on marvin's to washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture they use punishing cyprus bailout plan sent shock waves around the world this weekend what impact could the crisis in the mediterranean have on the rest of the eurozone will ask richard esko coming up in a moment also republicans love to lecture us on the dangers of the national debt now john boehner says it's not such a big deal i'll talk to david serota uncover the real strategy behind the writes about face an impending fiscal do and the g.o.p. has become the party of stuffy old white men strategy from its past could save him from disaster i'll tell you why in tonight's daily take.

you need to know the european financial crisis in a dangerous new phase this weekend and it could mean disaster for the global economy on friday the european stability mechanism the institution that provides funds for financially struggling e.u. member countries and the i.m.f. announced that they would provide eleven billion dollars in bailout funds to banks on the small island nation of cyprus but there was a catch in exchange for that bailout the e.u. and the i.m.f. plan to slap cypriots with harsh penalties on their bank deposits depositors who have more than one hundred thousand euros in their bank accounts will face a nine point nine percent an oldie eventually attacks and those who have less than that amount will see a six point seven five percent levy now there was the e.u. and the i.m.f. are going to literally make every day i count holders pay for the bank bailout.

as you can imagine cypriots are livid across the alan they're gathering around a.t.m.'s to withdraw their life savings before the harsh levies take effect other cypriots are gathering in the capital the capital nicosia and other cities to protest the terms of the bailout and to urge their newly elected government to reject it according to the e.u. and the i.m.f. their plan is designed to make the wealthy russians who use cyprus is a tax haven pay their fair share russia is not a member of the e.u. in the possibilities of subsidizing non e.u. bank accounts it's not a politically popular position for the leaders of large euro zone countries like germany and france but this explanation really doesn't make much sense at all why should anyone wealthy foreigner or not after pay for a crisis they didn't cause poor decisions by bank executives not savings accounts cause this crisis what's even more ridiculous is the fact that the e.u.

levy will mostly punish working class cypriots remember the plan mandates a six point seven five percent cut from all accounts holding less than one hundred thousand euros that's a large amount of money for any person let alone an everyday citizen of one of the euro zone's smallest economies to pay cyprus bailout plan is the clearest example yet that the leaders of the e.u. and the i.m.f. care only about helping the financial sector and could care less about average middle and working class europeans it already for severe austerity and greece italy and spain now they are literally stealing from people's pockets cypriots have every right to fight back against this outrageous technocrat tyranny but the bailouts worst effect might be the precedent that it sets for other struggling european nations the threat of future cyprus style threat might scare people across europe to withdraw their savings causing

a massive continent wide bank run. this could send the already fragile european economy into chaos the bail out levy is unjust shortsighted and dangerous cypriots for should fight tooth and nail against it they should not have to suffer for crimes they did not commit this is obvious to me as should be obvious to you so why did the e.u. come up with such a foolish plan and what are its broader ramifications for the european and global economies let's ask richard roth esko senior fellow at the campaign for america's future richard walker. thanks tom good to be back thanks for joining us the e.u. and the i.m.f. are mandating levies of nine point nine and six point seven five percent on these separate bank accounts as part of their bailout deal. what genius came up with this stupid idea. you know we don't know exactly who came up with it but we know that this is what this was what the troika wanted the troika being in

the european union and the i.m.f. basically. but here is you know one glimpse into the mind set behind it what that was really disturbing was a model aryan you know it was that of pimco very well connected in these areas sad presumably based on personal contacts that the thinking was that since this deposit or money and cyprus was used to do the gambling that was so harmful to the cyprus economy that it was only reasonable to take some of it to repair the damage which is a truly horrifying thought because of course our money is depositors' was used since we don't have glass steagall or a vocal or volcker rule to do the very same thing here in the united states and it's punishing the victims and forcing the victims to pay restitution to the criminals instead of the other way around so if that really is the thinking and it's a horrifying turn of events in the psychology of the people that run the global economy

how much control does germany and france have over i.m.f. an e.u. decisions and they have eastern. oh individually yes. well i think people generally agree that germany is the dominant player here right now the biggest lender of the biggest. media the biggest. pressure source of pressure and frankly the strongest voice i mean i don't think you'd see hollande in france the head of that country taking quite as aggressive a line is being taken here although nowadays who knows but i think people generally agree that. that the chancellor of germany and the germans they is pushing very hard for this incredibly draconian kind of measure there are people

