but the truth is this time it's the best thing there is again we're in this race we're being i don't mean to talk about the mainland we. are going to washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture as the eurozone nations continue to suffer from austerity economic policies how do we convince congress that austerity isn't the answer to all of america's problems before a member of congress in just a few moments also all across america c.e.o.'s are defying the federal government and forcing their own religious beliefs on their employees the c.e.o.'s really have the right to deny their female employees access to health care what ever happened

to freedom from religion and later in the show we'll have a your take my take wives segment your chance to call in and ask a question or make a comment live on the air. you need to know this ignoring the lessons in europe the united states is set to jump into an austerity economic death spiral this year already thanks to republican hostage scenarios over the last few years forcing deep spending cuts the united states is set to swallow three hundred forty eight billion dollars in austerity measures this year in two thousand and thirteen and includes two hundred billion in spending cuts and an additional one hundred twenty five billion from the expiration of the payroll tax cut these austerity measures total two point one percent of our national g.d.p. which as this chart shows is more austerity the most nations in europe. far including the u.k. france and spain this month we learned that the u.k.

is now in a double dip recession because of austerity and spain which has been choking on austerity for a year now has the highest unemployment rate in europe at twenty six point two percent austerity sucks money out of the hands of working people so the rich people don't have to pay their fair share for deficit reduction and economic growth and since working people are the real job creators not the rich people austerity kills economies all austerity has done to the eurozone as push it closer and closer to collapse it will do the same thing to the united states and considering that a new so-called fiscal cliff looms two months from now and republicans as well as president obama are pushing for more spending cuts and more austerity our nation could be facing a tumultuous twenty thirteen and years thereafter. that is the first day of the new congress john boehner was just elected by his caucus to be the speaker of the house again and now it's up to all of us to get active and convince our lawmakers to abandon the psychotic thinking that we can somehow magically cut our way to

prosperity that's never happened before any time in the history of the planet we need stimulus money not austerity spent. now joining me is a man who was on the inside in congress but now joins the rest of us in the fight to make congress work on behalf of the middle class something he's worked for his entire life congressman dennis kucinich former congressman from ohio so glad to have you with us good to be here with you tonight i want to start with your new project action dot com tell me you know what do you do it well it's one of the many endeavors o.-p. involved in. today was my last day i'm i'm able to devote some time to that but right now everything's

open all possibilities are open i'm. waiting to see what the future brings with what opportunities come forward i'm very excited about what's ahead what the universe rolls the right way. i'm curious your thoughts on this embrace of austerity that are seen in this austerity for home i mean that's really the question and it's it's an attempt to try to. create a. but a mindset in this country that people have to start expecting less and they have to start expecting less in terms of medicare social security. pay other retirement benefits. the problem with this psychology and you've outlined it very well is that it is based on a thinking that's going to just keep on putting american economy in a nosedive. we need to change our thinking and here's what i advocate

congress under article one section eight has the constitutional right privilege to coin or create money to invest in america why in the world if since we have this power do we borrow money from china from japan from south korea when we have the inherent power to be able to invest in our own country to create millions of jobs we should not be in debt. this whole psychology of debt it's self defeating and you know what if all we're talking about is continuing to to cut and cut and reduce and austerity. it sort of and solve the problem of us of a debt which will continue to grow because of the compound interest on the money that was borrowed so if you look at that no amount of cutting is going to be able to successfully break the rapidly pyramiding debt in this country so what can we do we have to regain our fiscal strength and we have to regain our fiscal future by calling the essential

power which the government has which unfortunately gave away hundred years ago but the power to be able to to invest in our own government again we do not and should not have to be borrowing money in order to stimulate the economy in order to prime the pump of the economy we should be getting america back to work wish me talking about wealth creation not even higher i mean we're depending on how the you look at the numbers we're somewhere between ninety and one hundred percent of g.d.p. in terms of debt right now and we were one hundred twenty seven percent of g.d.p. in terms of debt after world war two and we didn't cut our way out of it we grew where we are exactly and if we if we are now consigned to. then we are going to be bound by the interior logic of that system which is that when you start with that you end up with more debt and it was a compound interest what we need to do is break the cycle of deterioration and

downward spiral and reinvest in america rebuild america put millions of people back to work not higher taxes but more taxpayers this is this is a way of regaining who we are as a nation and state of buying into this prosperity which frankly. remember that an economic democracy is a precondition of a political democracy and if we start to see the middle class destruction continuing apace if we see more and more people locked out of job opportunities because of a structural level of unemployment that suddenly has become acceptable then what's happening is we're going to lose our democracy and so this this has profound implications which is why i put forward in the last congress the national emergency employment defense act the need act which is h.r. twenty nine ninety that would give government reclaiming the power of government to invest in america to create the jobs to rebuild america this is not rocket science

