videos for your media projects free media. oh i'm telling are going to washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture according to the australian deputy prime minister the biggest threat to the global economy is the republican party of the united states so are the republicans is the republican party the most dangerous force in the world that i ask our panel in tonight's big picture rubble and americans pay millions of dollars per year for so-called upgrades to our infrastructure but those upgrades never come out of the nation's utility companies

get away with playing fast and loose with your ardor and money last david cay johnston in tonight's conversations of great minds and in today's daily take our the corporate elite in this country working to stop progressive's and turning america back into a. friday are you ready to rumble joining me for today's big picture rumble our friend jessica chambers editor and publisher of red alert politics the reverend de alexander bullock president of the rainbow push detroit chapter and laughlin mark a investigative reporter with the heritage foundation let's get started taxes are in the news but romney did a twenty year dump only he didn't actually put out his tax returns and study just said i'm going to tell you about them you can take my word for it but what he did reveal is that in his. current tax returns he for last year he's not taking

a deduction for a one point six or seven or whatever his million dollar donation he gave to the church which keeps his income tax above thirteen percent although next year you can file an amended return and drive it back down but this year as the political career at the same time we discover that across the united states in all fifty states poor people pay more than rich people here's some examples in florida the top one percent the state taxes the top one percent pays two point one percent the bottom twenty percent pays thirteen point five percent in illinois the top one percent pays with four point one percent the bottom twenty percent pays thirteen percent in nevada the top one percent pays one point six percent the bottom twenty percent pays eight point nine percent in taxes the top one percent pays three percent the bottom twenty percent pays twelve point two percent we have two tax codes in the united states anybody who's working by the but the sweat of their brow by their mind or their muscles pays a thirty six percent top income tax rate anybody who makes money by moving money

around like mitt romney a base basically tax rate for banks pays a maximum fifteen percent rate which is why he's only being thirteen percent isn't this fundamentally immoral francesca well first of all going back to the mitt romney comment you know mitt romney paid way more than his fair share in taxes he paid nearly twenty percent in taxes and that's a way far above and beyond the claim he's on he's claiming thirteen percent that's an average over the last twenty years i believe those are twenty last year it was thirteen percent he said that he had never paid below thirteen percent in taxes and that over the twenty years he actually paid fourteen point one percent in taxes now the last year it was that he had paid the twenty percent in tacloban the house with her but how that's without the deduction for his church so you think claiming he is not claiming that the dollar he has three years to file an amended return and say oops i forgot to give me that money back and i get back what it's really you know it's not fair to attack mitt romney for something that he hasn't done yet. not only

an attack on mitt romney other than i think it's a hostile i think you know he's trying to keep it above thirty percent because it would actually dropped twelve point two percent if you took the air ducts he paid twenty percent in taxes which is far above and beyond his fair share barack obama wants americans to pay for rich people to pay more sort of their share if it was more than what he's required to pay if the surgeons in this town who are saving people's lives making one hundred fifty two hundred thousand dollars you're paying thirty six percent why should mitt romney pay twenty percent of his twenty million dollars you know what to do exactly right i mean this is completely ludicrous it's immoral this country right now we're seeing the rich getting richer poor getting poorer and no roof for the rich no floor for the poor in deed there's a war on the middle class and the working man and woman mitt romney and the poor and mitt romney needs to pay his fair share there's no reason why in the all fifty states in the land of the free the home of the brave you have poor people actually pay more of their fair share having a higher tax burden on the state level while at the same time someone who is

supposed to be running for president who is supposed to be representing everybody is just out of touch with the complete reality that folks on the local level the average citizen who's hardworking of the people that make this country great are the ones actually carry more than their fair share this is not right so so. the morality of this rather than the economics of this isn't isn't there a moral issue here where we do it by the way ronald reagan pointed this out one thousand nine hundred eighty six i believe it was when he finally got the top tax rate maybe was ninety three to get the top tax rate down to twenty eight percent and he raised the capital gains rate up to twenty eight percent so they were the same so romney would have paid the same as a guy work and you know as the surgeon the hospital on the street and he said we've got to get the clips someplace but i can't player now but he said is that is it fair that a millionaire pays less in taxes than a bus driver i think that's crazy well i think the state tax issue that you meant.

