well i'm john berman in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture as democrats gather in charlotte corporations continue to flood are a mocker see an election with millions of dollars how can we fight back against all the corporate cash and reclaim our democracy also a new movie is out chronicling the links that a mother and school teacher goes through to improve the education of public schools is that an accurate assessment of public education in america or a knock on our teachers and was playing cliff at the d.n.c. last night of ted kennedy all know when mitt romney in a debate

a low blow by democrats last that in tonight's alone liberal rumble. you need to know the swell democrats were taking is taking the stage at the d.n.c. to make an argument for why president obama deserves a second term the bankers who are making their own plans wall street is on pace to break it ominous new record spending more money in this election than any previous election ever previous record was set the two thousand and eight election when wall street dropped one hundred seventy million dollars in the races all around the nation but according to the center for responsive politics with two months still left to go until this election wall street has already spent a jaw dropping one hundred sixty four million dollars well on pace to shatter the two thousand and eight record so far sixty percent of wall street's political spending this election is going to republicans with a huge chunk of change going to wall street's favorite candidate mitt romney all

together wall street along with other transnational corporations millionaires and billionaires are expected to spend upwards of two point five billion dollars this election by far the most ever spent in any election and. thanks to the supreme court citizens united decision we the people who are supposed to control our democratic republic have been sidelined all the oligarchy run the show so the question is how to working people get fired up to fight back and crawl through this avalanche of corporate spending for answer that as well as organized labor is role in the d.n.c. i'm joined by james hoffa general president of the international brotherhood of teamsters president hoffa welcome back. good to be here great to have you with us we've seen labor protests outside the convention the site of the d.n.c. is north carolina which is the least unionized state the nation how strong how are the ties between labor and the d.n.c. and will labor be there to help overcome wall street's money. will be there all the

way we might not have the money they have with the koch brothers children a dosen people like that that are going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars but we have boots on the ground and we are all for operating all the unions are together we're talking together we're planning together we can make sure we get the vote out that is what it's all about boots on the ground make sure we're organized get people registered to vote and that's what we're doing and we think we're looking good right now we're very pleased where we're at and obviously we're very pleased with what happened yesterday at the convention another great night tonight we're planning and we think we're in good in good shape right now but it's going to be a battle you can't take anything for granted and we're going to be there the american auto industry is surging how much do you think that the democrats should be touting that accomplishment between now and november why i think it's one of the great accomplishments especially when you contrast that with mitt romney that said that

dunham over should go broke. or go into bankruptcy you know basically the obama administration made a big gamble with regard to the auto industry they invested a lot of money in it and we were able to save our auto industry and today you know general motors ford and chrysler are doing extremely well they're producing high quality cars we've got hundreds of thousands of people back to work both teams truth and u.a.w. so when they ask you are we better off today than we were you know in oh wait there is no comparison people are back to work asked a guy that was laid up with no wait it's back to work now if he'd better off ok you recently made a comment compare. in the tea party of the john birch society the tea party chorus funded by the koch brothers and and also by multimillionaire. dick armey and the john birch society founded by the koch brothers father to freddie franco there you go right there riff on that. one i mean it's obvious to me this is

a replay of one nine hundred sixty four others extreme right wing is taken over the democratic party i mean the republican party they've moved this party to the far par right now they've got right to work on the platform you're talking about tax cuts for the rich getting rid of you know capital gains tax you know getting rid of suits security medicare medicaid i mean it's bizarre for our this party has moved to the right and i think they're really hurting themselves because they're basically playing themselves out of the game there is no appeal here you know you talk about the big tent i swear to god that the republicans are playing small tent . no women no gays no blacks small or no labor smaller and smaller tent you can't win that way but i guess we've got to teach it well they're going to try it as long as within that small tent they've got all the billionaires and multimillionaires or at least a large chunk of them do you think there are there there is there in that town

you're right yeah do you think the american middle class is going to wake up to the scam that romney and ryan are trying to pull off here before election day think they'll wake up before election day. well i think we're going to see a lot of slick ads come out here they have unlimited money they're going to outspend the progressive people in this country you know eight to one but i think common sense is we know this is not what we want we don't want a country that you know basically rewards the rich and basically you know pulls up the ramp so no one else can advance in this society and that's what the republicans are presenting to us so i think that people are going to see through what they're doing the small tent is not going to work and billionaires and millionaires they happen to small tent and we're going to make sure that we win this and and show that this type of exclusionary you know rich people pull out of b. is not going to work in america this is a democracy and we're going to show that in november and then then we need to emphasize unions are democracies within these kingdoms of the companies like mitt

