blogs are in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture austerity has taken out greece spain and italy now is trying to destroy the united kingdom's economy to get americans prevent the great economy destroyer known as austerity from coming across the pond also president obama hinted last night that he may support a ban on assault rifles the one used in the colorado tragedy last week is this just another empty promise of good america's comprehensive gun laws reform in the months to come and thanks to the new pennsylvania voter suppression id law almost half the city of philadelphia may not be able to vote in november republicans are afraid that they can't win the keystone state without blocking one of our most fundamental rights.

you need to know this in two thousand and nine the u.k. the conservative party leader david cameron announced a coming age of austerity he warned over the next few years we will have to take some incredibly tough decisions on taxation spending and borrowing things that really affect people's lives and so it was two thousand and ten cameras conservative party won the election and as prime minister cameron was able to bring his austerity vision to life what followed were massive.

through two thousand. you had a couple of quarters of economic growth this was as his policies are beginning to take take the politics of fact and then crashing down to the point where it's you know collapsing three three consecutive quarters and you had the riots in the streets in this in the syria here i mean people are getting this doesn't work this is an absolute absolute designed disaster the wyatts really were the direct

outcome of this so the economy in the in the u.k. shrank as a result of this which then leads to an even worse problem which is that now you're spending is smaller in this part of the chart now this spending by the circle is it's still you know it's a lot smaller than we started out on the richer condom is smaller and your tax collection then drops some more because you know the economy really sucks and so people are making money set up in taxes it's a death spiral not a good thing not a good thing at all and bats what's going on here austerity is the blueprint for economic destruction it's happening in greece it's happening in spain and italy it's happened in the u.k. and it will happen to us to it mitt romney and paul ryan are successful in bringing their economy crashing austerity agenda to united states stay tuned now for more on this while welcome dr tom palli economist and senior economic policy adviser to the a.f.l.-cio associate with the economic growth program at the new america foundation

dr paul he's also the author of the book from financial crisis to stagnation and thanks for joining us great to have you with us tonight thanks don't let me. recover my share here so first of all this little riff that i did any. anything i missed no i don't know if they had an excellent presentation but we can say is that in the united kingdom they've been running an austerity experiment and the results of that will start a policy experiment are in austerity it does not work or study does not revive a condom ease or sturdy actually she sinks them and that's confirms what we as you said we've learned from greece we've learned from spain we've learned from italy right now i've heard it. there are actually winners in austerity that the banks are getting a fair amount of money they're getting bailed out the people very high and their taxes are going down is this. just bad economic policy or

is there is there a kernel to this economic policy that actually benefits some portion of the populace that causes them to promoted the banks on the stock market and not benefiting from most already that been it is benefiting from monetary policy which is needed but works by inflating asset prices now i think. what we need to get across to you of us is why austerity is such a bad idea and it's really a very simple economics when you're in a recession what that means is the private sector is short of spending short of demand and when the private sector is short of demonic government should step in and fill that gap until the private sector recovers like f.d.r. did in the thirty's won't like f.d.r. did as the thirty's got rolling you know f.d.r. at least had the excuse that we didn't know about this was the lessons of keynesian economics that we learned at that period and we should know better now and by the

way this is a particularly deep recession because as you mentioned there was this big build up before the financial crash that howso households of very indebted now and so they don't. have the spending because of the debt even more we need the extra spending if you cut taxes if you cut spending you're just going to get into that vicious cycle whereby you cut spending you cut employment you cut income that lowers taxes more need further spending cuts a vicious cycle downward austerity in a way what's the best metaphor for thinking about it thinking think of the economy as a person sinking or you need to do is throw them a life a life jacket austerity is like throwing them an anvil you know it seems sort of like maybe anorexia or something you know vienna rex except this mental image of themselves as being fat and they just keep getting skinnier and skinnier and well. i don't want to make that i won't make that parallel i think we've got to do two