but it is putting. the economics as a science in service to the people of the country and it's putting the middle class ahead of the banks toure's and that's not something that congress has to want to do what we have to regain our control i think you have say right in here farewell speech you called for a new kind of politics i found that really inspiring it reminded me of a speech i heard you give i think i bought a decade ago here in washington d.c. you've been talking about this for a long time recap for us what that new politics in your mind would look like and how do we get we have to find ways of coming together as a people the very. context united states is not simply the unity of geographical territories called states it's about the unity of people it's about the power of unity and it's about what happens when we identify our commonalities and what we have in common you know when i ran for

president i was able to see this implicit unity which exists in the country but our politics are about the vision our politics about polarization we have to let go of that kind of thinking and look for those things a unified people and elevate the purpose of our nation we can still do that tom and so through a political career now goes back many decades including service and now so i'm still optimistic of our possibilities but i also know that we have to those of us who've been in public life or are in public life have to be willing to tell the truth without regard to the consequences how did we go from being a country where our president would at a time when it was inconceivable it was imagined as impossible and transistors were just being invented within ten years we're going to put a man on the moon and do it how do we go from being that kind of a country to a country where now we've got you know one entire political party and a good chunk of another saying we can't even quite fix our source how do we did the

question i would like to advance your question and say how do we reclaim that vision that puts us on an upward trajectory as a nation how do we reach again for the stars how do we rebuild america from the ground up. and the way you do it go back to what i suggested earlier is for congress to go back to the constitution article one section eight the power to kleiner create money and use that power finally to invest in america put america back to work rebuilding infrastructure we could be competitive with china which is putting billions of dollars into its infrastructure and find a way for america's vision to be. lifted up again not to be looking down austerity heavy burden the country can't make it no that's not the america that i that i accept the america that i accept is the want of of f.d.r. we have nothing to fear but fear itself we of john kennedy ask not what your

country can do for you ask what you can do for your country the expanded vision that shows you the potential of america i mean even ronald reagan though i disagreed with these prophecies had this idea of of the of the beauty of america and the potential of america to keep reaching up and out we've got to regain that that stats are inherited and when you when we do that we'll find the solutions but we've got to come from a place where we bring people together and get past the partisan divide and i thought one of the one of the high points of the reagan administration was when he said let's destroy all nuclear weapons or let's have peace let's talk about peace absolutely one of the one of the most consistent voices for peace from establishing a department of peace to to campaigning not where are we at today as well the world as weak ones. we've come to accept the inevitability of war but war is not inevitable peace is inevitable for willing to put in place structures to make it happen now i've run into people as i talk about the necessity of working towards

peace which a dentist that's just not practical and i would say was the war in iraq practical was based on lies we did not have to go to war in iraq we do not have to lose the thousands of soldiers at a cost of trillions of dollars with the perhaps a million innocent iraqis perish and we've proliferated proof aerated war around the world we need to pursue state craft as a science of human relations. to enable us to not only reconnect with what lincoln called the angels of our better nature but to also enable us to catch that impulse toward human unity that we are all one that the world is interdependent and interconnected and acting from that we transact our business as a nation and as as a community of people as the most ancient of the most modern wisdom conversely if you notice on it thank you so much for great if you are happy to have it you and for more information how to get involved in consented to action an organization

dedicated to a poly individuals to engage in the political process go to a senate action dot com. after the break forget about creating sensible gun control legislation only way to stop gun violence in america are more people right should we really let our nation's school teachers pack heat in our children's classrooms. something. beneath. thousands of metres of ice. for man. but dangerous even to those who keep it to distance.

i'm going mission and free accreditation free coupons for charges free. range means free risk free studio types free to go. download free broadcast quality video for your media projects and free media dog r t v dot com you.