in in spain in greece in portugal in ireland a number of countries who are mostly in the left in the hard right parties who are basically coming right out and saying the germany controls the the euro germany is the largest force in the e.u. with the euro has kind of by extension become the old boy mark and germany has now officially won world war two is that like a really radical weird speak or is there something to that. i would necessarily bring world war two into it but i think there's some merit to look i mean germany's had it both ways for ten years now it's been able to have a all the advantages of a weak currency it makes its products its manufacturing products exportable and so on while shuffling off all of the disadvantages of of

a weak currency on to these other states and so it's been playing it both ways it's dominated the entire european market it's been both the creditor and the seller of goods and services to the e.u. it's called the shots so i think they really had it both ways and when they're the whole system the. they set up blew up they were able to use their power and influence to force everybody else to pay the price including the end it's citizens of a lot of countries this is the most extreme example but the austerity that's been destroying the european economy for years is another example of something that germany's imposing on the people of other states so i understand the rhetoric i'm sympathetic to it and i think people in general are going to have to start pushing back against this kind of measure which is really really disturbing if if the united states was run like the european union and we would have correct me if i'm wrong on this it seems that we would have a such a situation where the states that chronically pay more in taxes than they get back

for example new york and california would be kind of in germany's situation saying you know come on guys pay us back you know privatized your schools sell off your roads give us the money and the states that are chronically in deficit the states that are constantly taking via the federal government which would be taking the role of the of the european central bank in this case those states would would be you know increasingly impoverished mississippi west virginia alabama the red states basically would be increasingly impoverished in their people would be being squeezed harder and harder are the social welfare programs being cut more and more first of all this is kind of the setup for the question is that a reasonable starting point analogy. well partly i mean once again trust good old german engineering in the sense that they set this thing up a much more shrewdly going in so it's not

a perfect analogy but you know there's some validity to it i think that what we don't have in this country is a system where the northern states for lauer bow or red blue states can actually call in there or chits against the southern. a lot of that is down in terms of you know federal tax dollars. they're getting an extra return a little tax you know that is not how it was but yeah there's a there's a there's something of an a well i would that was my point though is my point richard is that is that we don't because were a duration and so would have been be inaccurate to say that when the e.u. was formed they sort of did it half way they did a national currency but they didn't give the individual states the power that we give states as part of the united states of america and as a consequence that loss of economic sovereignty has translated into a loss of political sovereignty for those states and if that's the case along

before the e.u. disintegrates. well i think that's the question of the day i think you know if you start talking about the european central bank and its power the european union and its power and germany's dominance of both then i think you're really looking at the potential disintegration of the european union you're also seeing very clearly that while it claims to be a democratic association some citizens of that union are less equal than others to use george orwell's terms they would never do this kind of thing to citizens of germany remains to be seen whether they would even do it to citizens of spain or italy i think to a certain extent this is a controlled experiment to see what will happen but and it's not going well for them right now but i think that you you're looking at a two tiered european union that could break apart at any time if this keeps up and it's reason for concern and reason for optimism to in the sense that if that means

a return to democracy if it can be handled well maybe that's the best thing we can see happen now so we're just going to keep an eye on the situation and see how this all plays. it it seems fragile last ten seconds richard is it your sense as well. i think it's fragile and i think it's frightening. because i think it shows us that our financial elites are willing to take much more draconian measures against a democracy than i personally thought they were willing to do and i think it means we have to be on guard everywhere including here at home right well richard thank you so much for being with us our pleasure. coming up republicans have never failed to take a good fake crisis and want to go to waste after the break we'll talk to journalist david sirota about the rights ideological crusade against our government and the newest and why they're spreading around washington. let me let me i want to know wouldn't let me ask you

a question. here on this network is what we're having a debate we have our night so. we do this right it was a space thing there again we're in a situation where b. and i don't want to talk about the surveillance we. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so silly 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 harpur welcome to the big picture.

here is mitt romney trying to figure out the meaning of that thing that we americans call a. i'm sorry i'm just a guy who cares an awful lot of money. are you know what is my theory selling. they want to defeat terrorism. and the current. going to look at you distracts us from what you and i should care about because they're profit driven industry that's. garbage he calls it breaking news i'm happy martin and we're going to break this that it's. looking pretty down the field that you won't find it here if you're looking for relevant stories unique perspective from top class tennis stars.

