politics panel joining us tonight are patrick hedger you know mckay thank you guys . i said i want to read something that gary bauer to you guys is ally a hard line i am telling him of the evil legion of doom meeting so you have it you know he's a good right thinking american people well i know why you haven't seen him because because he uttered this quote the other day i think he didn't act on actually but here we go he said quote if we gave our voters an accurate portrayal of our ideas that we want to cut the rate of growth on social security give tax cuts to billionaires and then the values issues the values issues would be more popular than the economic agenda of the current public apart and i think what he's trying to do here was trying to get republicans to hold the line on same sex marriage by saying hey considering what our what we're talking about with cutting social security giving tax breaks to billionaires this is probably the more appealing message but in doing so he pretty much said what i've been saying for a while what richard's been saying for a while what a lot of people on the left are been saying for a while and that is the republican party is the party of billionaires is he wrong

it's where it's considering all the billionaires that support the democratic party yeah absolutely it's weird it's just weird it's so ironic rather somebody democrats are funded by the billionaires and still about value talking about you know it's really hard to defend every last comment from everybody they calls themselves a republican saying whatever but at the end of the day it's not the party of billionaires we are all paying for social security we're all paying for the social safety net through fica taxes and what's going on here is these programs aren't stable it's not that we want to cut them to give the money to billionaires we want to restructure the formula so that trillions of dollars that we've promised to hardworking americans doesn't dry up all of a sudden the wake of the next economic crisis because it isn't is it though that if you for example which one would have and take medicare we've got medicare prescription part d. which is a huge giveaway to the pharmaceutical industry why don't we get rid of that rather than raising the retirement age because there was a deal cut where the obama administration you know obviously the leave the farmer alone in exchange for there are quite a lot of aka. we're party came along we heard about your youth exactly and we go

out and see you that's why i get the. hell that's why the democrats usually of all of those you get the corporations off capitol hill know so you think they on capitol hill i think that citizens have a right to petition the big oil lobbyist and corporations on capitol hill with them to say if we had a hair flat and saw your tax affairs of clarities it was very clear you know incentive for corporations to be spending all this money on getting these loopholes on exactly if you want to get rid of lobbyists on capitol hill you should take away the power from capitol hill the only reason there is lobbyist there is because so much of our economy and so much of our money is spent and controlled there if you decentralized power return to power to the states and the people there would be no reason to go to capitol hill but it's get back to this offer that yes but also we're kind of buried within what gary bauer saying is this whole austerity thing here in which we want austerity raise the medicare age raise the social security age way off government workers cut pensions are going to be austerity whether the

things we're going to trillions more than we did is know years ago let me feel finished at the same time that where we're calling for all these things and future spending whatever you want to call them making we're also add at least one party is advocating for major tax cuts for billionaires so in this austerity era what do billionaires have to sacrifice name one thing other than maybe long wait times are good but this airport is what they have a half interest it's the real estate they can write the homes they can build the wire there is i didn't know he had realized this dollars when i was there not entirely i don't know where they were they were really in areas that they were sitting on their cars there is a capital strike because basically capital on the sidelines that won't get involved because they're concerned about the regulatory regime that the obama administration has inflicted on private industry because they're concerned about the cost of obamacare which is many of these costs are still a mystery and as soon as you start this business activity there freight that the.

if authority policies of the obama administration will tax them into oblivion the people don't want people don't want to participate because they're afraid and i hear that neal but i think the s. and p. five hundred when they downgraded our credit rating they gave an explanation i guess the capital explanation and their explanation was there's too much to this of this in the united states congress for us to believe in the full faith and credit we should probably and we should probably elect to unite or as president richard but that doesn't escape from the fact that you want to five hundred billion with a downgrade of the bonds. here and here this isn't a cut for billionaires there's nothing ridiculous about raising the retirement age social security retirement age was set when people were living to sixty three years old the average life expectancy was sixty three years old so most people weren't even collecting social security because of what we should be cut out of medicare people don't get israel and people living into their eighty's they're collecting social security benefits for a lot longer than the formula is put in place has accounted for more we have far fewer workers now that are paying paying into the pay go benefits that are worth it tires even to the thinking about workers back in december the michigan republican

