well i'm tom foreman in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture. in the last decade america has been involved in wars in iraq and afghanistan and the mainstream media has been all over both of them there's a war going on right here at home all across the nation and no one saying no we're also as the debt limit fight heats up it's looking more and more like the republicans will try to blow up the economy so they can get their way republicans refused to raise the debt limit how much damage will that inflict on our economy

and reagan created tons of public sector jobs to help lift america out of recession in the early one nine hundred eighty s. and republicans happily went along with it so why are they providing president obama for doing the exact same thing today. you need to know this want to tell you about a war being waged in america today. history is littered with the corpses of those who thought they could conquer the world or at least the known or important world through force of arms alexander the great caesar hitler the celts the ottomans the catholics various european asian american empires in the seventeenth century dutch the eighteenth century french to the one nine hundred centuries british and the twentieth century soviets and americans others like the aztecs are less well known

to westerners europeans and asians but no less ambitious all use some variation on war force of military power to accomplish their goal all won over the short term and then collapsed over the long term making the relatively safe assumption that the american empire is in the process of collapse right now so who's next on the rise in economies of the world like the bric nations brazil russia india china all have the potential particular the chinese all are off also pretty focused on regionalism but there is one group that has declared war on all of us all over the world and already won some significant victories and it's not a nation or a government or a terrorist cell or a rebel organization this time it's a class of people it's the creditor class but economist henry george called the

runty a and we today generally referred to as the billionaires and here's what they're doing the top story on the sunday january sixth twenty thirteen online edition of the financial times is headlined banks win more flexible basel rules by brooke masters. the lead paragraph noted that international banks received a new year philip or gift when the new regulations out of the basel bank regulators meeting announced that the first ever global liquidity standards would be less onerous than expected and not be fully enforced until twenty nineteen four years later than expected you see two years ago international banking regulators proposed strict new regulations on banks forcing them to hold on to close to assets in case they might need them to survive another market crisis but after years of lobbying by the world's biggest banks these new requirements were watered down giving banks

a lot more flexibility to take the exact same sort of risks they were taking back in two thousand and eight which brought about the financial crisis in the first place but made them a ton of money in the process perhaps the a single most relevant sutton's in that article the financial times started the results are largely good news for bank profits it was a proxy battle with sovereign government regulators pitted against trans national banking behemoths and hang in the balance the safety of our financial system but the banks want which is what we should expect is this war has raced past a critical turning point now sovereign governments no longer hold power the banks hold power this is the point italian trader alessio was making on the b.b.c. not too long ago. but this is not a time right now to wishful thinking the government going to sort things out the

governments don't rule the world goldman sachs rules the world we have become in the united states and increasingly all over the world a society with only two classes. those who own like banks and transactional corporations and those who know like small businesses working people young people old people governments the owners of the takers own vast wealth and loan it out at interest to the rest of us they're continually receiving that interest back in ways that are either tax free or tax to very low levels here in the u.s. we call it capital gains interest dividends and carried interest a working person will pay as much as thirty nine percent in federal income taxes the federal income tax for the mitt romney's and paris hiltons and lloyd blankfein of the world is now capped at twenty percent as they own the helmsley famously said only little people pay taxes the zero zero ers the indebted find themselves trapped

on a lifelong treadmill paying interest and fees to the takers the zero ers are also mostly the workers people who make things for manufactured goods the hamburgers and so they're rightly called the makers they make stuff unlike lloyd bent blankfein and goldman sachs who makes nothing other than dangerous financial instruments that pose a lot of threat to our economy for a brief period of american history the greed of the takers was kept in check by the makers mostly through the actions of their unions and elected officials like f.d.r. and truman and eisenhower kennedy johnson nixon ford and carter glass steagall a law passed by f.d.r. after the great depression prevented banks toure's from gambling with your savings account or pension the sherman antitrust act law sponsored by senator john sermon

to push back against the excesses of wealth and monopoly that characterized the gilded age provided the big fish and swallowing all the medium sized fish and the smaller fish so cities and malls were filled with locally owned businesses. thanks to these measures social and economic mobility were higher in the united states than in most other countries of the world but with the election of ronald reagan the takers whose favorite way of taking is through putting the makers into debt want to huge victory they killed or weakened democratic institutions like unions and politicians not dependent upon the takers they move the middle class from prosperity into first credit card debt that it is second mortgage debt finally into student loan debt which is now over a trillion dollars and then in the final could have grown they made the formerly democratic governments of western europe and the united states indebted to them