romney is to run james hoffa thanks so much for being with us tonight president office thank you very much bob while some of the democratic party's top stars speak inside the arena in charlotte this week a great deal attention is being paid to a movie playing outside the arena the movie is called won't back down it's a hollywood production which stars maggie glenn doll and wheel of davis and chronicles the actions of a public schoolteacher a mother who combine forces to help reform a local public school. in fight with something good you have to break a teacher. to. the child something going to work a little harder to be included you want to take over the school with me. and that's how i think it's a knock. however the movie which also played during last week's r.

and c. isn't getting rave reviews and everyone movie by the way is about a parent using the so-called trigger laws that have been passed in california texas ohio and connecticut you know the brainchild of ben austin formerly an employee of an attorney for green dot public schools a for profit charter school chain the movie was produced by wall to media which right wing billionaire philip anschutz backs and shots has made other films promoting for profit education like waiting for superman which also tax teachers and unions and is partly funded by billionaire bill gates joining me now to discuss more about the controversy surrounding the movie is randi weingarten president of the american federation of teachers and she's. not ready right yet so let's check out what's going on right now live at the d.n.c. . twenty first century global economy prosperity requires leaders committed to creating good jobs by investing in our future in our poor roads

bridges airports in energy and telecommunications and in our public schools. leaders who are serious about rebuilding our manufacturing economy leaders like the rock obama and job offers a hit and we know that the wealthiest and most powerful among. those who have benefited most agree the recent years must do their part to help rebuild america see prosperity requires economic security and we will stay with leaders who strengthen and protect social security and medicare and medicaid not those who plan to cut benefits the working people pay for our own and are counting on the old. so that was rich trumka president of the american or the a.f.l.-cio now

with us is randi weingarten president of the american federation of teachers talk about that movie that i was just telling you about funded by cranky billionaires and you know there's apparently randi a lot of money to be made in education what's going on in your field. so what's going on is they're not holy alliance between lots of cash strapped mare's and right wing governors and other elected officials who know that parents want a great education for their kids and who know that education and the economy are linked together but they don't want to spend the investment or go to the public for the investment so they demonize and scapegoat the teachers who are the only who are the ones trying to make a difference in the lives of kids it's

a first recession or getting out of recession i've ever seen where instead of teachers being lionized they become vilified and so then in addition to that you have these outside folks who basically say we can't make it for cheaper we can do it cheaper just let us do it for profit so we don't have enough money in the system to help all kids get the art music for example they need and some of that is now being diverted in terms of opt outs or in terms of reckless schemes that already have proven not to work what if there is there is a can i think a legitimate concern in you know that many public schools are not doing well right now what is and obviously the right is offering a solution a lot is to get overall make some money but will make the schools better you know sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't it seems more often than not it doesn't what is the what the teachers union solution what's your suggestion. so we actually

have a whole bunch of things that we would suggest to do and in the places that have done it we've turned around schools but it really requires teachers and parents working together and that's you know and and and it and and what we're trying to so this is what we're trying to do. we have to focus on four things at the same time because there's no silver bullets in education yet to focus on who is teaching not just some great teachers but like finland like canada like singapore the places that outcompete us we have to have all great teachers so we have to prepare them we have to support them we have to evaluate them and if somebody can't do the job they shouldn't be there after we've helped we've tried to help them that's not the one who's teaching number two it's what they're teaching we need to actually restore art and music insensible education as opposed to cut them we need to actually have this new core curriculum which is actually a line to what students need to know and be able to do in the twenty first century

and in english that means how to actually apply knowledge critically think and things like that so who's teaching what they're teaching number three if you could just summarize number three and for number four we're out of time here but quickly amazon's number three is you've got to actually help mitigate poverty twenty five percent of our kids are poor and number four is we have to work together and in those districts that have had that happen we've turned around schools like in new haven that is great randi weingarten thank you so much for being with us thanks so much will be right back. here is mitt romney trying to figure out the name of that thing that we americans call a dollar. because the guy who cares about. you sir are you know what that is my terror cell if you want to wish to defeat terrorism be on

live from the price point you. can really look at it. you know the corporate media distracts us from what you and i should care about because they're profit driven industry that sells a sensationalistic garbage because. the breaking news i'm having martin and we're going to break that. some of the folks. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear see some other part of it and realize that everything is ok. i'm charging welcome to the big picture. the free.