important one because we're not talking about just income taxes here we're talking about host of different taxes and a lot of those taxes disproportionately affect lower income people things like taxes on tobacco sin taxes lot of the axis on everything pretty much everything going by absolutely rational policy to make sure that there aren't these loopholes and deductions that only people who can afford tremendously expensive accountants can take advantage of or are you in favor of doing away with the capital gains tax you know i'm in favor of so you think people who make money with money are the blessid few among us who should get a special lower tax rate than those of us who actually work for a little any time they draw income from those capital gains they're paying income taxes on it you know absent fifteen percent rate you terror cell and six cents out of the pool and pays a maximum fifteen percent income tax rate on her investments but if you work for a living you can pay up to thirty six percent somehow that doesn't seem fair and i've seen it i mean on the one hand you've got people who make money by moving money around and then on the other hand you've got the forty seven percent of these

are just people who want to job and who want a house because you want to egypt and jordan shouldn't you be asking parasols to pay the same tax rate as everybody else but you're using paris hilton as an example or logically you know or any you know i'm saying but to use a hollywood star or whatever as an example versus those people who are creating jobs the job creators are the people that they're serving hires people with that money she's creating jobs she's got a bottle or she's got a waiter she's got a wife describe the dalai lama and she's hiring people isn't that what we want out of america's rich people she would still hire people even if shoes paint a thirty six percent income tax rate she's got millions could she hire as many people if she were course you could she's standing she has led to the losable income she has less money to hire people francesca i want to i did i wanted to talk about the immorality i honestly find it outrageous almost to say that mitt romney is not immoral when this is. the guy who we're just talking about gave thirty

percent of his income to the church to during the night to see mitt romney other than that i think he's he's you know plain playing number games with his tax returns for last year for political purposes but i'm not calling him a more i'm calling the system him all i'm saying shouldn't we be changing the system well should we go back to what ronald reagan said only and have a millionaires pay the same tax rate as opposed to i think we should reform the tax system and that there should be a fair tax or if you know laughlin is not in favor of doing away with a capital gains tax he wants to keep a special rate on multimillionaires what about you i don't think that's exactly what a lot then said but i absolutely believe in some sort of in tax reform i think that republicans and democrats would agree on the sense that we need to have to make money with money pay a lower tax top tax rate than people who make money working but i agree with what laughlin said about how those people are paying taxes in other areas after they make that money they're paying income tax they're paying her bills every time so you're still in favor of people together against it i am in favor of reforming the

tax code period ok last comment on this topic and you know and i think the tax code should be fair it is not fair for people who make money moving money to have a lower tax burden than people who do hard work people who are in manufacturing industries and the poor and so we must just really cut past and sift out the small takes and put this country back on the path to greatness and it begins with the equality in the tax code ok i'm with you on that the biggest threat to the entire global economy according to the the number two and the prime minister the deputy prime minister and the prime minister of australia is the republican party of the united states who watch this. maybe we don't have it ok well i get the australian prime minister oh here it is great there we go. let's be blunt but he knowledge the biggest threat to the world's biggest economy. the

cranks prices are the type. of the republicans despite president obama's good will is strong if it's the national interest was held hostage by the rise of the extreme tea party wing of the republican party. and they can be few things more alarming in public policy than a political belief which was genuinely pleased to see the government albeit not stop its default on its obligations in the water to school a political point so yesterday chuck schumer was quoted as saying it came on the presence of that he's been talking in the back rooms to a bunch of republican senators who are saying we're looking for if mitt romney loses we're looking forward to get rid of the tea party crazies and stop all this nonsense and go on back to actually legislating is the contemporary republican party captured by the koch brothers in the tea party is it the most dangerous force in the world absolutely i mean they have the country confuse we're trying to figure