in scrutiny is john boehner and company have been telling us for years that the united states is in the throes of a moral sovereign debt crisis but on sunday he changed his mind he did not have an immediate debt crisis but we all know that we have one movement and we have one looming because we haven't talked about programs that are not sustainable in our current form they're going to go bankrupt how long do we have to solve our problems nobody knows where this is it could be a year two years three years four years it's not in the media problem but we can all agree with the president on that the american. yes but his point the great banner and president obama finally agree on something right not so fast as david sirota serota points out in a monday monday column for salon dot com the g.o.p.

has known all along that american sovereign debt is not as big an issue as it would have us believe in reality the right has just been using this manufactured debt crisis to push through the same or radically regressive policies they've been hustling since the reagan years david is absolutely correct history backs him up whether it's been supposed to the rat of weapons of mass destruction or communist infiltration republicans have never failed to let a good fake crisis go to waste now the use of the myth of runaway entitlement spending to scare us of obedience dog about his article in the rights ideological crusade against our government is david sirota contributor to salon dot com and author of several books including back to our future of the one nine hundred eighty s. explain the world we live in now our culture our politics our everything david welcome . thanks it's great to see it so why the change of heart for boehner we've gone from oh my god hysteria the world is falling apart you know over the last four

years pretty continuously to could be a couple years who cares. it's a good question i mean i can explain why speaker boehner went on t.v. and said this and by the way it was echoed almost immediately by budget committee chairman paul ryan on the c.b.s. sunday show so clearly either boehner created a new talking point or a talking points were handed down to him but it is an admission it's an admission then while we do have long term issues that the whole idea that we're facing an imminent emergency an idea that has been used to justify an austerity program that is radical and extreme the whole idea that we have this imminent crisis now the republican leaders are admitting is simply not true and i think this is a a watershed moment in these budget battles because it says that there's something else going on here it says that the republican party has an ulterior motive to have

been pretending for so long that this is an immediate crisis well back in in seventy six june when esky came up with this two santa clause three where he overtly said to the republican party when republicans are in power the debt as hard as fast as you can and spend like crazy it will make you know good times that are apparently good times and then when democrats come to power scream about the debt and they've been absolutely consistently ever since reagan's presidency falling when as is advice why the sudden change. it's a good it's a great question and to me this is why this is so important why this weekend's comments are so important is it because it could it should signal to folks that there's something else going on here the strategy has been from the republicans to create the perception of an imminent debt crisis and so they've manufactured these crises the fiscal cliff the seaquest ration crisis the debt ceiling crises these are all manufactured these are not out of our control they're not out of congress's

control they manufacture the perception of a crisis to put. through or at least try to push through extreme measures that they know polling tells them they can't pass unless there is a sense of panic and i'll give you a couple of examples here i mean the biggest example of that is social security cuts social security has essentially nothing to do with our long term debt challenges but if you claim and you raise the perception that there's an imminent budget crisis and imminent budget emergency it logically will become more easy to pass social security cuts even though they have nothing to do with the debt even though the public polls of the public oppose those but it will be easier to pass them if you create the perception of a crisis and so every single time going forward that the republicans say that they were facing an imminent crisis and that justifies all sorts of policies that the public opposes americans should remember this weekend in which the republicans made

it that they're playing a game do you think david it's possible that the president has either beat them at their game and they know it or that he's joining them in their game and said ok i'll give you some entitlement cuts you've got to give me something back whatever and that they're preparing both sides are basically preparing to trail the rest of us and i think it's the latter way to panic is absolutely latter no i think you're absolutely right look president obama has been certainly been more honest than acknowledging that the that we face long term debt issues but he is also putting forward an austerity budget that puts forward three dollars or whatever two hundred fifty cents and because for every dollar raised in revenue at a time when taxes are compared to history extremely extremely low so the president has put forward a republican esque plan a plan that we would call a mainstream right leaning republican plan only by five years ago was metrics he's

put forward that plan and i think we're going to see a convergence here where the republicans are preparing to take a plan. a democrat a democratic president is putting forward a republican plan essentially the democratic presidents putting forward and they're about i think preparing to take it and claim it is a victory and for them frankly and unfortunately it would be a republican party a conservative victory and if all of the added revenues as a consequence of closing tax loopholes and god knows there's enough of them out there so that there are no actual increases in marginal tax rates they can continue to make the claim that they have been loyal to god grover and. now they've got a deal with the president and meanwhile they succeeded in getting getting the first first democratic president in a long long time may i suppose you can argue that bill clinton did it somewhere what with you know destroying welfare as we know it to shoot the traditional democratic santa clause of of social security and look this is the same week the