you. know and. and welcome back here's a live look at what's going on in charlotte right now at the democratic national convention and now for more reaction from the ground at the d.n.c. i'm joined by congressman steve israel representing new york and the head of the dea triple c. congressman welcome tom great to be with you thank you for joining us i'm i'm

curious what your thoughts on you know how it's going to work here we've got on the republican side twenty or thirty some odd billionaires who are throwing massively more money than the democrats are going to be able to raise in any way under any circumstances into this thing and they've committed to basically by this election and on the democratic side you've got you know all this talk about you know where we're here with the middle class for working for the middle class and is the middle class going to get it or are they going to believe the t.v. ads of the billionaires well let me tell you something on last friday august thirty first the democratic national campaign committee raised and that one day online one point three million dollars in one day. thirty six thousand contributions and the average contribution was about thirty bucks you know how many thirty dollar contributions it takes to raise one point three million and so it is true that mitt romney may have a bunch of his super pac buddies and super rich friends but we have a grassroots that is animated that is fighting because they understand that we want

to invest in the middle class we want to focus on the middle class and the only thing mitt romney's republican friends want to do with the middle class is lay em all and ship their jobs offshore we get that message out tom not only does barack obama get reelected but we elect a democratic majority in the house and we preserve a democratic majority in the senate that would be an extraordinary thing and then that would be you know it's so important frankly i think for the democrats to take back the house there's been very little discussion about that in the media and you know maybe it's just assumed that. the billionaires you know bought the all these. tea party seats the last time around and those people are going to hang on to them i'm frankly a little skeptical what are your thoughts you think the democrats can pull this off and take control of the house of representatives where all the legislation is supposed to originate we've got it in range when i started as chairman of the democratic national campaign committee recommended to our caucus by leader pelosi

we were we had the ball on our own twenty yard line and we didn't have a path to the goal we didn't have a view of the goal it looked hopeless now nearly two years later we have driven the ball to the republicans twenty yard line where we're in the red zone now and a good football fan knows and i say this because the new york giants are playing against the dallas cowboys tonight during this convention you know that if you have the ball on the twenty your palms twenty yard line your ability to score depends largely on the wind if president obama does well and gives us a little wind at our back i promise you we will kick that field goal will be in the majority if we have a wind against us no we're not going to get the majority and if there's a neutral environment still wind maybe maybe not at this convention i feel really confident the energy that we see here and the message that we are sharing with the american people that we're going to have a wind at our back we're going to take this majority and we're going to be making

sure that we have a house of representatives that is fighting not to close down planned parenthoods but to open up small businesses that's what this election is all about. it definitely is congressman israel we have just half a minute left what would you want our viewers to do in response to seeing you and see in the d.n.c. and to help to help democrats take the house you're here's what we're up against these super pac donors this is a fight for the middle class if you can make a contribution to the triple c. or the d.n.c. if it's three dollars do it if you can't make a contribution do a phone bank knock on doors this is the defining election in terms of the middle class so whatever you have the capacity to do do it because failure is not an option we're in this together there you go congressman steve israel from new york democrat from new york thank you so much for being with banks tony thank you well we'll get back to we'll get back to more d.n.c. coverage in just a moment but first onto news that mitt romney doesn't want you to know about

romney's connections to being capital may end up being a political liability sooner or later on last week's show i talked to about a little known history of romney's time at bain when he forced the government to bail out his struggling company that's right mitt romney and bain were the recipients of a government bailout take a look. as tim dickinson rolling stone uncovered bain capital's parent company bain and company ran into serious financial problems in the late one nine hundred eighty s. and mitt romney was tapped to try to save the company the company owed more than thirty million bucks to a bank that had been taken over by the f.b.i. see the federal deposit insurance corporation after failing again and again to get the company back on track romney decided to play hardball with bain's creditors basically forcing them to write down bain step romney gave everyone a take it or leave it deal take thirty cents on the dollar on every dollar the beno owes or he would loot the company divert whatever remaining assets were there