in screw news if you're ready for a gun toting can a garden teachers to gun groups in ohio the buckeye firearms foundation and the tactical defense institute have launched a training program designed to instruct teachers and school officials in how to shoot guns in the classroom never mind the n.r.a. suggestion of armed guards at every school these gun groups want to arm teachers and every school chairman of the buckeye firearms foundation said people doubted if we would fill a first class that happened in ours this is something many in our schools have been asking about for a long time already more than six hundred applicants in fifteen states have signed up for school gun training at least according to the group and should be regarded

in my opinion as a recipe for disaster just as a gun in the home is more likely to be used against someone in that home than against an intruder a gun in a classroom is more likely to be used against someone in that classroom than an intruder more guns is not the answer to more gun violence so let me answer more profits for the n.r.a. gun manufacturers and gun dealers around the nation don't give a damn about the carnage their products are causing all across america but that's my take let's hear from those joining me now is the ok the senior writer of human events on line and of the guns and patriots colony at welcome back now with the pro card each position i mean like a so well good to be with you tom it's good to have you. doesn't doesn't make a certain amount of sense that we know the disease control the. districts or they're they're pretty clear that a gun in a household is far more likely to be used against someone in that household or in the neighborhood than it is to be used against a true why wouldn't a gun in the classroom be equally dangerous was someone who i've played with

statistics myself so rather than deal with the statistics sure there's so probably some chance of that and i'm sure you're being sincere about it but these are these are parents who are concerned about their kids and they have a right to do what they think they should do to keep their kids safe and if that means that they there are teachers who willing who are willing to step forward and get the training and be there to protect those children i'm not sure that's a bad thing you know the. chicago cop call into my radio show today and he said the rule of thumb here is that in an interaction where a weapon is discharged where somebody's shooting at you when you're shooting back if you can hit one out of five shots you're considered really competent oh sure i mean one out of five shot so here you got a classroom with thirty kids and one shooter and a teacher one out of five shots kill four students maybe kill the guy a. somehow this doesn't and what's going to happen the first time

a kid walks in with a new b.b. gun or play a k forty seven that they got for christmas and the teacher goes nuts and pulls out a sidearm i mean this just seems to me like you're i mean you're making sort of these extreme hypothetical examples but we have a real sort of extreme thing that really happened sandy hook was a terrible terrible tragedy and everybody is looking for an answer these are sincere people who love their children or they would love it i don't mean to but we're not saying let's have all the cadets in the mill or everybody on an army base carry aside our it wouldn't be a bad idea. and certainly you support all that to the army well i mean it was president clinton who did that and and a lot of people who said that in garrison troops in the united states won't carry weapons there was a before that it was more common that a lot of people have the missed inception that the soldiers at fort hood were armed they actually weren't most of them were that there was there was

a military police force they were i mean really the ubiquitous you know for who's basically like a small town but i've been to military bases all the way back to the sixty's i've never seen people carrying sidearms unless they were in training or they were m.p.'s no no no i didn't but you know i think that you know if you think about if there had been an armed person who was trained and was capable you know maybe a tragedy at sandy hook could have avoided just as an armed pilot could have maybe prevented nine eleven well you know if you want to get it gets a nine eleven how about a hardened cockpit door i mean that was something short was proposed by members of congress back in the seventy's after the fourth or fifth hijacking to cuba and the airline industry fought it and you know al al had been doing that since the since the sixty's they're not exclusive but that's but but back to this i i still i can't wrap my head around the idea of a teacher walking around presumably with a forty five honor him because if she's got a lock the door it's not going to do any good and so here it is our hip and or his

hip as the case may be and you've got a bunch of kids running around and you know. some of them on ritalin and god only knows what and who's going to grab that gun for just well i think i think the reality is that most of the teachers aren't going to be armed i think the reality is that maybe it won't be you know isn't this teacher going to be the one that the the out of control kids are going to try to try to take the gun away from it's going to come an object i mean it is a reality yes it could very it could very well be a shotgun you know that may be you know a lot of times people are shot guns because they're they're easier for say a female to hold in a. but a little heavy you know there were a doctoral armed people when gabby giffords was shot neither one of them had a chance to get a shot. yes of course but had they had they been able to had someone been able to it virginia tech i mean you have to even should we insist it was. you know we have we have something like a quarter to a half of the world's guns we got three hundred million guns yeah we've got the

highest rate of gun violence in the world should we be discussing that in the causes of that rather than saying let's arm up more i think what a lot of people have come to recognize that the police aren't there to protect you the police are there to collect evidence and statements and that and that their family also is there and they talk to you to the police are not trained to jump in front of a bullet the police are told to come home at the end of the shift. so you're saying that a teacher should do somethin that a police officer is unwilling to do what i'm saying is if a teacher is willing to take upon this burden we should celebrate it and we should help them i think if teachers want to do this they're mentally ill i would i would pull my bit out which would mean you have and all the old oh yeah they're going to talk to us for joining us now with you. in spirit news earlier this week a u.s. district judge in michigan ruled the domino's pizza owner tom monaghan doesn't have

