alonzo marvin 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 elected 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 millionaires a limited a medicare and driving school kids an education and a nice daily tape

a new report out says denmark is the happiest place on earth and america isn't even close or the dean's 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 you're a sledgehammer to the whole idea of trickle down economics in general first the president laid out what the stakes are in this debate calling it a 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 funding 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 only clear one vision is paul ryan's budget which passed out of the house of representatives with our big 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's willing to work for president then went on to give examples of just how harmful this budget will be to america if it's an act or. 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 a mansion 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 cut to the f.a.a. would likely result in more flight cancellations delays 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 a back you ations in the event of a hurricane that's just a partial sampling of the consequences of this budget. but president didn't stop the ryan budget he went on to blast the whole idea of trickle down economics that is infected our nation since reagan and is at the core of the paul ryan budget. much of the last century we have been having the same argument with folks who keep peddling some version of trickle down economics they keep telling us that if we convert more of our investments in education and research in health care into tax cuts especially for the wealthy our economy will grow stronger you would think that after the results of this

experiment in trickle down economics that's of the results were made painfully clear at the proponents of this theory might show some humility might moderate their views of it 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. as some of the most passionate speeches against the republican party the president has given since the inauguration but we shouldn't look at today's speech just as a change of tone coming from the president it's also a sign of the progressive 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 work when a parade gets big enough when enough people are out in the streets when enough people are speaking out and that parade is marching down the street a politician will look up the low road look at that and jump out in front of it and lift the flag and say this is my parade they will claim that f.d.r. wasn't elected on a platform of the new deal he was elected on a platform of small gradual incremental is a 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 his 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 that 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 with all these right wing economic policies and the crash of the bush bush years there are enough people awake and aware of the damage that thirty years of reaganomics and unruh. unrelenting war has 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 and our president is calling out the radical right wing vision of america presented in the paul ryan budget what directions do we need to push our lawmakers then what will it take to bring back the middle class in america and give working americans a shot in achieving the american dream of you here to answer that is james hoffa

general president the international brotherhood of teamsters mr hof welcome back john 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 really basically started to take the gloves off fight back and he's got to do this in a 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 start talking against right to work hard 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 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 he's about to be hit by an avalanche of money oh you know 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 the horrible. what we've been through right. now the primaries have been devastating i think you know to the republicans they really showed these people to be not ready for prime time yet not to mention the other the ryan budget now we have a ninety nine percent spring and i was i was reading about the teamsters and michigan or 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 about 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 a person would do it for free i mean what an honor to be head of the red cross you know be somebody the retired that should do this they pay 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 fair share for people we have 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 and that wonderful they really treat their people terribly when we've got to do a day of justice with red cross that's that's it's probably quite shocking for most americans to 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 how this battle with the right wing you know basically the tea party that's taken over the republican party the fact that the party has moved so far to the right talking about things 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

mcauliffe we got romney paying 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 calls 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 a person that is taking advantage of somebody's poor they always see class work or it doesn't work or 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 doubt so basically i think this is healthy it calls attention to the fact that there are 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 it 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 and it's six thirty news and 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 i think romney's going to be the candidate but you know you look at what he talks about he's 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 be nice but all the trees are level the guy is like out of contact with you and i yeah and i think people sense that it's like a billy has and i think or whoever was said about george that he was born with

silver foot in his mouth and it seems like mitt romney anyway james hoffa thanks so much c.e.o.'s great to see you again soon thank you very much coming up after the break i have more on the president's speech today. and where exactly is paul ryan getting his radical ideology say to. put a picture of me when i was like nine years old until the truth. i'm a contestant i am an old get a trendsetter i love rap and hip hop music and. he was kind of yesterday. i'm very proud of the role that algis you just play. live.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for 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 is ok if you don't i'm sorry welcome to the big picture. for a. few.

days of the 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 darn darwinism. question is where does this radical vision come from whose ideology is it that's motivating people like paul ryan the rest of the republican party to push for proposals that

will lead to a normal end suffering for millions of americans just to the top one percent and get a three trillion dollar tax cut this ideology comes from this one 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 in one thousand. do you want to destroy. most every artifice in the contemporary american way of life judeo christian religion by the five government regulated capitalism ruled by the majority will the reviews of said if you store in churches and the concept of. these after effects is yes christ every important leader

in man's history has taught us that we should love one another why is this kind of love that you want to bind it borrow it is immoral if it is the last place for oneself and then if i'm man is weak or a woman is weak then she used to. love you does not. need beyond there are very few of us spent in this world by your standards who are worthy of. unfortunately just 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 destroy rule by majority democracy she's out that easter 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 plague but here's a congressman paul ryan the guy who submitted that wacky little budget this is what

he said about it ran more than anyone else this fantastic job of explaining the morality of capitalism the morality of individuals into it i mean we're here today i think she would do a great job and show 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 it targets the poor to give huge tax breaks to the rich so has the entire republican party been hijacked by this bizarre iran ideology and if so how and one of the consequences of joining me now is gary weiss a journalist and author of numerous books including his latest iran nation and hidden struggle for america's soul theory welcome. thanks for joining us from our studios there and is that new york city. where did iran derive her philosophy from

