alonzo harden in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture today president obama gave one of the strongest speeches of his presidency slamming paul ryan and the republican party how is that speech a sign of progressive activism on the ground starting to trickle up to our likely representatives also paul ryan may have introduced a budget that destroys the middle class but his ideas aren't new so where did he get all his crazy ideas about giving tax cuts to billionaires a limited a medicare and robbing school kids of an education and a nice daily take

a new report out says denmark is the happiest place on earth and america isn't even close or the danes doing right when we start following in the footsteps. you know this president obama strikes back speaking at the associated press luncheon today president obama took aim at the republican budget introduced by multimillionaire congressman paul ryan and took a sledgehammer to the whole idea of trickle down economics in general first the president laid out what the stakes are in this debate going to make or break moment for the middle class. this is not just another run of the mill political debate. i've said it's the defining issue of our time i believe this is a make or break moment for the middle class and i can't remember

a time when the choice between competing visions of our future has been so unambiguous and the clear one vision is paul ryan's budget which passed through the house of representatives with all the ten republicans supporting here's how the president described the ryan budget. this congressional republican budget is something different altogether it is a trojan horse disguised as deficit reduction plans is really an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country it is thinly veiled social darn darwinism it is antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity and upward mobility for everybody who is well in the work for president then went on to give examples of just how harmful this budget will be to america if it's an accurate. if this budget becomes law and the cuts were applied

evenly starting in two thousand and fourteen over two hundred thousand children would lose their chance to get an early education in the head start program two million mothers and young children would be cut from a program that gives them access to healthy food there would be forty five hundred fewer federal grants at the department of justice and the f.b.i. to combat violent crime financial crime and help secure our borders hundreds of national parks would be forced to close for part or all of the year we would have the capacity to enforce the laws that protect the air we breathe the water we drink or the food that we eat cuts to the f.a.a. would likely result in more flight cancellations the lace and the complete elimination of air traffic control services in parts of the country. over

time our weather forecasts would become less accurate because we would be able to afford to launch new satellites and that means governors and mayors would have to wait longer to order evacuations in the event of a hurricane that's just a partial sampling of the consequences of this budget but the president didn't stop at the ryan budget he went on to blast the whole idea of trickle down economics that is infected our nation since reagan and is a core of the paul ryan budget. much of the last century we have been having the same argument with folks who keep peddling some burgeon of trickle down economics they keep telling us that if we convert more of our investments in education and research and health care into tax cuts especially for the wealthy our commie will grow stronger he would think that after the results of this

experiment in trickle down economics after the results were made painfully clear that the proponents of this theory might show some humility might moderate their views a bit but that's exactly the opposite of what they've done instead of moderating their views even slightly the republicans running congress right now have doubled down. this is one of the most passionate speeches against the republican party that the president has given since it was the inauguration we shouldn't look at today's speech just as a change of tone coming from the president it's also a sign that we're best of activism on the ground over the last several months is starting to trickle up to our elected representatives here's the bigger picture we don't elect leaders in america we elect representatives the words leaders and

leadership don't appear anywhere in the constitution its representatives in representation here's how it really works in the real world in the political world when a parade gets big enough when enough people are out in the streets with enough people are speaking out and that parade is marching down the street a politician to look out the road look at that and jump out in front of it lift the flight and say this is my parade they will claim that f.d.r. was elected on a platform of the new deal he was elected on a platform of small gradual incrementalism but it's what the people lot of by the time he was sworn in and so he jumped in front of that parade and called it is l.b.j. was elected on a platform a civil rights or the great society that actually cut poverty in the united states and after in four years but that's what people wanted he jumped in front of the parade and said this is my parade a president can have the best intentions in the world president obama when campaigning back three years ago four years ago talked about

a public option for health care and fundamentally changing america under reaganomics he never got enough of the people or the people's representatives with him to pull it off. hopefully now after we've seen the debacle xin in ohio and wisconsin and all around the country we always right wing economic policies and the crash of the bush bush years there are enough people awake and aware of damage that thirty years of reaganomics and unruh. unrelenting war against working people and trickle down economics have done to us hopefully now other democrats will feel enough wind behind their backs that they can also jump out in front of this parade so now we have the attention of our lawmakers our president is calling out the radical right wing vision of america presented in the paul ryan budget or directions do we need to push our lawmakers in what will it take to bring back the middle class in america and give working americans a shot in achieving the american dream again here to answer that is james hoffa