they knew from the beginning it was war but a softer and more silent form of war than the world was used to not since the ascendancy of the british east india company in the seventeen hundreds at the world seen an economic rather than sovereign force so dominate the world it ultimately took the american revolution to break these did it companies choke hold on the fledgling colonial economy it will likely take similar bold action against today's billionaire class especially as we enter the final stages of their war in these final stages the takers have taken most all the resources of the west's middle class and thrown them and their children into debt bondage unsatisfied the takers have moved into taking over entire nations this is what republicans mean when they talk about making government smaller here in the united

states or the austerity agenda in europe canada and australia it's all the same thing transfer evermore wealth and political power from those in debt be they individuals cities states or nations. to those who made the loans from the middle class makers to the billionaire takers for example exactly what's going on in michigan with republican governor rick snyder's financial managers law which allows the government to appoint many dictators to rule over cash strapped cities and harvest the money out of them for corporate profits what cities have been taken over by these many dictators mostly minority low income cities that have already been critically wounded by the billionaires war is like flint benton harbor and the course in those cities union contracts are broken leaving already struggling workers with lower wages if they're lucky and pink slips if they're not and giant

chunks of the commons from public parks to public utilities like water facilities are sold off at fire sale prices to corporate interests who can make enormous profit selling back to us stuff that used to belong to us and that we had for free . i recently had reverend al xander bullock on the show to talk about what life is like in these cities these war zones taken over by the many dictators. this is a state takeover of the city of detroit flint been harber the vote does not count it's not on board i mean we voted for our mayor we voted for our city council we voted for city commissioners and now our vote doesn't count we're worried about laws in southern states that would prohibit voting but we've got michigan the new mississippi where liberties being lynched and the vote is null and void what's it like to live under terror in e. what's it like to live under a dictatorship how about no police officers how about limited firefighters how

about taking streetlights out of cities so that people are in the dark from five pm to roughly about eight am how about living with low morale in despair and god forbid a politician should stand up to the takers international banking institutions are leading the charge of either captive governments against so-called renegade states like bolivia which claims it has proof of the united states has been covertly trying to destabilize the bloody bolivian government and its socialist president evo morales. similar ambushes are happening all around the world longer work weeks in france indexing the inheritance tax to inflation in the united states but not the minimum wage cutting greeks off their national health care system after a year of unemployment slashing government supports to schools police and health care in canada banks committing crimes and getting slap on the wrist fines fossil fuel corporations the world's most profitable not only getting taxpayer subsidies but never ever paying for the cancers pollution and global warming they cause the

lose goes on and it's war rob plunder and pillage take what little is left from those who have a little like the people in flint benton harbor or the people in athens or madrid and give it all to those who have a lot turn the makers into slaves while the takers get an inheritance tax so their great grandchildren can live the lives of the landed gentry when ronald reagan came into office america was one of the most socially and economically mobile nations in the developed world today it is among the least democracy has been replaced by plutocracy modern oligarchy are richer than the kings of old and still not content they're amping up the war with a coming fourth of july attempt to amend the us constitution so the wealthy need never again fear tax increases being led by the goldwater institute with its compact for america look out are moving from trench warfare to aerial bombardment

and when they're done western democracies will look far more like italy in the one nine hundred thirty s. . let me let me i want to know not let me ask you a question. here i misspelled words is what we have in the bank we have our knives . here's the cyberspace thing there again here in this race will be an ideal way to talk about surveillance. 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 or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture.

here is mitt romney trying to figure out the name of that thing that we americans call i don't know. i'm sorry i missed you guys here's an awful lot of money. are you know what kind of my terrorist cells. want to give us a defeat terrorism on the liberal and the christian. can really go to the. you know the corporate media distract us from what you and i should care about because they're profit driven industry that's facials that garbage because that breaking news i'm having martin and we're going to break that.