president obama went on record saying topic anomic advisor that he prefers cuts to social security to the so-called chain c.p.i. those would those would be big cuts so now we have a democratic president on record saying that he prefers this what's amazing about this and also sickening is that you have a democratic president just one reelection a democratic united states senate and a republican party in control of the house only three gerrymandering member democrats got more votes for the u.s. house total in the republicans so the right way the republican that's right so the crazy thing is that the republicans are in such a politically weakened position and. effectively driving the legislative agenda they have affectively created a situation where a democratic president is chance. why would obama do that particularly when you look at the polling out of the congressional progressive caucus is budget which is a genuinely progressive budget that also balances the budget over to

a ten year period is far far away preferred by the average american including most republicans. well i think the answer to that is because it is you have to ask who has politicians in general who does this president and specific answer to do they really care about where the public stands for not look you've got a long time movement of millionaires and billionaires on wall street who have been trying to cut social security trying to privatizing social security trying to effectively privatized medicare they see big profits in that and they also see doing that as a better alternative for them personally then closing tax loopholes or raising taxes so it's been a long time and so i think when you ask the question why is president obama putting forward social security cuts why is he putting forward a republican asked budget plan the answer is i think because he's not answering he doesn't feel like his constituency is necessarily the average voter he thinks of

his constituency or his donors and he's a guy who has raised a huge amount of money from the same forces that have been a champion of this agenda for years so very very short form a looks like both the democrats and the republicans are responding more to the donor class than than to the middle class data david we've got to wrap it up thank you so much for being with us david serota. just. really. it's the good the bad and the very very junk categorizations slee ugly the good hillary clinton the former secretary of state and possible twenty sixteen democratic presidential nominee came out in support of same sex marriage this morning in a video statement produced by the human rights campaign. l g b t americans are our

colleagues our teachers our soldiers our friends our loved ones and they are full and equal citizens. and deserve the rights of citizenship that includes marriage that's why i support marriage for lesbian and gay couples. now that a majority of americans support same sex marriage it's only natural that political figures of clintons influence openly announced their support for what they likely believed was right all along still it's amazing that only five years ago both clinton and then senator breaux obama both supported civil unions but not marriage rights during the two thousand a primary questions of political expedience aside it's inspiring to see the democratic party that's most powerful members openly stand on the right side of history the bad walmart and wal-mart pushed its way into washington d.c. it promised to provide good jobs for that city's residents so much for that now america's biggest employers are having a campaign to crush

a washington city council plan to mandate that all large retail businesses in the city pay their employees and eleven dollars seventy five cents a living wage people of washington and there are likely representatives not wal-mart its corporate cronies make decisions about the economic health of the city wal-mart wants to be in d.c. they should recognize this is just another corporate attempt to hijack our democratic institutions right on d.c. and the very very ugly c.n.n. steubenville ohio rape cases captivated and disturbed our nation such a casual evil should provoke some deep soul searching about massage and in our culture and its impact on rape victims when judge thomas lips found defendants trent mays and malik richmond guilty on sunday c.n.n. was more concerned about the effect the sentence would have on the rapists psyches . i've never experienced anything like it candy it was incredibly emotional incredibly difficult even for an outsider like me to watch what happened as these

two young men that had such a promising future is star football players. very good students literally watched as as they believe their life fell apart one of one of them young men malique richmond when that sense came down he collapsed he collapsed in the arms of his attorney walter madison he said to him my life is over no one is going to want me now very. the real victim here is the poor girl who mays and richmond literally attack sort of coverage perpetuates a rape culture that makes another steubenville all the more likely. it's very very ugly. after the break thanks to republican back voter suppression idea was minorities all across america are being disenfranchised it isn't possible but young southern white matter being disenfranchised and oppressed in america too.

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 that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harvey welcome to the big picture. of potentially deadly blizzard taking aim for the northeast it's expected to hit stunning in a few hours from new york to maine we have team coverage of the storm. but what we're watching is the very heavy snow moving into boston proper earlier today

it was very sticky you can see it start to become much more powdery so the bottom line there's still a lot of snow out here a good place for snowballs. fight if. the senate is going to pretty incredible day there and even record snowfall throughout what's it been like nobody's largely driving lessons to them urgency fear exceptions. the worst journalists a. white house chief of a day a radio guy in fort lauderdale minestrone cause they all want to watch quote we're about to go because you've never seen anything like this i'm telling.