general president international brotherhood of teamsters mr hof welcome back tom good to be here to have you with us first of all what's your take on the president's speech today was great i mean he's really basically starting take the gloves off fight back and he's got to do this and he really has been a little bit late to the game i think and now he's finally coming out we first saw it at labor day when he came out straight talking against right to work start talking for collective bargaining first time he's ever mentioned that and since then he's getting better but you know he's really got to get off and start put the mitts on and get into the ring because he's in a campaign right now and whatever is going to happen i think he's going to be in good shape but he's got to really be strong and be emotional and get out there and that's what he's doing yeah and he's a guy he's about to be hit by an avalanche of money of oil what he knows what's coming he knows they've got more money than he's got no matter how much he thinks he's got and how much they've spent so far you know it's going to be a tremendous battle they're going to do you know you talk about swift boat they're going to find some way to make him look bad but the answer is i think the way

things are going in america that you're going to be ok and you know the drift in the republican party and in these horrible. but we've been through right. now the primaries have been devastating i think you know the republicans they really showed these people to be not ready for prime time yet not to mention me the ryan budget now we have the ninety nine percent spring and i was i was reading about the teamsters and michigan are now it's moved into ohio about the red cross i didn't realize the red cross in michigan was getting blood for free selling it for over one hundred bucks a pint and make made over two million bucks last year and doesn't want to give their employees health care it's a lot at least right and some believe what's going on the red cross and they pay their c.e.o. like three hundred thousand dollars you would think that person would do it for free i mean what an honor to be head of the red cross you know be somebody retired that should do this job because this person a tremendous amount of money and then when it comes down to negotiate it's not just in ohio where we're having this battle we're having in colorado they basically fight us all the way and they're making profits on on blood and it's amazing it's

a business you know and what we want is a peer share for people we've got people on strike we just had a demonstration at the red cross building here and we've got to call attention to the fact that the great red cross that we all hold you know dear to our hearts we all that red cross have met wonderful you really treat your people terribly what we've got to do have to have justice for the red cross that's that's it's probably quite shocking for most americans talk about the ninety nine percent spring your thoughts on this what do you see happening and coming out i think it's you know it's basically part of a bigger thing it's really part of this whole issue of what's going on in america right now this battle with the right wing you know basically the tea party that's taken over the republican party the fact that the party is moving so far to the right talking about things that that america doesn't want you know getting rid of social security medicare medicaid you know basically cutting everything you know tax cuts for the rich you know basically keep it you know we got to you know which

mccall it we got romney paid fourteen percent and we've got my truck drivers pay thirty percent how is that fair and basically this is what. you know the ninety nine percenters are about it cause attention to the fact that we do have problems in this country and you know they like to call this class warfare the minute you start talking to person it is taking advantage of somebody's poor they always see class work where it doesn't work here because they don't want to talk about the fact that basically they're paid fourteen percent they've had advantages and they want to keep the other people down so basically i think this is healthy it calls attention to the fact that there we do have this problem of the great separation in this country between the rich and the poor and the answer is every statistic show it's getting greater every day the rich are getting richer the poor are getting poorer there are less jobs in this country less good jobs and that's the problem we face so the more that we have about the spring as the best thing to get the media out there the teamsters are going to be out there let's go out to every city and

the good thing about if the media loves it yeah and that's the most important thing if you don't have the media it didn't happen right so if you get on the six o'clock news or those six thirty news you've got something about thousands of people saying you know where is their freedom where is their economic opportunity that draws attention to the fact that we're talking about the fact of opportunity in america and brilliantly done finally we just have thirty seconds romney and santorum your thoughts on this the remnants of this primary well i mean there are two losers i mean they're really you know they're polling terrible against the president they're destroying each other. going to be the candidate but you know you look at what he talks about use a lot of contact with the average american i mean he talks about cattle actually talks he's from michigan he comes here and trashes the auto bailout which is one of the big successes of michigan he talks about michigan being nice but all the trees are level the guy is laid out of contact with you and i and i think people sense that it's a cable as i thing or whoever it was said about george that he was born with

a silver foot in his mouth you know it's it seems like in that romney anyway james hoffa thanks to the c.e.o. it's great to see you again to thank you very much. coming up after the break i'll have more on the president's speech today. and where exactly is paul ryan getting his radical ideology say to. just put a picture of me when i was like nine years old so to live through. an excess and i am and will get a sense that i love rap and hip hop music and pretty. she was kind of a yesterday. i'm very proud of the all the belgian cd it's played. look look look

. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so sleep you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture .

