been a cheerleader for the pentagon's math an engineering teaching initiative called starbase so with the help of seven other senators johnson dropped an extra four

million dollars into the education program oh and did i mention here that johnson's wife barbara is the supervisor for starbase so now that i've shared those few examples with you should also take this time to point out that it's not that i don't support more funding going towards education believe me i do but log makers are prohibited from using earmarks or programs will benefit themselves their spouses or their immediate families because the post points out most don't disclose their spouse's employer so nobody checks and i guess nobody knows but i think of the message here is clear the rules don't apply to that despite their recent very public opposition to earmarks as their way to help with the deficit at the end of the day they still want those dollars going to their favorite pet projects now some of the politicians that i mentioned began funding these projects per pre mark moratorium and it continued straight through as if nothing has changed at all they just found ways around it take for example last year's defense authorization bill house armed services committee made a billion dollar special fund where members could add amendments. direct funds to

projects within their districts make no mistake about it those lawmakers swear that those don't count as earmarks after all that would violate the ban they put on themselves so they said that didn't count because the programs would have to compete to actually get that money thankfully another senator staff did some research pointing out that one hundred fifteen of the two twenty five amendments were previously slated to be earmarks so i think you guys get the point lawmakers might be trying to portray themselves the good guys of by saying at the put their projects aside for the sake of the country but in reality they just found a really clever way to work around the moratorium that they themselves put in place so for demonstrating yet if the corruption and politics go hand we're giving congress tonight. guys time for happy hour joining me this evening are two praise for jenny churchill

and comedian tim young guys. a dark dressed crowd today in orlando being humid and you are now in three states last night i mean it's going on. let's talk about whales and whether the ones at sea world are slaves take a look. the people for ethical treatment of animals need. to see and demand their release peter see this in a news release all five orcas are violently seized from the ocean and taken from their families as babies they were kept in small concrete tanks and reduced to perform stupid tricks. you guys know what i think about peta so you could just go. oh i guess my point here would be i don't really understand how they could be much richer i would think they would measure their wealth an amount of fish that they're given and they're given a lot of fish you know the day that they can go to an a.t.m. and you know take out because they would be richer if they were in the wild now

they're saying they're slaves because they're forced to do things they don't want to do but i'm just saying like how can you say they're slaves they're being you know monetary only compensated very for seen the shamrocks show at seaworld i have it's the worst any time that anyone has to dance around for spoiler we built this city on rock n roll that is the worst they are slaves actually the real deal here is that the trainers are there like their i guess relatives on the lawsuit so these trainers who have gone to school for marine biology for eight years and have doctorates are forced to wear like sequins and dance around with them kind of i think more for the trainers than the whales all right i think free willy is annoying whatever. they. want to introduce this we've spoken about oklahoma's person good bill a number of times here on the show it's the one that basically says that conception

or that human life star is the most conception and would basically make contraception illegal in the state and so now one lawmaker is actually fighting back taking a little bit of i know a little something from the meaning of life take a listen. so listen to this basically senator johnson who represents oklahoma's forty eighth district has introduced an amendment to the bill mandating that the same rights and benefits be granted to sperm basically saying any action in which a man a jack relates or otherwise deposit semen anywhere but in a woman's vagina shall be interpreted and construed as an action against an unborn child i love it i think it's genius we did way to go back with jack the way she is now officially illegal now it's murder because it would be let alone get out of my

usual show where there's only about you know i think that we should actually take this a step further and we should have you know kind of a shout out funeral type thing for all of the sperm that was so brutally murdered that at a time you know every teenage boy is a mass murderer and i don't we should have a moment of silence every show for all the murder sperms out there my thought but i don't have a very long moment of silence so yeah like the whole show possibly it could work. but. let's that we have something else that we should cry about a little while back and we're really excited is a new law was passed when it concerned online gambling take a look. see now we're soon you'll be able to gamble online the city is the first in the nation to do those measure part of the d.c. budget which just passed the thirty day congressional waiting period the wagering expected to start late this summer well the d.c.