state legislature in the lame duck session passed a measure that would make the fifth largest state in the in the union a right to work state this politically motivated attack on the michigan worker happened at a time when the state was benefiting from the resurgence in the u.s. auto industry these right to work measures started on tuesday making the union dues optional and opening up the door for freeloaders to benefit from collective bargaining efforts without paying their union dues and now the g.o.p. is back at it michigan state senator mike sharkey has proposed another bill that would ban any cause for union representation contracts allowing for multiple unions to represent the same class of worker in the same workplace opening up the door for race to the bottom on union wages and benefits as it is it is it just this is just another ploy of the of the g.o.p. to dilute the power of collective bargaining and ultimately crush the power of the working class in the state of michigan and the rest of america. you know. first.

well why are you calling workers freeloaders no i'm calling the workers that are i'm calling the loss of their you know belong here you know i can these guys are working hard for their money because they don't have somebody who's all down in the hold up here doing and thug bodies on a second meal nobody is calling the workers the freeloader what we're saying is when the law was create it was created to create it will get free riders are freeloaders and particular situation because people are they're forced not to do it you know when they get all the benefits of the union why don't you back off of people who are working for a level i'm just you know they want to be worse if it was a good well they're just getting more money let's look at some of the know their causes the rates of all of what happening that do i don't want to get you look what happened the auto industry was going to the wages weren't competitive so it wasn't the corporation that was you know harming the whatever you know the workers are honest although they're twisting the arms they're dressing the arms of the state government you're twisting the arms of the corporation and look very sad fact of the matter is is that they can kill you you can't compete with the manufacturing rates they can't compete here i don't see any compete with and that's when they see

they can't compete with alabama which are right to work states and look i'd rather that i would much rather have to hire i'm not sure either have in tennessee that i would much rather have an existing job at ten dollars an hour than a nonexistent job at thirty five thousand hours and into a family of four what happens when that thirty five dollars an hour evaporates because the company had to have that tablet going to start all of our job will not evaporate it will be good it's better going to get a better job i think i think the power of the union i think that the unions have done and they i mean it's not a damage that's on him that is not a unified korea the middle class in this country ok i gave us the way i'd create and created the auto in this u.s. government really i went astray and beyond and beyond doing both those things they're the ones maintaining the middle class it was the break steadily raise wages in this country why have all those union jobs go overseas gone overseas looks big overseas because for some reason we started drinking this kool-aid in the ninety's that free trade is this great idea were to drop all our protections for domestic industries including the auto industries i'm superman so. so companies ran overseas

for the cheap labor so i'm just stunned at the suggestion some of us want to drop the value of our americans bank account through protectionism inflation that's fine you're going to hurt the worker a lot worse than i do right what more do i want to do with the united states stand from its inception all the way up until the one nine hundred eighty s. when we did have the best middle class or the really the only going to last the world had ever seen why wouldn't someone on their own join a union if it's such a great deal i don't get it if it's such a great deal why wouldn't people try to look at washing you right which is very dangerous so join state you need to use your greatest notion that you do know how to pay dues but really if you're in a union it's known you get better wages sure have better benefits you do have to pay a little bit for that but in the end you you your workout it's on top if this is so well known then why in washington state which has one of the higher union participation rates in the country did when given the option to participate in the union's political donations did people pull out at an eighty percent rate overnight if the union was so beneficial they've been living with it for years and i'm not going to argue that washington state is a red as