as a president said today about the republican budget plan proposed by multimillionaire congressman paul ryan from wisconsin take a look. it is a trojan horse disguised as deficit reduction plans is really an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country it is thinly veiled social garm darwinism. question is where does this radical vision come from whose ideology is it that's motivating people like paul ryan in the rest of the republican party to push for proposals

that will lead to an enormous pain and suffering for millions of americans just in the top one percent can get a three trillion dollars tax cut this ideology comes from this woman i and rand from cutting off assistance for poor people to dismantling medicare and social security to idolise in the super rich all of it is textbook i and rand and all of it is contained in the paul ryan budget take a look at how c.b.s. is mike wallace defined iran's philosophy in an interview with her way back and then see if. you want to destroy almost every edifice in the contemporary american way of life judeo christian religion modified government regulated capitalism rule by the majority will the reviews of said that you spawn churches and the concept of. these after a christmas yet every important leader in man's history has taught us that we

should love one another right there is this kind of navicular behind bars it is immoral if it is allowed for the non-self and then if a man is weak or a woman is weak then she is beyond he is beyond love he said he does not deserve it and if need be young there are very few of us then in this world by your standards allow worthy of. unfortunately yes a few. she agrees that she's out to destroy the values of compassion associated with religion she's out the steroid regulated capitalism she's out there destroyed rule by majority democracy she's out to destroy every moral leader in human history who taught the very simple concept that we should love one another you would think that with these beliefs iran would be completely radioactive to most politicians their political philosophy would be avoided like the plane but here's the

congressman paul ryan the guy who submitted that lack of a little budget this is what he said about it ran more than anyone else is fantastic job of explaining the morality of capitalism the morality of individuals so with rain we're here today i think she would do a great job in showing us just how wrong what government is doing is because it's that kind of thinking that kind of writing that is sorely needed right it's that kind of thinking that sorely needed right now. so says paul ryan the author of this radical republican budget the targets the poor to give huge tax breaks to the rich so has the entire republican party been hijacked by this bizarre i and rand ideology and if so how and what are the consequences of it joining me now is gary weiss a journalist and author of numerous books including his latest iran nation the hidden struggle for america's soul gary welcome. thanks for joining us from our studios

there and he said york city. where did iran to ride her philosophy from. well she basically there i've heard from communism is she fled to stalinist russia in the early one nine hundred twenty s. and she turned tire philosophy is basically derived from communism in the in the in the sense that it's some of the poor opposite of communism is all in reaction to the stalinists excesses and she superimposed that reaction on american democracy that that's that's the some homeowners but didn't she also confused democracy and capitalism you know capitalism is an economic system democracy is a political system whereas in the old soviet union communism was both if you think that distinction was lost on iran yeah i think many distinctions were lost on iran i think iran simply did not understand the american people you know in a sense she sort of had to have a connection with the way americans thought but i think in a deeper sense if you look at her philosophy she simply did not understand the

american people she didn't understand american values and what you see her in in all of her books you see her. american values one after another in the judeo christian values in particular so what would america look like if iran was running the show or if one of her accolades or devotes he's like orion's ranger. well we can see you you would see basically a dismantlement of government you'd see every aspect of government which benefits people would just go away all that would have left would be the army you'd have a police force and you'd have the courts and that was basically if i was her vision of america were basically the united states would be run by corporations and since they'd have no barriers to merge to merger or it may be no way to trust barriers they would have america would be ruled by the biggest companies needs these were the people that iran idolized and so this this idolisation

of the rich and i find that extraordinary in that you know she fled stalinist russia she saw. she saw. her father lost his pharmacy and all that but then she and she went to college and in a good was and. she saw the abuse of power by a small number of people they didn't represent themselves as billionaires but she saw that the abuse of concentrated power how could she not see that concentrated wealth in the united states was functionally the same thing as that kind of concentrated power that the shit luck fled. because she she made a distinction between concentrated power in the hands of corporations that was ok with her concentrated power in the hands of government she was opposed to she did not understand that power corrupts absolutely whether it's power in the hands of government or power hands of corporations and the things i try to do in my book as i try researching my books i try to find out why is it that people embrace iran even though it's contrary to their own interests you know i agree and you know she

taught the you know the script her scripture was selfishness so why is it that people who you know it's not in their self-interest to embrace and rand why did they embrace iran then i think this is i think the key point you know why do people embrace the right people of color ryan and i think there's a lot of reason for this is what i came into it was so why do they well they they embrace iran because i read is more than just a narrow political philosophy it's also about self help thoughts of being you know if he was kind of a self-help guru and this is something that's lost them in the translation in a way you know people forget that the reason why iran is so popular has a lot to do with what she taught in terms of self-esteem i mean good stuff in a way oh absolutely you know a lot you have to love yourself i mean all that sort of new age stuff that i wanted it i am you know sort of taught in it and people don't talk about it but this is sort of like if you get into the into the weeds of objectivism that's kind of what you're probably there you find a self-help philosophy and in