council decided to just ruin everyone's life today and they did so they took a vote it's a on the online gambling and decided that no dice that's no longer allowed and they enacted a ban on new strip clubs in an area of north east because there's already four of them i think they're. we dispensary and so they're afraid that it's going to become the new red light district of d.c. i'm a lot more concerned about the personally the strip clubs than the gambling but i do seem to work for a little bit right here right so they don't need to add more strip clubs and i'll look at you're going to ban them you're going to ban the way you want to give you room you don't want to give room for expansion for a new strip club a lot better and it's actually going to come in a lot of women have to put their themselves through college i understand that but there's no walk dances in d.c. and i'll look to you can remember you understand so you know it's terrible going to maryland. i mean i think it's ironic because i want to monitor these people on the d.c. city council and see how many of them are caught in a red light district type area over the next year because it's always the ones

wanting to regulate these types of things who are then later in a scandal with a prostitute is this a red light district type area really even exist anymore it should be honest. let's talk about porn star moving from strippers of porn stars sashi gray she before she was trying to just read to children in school and cause enough for some people. these photographs posted out to look innocent enough a nice looking woman greeting two young students elementary school in compton but there. is also this young woman staunch a great model and award winning actress make that award winning actress points. all right for season trouble again turns out a sense films are releasing one of her final scenes as part of artists and they wanted to donate a version of the proceeds without her knowledge of the national education association read across america program but they don't want the money they said no

thanks we don't want your cash because there is no money money really trying to just take the money even if it's from porn again i don't really see you know why wouldn't you take something to help the children read who cares who is going to first put themselves through college porn stars can pay for reading for america i find the saddest part of this that she's being drug. into this yet again and for no reason i mean she doesn't want to donate this money they want to joni this money on her behalf they're trying to create buzz and they're capitalizing off with her name i actually think it's kind of sad for her she just wanted to read to some kids controversy now some organization is taking advantage of her name controversy as you probably goes by her real name when she reads it is not the stage and. i don't know about that we didn't get to this last story but we're going to have to do it tomorrow because it's about incest and fun things are joining me tonight that's a really nice things are going to get to make you come back tomorrow alex sides all that's going to be on for happy hour attempt to talk about incest so in the meantime don't forget to become a fan of the launch on facebook and follow us on twitter if there's anything you

ever miss you can catch it on youtube dot com slash deal or shell and for me up next is the new. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom hartman welcome to the big picture. wealthy british style sign. on the title.

market why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's cars or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report on our. welcome to the future of science technology innovation called the least i'm elements from around russia we've got the future covered. to emulate. the a.

way it. was. timestamp sex inferred tom harmon in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture. santorum wins big last night but romney still has the money so is the race any different today or will the best story should say the wealthiest candidate still be the nominee in the end all the reaction to these stories and more with tonight's panel also we've learned time after time that government by gang never works yet that's exactly what lawmakers are resorting to to extend the payroll tax cut so why do these guys keep beating

a dead horse and it's no secret that nixon's war on drugs was and continues to be an utter failure so can the united states ever come to its senses and legalize marijuana. you need to know this there are bad nights and there are really bad nights and then there are nights like the one mitt romney had last night three states held caucuses and primaries tuesday night to pick a republican nominee for president clued in colorado missouri and minnesota and guess how many mitt romney won zero in fact it was a clean sweep for this guy rick santorum in missouri where no delegates were at stake santorum got fifty five percent of the vote with romney coming in second at twenty five percent then in minnesota santorum cleaned up with forty five percent

vote while romney came in third behind ron paul with seventeen percent here was santorum relishing in his victory last night. i was not just a victory for us but tonight was a victory for the voices of our party conservatives and tea party people who are out there every single day in the vineyards building the conservative movement in this country building the base of the republican party and building a voice for freedom in this land thank you apparently the conservative movement is being built in binion's i did not know that speaking of vineyards notice the guy standing behind santorum to his right yeah that's foster friess a mutual fund executive and leading contributors to santorum is red white and blue fund corporate super pac and he is like the other millionaires and billionaires who are now spending fortunes giving to romney's and gingrich's super pacs was the real

winner last night called a collection on investments. meanwhile here's what front runner turned loser mitt romney said in colorado where he was expecting to give a victory speech it's great to be in denver tonight a lot of stuff on the ground pretty cold but warm to be in this room and with so many friends here and i want to say thank you to you that the race is too close to call in colorado at this point but i'm pretty confident we'll come in number one and number two and number two it was santorum came out on top in colorado to beating romney forty to thirty five percent that's a state that romney won back in two thousand and eight so what does all this mean well it means conservatives can still play around with the idea of nominating someone who isn't a name to mitt romney for at least a few more weeks you know since this whole thing started last year it seems like everyone not named mitt romney has had their chance to be a front runner for michele bachmann to rick perry herman cain to newt gingrich to

rick santorum and now the cycle is coming around for a second time with newt gingrich again after he won south carolina and now rick santorum again after his three wins last night so where in the heck do things go from here we'll get to that in just a moment but in other news coming out of capitol hill it looks like negotiations to extend the payroll tax cut for one hundred sixty million americans have stalled with republicans refusing to raise taxes once again on millionaires and billionaires and in the house republicans yesterday a privilege that legislation to resurrect the keystone x.l. pipeline will discuss where they plan to stick that pipeline and just a moment for a run down on last night's elections plus the latest on capitol hill i want to turn it over to my panel laughlin mark a is an investigative reporter at the heritage foundation center for media and public policy and richard fowler is a democratic star strategist welcome to you both guys thanks for having me let's