things here is make people understand how. dangerous. austerity is in the economic logic that i think i've explained is really quite simple and we've got to see through this conservative argument because i think what the conservatives are doing in the united kingdom and here with the republicans in the you know in the united states they're exploiting anger and misunderstanding. there is anger about the economy and unemployment and there's a lot of misunderstanding about how deficits work with regard to government people try and make the parallel between a household and a government but a government is not a household the government can do things that a household can't do a government can spend its way through a recession in a way that an individual household conned into people need to understand that meanwhile there's also a banking crisis that seems to be you know there's

a chicken egg thing here but sandy weill's had for a while the guy who built citi group and had on his wall little plaque that said a glass steagall destroyer or breakers of words to that effect very very proud of the fact that he busted up glass steagall watch this clip of him yesterday. on television see him b.c. . so i think what we should probably do is go and split up investment banking from banking. have banks be i should take years to have banks make commercial loans and real estate loans you have banks do something that's not going to risk the taxpayer dollars that's not going to be too big to fail. so and and becky quickly he was talking to us like wait a minute that's more radical than glass steagall and he was like you know let's do this. is he just suggesting this because the banks are under attack and if they

were to break them up like much like one thousand. in the antitrust action stockholder equity actually went up as a consequence of that that this might be very profitable for the banks to be taken to don't know what his motives are but i do know it is a staggering admission and i wish we would have a few more admissions about economic policies that we've had and that need to be rolled back so it's a fantastic thing to hear because we do have a too big to fail problem what it does is it it is actually a subsidy to the biggest banks because people who are doing business with those banks will lend into those banks with depositing with those banks know that those banks will be bailed out if they get into trouble that's what too big to fail me simply bailed out because we can't afford to have them fail because they pull down the system and that then makes these big banks even more powerful against small and smaller banks is no longer a level playing field and that of course encourages them to take excess risks puts

the simplest of more in jeopardy and of course is a political aspect to it as they get so powerful that they are able to affect our political system so we have a too big to fail problem that we need to deal with and actually there are two solutions sandy is talking about one of them and in the last minute we have here isn't it time for us now also to say supply side economics you know the demand side was the classic economics we need to be and we have a demand crisis that reaganomics supply side economics has been a failure again the evidence is it thirty years of supply side economics trickle down does not work i mean that the theory of trickle down again i love. the saying of john kind of cold breath one of my favorite economists he used to say the late john that kind of corporate talk about trickle down is it's a theory that if you feed an off to the horse some of it will pass through to feed the sparrow and it doesn't work i say trickle down economics only produces

a nation of. courser but thank you so much bob it was like a big thank you. coming out in a speech to the national urban league last night president obama hinted that he may support a ban on assault rifles in the u.s. as the tragedy in colorado triggered a turning point in gun control in america and we finally got to see some sensible regulations.

those stores are here. for going global and it's doing my. laundry and. choose your place take your stuff. to. make your statement. for the world. it's true.

in the us there as the news mitch mcconnell blinked yesterday senate republicans

dropped their filibuster and allowed an up or down vote on extending the bush tax cuts for ninety eight percent of americans voted fifty one to forty eight with not a single republican supporting the measure democrats extended the bush tax cuts for all americans making less than two hundred fifty thousand dollars a year another bill proposed by republicans to extend the bush tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of americans was defeated thus the burden shifts to house republicans who plan to vote in the coming weeks on legislation to extend the bush tax cuts for the richest two percent of americans as well a move the senate just rejected and a move that president obama has promised to veto so now the only viable option of tax hikes on all americans at the end of the year is the senate's bill which calls on the romney level super rich in america to pay their fair share in taxes again time to call your member of congress a few republican if they're republican and tell him or her to not whole middle class tax cuts hostage. now on to an important speech given by president