. well she basically there i've been from communism is she fled sallust russia in the early one nine hundred twenty s. and she turned her philosophy is basically derived from time in the in the in the sense that it sort of the poor opposite of communism is all in reactions of the stalinists excesses and she superimposed that reaction on american democracy that's that's the sum total but didn't she also confused democracy and capitalism capitalism is an economic system and margaret is a political system whereas in the old soviet union communism was both if you think that distinction was lost on iran you know i think many distinctions were lost on iran i think iran simply did not understand the american people you know in a century 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 would you would be aiding 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 what arrives redemption. well what you'd see you would see basically a dismantlement of government you'd see every aspect of government with benefits people would just go away all they would have left would be the army you would 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 it 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 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 it was and. she saw the abuse of power by a small number of people who 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 it she had pledged. 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 the 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 to research my books i try to find out why is it that people embrace and even though it's contrary to their own interests you know i marry 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 if you like paul ryan and i think there's a lot of reason for this is what i get into in the war so why do they all they they embrace iran because i read is more than just a narrow political philosophy it's also sort of help. you know that he was kind of a self-help guru and this is something that's lost in the 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 right away at the lena like you have to love yourself i mean although it's what a new age stuff that i wanted it and 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 of objectivism that's kind of what you find there you find a self-help philosophy in

a way it's kind of a it's like a cult to a certain extent if 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 in order philosophy and you've got to understand objectivism if you have to if you want to understand why the country is moving in destruction 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 and her and her objectivism how do you think . jefferson or madison or. washington would respond to iran. i think they would they would test on me and because the founders of this country they believed in adults was a they served their nation and you know in my book i described the conversation i had with their own brokers who is the head of the iranian student from israel and it used telling me and i heard in the book how he really didn't why the aspect of israeli society she he's from israel which in part sacrifice for the nation well this is what the founders were already sacrificing for the nation they sacrificed

their fortunes and their lives for the nation no they were is practicing you know the philosophy of iran and the british they're not of gone with revolution yeah in fact i've talked with iran many times baited him many times and he's just right out front but objectivists don't believe in democracy 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 influence on iran 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 doing the stand you know she she almost made it seem to you 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 to put the really politically important thing is that iran does the all the philosopher of the right who is immensely popular among bass numbers of people are still in the hundreds and hundreds of thousands you can't say that back 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 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. oh there's no question is this big machine it's a speech organization which is pushing very well funded organization which is pushing on rand's philosophy but i think that in order to understand writ you've

got to realise 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 was like a saint talking about earlier about her herself for us the know the way she appealed to the psychology of people so it's not just the right wing money it's not just the after curfew she had a change you would hold on a lot of people on thousands people voluntarily buying her books absorbing the goodness of the semi good as well as the not so good stuff you know the psychology as well as a polish that ologies leaves a doorway to the real right wing politics remarkable theory wise thank you so much for being with us tonight thanks for having me appreciate that iran's philosophy is meant to benefit those psychopaths among us in theory and seductive and enjoyable to read in practice though her ideas lead to people dying let's leave iran in the

textbooks not in all the 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 and i would track your bacon loving special someone buy some bacon scented curfew heading out for an out on the town start the night right was some bacon flavored vodka have a sweet and salty tooth try sucking out of bacon flavored lollipop and if you rub the spell a sizzling bacon all your life on a 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

how is the court being allowed to exercise political and legislative power and why are conservatives supporting it. you know in fact i've talked with iran many times baited him many times and he's just right out front the objectivists don't believe in democracy small democracy for example tell me about william william edward hickman and his influence on iran . well i don't think it so much influence on iran that 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 any extent and you know she she almost made it seem to you 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 and whatever

i think the important thing is you don't have to play the duty to really play at the plate the important thing is that iran does that all the philosopher of the right who is immensely popular among bass numbers of people or books that are not hundreds of hundred thousand she can't say that back anybody else on the right or the left for that matter but you have billionaires who are getting money to 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 ryan who requires all his staff members to read i mean rahm 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. there's no question this is big machine this is speed organization which is pushing very well funded organization which is pushing on real.