to provide his employees with access to no co-pay birth control even though it's required under obamacare u.s. judge lawrence that cough granted monahan's emergency motion for a temporary restraining order until a final decision is made in the case monaghan feels that he shouldn't have to provide birth control to employees because of his own personal religious beliefs and he isn't alone hundreds of hobby lobby and national craft store chain are refusing to provide their employees with access to co-pay free birth control too even though multiple u.s. courts including the u.s. supreme court ruled against them and there are dozens of similar cases like these are. cross the country so do c.e.o.'s have the right to force their own religious beliefs on their employees while denying them access to health care in the process joining me now is marine ferguson senior policy adviser with the catholic association moonwalking creatively i'm with you thanks nice to have you with us tonight so why why would you argue that a private employer

a private for profit corporation we're not talking a church here should have the right to in this case discriminate against women based in health care because their religion teaches them that they should well basically the bottom line is we live in a free country and the first amendment guarantees broad protections for freedom of religion so if you have in the case say for example of hobby lobby their christian family they started this business in their garage in one nine hundred seventy s. grown to be very successful company but they're a christian family they don't want to provide free abortion drugs for their employees and you know it should be their right to do so in a free country that was founded upon religious liberty but we're talking birth control pills we're actually in the case of hobby lobby they already provide contraception we said from the start this debate isn't about contraception it's about religious liberty about plan b. and in the case of hobby lobby what they object to are the abortion inducing drugs for their employees and you know they're facing fines by abortion you're talking

about drugs that prove that a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus is a which is an abortifacient which you can which is yes you can actually all hormone based birth control pill you know what you can check the websites of plan b. and ella for example you can check the company web sites and they admit that these drugs can act as a board if a sense in very high doses you know in the in the given doses as well right now and really is a very high dose but. are we playing games of the words here are not and i am saying is that they were suggesting that all birth control pills that are hormone based they don't want to pay for is that. are we talking about the same thing or i think you're slightly misunderstanding hobby lobby's position they already provide contraception for their employees they object to a section they have. abortion inducing drugs ok so in the case of hobby lobby and you know they're facing should mind some one point three million dollars a day that is downright un-american to be fining

a company one point three million dollars a day simply because it's a family owned business and they don't want to violate sort of their new start of this by saying the the first of guarantees us religious freedom my understanding was it guarantees his religious freedom from government the government is going to stick its nose into our religious affairs and and but what about our freedom from religious zealotry by our employers. you know the obama administration has been using a very narrow definition that they've been talking about freedom of worship they've been arguing in court the justice department has been arguing in court in these what because the supreme court this is this is from the you know the u.s. versus lee when followers of a particular sect enter into commercial activity as a matter of choice the limits they accept on their own conduct as a matter of conscience and faith are not to be superimposed on the statutory schemes which are by others no matter if i guess what i would cite is the first amendment which says that we have the free exercise of our religion that means all

week long even to me if my own agrees or everyone is it means if you want to earn a living and abide by the tenets of your faith you ought to be able to do so if you want to run a charity and not just in your the avatar you lobby should not refuse to. take birth control pills or or even pay for their own birth control pills but if their employees want to have comprehensive health care you know what the employees of hobby lobby a lot of other people who take the labels i mean not me contraception the employees of hobby lobby are free to go out and buy whatever drugs they want to it's quite the opposite and i really doubt if the premise of what you're saying. you know and not all drugs and medicines are included in this preventive services mandate i'm going to tell you a quick story congressman jeff fortenberry who is the sponsor of this religious freedom bill on capitol hill he's got a daughter who has a very serious heart condition she has to take medicine every month he has to write a fifty dollar co-pay check for that medicine for his little girl's very serious

heart condition every month but you're saying employees should be able to demand free abortion drugs for their employee when they don't even get free necessary heart medication required on for as. pills check the websites oh yes i will go and see if they had made it so hobby lobby will pay for condoms but not for pills hobby lobby pays for contraception for their employees but they object to free abortion inducing drugs for them it's just it just seems to me that at some point there should be freedom from religion as well as freedom of religion but maureen thanks i'll go with the constitution ok and you're absolutely thanks for having me on thank you maureen workers coming up the phone lines are now open for your take my take a lot of segments so if you want to chance to ask a question live on the big picture give us a call at two hundred nine zero four twenty one thirty four you talk here right after the break.

let me let me we're going to let me ask you a question. on this network is what we're having the pain we have i. mean that's right just by staying there if you get your interest rate will be and i didn't really talk about the i mean let me.