i'm simply hartman in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture. the american legislative exchange council claims to be a nonprofit public charity and is thus exempt from paying taxes but if you ever heard of a charity that rights legislation on behalf of corporations i have been also tomorrow outstanding student loan debt in america will surpass one trillion dollars for the first time in american history so what you students do tomorrow to celebrate is not so happy day in america. and later well the haze of last week's four twenty clears where does the effort to end richard nixon's war on drugs stand today.

we begin tonight with the american legislative exchange council also known as alec on monday the organization common cause filed a complaint with the i.r.s. arguing that alec should be paying taxes you see alec claims to be a nonprofit public charity it is those exempt from paying any taxes a common cause as well as anyone else who knows exactly what alec is really up to knows that that's all a masquerade it's all a sham alec is not a public charity and never has been a public charity it's a right wing think tank that gives new meaning to the word lobbying by writing its own corporate friendly legislation and then handing that legislation off to republican state lawmakers to pass and there were specter of state legislatures to corporate profits at the expense of working americans and that's what alec is

that's what alec does as the president of common cause said. in a statement quote alec tells the hour i.r.s. and its tax returns that it does no lobbying it exists to pass profit driven legislation in state houses all over the country that benefits its corporate members alec is not entitled to abuse its charitable touch that is to lobby for private corporate interests and stick the bill to the american taxpayer a common cause is calling on the i.r.s. to force alec to pay years of back taxes and penalties but alec is pushing back saying this complaint is nothing more than a tired campaign quote to abuse the legal system distort the facts and tarnish their reputation so alec claims it's not a lobbying organization ok then how do they explain this as it is republican swept into power a year and a half ago a slew of corporate friendly legislation started appearing in state houses across the country wisconsin ohio and indiana went to work causing legislation to break up

public unions and strip away their rights to collectively bargain texas tennessee kansas and again wisconsin went to work passing radical new voter id laws that will disenfranchise millions of mostly poor elderly and minority voters people who tend to vote for democrats republicans in alaska minnesota new hampshire and again wisconsin tried to or did pass shoot first laws like the one that killed trayvon martin down in florida in addition several states as well as the republican controlled house of representatives have been pushing legislation to prevent the e.p.a. from regulating coal ash that toxic shown that spews out of coal power plants in america all of this is been happening together all of this in what looks like a concerted effort by republicans to push an extreme corporate agenda so what does all of this legislation have in common what's the connection between public union laws voter id laws shoot first laws and the anti e.p.a.

laws. i'll give you a hint these laws were all written by or are at least carbon copies of legislation written by the same singular organization and that organization is alec corporations are writing our laws folks but alex not lobbying right there just in public charity right joining me now is megan carpentier executive editor with ross story of the show thanks for having me thanks for coming on so i love the irony of this story because here's an organization that has corporate members that write legislation so that their corporate members don't have to pay taxes and now alec itself is you know could be in trouble for not paying taxes do you think this iris complaint. has any wage do you think the common cause has an argument i think causes a great argument except legally speaking when it comes to lobbying law as well

being laws are written by legislators and so of course there's always a little wiggle room and so lobbying laws are very specific about what counts as lobbying and what you would think of lobbying or i might think of lobbying doesn't count in the same way that newt gingrich can claim to never have loved. never so. if i talked to a member of congress and said you need to push for this legislation need to pass this legislation that's a law but if i write the legislation and i just hate it to them to go that's not lobbying well in fact it depends a little bit on the state but if you go to just one or two legislators and you don't spend enough of your time doing it and that even doesn't count as lobbying the first time these laws are filled with loopholes the state law and then the federal laws which of course is what the i.r.s. is based on a completely different from the state parts so there's this huge patchwork of laws that cover what is or is not lobbying in most cases is not lobbying even though you

and i or anybody reasonably thinking about might consider it to be and so it's all it everything falls into these loopholes in the most liberally designs considering you know it has had a stranglehold on these lawmakers they might beat the rap on this one but it's still pretty negative attention and this is been a month in which more than a dozen corporate members of pepsi co you name it have left. could we be seeing the i mean we're just disbanded it's not economic forces could we need. because we know it or at least i think all this influence as it's as it used to. what's important understand alex finance is these corporations represent a huge part of how alec is funded and finds itself in funds the meetings where these corporations and legislators get together and interact in how to develop regulate these kinds of bills that they're pushing in the states what alec has always done is to corporations it's sold itself as a place where you can go kind of