out of the president is a muslim was he born in this country does he have a birth certificate well we need change in trade policy while we need to beef up american business we need to put americans back to work the tea party has america confused and then this political philosophy that says you know will sink the ship you know just to shame the captain while i'm on that ship i mean there are a lot of people on that ship and so you're going to sink the ship just the same the captain i mean this is what's wrong this this this culture of divisive this politics of difference this obstruction this politics this is not the america that i hope to be in a cell to hear that that's refreshing we need to move past this kind of tea party culture where you think you know australia did tremendously well in the current economic downturn compared to most other advanced countries a socialist country well the i.m.f. said it was in no small part due to due to the tremendously small amount of debt compared to g.d.p. in australia twenty five thirty percent. i will say though that was an imperative

for other advanced countries to get that under control so that's fine but our government is twenty percent of our g.d.p. australia's government is almost fifty percent beside the point what i'm saying is that when the and he says we need to call it under control not raise the debt limit above where ever it's sixteen seventeen trillion for a country that has benefited from a tremendous lawyer and you want to change that observation. and i'm talking about what the tea party wants what the tea party is shooting for what this guy is criticizing his chance for huge is actually just a minute he loved it's all yours francesca thirty second i think that strongly disingenuous to derive the division of politics in america while slamming the tea party and i don't think that it's fair for but that is what happened and i don't think that it's fair for you know us to say oh well the deputy prime minister of australia says that that's a threat so that somehow it's right we need to know is that he's a major progressive the prime minister is a major progressive that's like saying that center for american progress thinks republicans are a threat so therefore they're a threat

a lot of liberals are as it really is going on really great they're not crashing right now they're run by progressives you know that right before that though they were rammed by conservatives when they were rammed by conservatives the conservatives say the same thing of barack obama oh he's a major threat whatever so he has a hero i mean like republicans will say that of democrats progressives will say that of conservatives that's really what we're talking more rumble right after the break. here's mitt romney trying to figure out the name of that thing that the americans call adult. i'm sorry i missed you guys here's an awful lot of what you said are you know what that is my carousel if you want to see the future race on the on the liberal and the christian. i can see you're totally

out of people but. you know the corporate media distracts us from what you and i should care about because they're profit driven industry that sells us sensationalistic garbage he calls it breaking news i'm happy martin and we're going to break that. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture .

above. back to the big picture rubble joining me are francesca chambers editor and publisher of red alert politics the reverend dee alexander bullock president of rainbow push detroit's chapter and laughlin mark a investigative reporter with the heritage foundation let's get back to it paul ryan spoke to members of the a.a.r.p. today in new orleans and let's just say didn't get the best reception take a look. the first step to a stronger medicare is to repeal obamacare because it represents the worst of both

worlds. and that wasn't the only one a booed over and over and over and people walked out and finally he just walked off the. out of here and they were booing him on the way out so you know it has by by proposing. some years ago that social security be privatized be turned over to social security and more recently having passed through the house of representatives two budgets the suggest that medicare should be used as paul ryan just devastated the republican but let me start with you laughlin we i mean the a.a.r.p. it should be noted makes more money if health care premiums go up so the notion that they that they have the best interests of the earth members don't realize that the a p is basically an insurance salesman they don't get the i won't use the members of regurgitating what leadership tells them quite clearly the a.a.r.p. as an organization does not have the best interests of the american health care system at heart and i should also note that there is that about the a.a.r.p.

this is about paul ryan getting booed when he said we need to and obamacare at a paul added a r.p. event yeah we have mostly retired people yes so it wasn't lawyers who were members of an organization that benefits from obamacare booing obamacare being repealed but doesn't strike me as particularly surprising you know for him that he actually went in there and said what he thought and didn't. change his message based on the audience he obviously knew that that wasn't a popular message with that audience and he said it in a way unlike me who talks to millionaires differently than he talks to no you know that's not what i'm saying at all and i don't think that's comparable but what i am saying is that there are a lot of politicians who will say one thing in front of one audience and say something else and from another audience to gain favor and paul ryan went in there and stay consistent with his message and i think that's important because if he had it we'd be sitting here talking about help all ryan is a phony you're you know you're really no i agree with you in this that's a good point and in this modern day and age of everything from flip phones to cell