a way it's kind of out so much like a cult to a certain extent because you've got a psychological element in addition to a political element and you've got to understand that if you're going to understand objectivism your philosophy and you have understand objectivism if you have to if you want to understand why the country is moving in this direction that it that it is into this radical right direction you're going to get to that to the core which i would suggest is iranian her and her objectivism how do you think. jefferson or madison or franco on washington would respond to iran. i think they would they would test on me and because the founders of this country they swore they believed in altruism they served their nation and you know in my book i describe the conversation i had with your own brooklyn's who is the head of the of the i mean his duties from israel and israel he used telling me and i read in the book how he really didn't like the aspect of israeli society she he's from israel which involved sacrifice for the nation what this is what the hundreds were on

sacrificing for the nation they sacrificed their fortunes and their lives for the nation of the rest practicing you know the philosophy of iran and the bomb with the british they may not have gone but with a provision in fact i've talked with iran many times debated many times and he's just right out front the objective is start believe in democracy in small democracy for example tell me about william william edward hickman and his influence on iran . well i don't think it's so much of an influence on iran and i think iran drew her her you know her philosophy from any number of of of places you know she picked a little bit here she picked a little bit here she didn't like the effort she did not really acknowledge where she got her belief system from twenty eight said you know she she almost made it single you know i got it all you know by myself and i don't think it really matters to a great extent where she got a lot of people say you know her from the austrian as school of economics or

whatever i think the important thing is you don't have to put the teacher really plowed at the plate you poor thing is that iran does the all the philosopher of the right who is immensely popular among bass numbers of people or books that are in the hundreds and hundreds of thousands you can't say that anybody else on the right or the left for that matter but you have billionaires who are getting money into colleges and requiring you know one of the strings that goes along with their money i believe it's over one hundred twenty schools now is that they have to teach iran they have to give iran out of their students you have paul ryan who requires all his staff members to read iran i mean with this giant and wealthy right wing machine pushing iran how could you not expect to see some sort of a response you know a lot of people reading your books and things. well there's no question is this big machine is history organization which is pushing very well funded organization which is pushing on rand's philosophy but i think that in order to stem rand you've

got to realize it's not just that if that's all there was to it she would be as powerful as she is the reason she's powerful is because people young kids you know they discover orient and they get really into it is like i was sent talking earlier about her her self-help for us be you know the way she appeared to be a psychology of people so it's not just the right wing money it's not just the after turfing she had a cheney would hold on a lot of people on thousands of people voluntarily buying her books have been sued or being the good of the semi good as well as the not so good stuff you know the psychology as well as the polish the quality so it is a doorway to the real right wing politics remarkable very wise thank you so much for being with us tonight thanks for having me appreciate them. iran's philosophy is meant to benefit those psychopaths among us in periods seductive and enjoyable to read and practice though her ideas lead to people dying let's leave iran in the

textbooks not in ours or government. crazy alert where is the bacon american to america has an obsession with bacon and it's getting a little out of control over the last few years entrepreneurs have put the savory goodness of bacon into a number of consumer products on which track your bacon loving special someone buys some bacon senate curfew heading out for an out on the town start the night right was some bacon flavored vodka at a sweet and salty tooth try sucking on a bacon flavored lollipop and if you love the smell of sizzling bacon all your life and i'll take it right to the grave with a bacon son cough and there's even bacon flavored lube and rumor has it that rick santorum was the products first investor. coming up the supreme court took judicial activism to new levels of the citizens united decision and they've done it again i

was the court being allowed to exercise political and legislative power and why are conservatives supporting him. in fact i've talked with iran many times debated many times and he's just right up front that objectivists don't believe in democracy and small to democracy for example tell me about william william edward hickman and his influence on iran. well i don't think it's so much of an influence on iran and i think iran drew her her you know her philosophy from any number of of of places you know she picked a little bit here she picked a little bit here she didn't like to ever she did not really acknowledge where she got her belief system from to in the end said you know she she almost made it single you know i got it all you know by myself and i don't think it really matters to a great extent where she got a lot to be doing

a lot of people say you know her from the austrian school of economics or whatever i think the important thing is you don't have the duty to really plow that the place you're pointing is that iran does that all the philosopher of the right who is the main sleep popular among bass numbers of people or books that are in the hundreds and hundreds of thousands you can't say that at anybody else on the right or the left for that matter but you have billionaires who are giving money to colleges and requiring you know one of the strings that goes along with that money i believe it's over one hundred twenty schools now is that they have to teach iran they have to give iran out for their students you have paul ryan who requires all his staff members to read iran i mean with this giant and wealthy right wing machine pushing iran how could you not expect to see some sort of a response you know a lot of people reading your books and books there's no question this is big machine this history organization which is pushing very well funded organization which is pushing.