a one stop shop for state level lobbying so you can go and get access to a bunch of legislators from different states all at once at a meeting and push your same piece of legislation whatever for corporate taxation and on the side they've been doing. in their non profit their non non-corporate non taxation task forces doing things like the stand your ground laws because you have similarly minded legislators on the same place those are obviously not good for corporations but they've always until now they haven't cared that's been going on of things they find yeah i mean we have just about thirty seconds left how crucial is it for the progressive movement for just movements of general that are wary of corporate power is now out of the shadows that people are talking about oh it's been around since the early seventy's but it's just now starting to get attention in the media i mean how important is that i think it's important sunlight is a great disinfectant as the sunlight foundation as the saying goes on to have people actually paying attention and caring for ones that this stuff is going on is

really interesting because mostly this sort of lobbying and state level lobbying and falls under the radar most the time well said well hopefully we'll see what happens and hopefully this is the start of something more to come and it disappears let's make them thanks for having. the issue of alec boils down to one single question in a representative democracy like we have in america who or what exactly should be writing our laws there's tons of answer. there's a bigger picture here that needs to be talked about and that's exactly who or what should be writing our laws i mean this is really a much larger issue frankly than whether somebody should be able to show you know rather than trayvon martin or george zimmerman or whatever the question is who makes our laws you know you would think that the laws would be driven by a process of public outcry in other words when the people say we we have a problem we need

a legislative solution the legislators would react but there's no outcry for hey i want to shoot first it's not like you know it's just this country's been around two hundred twenty plus years two hundred thirty plus years it didn't just suddenly say you know she we need we need the option to shoot first but walmart and the n.r.a. they very much a lot of people have the option to shoot first because you know if it's a justifiable homicide it's fewer lawsuits for wal-mart plus that's the biggest gun retailer in the united states and the n.r.a. that's the trade association the represents the gun manufacturers so this diminishes their liability increases their sales so wal-mart n.r.a. on this council at the at the american legislative exchange council that puts together this law and then it gets passed off to through alec through the american legislative exchange council they can put the koch brothers funded gets passed to one of these meetings where the legislators are sitting literally next to lobbyists

republican legislators state representatives and state senators state is everyman sitting next to lobbyists one on one. the legislators pay one hundred bucks to be there and we case of virginia the state paid over two hundred thousand dollars to send their legislators these alec needs and the rabi is can pay anywhere from twenty thousand to one hundred thousand dollars to sit next to that legislature and they have equal votes. the republicans have a lobbyist equal votes a democratic congressman from wisconsin are poked him paid a hundred bucks and went to an alec meeting came back and told us the story. would be principally do is it if it could be getting serious for a corporate lobbyist or legislators they get you to gather they have you write legislation they have cast stores interestingly are made up of half were displayed in half an industry lobbyists when you needed both a majority vote from each group for something to do and so you actually never did write the registration to vote on the legislation or corporate support to yes. this

is not the boxer saying that's not even a republic that's corruption what we have right now is a nation that has been captured and not just our nation our state legislators and legislatures as well which is the focus of alec has been captured by billionaires and a lock. in addition to produce seen the the laws that are of benefit to the corporations an obvious these things are producing unintended consequences like the death of trayvon martin americans are right to be discussed in our progress as are fighting back this month color change and other organizations threaten a boycott against corporations who are alec members and immediately alec sponsors started dropping like flies today candy bar maker mars struck alex so to do arizona's largest company arizona public services they join coca-cola pepsi into it kraft wendy's and gates foundation all have dropped their ties with alec alec calls the boycott intimidation campaign back they released a statement saying it's harder in job creation and real solutions that improve

dialogue among political leaders is needed most now its mission has never been more empowered a mission of corrupting democracy i mean that admission is to advance the interest of the one percent and the big corporations both in the ballot box by pushing legislation that will disenfranchise millions of democratic voters and the economy by pushing legislation that repeals things like environmental laws screws public service sector employees unions gives legal cover to gun sellers alec is one of the biggest threats to our democracy frankly in my opinion and the fact that they're responding this to this boycott this way means that it's working so let's keep it up wake up your friends and neighbors and ask your politicians call him up and just say hey are you have number of alec do short of those things to take money from the koch brothers spread the word. coming up after the break tomorrow the total amount of outstanding student loan debt in our country will top one trillion dollars for the first time in american history well hero occupy wall street plans to commemorate this moment

a step. wealthy british style. is no time to rise. market finance scandals. find out what's really happening to the global economy with my next concert for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to the reports on our t.v. . more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has

been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations rule today.