is screwed news are republicans really going to blow up the economy on the debt limit fight all signs point to yes a number of publicans including congressman matt salmon in the house and senator ted cruz in the senate are falling in line behind the idea of shutting down the government if they don't get what they want in the debt limit debate also senate minority leader mitch mcconnell refused to say whether or not his party will shut down the. government if they don't get what they want in the upcoming budget battles unlike government shutdowns in the one nine hundred ninety s. allowing the united states to default on its debt by not raising the debt ceiling would be catastrophic to the global economy just playing with the idea back in two thousand and eleven led markets to tell bill and our national credit rating to be

downgraded the republican hostage takers are undeterred and the cable news media is giving them cover by not calling out just how dangerous their brinksmanship is united states has long had a policy of not negotiating with terrorists today republicans are acting like economic terrorists and could do far more harm to our economy by defaulting on our debt than al qaida could ever have dreamed of. so why should they be negotiated with joining me now to answer that is neil mccabe senior reporter with human events online and editor of the guns and patriots column and welcome back to the top good to have you with us so you know if you would you know i guess one of the rules of hostage taking sure is you don't take a hostage unless you're willing to kill or at least kneecap the hostage if you know if your threat is it isn't serious so are the republicans really serious about being willing to crash the american economy as they go into this one i don't think

the american economy is going to crash and two they are very serious about getting control of the spending of the federal government the constitution gives the house of representatives in specific control over spending preeminence not the not the senate not the supreme court we're not talking about spending here we are talking about snow we're not we're talking about paying the bills the spending congress authorizes spending the congress had a bank for a little while remember when tom de lay was right when denny hastert was running the house of representatives they had this little bank and the most of the republicans they were that was there was not democrats doing it was tom foley who was a town hall yeah you know you're talking about a lot of republicans did it is one of blew up but in the case they have sort of bank you know they and you know you try to fight check right yeah it was your earlier from leicester was like i said you know exactly exactly so the house of representatives had a bank for a little while but they never could have written the trillion dollar check through the house republicans does not have the ability to pay the bills that they run up

the house of representatives authorizes appropriations yes and then they say to the white house to the executive branch now you pay the bill through the treasury department yes ok so all of the bills have to be paid eventually yes and it and this debt ceiling question is not a question of borrowing or spending it's a question of bills that have already been authorized by largely republican congresses yes. so so what do you do you pay the bills so how it all whatever its present there are programs that have not yet been executed by the exact programs voted by congress right there oh well right now that's so much rain those in there are already know that's what the light side is doing so let's they're not paying bills let's cut back the future spending so that we can pay the bills from revenues wait a minute wait a minute when we don't have what so what you're what you're saying is if you run up five thousand bucks on your credit card show up this month next month the five thousand dollars bill comes the next month you shouldn't use your credit card as

much you have but what about that five thousand dollars bill well you know i only pay that i'm going to buy i get you going to call up and say i'm sorry my presiding debt ceiling is four thousand dollars so i'm not going to i want to pay four thousand dollars a credit card presumably my bosses are watching my parents is here and i still have a job and so i have a paycheck and so i just rein in my spending and i pay my bills out of that paycheck the government receives revenues it doesn't have to borrow everything but the bank is going to want to be paid by them. so let's zero in wealth tells you what i stand out am trying to do you understand this distinction that raising the debt ceiling simply means we're going to pay the bills that congress already ran up the republican congress is are doing it that two wars there were they were put on our national credit card the means to pay for them without author honestly medicare part d. dobby this was not authorized to talk worst tax cuts the means was not authorized the federal government gets revenues other than borrowing from china you know they

have taxes right so why can't we live off that because we see because that we've got a bunch of bills that we have to pay that we can't say sorry you're going to wait back those programs we don't know we had the debt ceiling on january first so cut back the current programs that we have now so turn off the pentagon well we can cut back somewhere i mean we can shut down some of these useless bridges we can do like the robot ants that they're working on the studies of blueberries one of those if it's going to here you're talking you know if we go to zero bucks we're talking a trillion dollars. we can zero out programs so that we have the room to pay our bills we if this has got nothing to do with the programs if we're going to all ready been authorized by congress congress would have to zero those programs yeah well they should while they're not john boehner eric cantor they're not saying oh we're going to pass legislation cutting the pentagon budget budget in half and or canceling the f. thirty five yes they're not saying that well they said they're insisting we're

going to crash the economy so that it can be so they've blown over said that it's president nobody said i'm going to crash the economy do you acknowledge that if the republicans do this hostage taking around the debt ceiling that it will crash our economy no way. no what happened in two thousand and eleven what christan her while the stock market began to spin and the credit market started a log lowered our downgrade our credit rating our interest expenses well you know the guy who lowered the credit rating at standard report the guy who actually did it was fired so but the but it stood it hasn't affected we're paying less the interest rates are what at the same that they were two years ago well that's that's why i say there's no there's no debt crisis not just a second round bill like we always did when republicans were i mean there's a house there's a very raise the debt ceiling eighteen times when reagan was president very good times when bush was president there's an appealing logic to what you're saying i agree that if congress pays if congress authorizes a program they should pay for it no no i'm with you and the doj has always been for