camera you know cell phone cameras and whatnot it's pretty hard to be the kind of the old fashioned kind of politician who would say one thing to one group and you can't do that anymore but the root of all of this is that it takes i mean we can. take this moment and elevate it and say well paul ryan is a man of integrity now because he doesn't flip flop says he's consistent consistently out of touch you know that's what that's what this proves i mean and so it's great to see that just when you think the american people don't know window blew it they boo at the appropriate time. romney and ryan have declared war on the middle class they have declared war on working americans they have declared war on people who make this country great and this just is just another nail in the coffin keep it coming right here i have declared war on the people that make this country great cause if i remember right it was obama who said that you didn't build that he was the one who declared he said here i don't have all read between that we didn't . say anything think if anyone did what we declared we're going to bury president

barack hussein obama the first african-american president of united states of america and we look at the agenda of romney and ryan that want to see what middle class one is obviously for equity in the tax code one is obviously for making sure that people have access to health care and the other is just for the rich getting richer no roof while the rich no fuel for the poor we must at some point in this country does. that we're going to strengthen the safety net and stop american citizens from falling through the cracks that's president obama so laughlin you you look like you are about to jump on our beat i don't i don't like questioning the motives of people people's policies you know i think republicans democrats both think they have policies that they feel are best for the country i don't you know i don't think anyone's out for. this isn't so massive you know the republican party is not just out there to screw over the middle class and poor people like you know there's an ideology i guess there's a back to our writing on

a napkin anyone's motives of paul ryan and mitt romney or anyone else i think doesn't have a place in civilized political body but what about impugning the reality i mean i think the user we know you identify any country in the history of the world that has ever cut its way to prosperity cut its way to prosper i mean this is the republican agenda let's you know and in fact in twenty five states not have any laid off employees and what you've seen in those twenty five states those republican states twenty four states is you have seen their g.d.p. go down their unemployment go up whereas in the twenty five republican or democratic states where they've actually invested more and raised taxes and spent more money you've actually seen g.d.p. go up and unemployment go down there will be cuts that have to happen to some government services it's inevitable possibly raise you know the tax revenue to cover our soul let's close some of our seven hundred military base ok well that's that's certainly a position valid position to take my point is simply that the cuts will have to take place significant cuts so we can do that now when we could while. the other

bill clinton aspiration we had a surplus george bush's first state of the union address he spent about six minutes of that talking about how he was going to pay off one hundred percent of all the debt in america that was. about how the president was going to trim half off the debt my point isn't to blame this on one number so if you're not going to do it i don't even think it's brock obama's fault i think this is. a systemic widespread problem is surely getting to reagan and i and the point is simply that we cannot continue on this trajectory so accepting that the decision is whether we make cuts smaller cuts in services now or larger cuts in services later we raised taxes on rich people and then to our merchants rich people do not have enough money to cover the mass not even the deficit let alone the national debt right now actually if you if thirty seven percent of our federal income used to come from corporations now it's eleven percent we used to have a top tax rate of ninety one percent now it's thirty six percent and for rich

people it's only fifteen percent when that top tax rate was ninety one percent in the thirty's the forty's the fifty's the sixty's and the seventy's we had the for the first time in the history of the united states four consecutive decades where g.d.p. grew more than three point two percent a year it had never happened before ever in the united states and it's only happened in two or three countries ever in the history of the world as soon as as soon as reagan drop that top tax rate all of a sudden was hot money hey let's gamble and everybody and we when we moved into a bubble economy and thirty years of reaganomics has devastated america you can look back or you can look forward to point is looking forward i'm saying to try to mind that where you have to have a reputation against reaganomics i mean it's always interesting and people want to talk about cuts but these are not the people being cut i mean the people who are going to be affected by these cuts this small government this fiscal accountability are the poor are low income americans are working class americans so you cut fire