get started so it's santorum won big as we just showed his big thunder foster friess was there behind him we've seen a lot of these type guys really have they been at the victory speeches behind the candidates. but santorum is red white and blue fun pales in comparison to romney's restore future pac i think it's the red white and blue fund has spent two million dollars so far whereas restore a future romney spend nine times that over eighteen million dollars so here's what i said the millionaires and billionaires on the republican side they've chosen their person and that's mitt romney and i would be shocked if somehow they lose this race so i mean should i be shocked if romney is not the nominee at the end because about well i think that there's a bit of a declining marginal utility for these super pacs or for any any campaign spending period the underdogs i think tend to gain more from one more political ad or one more political dollar than the front runners because name recognition is such

a huge such a huge attribute for a candidate but i wanted to to note something that it's a big misconception these days after the citizens united supreme court decision that millionaires and billionaires have a larger influence now than they did before the supreme court decision and that's not just not true because he didn't actually apply to contributions to these third parties and groups from millionaires and billionaires it applied to contributions from corporations unions and nonprofit groups so millionaires and billionaires are free to give now just as they were free to give then their influence over the process hasn't increased in terms of their donations to these groups they're only didn't specifically say we're here to help millionaires and billionaires but what it did was there was a limit of twenty five hundred dollars on what an individual could contribute to a campaign that has made this still exists exactly but now people can give way more than twenty five hundred dollars they can give a million dollars if they want through this third party super bowl action was created through citizens united people could still give that same amount to choose

third party political groups before citizens united big didn't lift any restrictions on it like another good market right third party said these third party followed a five to seven group could endorse a candidate or they couldn't be supporting one candidate the super pac allows you to give to max out to a k. . like you know say willard mitt romney after you max out to him that you can go give another million dollars of the super pac that supports him and run attack ads against all of his competitors and i guess one attack ads against president states and i think it's pretty clear that they've had a pretty large effect compared to two thousand and eight you know mitt romney ran something like thirteen thousand ads in florida mostly negative ads and they were most mostly funded by super pacs and already we've seen i think fifty percent of all the campaign spending this this primary season done by these super pacs so you can say that they haven't had. before at forty six million i believe is how much all the third party groups in total have spent so far but look at the obama

campaign so far has already raised one hundred twenty five million dollars you're right we have to look at the obama campaign has raised one hundred twenty five million dollars with forty seven percent of those who have given us money have given under two hundred all these are everyday americans middle class americans working class americans have given to this campaign they get twenty five dollars they've given ten dollars they're not millionaires and billionaires and all of them also abide by the limits so nobody's giving over twenty five hundred dollars to the pact to the to the mother and i'm citing those numbers was not to say that that he's benefited more more than other people or that his contributions were the same as anyone else's it was just me it was just to put into perspective the effect that these third party groups are having on the race and when you look at the dollar amounts it's far less than half of obama's campaign chest and we're just talking about his campaign not even the third party groups that are going to support him and as we found out today with a lot of the general election work that we're in or not in the general election yet once we have a republican candidate out there and everybody you know is going to stop hedging

their bets on newt gingrich or rick santorum if mitt romney is the guy and i mean that was my original question i mean do you think that mitt romney is going to be the guy because he has this money or because you know he's eventually just the best candidate and well i think certainly any questions of inevitability or were dashed on the rocks after the most most research. primaries and caucuses so i don't think anyone at this point is is saying that money is the only factor because if it were mitt romney would have come out on top in colorado well i want to i want to move on to these super pacs and i want to ask you a question here in a second richard but first i want to play this i want to play this out here this was from harry truman in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight at the democratic national convention so you can play that. credit card he is the people's party and they're going to party is the party is and it always has been and always will be. before you respond to the. republican party is the party of special interest now the reason why special interests are special is because they

have a lot of money and i would argue that citizens united has allowed these special interests to spend a lot of that money now president obama just came out and he said that he's going to adopt this super pac plan he's got he's going to he's going to tell his supporters to not just donate to his campaign but to donate to priorities usa super pac is that the right decision or is is he going to be playing a game with special interest that alternately democrats are going to lose in the end they don't have the money that that you know the big donors are willing to spend but you know i think that there's a very interesting question i think is a lot of democrats pondering this question but the truth of the matter is is that what we've seen from mitt romney ron paul santorum and i think that's awful that's all that's all i'm i think that's all i confuse sometimes it's always changing but the truth of the most of them is they've raised tons and tons and tons of money with these super pacs and the president has just raised money the traditional way through twenty five twenty five dollar contributions that is all but the simple fact is going into the general election going into november you're he would be