republicans that basically borrowing the money so by holding there by cutting by saying no more borrowing but then something will force congress to scepter live within its means and live within the road let us hope so neil thanks for trying to be with us or. now on to another economic screw job this one on public workers public workers in america have had historically a rough couple of years shall we say thanks to relentless republican austerity demands since president obama took office four years ago nearly seven hundred thousand public workers like teachers cops and food inspectors have lost their jobs that's the largest four year decline in public workers since one thousand nine hundred forty one nine hundred forty eight when world war two ended in a million men left the army despite job creation over the last three months one government worker has been fired for every five new private sector hires and this purge of government workers is dragging down our economy as the economic policy

institute found every time a dollar is cut in the salary of public sector workers the economy loses twenty four seventh's government spending and government jobs are desperately needed to fix the unemployment crisis in america and every president in history has faced similar economic challenges from f.d.r. to reagan to bush has increased government employment to get us out of a recession as the top of this chart shows reagan created tons of public sector jobs to lift the nation out of a recession in the early one nine hundred eighty s. the republicans who are still hell bent on crashing the economy and blaming a democratic president for it won't let president obama do the same thing to fix this current problem so why is that joining me now is david seely conservative commentator pro-business advocate david seeley welcome back great to see you thanks for having me tom it's always a pleasure so why you know just just a straightforward question reagan increased employment public public sector workers

in order to fill in the gaps one of the things that we do know about economics is that while cutting taxes will stimulate the economy while increasing spending will stimulate the economy neither one of them is as effective as hiring people whether it's private sector a public sector it pretty much doesn't matter you get put put were. hers but money in their pockets they go out and spend it an economy it's the most effective stimulus of all why is it that the republicans have cut almost a million jobs out over the last four years or why are they continuing to say we need to cut even more million oh tom this really speaks to this administration's failure and i'll give you a perfect example it's really a two pronged assault against the american worker because what we need desperately is a comprehensive jobs program but the administration has abdicated that responsibility what they did during the run up to elections was they this reelection they put

a lot of people on the books federal some cases state but as temporary individuals and in doing so they sort of cooked the books tom so it looked a lot better and then once the president was swept into office see a later charlie you can pound salt and the other issue that i really take offense over the election workers and i'm not talking about election are because you know let me go to second point the second point here is this tom. the this administration their concept of job creation has in fact shot itself in the foot what they've done is pass these onerous regulations that have burdens businesses and they have set out a failings of bureaucrats to enforce these regulations and a lot of these business they haven't even layoff those who hear these people failed and then they didn't need these extra bureaucrats anymore so they have to get rid of them so it's the administration tom and right now time i'm sure in the election

in the last audience the last year david let them work stop blaming bush in the last year it was ministration proposed a jobs bill would put people to work what it would create over a million jobs many of them in the private in the private sector not just the public sector by you know giving tax incentives to businesses to as jive pioneer sky this is that no you were in rhetoric out of the administration it was a new law to many of the republicans so many of the people in your viewing audience there alys what was going on they don't know if it's an old house of representatives for two years please name one piece of jobs legislation they've passed oh wait a minute tom live back to the real issues while issuance has to over two hundred pieces of legislation to to roll back health care for people has the overall how did i miss it i just laid on the final area of the american people ok one jobs bill david they've got the top slot come on man we need the job and you know and i don't know why it had the president cannot propose legislation the president doesn't even have the authority to spend money that has to come from congress one jobs bill that

the republicans have put forward the last two years. now i hear what you're saying tom but i don't think we should mislead your viewing audience at least with this. polarizing part of this what we need to do is come together here because like i said you got a lot of people to come together and pass a jobs no better no matter how they skew these numbers and i got to tell you of being somewhat of an accountant myself i can tell that these numbers of being cooked if we were. yes the same standard they did in the carter administration people would say oh dear lord we have more people out of work than ever inflation is sky high but we give them a pass but come on so what happened after the carter administration reagan came in and hired people like crazy federal employees so what is going to guys out of the recession why had a recession maybe trayvon was almost anything done that's the question talk it all right david i think we're talking past each other to a certain extent but it's always nice and i apologize for that if the if the onus is on me no it's not thank you for dropping by to thank you. after the break when

it comes to national security all the talk right now is about preventing nuclear war what if i told you there's a threat far bigger and potentially far deadlier than a nuclear bomb. just eleven.

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 or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harvey welcome to the big picture.