toward paying big executive bonuses then declare bankruptcy and then bain's creditors including our government the f.d.i.c would get nothing. that hardball worked the f.d.i.c agreed to take just a fraction of the money the bain owed them and forgive the rest of the debt huge bailout for bain. in other words romney didn't build it himself but this might be the least of romney's been problems in york times is now reporting that since july new york attorney general eric schneiderman has been investigating mitt romney's bain capital for tax evasion and is now one of a number of private equity firms under scrutiny from the new york attorney general's office which is alleging that bain and other companies illegally filed income as capital gains when it actually wasn't a savoyard ing a larger tax bill is the new york times reports bain's may have saved as much as two hundred million dollars in federal income taxes more than twenty million dollars in medicare taxes support and know that romney is still collecting fat paychecks from being capital in the us if the allegations are true romney is still

profiting off screwing over our government and you and me the american taxpayer then again with all the cash he has stashed offshore accounts in the cayman islands and switzerland he may have his own tax evasion issues to worry about keep an eye on this story. now for more reaction from the ground at the d.n.c. i'm joined by congresswoman donna edwards representing maryland's fourth this are congresswoman edwards welcome back to the program i thank you it's great to be with be is great to be in charlotte yeah i'm i'm guessing it really is i mentioned earlier on the show on the wall street times is. how wall street is setting a new record this election season with money spent by the people you're talking about of the d.n.c. prepared for this on slaughter well i think we're preparing i mean we know that we're not going to be able to fight them dollar for dollar but what we don't have in dollars we make up in boots on the ground and what does this mean for our

democracy this whole concept that the republicans can base their their entire electoral strategy on basically twenty five billionaires. well you know i think it's very dangerous for us and as you know i have been a strong opponent of the way that money has played into the system the decision that the supreme court made in citizens united versus the federal elections commission two years ago and we're seeing the onslaught in the aftermath of that really bad decision and the impact on our democracy in our elections i think people are fed up quite frankly i think you know particularly in some of these swing states i actually live in. suburban maryland but we're in the virginia television market and so we're exposed to all of those television ads by the super pacs in a swing state and so i can see what the what some of america's experiencing right now and i have to tell you i've had it and i know that people across america have had it so i hope it's

a wake up call for us do you think people do think the average american is going to realize eventually sort of the way californians did with meg whitman and carly fiorina you know who spent just fortunes trying to get themselves elected and then watched you think the average american when they see these ads that are sponsored by these nice sounding front groups for karl rove and for the for the chamber you know americans for bunnies in the field or whatever you know americans for mom and apple pie that they're going to start looking at those ads and saying that billionaire money i should i shouldn't be believing that do you think so. well i think part of what they will do one you know they don't know who's running these ads and people are already starting to ask questions like who are these people and they're finding out it's a handful of billionaires and it's a little uncomfortable because it's a little greasy and i think that there's a tone to them as well that you don't get when somebody like me running for office has to be on my ad say who i am and then i i agree to the to the content of the ad

. you know me i so i think there's a real opportunity for us to turn the time quite frankly and you know there's a point of overload and we may begin to see that with this election where there's so much money that's been spent that it is soo overwhelming and actually doesn't have the kind of power that it mine yeah well of let's hope that that's the case how important was michelle obama's speech last night to setting the tone of the d.n.c. it seemed so this really was a very big deal well i think it was the whole evening i think what you saw from democrats in our first night as compared to the republican convention is that there was a theme throughout the evening that led up to the first lady lady's unbelievably powerful speech there was an electricity in the arena last night with the women members of congress you know standing up for women with individuals speaking about

their own struggles but how that connects to a policy agenda that's about what government can and should should do and then the first lady speaking from her heart and i have to tell you there probably wasn't a dry eye in the arena because she talked about the president's character and his integrity and what she said is that he's a constant this is not about politics this is not about gaming the system it's about doing what's right for the american people that's what i heard from the first lady and so the first day was great and it just gets better and i would think that that stability that michelle obama the first lady obama so brilliantly presented about her husband would be a pretty stark contrast to mr flip-flop and mr romney congresswoman donna edwards thanks so much for being with us tonight thank you to really enjoyed it thank you let's go to the convention floor were congresswoman nancy pelosi is speaking. when

you go to the powell's vote for the american dream vote for strong democratic majorities in the united states senate and the house of representatives vote for vice president joe biden and president barack obama. to. even listen to congresswoman nancy pelosi is live speech at the d.n.c. convention in charlotte north carolina after the break. is america a selfish society like the want to vision by republicans are really all in this thing together as our founders ask our panel and that's a long liberal rubble. mr

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