a red state by any means i want you do you. think i don't think people decide whether they want to engage in politics really is is israel into this debate six of the you're going to benefit them over all the every argument i buy the argument to go back to the put so much of the crux of the story here if this if unions are such a bad idea why did the these republicans wait until the lame duck to do this every time the republicans try to crush you need to have in the darkness of night nobody's watching hold on richard lame duck is still ahead of it session oh boy and i hear there's oh well if you have one hundred eighty and you can build in this rather talk a lot of things get passed in lame duck that you support ok so don't be knockin lame duck. now what's happening here is that michigan legislatures are trying that legislators are trying to bring jobs back to the state but it is that by the cost of those on the taxpayer dollar you get the last word ten seconds well you know you look at it you're not you're not going to make as much money in a tax cut you're not going to make as much money with a nonexistent thirty five dollars an hour job then a ten dollar an hour job that doesn't exist ok. ok somebody should do it you guys

great on. other news slowly but surely our nation is turning and turning the new leaf when it comes to green energy last year were noble energy production in the united states grew nearly twenty four percent suppressing nuclear energy production in our nation and wow and while green energy makes up eleven percent of our total energy production the trend shows or market that shows renewable sources are quickly becoming more common when we when we interview production grew the fastest was with numbers that increase although our nation's addiction to toxic fuels is far from over clean and green advocates should be encouraged by this trend for the first time ever our nation is getting more and more of its energy from wind solar hydro and geothermal energy than it did from the dangerous nuclear power plants however we still have a long way to go in the fight against nuclear power and fossil fuels call your member of congress an urgent to support the energy of the future.

so you've all heard of bad santa you know one of billy bob thornton's finest performances. it was real going to show you where a lot that didn't sit i loved a woman that was a claim and it was her sister. well billy bob's got some competition with a rowdy rabbit in san diego patrolman adam griffith was enjoying a leisurely easter sunday shift when he noticed something strange zipping by him it was a man dressed up in an easter bunny suit driving a classic side car motorcycle officer griffiths noticed that the bunny wasn't wearing a helmet so he pulled him over. this video shows the moment the easter bunny was

pulled over captured by a helmet cam worn by a fellow biker even thought of waving at the c.h.p. officer as he walked over to tell him why he was being stopped reason to stop was his right and once they had no home and because of his big head the c.h.p. called a visual impairment what he was doing is compromising his safety and everybody else on the roadway by his vision. maybe he was on his way to a furry convention in the end however everything worked out for the holiday hair he got off without a ticket a true easter miracle. after the break if you listen real carefully you can hear the sound of money being sucked right out of your wallet by america's wealthy elite internets daily take a tumble explain how we can bring an end to the reign of the oligarchs and share america's vast sums of wealth.

wealthy british scientists i. sometimes see the tirelessly. markets why not this scandal. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max kaiser for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kinds a report on our.

international at the very heart of moscow.

it's the good the bad and the very very. ugly the good judge sara evans barker on friday judge parker the head of the u.s. district court of southern indiana declared unconstitutional law that allowed police officers to search suspects to search just like the immigrant without a warrant the law also allows police officers to take custody of any immigrant possessing a certain kind of immigration papers or to get to think progress this step this stipulation created a bizarre loophole in which police officers could arrest an individual holding papers necessary to obtain legal immigration status not surprisingly not surprisingly given the evidence judge parker struck the law down citing a gross violation of the fourth amendment prohibiting on reasonable search and seizure good job judge parker. the bad tennessee state legislature

late last week the state let the state lawmakers voice their approval for a bill that if passed would tie welfare benefits to student academic performance the proposal sponsored by two republicans would cut welfare checks by thirty percent for those families whose whose children don't perform up to state standards . proposed in january and moved through the move to the committee over the weekend will face the full senate vote this week the tennessee law already mandates twenty percent cut of benefits for families of students with poor attendance records and the welfare program only provides the eager one hundred eighty five dollars a month participant nevertheless the state's health and human services department has withdrawn its opposition to the bill and lawmakers hope that this bill can serve some sort of carrot or stick approach to needy families all right because a struggling mother needs to add the stress of having to worry about whether or not her third graders geography grade is good enough for her to buy groceries this week