twenty fifth marks an ominous ominous day per college graduates in america it's when the total amount of outstanding student loan debt in a country tops one trillion dollars that's trillion with a t. trillion dollars for the first time in american history by some estimates college loan debt has already topped that staggering mark and now also for the first time in history outweighs total credit card debt and total automobile debt in america whatever the exact number is it doesn't matter college loan debt is to quote former new york gubernatorial candidate to make million too damn high the proliferation of expensive for profit private colleges the spiraling high cost of tuition the budget cuts the federal pell grant programs and the anemic job market for young people are all inflating it's student loan debt bubble and to make matters worse interest

rates on student loans are about to double something that president obama warned about today in chapel hill north carolina but aside from president obama just talking about it hardly anyone from our lawmakers in congress to the student loan profiteers on wall street seems eager to do anything about it but the occupy movement is doing something about it and getting directly involved in this issue that affects so many millions of americans. here to tell us about plans for a national day of action tomorrow on the student loan crisis in america is pamela brown with the occupy shooting campaign and a more welcome to show hi thanks for having me thanks for coming on first off what our viewers need to know about tomorrow's day of action. well here in new york we are having a four o'clock rally in union square where reverend billy and the his stop shopping choir will announce the debt jubilee along with david greenberger and frances fox

kevin as well as jill stein who is the green party presidential candidate so it's a mock celebration because we are breaking the link between higher education and wall street tomorrow and so we thought we would celebrate this this horrible milestone with the banks or. that's great you mentioned a good you believe you want to get into the explain what that is. well historically when deaths have been incredibly high in societies what's been necessary to maintain. just harmony within society has been to erase those debts and so that's basically what a dead jubilee is those jubilees come every fifty maybe one hundred years we certainly haven't had one here in the united states so we thought hey why not one trillion dollars we may as well however own jubilee yet it probably be one of the

best things we could do economically for a whole generation of young americans coming out trying to find work i mean this this is an issue that president obama's been speaking out a lot about on lately here isn't exactly made many friends with the occupy movement as far as the wars go the security. the environment you know tax cuts for the rich things like that is this is this an issue in which he can start to forge some sort of support from the occupy movement on in what is he to do to do that. well i think that today one of the things that president obama has been working on is trying to rally his support to just simply keep the interest rate on newly generated newly originated student loans i three point four percent rather than rising back to six point eight percent and that is of course important but it's actually a fairly small measure as a small move a small reform that we could benefit from compared to what's really necessary.

the occupy movement is engaged in taking direct actions having a much bigger change i mean we actually believe that education is of raid and that therefore there should be access to education for all right now we're talking about sixty thousand dollars a year for tuition at a private college that's in saying that's a lot of money so we're looking for a much broader change you mentioned education is a right i mean that's something that most of the developed world already considers except the united states a real quick what's a website that people who want to get involved can check out. it's one day at dot org one as a number one see it as in t. for trillion day dot org ok one. org thanks a lot people bro all right thank you. take notice of what's happening tomorrow in point

a rally near you and demonstrate against the raiders student loan in america the next generation is counting on you. now on to the failed war on drugs the haze of last week's four twenty is clearing and today more americans than ever support marijuana legalization as gallup found for the first time ever a majority of americans now support legalizing the rectory ational drug with incredible method when this will benefits it is marijuana that means regulating it taxing it and selling it just like alcohol which i might add is a far more lethal and dangerous drug in marijuana but despite the widespread approval for legalization president obama hasn't gotten the message and is even going back on his words regarding medical marijuana rates in march two thousand and eight when running for president president obama said this quote i'm not going to be using justice department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue

despite making that promise to not use federal agents to crack down on medical marijuana dispensaries that are operating in compliance with state law president obama is just that president obama's justice department excuse me as conducted nearly two hundred raids on marijuana facilities roughly the same amount conducted during george w. bush's eight years in office and president obama's raids have occurred and nine of sixteen states plus the district of columbia that have passed medical marijuana laws meeting to sixty one federal indictments all since october of two thousand and nine most recently just this month the justice department raided and shut down the legal marijuana trade school known as oaksterdam university in oakland california without giving a single reason yet as to why it was shut down so where exactly does our drug war stand today as public support for marijuana legalization reaches new heights if federal crackdowns continue. ethan needleman is the executive director of the drug