obama on wednesday night one week after the colorado massacre of the president urged common sense gun controls like full criminal background checks for gun purchasers and new measures to ensure the mentally ill can't buy guns the president also hinted that he'd support a ban on assault rifles saying this. forty seven's belong in the hands of soldiers not the hands of criminals. on the battlefield not on the streets of our cities. president obama sounded more like senator obama who had a much tougher stance on gun control supporting a ban on all semiautomatic weapons as a state senator and as a us senator voting down legislation that would have protected gun manufacturers and sellers of laws suits when someone is killed using their products despite the conspiracy theories coming out of the n.r.a. and other gun interest groups gun rights in america have actually expanded under president obama thanks to president obama people can carry concealed guns in

national parks for example and also they can carry guns on amtrak trains not one time as the president tried to restrain the second amendment in fact the brady center to bring gun violence group that gives politicians grades on gun control issues gave president obama and af after his first year in office as in he's completely failed to pass any gun control whatsoever but are we about to see a turning point after yet another high profile shooting massacre in america let's bring in mike papantonio attorney and host a ring of fire radio with robert kennedy jr mike welcome tom how are you just great and it was great to see in seattle last week and by the way i want to play somebody program it was want to play something congress congresswoman carolyn mccarthy said last week and listen this. i always look at it this way no one from the n.r.a. is ever going to vote for me and they're just not they might even come after me on other issues but the thing of it is as a politician

a lot of politicians know it's the right thing to try to fight for something to save lives they don't have a spine and the more the pander to who's giving the money certainly the the the gun lobby outspent gun control groups seventeen to one on lobbying last year is the congresswoman right. well she is right for a lot of reasons first of all i don't know if you saw the report by paul wald when paul waldman really deconstructed this idea that the n.r.a. is such an effective political entity as far as affecting elections what he did was he looked at the margin of victory he looked at money spent he looked at in our a contributions a very very important story that paul walden did hear what he found is the n.r.a. had virtually no impact no impact on one close call elections as a matter of fact he went as far as to talk about the idea that they do put in big bold money but the money is so it's spend so many different jurisdictions of the by

the time it's over it comes about two thousand five hundred per election so what they are tom is a paper tiger she hit it on the head obama is not going to win the solid south anyway which is the heart and soul of the n.r.a. turn out the lights in alabama turn out the lights in mississippi north florida louisiana he's not going to win there that's heavy in are a territory the the president when it came to gay rights and marriage equality sort of danced around with this for a while and then got a little closer to it with the rhetoric and then. arguably vice president biden either jumped out ahead of it or pushed it but then the president just kind of jumped in with both feet do you think the in his remarks yesterday that we're seeing the beginning of that of a very similar dance and if so do you think that it might come to fruition before the election that that might actually get him support from americans who are freaked out about the you know the assault weapon ban for example expiring or might

he instead wait until after the election tom i'd like to think that would make a difference but i remember this was the man you know obama when he ran the first time he came out and he said look we have to do something about the assault weapon ban that had lapsed if you remember clint. puts in place the assault weapon ban where you couldn't buy. you could buy a one hundred round mag you couldn't buy a fifteen he put something in place that was important lapsed after ten years obama came back and said as part of his campaign i was there one when he was out talking about the idea that we have to do something about assault weapons nothing happened because in obama's mind this paper tiger i wish he would this paper tiger exist and are a paper tiger i almost want to say to him go read paul waldman report and understand that you really don't have anything to worry about are they going to put money

behind their effort of course is it going to cause you some gray hair to fight this yes but that's what leaders do tom leaders lead and you can't come out to the american public and say i'm going to do these things and then totally ignore it to the point to where the right the gun rights expand in this country to where we have tucson he says he's going to do something after tucson if you remember we heard he's going to get on the ground he was going to change after tucson nothing happened all i hear is the zulus read comments that we have are people working quietly in the trenches the american public wants him to work not quietly in the trenches but to be a leader leadership requires that you lead what do you what's your take on mitt romney coming out and intern interview. i think was tuesday saying you know he was asked about the shooter in colorado and he said well the guy you know had the guns illegally and so you know changing the laws and going to make any difference was he