. and at the very very. early in the new york police department according to new testimony and ongoing trial of the n.y.p.d. stop and frisk program police chief raymond kelly designed the program to terrify the city's minority residents the testimony provided by the by the state by the state by state senator eric adams stated that back in two thousand and ten commissioner kelly told new york officials that he wanted to stop and frisk law to instill the fear in fear of them and that that he is referring to is the blacks of latino population in the city that any time they leave their homes they would be targeted by the police for years kelly and other law enforcement officials defended the stop and frisk as an unpleasant yet necessary public safety measure civil liberties groups on the other hand have command i have condemned the policy as being discriminatory and intrusive but if senator eric adams testimony is true we now know but the real reason for stop and frisk is even worse than just

a bad policy it's trying to terrify an entire population into submission and that america is just very. so we're just a few days in april but last month in the month of march we witnessed some really remarkable economic events happen around the planet. first there was the sequester you guys remember that at the beginning of the month this was a self-inflicted wound to our economy that we're just now today and over the next few days over the next few weeks and months we'll start seeing the consequences the consequences of as thousands lose their jobs and critical services and communities

across the country are reduced store disappear altogether children get kicked off head start response times from ambulances you know go way up this is what we're looking at so why why the sequester well because congress or i guess i should say republicans in congress couldn't muster up enough fortitude to tell the billionaire class a their donor class that well it's time to close those tax loopholes you know for corporate jet owners time to cut off those those tax subsidies for oil corporations like exxon mobil the most profitable corporation in the history of the world you know and all those other loopholes that let people like mitt romney and paris hilton pay lower taxes than folks like you and me so instead working people are getting hit all around the country and now president obama and some willing democrats in congress are joining republicans and embracing cat food commissioners alan simpson and erskine bowles and actually floating the idea of cutting social

security and medicare to programs created by democrats to programs that have don't exist democrats really can't say they did much so it's another raw deal for working americans so good why well because apparently asking the billionaire class to contribute to reduce. our deficit which is actually shrinking faster than any time in recent history is just well it's too much to ask and since the billionaires have lobbyists and working people don't the billionaires make out like bandits literally they make out like bandits while the rest of us get pink slips the rest of us get medical bankruptcies and delayed retirements but this isn't just happening in the united states it's happening in europe too as austerity deepens in places like greece and spain in their economies sink further into debt and stagnation in their peoples sink into desperation and suicide rates spike the austerity mongers push it

even further and the tiny nation of cyprus know it's not enough to lay off government employees and cut pensions to pay off foreign investors who made bad bets in the eurozone know now the austerity monsters want to take money out of people's savings accounts literally steal money out of the banks that cypriots thought were safe to hold their money in and then turn around and bail out those same banks to pay off bad debts what happened in cyprus singles' a new brand of austerity or what should better be called outright theft no longer is the billionaire class garnishing their workers' wages cutting back on benefits or reducing petulance they're just sucking money right out of people's bank accounts and the rest of europe and all of us in the united states should be paying very close attention and that is the subject of tonight's daily take the oligarchy are sucking dry america's middle and working class while the rest of us are being left to feed off the crumbs paul buchheit

a professor of economic inequality depaul university has written a brilliant piece on alter net detailing just how large an outrageous the wealth gap between the oligarchy and the rest of america has become. and start off by looking at the koch brothers each of the koch brothers saw his investments grow according to appalled by a staggering six billion dollars last year which if you do the math means that they each made about three million per hour last year based on a forty hour work week meanwhile as points out the average restaurant survey just two dollars and thirteen cents an hour last year less than one millionth of what the koch brothers pulled in and all these numbers alone seem incredibly startling they only begin to paint the picture of wealth inequality in america on a given day during the winter of two thousand and twelve there were around six hundred thirty three thousand homeless americans on the streets trying to survive another day create a bucket based on an annual single room occupancy cost of five hundred fifty eight