policy alliance and he joins me now to talk more about this issue ethan welcome well it's a salon it's always good to be on that great to have you on so we have high public approval for legalization. colorado california they're all poised both poised to vote on ballot initiatives in november to legalize marijuana yet the federal rates continue where do you think we stand today in our efforts to you know literally end the drug war. i will tell you the polls we just showed are incredibly inspiring when you see the change in public opinion going from thirty six percent in favor of just five six years ago to fifty percent in favor first time ever a majority of americans in favor of legally regulating marijuana like alcohol all their transformation in public opinion is basically more almost as dramatic in some respects more dramatic than the shift in opinion on gay marriage is that over the same period of time now unfortunately politicians including president obama are

incredibly scared of what might be called the third rail of american politics i'm so afraid to touch this issue so i think this is an evidently an issue which is going to bubble up at the level of state government and civil society and public opinion on medical marijuana and eventually on the full legalization of marijuana and we're the last we're going to get the message are going to be congress in the white house right where you said you said that this is a third rail of our politicians are afraid to touch this touch this well there's a difference between not going out and actively championing legalizing marijuana. and going out and cracking down. on facilities why do you think the president broke this promise i mean what do you think's behind. this hardline approach to legal marijuana dispensaries why i think what's going on tom i don't think that obama is proactively ordering people to go where through the marijuana dispensary it's peak

what he's demonstrating is a failure of leadership he made these commitments as you mentioned both during his campaign in early ministration and in the first year of the obama administration the federal law would basically come back and they defer state or local regulations area but i think what happened is that a number of the federal prosecutors around the country especially in california colorado i once had decided they were going to take the initiative and they were going to go after these dispensaries they were going to shut them down they were going to set acid forfeiture letters and they weren't going to tell anybody. why they were picking out one or the other they were just going to create a climate of fear now is only so much the white house can do in terms of telling us attorneys not to enforce federal law because none of us attorneys are always saying it's all illegal under federal law so would i condemn obama administration for is not so much the individual raids that you never know exactly which ones were playing by the rules what rules and which ones weren't already condemned before is this aliar to send

a clear message that the federal government continues to defer to responsible state and local regulation in this area when you have hard worked out legislative compromises passed by state legislatures signed by governors democrat and are ok and then when the federal prosecutors are i.r.s. or d.a. or a.t.f. agents come in and deliberately violate state law then that's an explicit repudiation of what obama said he was going to do there from the focus needs to be today they're great point i mean right now where this is a state by state strategy versus trying to get ballot initiatives on the state. at a local of our i guess at a state level i would point to we had a tipping point and go for the federal level i mean even to california and colorado passed these initiatives to legalize marijuana that's not stopping federal agents from coming in. do you see a tipping point in the future and where is it out well or if those triple as you showed on a gallup poll continue we're going to hit some point on the line here look seventy

percent of americans have been in favor of legalizing medical marijuana for a number of years sixteen states of legalized it is almost a million legal medical marijuana patients united states but still congress is not the only thing in the white house is not showing leadership when it comes to the full legalization of marijuana really like alcohol there's a chance that one of these initiatives to legally regulate marijuana either in colorado or washington state and this year on election day both are leading in the polls right now there's little question that the federal government whether it's obama or romney are going to come. there through them if they do but i think it's more that public opinion supports this the more states that say we're leading the way get out of the way federal government we want to do is responsible and what you are federal prosecutors are doing had nothing to do with protecting public safety public health i think we'll get it tipping point when sixty percent of americans you know say that and we see more and more states legalizing it in a state where you're asking the feds to support them rather than to undermine their

road and you know you're an expert on this issue and if you were a betting man and i said the overunder survive years on the federal government and in this this nonsense of walking people up for the guy on marijuana would you take the over the under here got fifteen seconds it's going to take more than five years we've had medical marijuana for fifty years the face to all do it it's a lawyer campaign this is a long term struggle we're going to win it but we can't give up now we can rest on false hopes also do you think people of the great work thanks for coming on tonight thanks so much. seriously it's really about time we stop throwing people in jail for getting high on park. coming up speaker of the house john boehner thinks republican the republican controlled house is in danger come november so did republicans make a critical error when they put contraceptive use ahead of job creation.

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