you you cut police for instance in in michigan you take fifty percent of the lighting out of the city of detroit you take now literally live right you take ninety five of the lighting out of city of highland park in the name of fiscal responsibility but somehow the suburban areas the influence areas they have police they have fire they have lice and so the cuts don't cut equally right and this is what we're going back to the romney and ryan a j. this tea party republican party is bad for the country and we must stop this movement at all calls well and it's not just that i mean there's a systemic issue here that has been going on for at least thirty years of a lot of a commute right track way back before that but for instance francesca in in chicago in the chicago school system the entire chicago school system spends a little over eight thousand dollars per student per year in the average of the suburbs around chicago twenty three thousand dollars per year how can that be right in america the richest nation in the world well you're not going to convince me

that chicago who needs to spend more money you know i mean if they did that they could take that money how you did that pays all the suburbs good at what they should do in chicago is that exactly what rahm emanuel tried to do and i never thought i'd be hearing myself say that but they need to increase the merit based pay they need to you know agree to what i'm saying to yeah and then they write it is beneath the streets for several days trying to try out is that. ok maybe a little bit maybe a little bit by but my point families actually baby strollers. my point being the teachers really tried to go against that and all they were really asking for was to hold them more accountable what the teachers were asking for was was was a school system where one third of the schools don't have libraries to have all have library know what it's like to reference in the schools for massive raises that they didn't deserve considering that kids are legally the only right you only reason that they could go on strike legally was for salaries so that's what they

put out but that was not the issue the issue was and they were very clear about this and so is rahm emanuel who both sides admitted that this is not about salaries what this is about is the fact that you've got fifteen thousand six hundred kids in the chicago school system who are homeless and that and then it this school system is serving millions of kids over a million kids there or there were only seven hundred counselors i mean not enough to there's a. eight hundred schools in the system and the issue was just part of it but it was a big part of it they literally would not stop the strike because they weren't getting the salary ok listen let's talk about the salary that the two top performing school systems in the world are singapore and denmark now what are these two countries have in common singapore as a dictator city state i've been there you literally you chew gum and spit on the sidewalk you go to jail in the in the taxis the taxi driver has the way the last one i was in had a little bit when he hit a certain speed his literally a little bell went off in his car so he backed off on the speed because they will

they will stop you if you're speeding beats you up and put you in jail singapore is a dictatorship and and denmark is like the most liberal hippy country in the whole world you know and they've got you know pot colonies and. what do these two countries have in common what they have in common is that in both those countries they are the two countries where teachers are the most highly paid in the world in both those countries it's very hard to become a teacher and teachers make as much as physicians the only countries in the world where teachers think as much as doctors and they get the best educational outcomes should we learn something from that you could learn something from the experience of the states should say the cities around the country you know the chicago teachers made average seventy one thousand dollars before better actually starting pay for teachers at a fifty one thousand no advantage to be an income in the united states is forty six thousand and it takes six years to become a teacher to be eligible for schools was to decide you're telling me that only one thousand dollars is the second highest average of any city in the country paying

teachers and chicago outcomes are ran this they are potential spending eight thousand dollars per student and they get fifteen thousand homeless kids in their schools years i mean they're spending eight thousand dollars per student and seventy one thousand dollars per teacher again second highest i mean is there a little bit of a you think the teachers should be a race to the bottom with no i thought it was a resource allocation reallocation is in order. if students are being so neglected and teachers are making as much as they are and the students are still. there systemic problems when you start talking about education and you have homeless students have students who don't have students whose parents don't have employment i mean you have students who live in communities that are impoverished blight everywhere drugs limited fire limited police i mean that affects their outcome in the classroom and you know i really tire of people trying to shackle teachers with with the burden for failing students as if students don't come from

a context and so we must expand our view and we talk about how to help every student make it how to level the playing field one yes we need to have equitable spending you can't spend eight thousand dollars per pupil in one district twenty three thousand another in this in this is a national problem you go to the urban area you know it's you know seven thousand eight thousand per pupil you go to suburban areas it's fourteen it's fifteen is twenty. one we need to level the playing field in terms of what we are investing in economically but then we also must stabilize the the the neighborhoods that these students live in. will come back and continue the conversation more rubble right after the break.

it all sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and.