just wildly ignorant an out of touch or was this part of the message in the republican messaging you know that that is so often so deceptive i mean they're now openly embracing the idea of taking obama's quotes out of context and. turning them into ads and turning them into giant you know kerfuffles on fox news which was she think that was i'm often caught in trials we're. going to turn in a case and i'll have the defense for a big corporation use exactly this and that is that for three days they can tell a lie they can perpetuate the lie in some people on the jury might by the law because they don't look beyond the lie that's what they're counting on here he knows full well that what look he signed legislation in massachusetts himself he's the one that came out and said when he signed the gun to the ban in

assault weapons in massachusetts his talking points were we have to do that because nobody needs one hundred one hundred mag high capacity magazine you don't need that and you don't need and they are fifteen he knew when he when he made that point that you just gave us that a person can go online and buy six thousand rounds ten thousand rounds he knows most guns most gun sales sixty two percent are actually take place on a black market that we've done nothing to try to control so it's just another etch a sketch moment for mitt romney and he's never going to leave that's why i say obama must lead because this is a character who doesn't have the character or the backbone or the honesty to lead the american public there was a young couple in the theater that night who in colorado. she was pregnant nine months pregnant he was shot in the eye he is in

a medically induced coma she just gave birth to their child their first child neither of them have health insurance the hospitals in fact and or they're dealing with you know over fifty fifty eight i believe people who are in many cases very very badly wounded like this many of whom don't have health insurance they're there they're raising millions of dollars for this but doesn't this highlight not only the need for rational gun control in america but also for health care to be a right rather than a privilege it's the way that you see a health care issue get legs that's the irony or unfortunately this horrible event that takes place the suffering that comes out of it sometimes it takes an event like that to to raise an issue like you're talking about the need for better health care in this country i think of that i think i think of that but i also think of i know you saw this where you had republican talking heads that were engaged in victim blame for people like you just described that it was their fault that they

were shot it's their fault that they don't have health insurance why don't we talk about things like health insurance or our gun control it's always that misdirection it absolutely is my pappa tony thanks so much for being with us tonight. thank you joe let's hope members of congress grow a spine say no to the n.r.a. has blood money and an axe and much needed gun controls to curb this epidemic of gun violence in america. now onto a very important story coming out of chicago the windy city just became the latest to approve a resolution to amend the constitution to overturn the supreme court's citizens united decision the resolution approved unanimously by the city council says we need the mare and the members of the chicago city council of the city of chicago call upon the united states congress to propose and send to the states for ratification a constitutional amendment to overturn citizens united the federal elections commission chicago now joins two hundred eighty cities and six states that approve

similar resolutions to amend the united states constitution get your city involved to go to men move to amend dot or. crazy alert not your average bird bath when you go to the beach you expect to spend a few hours laying on the sand soaking up the rays or maybe playing around in the ocean but you don't expect to have a flock of seagulls have just been fed a laxatives drop a barrage of bird poop on that's for sure however that's exactly what happened to some very unfortunate beach goers after a group of teens played a prank on them like covering potato chips with laxatives and feeding them to the sea gulls the whole thing was filmed on tape as you can see it was rain bird poop

for a while and the droppings were falling on beachgoers fast and furious i'd hate to be that guy whose hair got saturated by the seagulls a little baby sure doesn't seem to be too happy after some time people saw what was happening started packing up and running for their lives i guess you could say it was a very proud he did. after the break in philadelphia alone for he three percent of the voting population will lose their right to vote as a result of pennsylvania's voter suppression id law or republicans in the keystone and key battleground state going to succeed in the rigging the november election for mitt romney.

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 the day. pool started here before going global and now it's cooling fire. choose your place take your stuff. and. make your statements. spoiled towards. my goals

through the long. haul about the big picture on top of carbon coming up in this half hour what did do if you're a republican in pennsylvania and you're afraid president obama will take the state in november.