dollars a month any one of america's ten richest citizens would have enough money from his two thousand and twelve income to pay for a room for every homeless person in the u.s. for the entire year one rich person not even sacrificing a penny of their more than a billion dollars wealth just study decide one year's income could end all homelessness in america and if that's not bought mind boggling enough the total combined wealth of these ten wealthiest americans is more than the entire u.s. federal housing budget even if all ten were to give up a year's income their wealth is mind boggling according to a survey by the u.s. conference of mayors nearly twenty percent of the homeless population in america is hispanic and the number is growing every day in fact for every single dollar of assets that a single black or hispanic woman has a member of the forbes four hundred has over forty million dollars to put that wealth number in perspective as behind notes in his piece for every one can of soup

owned by a single black or hispanic woman one of our wealthiest americans owns a thirty million dollar mansion and a ten million dollar yacht. as of two thousand and nine the poorest forty seven percent of americans own an unbelievable zero percent of america's wealth because their debts exceeded their assets contrast that with the era before reaganomics when the poorest forty seven percent of americans at least own two and a half percent of america's wealth an average of fifteen thousand dollars per person the nation's wealth is now instead of eight in the hands of the wealthiest americans the olivers right now the four hundred wealthiest americans own as much wealth as sixty two percent of our nation which is the driving force behind america having the fourth highest level of wealth inequality in the world but why is it that america's oligarchy have managed to obtain so much wealth while the rest of us have nearly nothing and that one of america's wealthiest businessmen can afford to

buy a yacht in a mansion when a hispanic woman who is trying to survive is barely able to pay for a can of soup it's thanks in part to the high levels of financial secrecy in the united states the tax justice network's financial security secrecy index highlights places around the world that provide the safest havens for tax refugees otherwise known as millionaires and billionaires who want to escape having to pay their fair share to help their economies they can accumulate massive piles of money and not surprisingly the united states ranks fifth in the two thousand and eleven financial secrecy index behind the traditional tax havens of switzerland the cayman islands luxembourg and hong kong now their words as millions of americans struggle to survive each and every day the wealthiest americans the oligarchy are accumulating vast sums of wealth without anyone saying a word or raising a finger is one of mitt romney. during the campaign in two thousand and twelve there was a huge battle over his disclosure or lack thereof of just how rich he is and in the

end while romney did disclose some information about his assets including the fact that he was able to hide huge chunks of money in tax havens across the globe bottom line is that the outrageous levels of wealth inequality in america have been driven in large part by our society's coddling of and the media's willful ignorance towards our nation's all of ours for too long the wealthiest americans like the koch brothers have been able to slip under the radar while robbing us blind the reaganomics era has seen the largest transfer of wealth from working people to the very very rich in the history of the world trillions of dollars tens of trillions of dollars as a loser with warren pointed out a few weeks ago if workers' wages had kept up with productivity in the years since reagan like they did during the generations before reagan the minimum wage today

would be over twenty two dollars an hour. it's time to start calling our oligarchy what they are. and increasingly tax cheats and people who have corrupted both our politicians our media and our american market based economic system when enough americans have figured out how badly they've been gamed and ripped off things will start to change spread the word and check out no billionaires dot com. that's the way it and that's the way it is tonight tuesday april second two thousand and thirteen and for more information on any of the stories we covered visit our website so tom harmon dot com free speech shot or give our t. dot com and if you missed any of tonight's show you can now watch it on hulu at hulu dot com slash the big picture also trigger to you tube channels there are links to thom hartmann dot com also tell marvin dot com check out all the different ways you can send us your feedback and don't forget democracy begins with you get out there get active tag your it we'll see tomorrow.

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 we're watching is the very heavy snow moving into boston properly or today it was very sticky you can see it start to become much more powdery down to the line there's still a lot of snow out here and a good place for snowball fight. d.c. it is kind of pretty incredible day there and even record snowfall throughout what's been like nobody's allowed to be driving lessons to them urgency zero zero exceptions.