going to be showing up to a gunfight with a knife if he is not using the united law to his benefit we don't necessarily agree with citizens united law but we know that in order for us to beat the republicans and possibly change the law or change a majorities in the house in the senate we have to use this law to our benefit. for their truth we can change how the supreme court first we can guarantee with the next term president obama will see another supreme court justice retirement and on top of that i think you know congress can pass laws to sort of change how this record interprets citizens united which of the matter is though is the president can show up to a gun fight with cancer the guy with the knife and if he does not endorse their design embrace super pacs that's he's going to put them so the situation to himself and to you know bracing super pacs though is the just the latest example in a long line of the president reneging on his promises so whether it was a promise to accept public financing in the two thousand and eight campaign which he then went back on when he realized he could raise so much more money without it

and ended up raising nearly ten times as much as he would have been able to with public financing or whether it's saying i don't have lobbyists donating to my campaign well in fact we found out today that ron klein former congressman now a lobbyist for spirit airlines and it has given bond at least two hundred thousand dollars there as it has made a ton of money back that just came out the other day for that matter as well as the giving tons of money back but on top of that i think what we've seen from the president is he's realized that he has to beat back the entire republican establishment to beat back the all these big oil of the big oil's of this world over the course of the order for him to do that he has to find more and more middle class americans to get it and that's why he did not take public he did not say publicly because he realized he could raise more than that and that's not the real issue here is that he feels that it is now in his strategic interests to go back on that promise that he made and it's just the latest in a long line of examples of him do it maybe i think he's got some options with some executive orders that issue to get some disclosure and maybe get around that but we'll talk about it after the break why republicans resurrecting the keystone x.l.

pipeline it looks like another hostage scenario is in the works on capitol hill. we just put a picture of me when i was like nine. new yorkers old uncle joe lived through. i'm a confession i am a total get a friend that i love traveling hip hop music and. he was kind of the jester day. i'm very proud of the world without us you are his place. look look look. look . you know sometimes you see

a story and it seems so. you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else or see some other part of it and realize everything. i'm tom harkin welcome to the big picture. and welcome back joining me on the panel laughlin mark a investigative reporter at the heritage foundation center for media and public

policy and richard butler democratic strategist all right let's get back to it so at the end of the month the payroll tax cut expires meaning one hundred sixty million working americans could be hit with a tax increase and so far we've got the negotiations have stalled out for the same reasons that they stalled out in december democrats want to pay for it by proposing a tiny what you know tiny surtax on people who make over a million bucks in all republicans most of whom have signed grover norquist pledge to not raise taxes on anybody saying no absolutely not chief economist at moody's mark zandi said quote not extending these programs will deliver a significant blow to the still tentative economy so when it comes either helping it when it comes to helping the economy in one hundred sixty million americans or protecting millionaires and billionaires from a tiny tax increase why are the republicans choosing the millionaires and billionaires in this in this issue well i think the fact is that this tax cut you know we're down to two percent. december of two thousand and ten and we saw no no

market improvement in the economy whatsoever we did we'll soon know improvement on the balance of consecutive job growth in the private sector is an improvement i'm just saying that if you didn't keep up with the with new entrants into the that what i mean a lot of planning while we see meanwhile we see a declining labor force people leaving the job market because they're so discouraged by the weak economy so it is not by any means been the real the real question that we have to ask ourselves here is that when the republicans passed the bush tax cuts in early two thousand they didn't and they don't look for a pay for they don't care about finding a paper but now all of a sudden when we want a tax cut for the middle class and working class americans they are scary in washington a lot of pain is the deficit back then was it seven eight point zero you have to say i don't know you're right you're right we had a surplus before we had george w. bush and then we had a recession oh no no no no no no no never on paid i had actually ended during the recession and i know that was what i did not that i was in for not only was an op

ed for it had to be passed through reconciliation and it had a ten year expiration date because of how much it would add to the deficit that year in terms of bills passed at the reconciliation adding to the deficit i'd say both parties are guilty of that there are no more i mean how can you argue that someone who would say that raising taxes during a recession is a bad idea how can you argue that letting this tax cut expire is fine for the economy i don't think i am all for lower taxes in every way shape or i want to make millionaires pay their fair share to pay because that would be raising taxes and i'm for lower taxes my point is if if you want to lower the payroll tax i think that's a good idea granted you run into all sorts of issues with paying for social security which is you know already in the red well that it's not it's why raising the cap at the point is that this needs to be paid for one way or another democrats want to raise taxes to pay for it republicans want to cut other programs to pay here's what republicans how republicans want to pay for it they want to freeze pay on federal employees those aren't exact.