international in the very heart of moscow. richard in for thom hartmann live from washington d.c. and i'm sam sachs and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture. in this year's budget proposal president obama will propose cuts to social security and other social programs is he making a huge mistake we'll talk about this and more internets big picture rumble and how have the giant telecom companies brought about a new gilded age in america susan crawford in tonight's edition of conversations with great minds. and it's friday so it's time for the big picture romo joining us tonight are heather sara political consultant and associate at blueskin solutions and adam by

editor in chief of net right daily welcome back both of you thanks for joining us tonight so let's start talking about jobs numbers eighty eight thousand jobs added last month that's pretty dismal the unemployment rate did fall to seven point six percent because a lot of people aren't looking for jobs anymore because it's so bad this is the first jobs report since the sequester went into effect. it's also first job report since the payroll tax cut expired which probably had a considerable effect here we saw the retail sector lose twenty four thousand jobs a lot of republicans going into the sequester were saying this isn't going to be that big of a deal this is just a drop in the bucket when it comes to cuts and within the beltway it sure looks that way but if you look at local if you look locally you really are seeing the effects of sequester and here's a little clip here of various local news outlets talking about it. these new lakota helicopters the california national guard users will soon stop flying altogether because there's just no. and for me looters are key for search and rescue jobs

across the board government budget cuts are hitting home members of the community action committee that help low income people into our county are looking for ways to dampen hundred fifty thousand dollars from their budgets of western cuts forced seymour senior citizen center to cut the number of days it provides meals from five to three mission of course all these things mean fewer jobs so we saw what a sturdy did in europe should we be at all surprised of what's happening now that we have let these massive spending cuts go through and how many more times do we have to see it happen before we're like ok cutting spending during a recession is a bad idea and sam you blame the republicans but let's remember who i do you know what hands i blame anybody who thinks that cutting spending during a recession is a good idea and tax increases is a great idea during christmas on who you're going to tax are you going to be taxing people who are actually spending money and drive me to me are you taxing people who are sitting on billions of dollars off shore and i mean let's remember though that

sequester was obama's idea no one's excited about the sequester taking place but the reason he suggested it is because he thought that it would force republicans to you down to him and i don't think the hold on the second one i think no one likes the idea is no but i think no i agree with you nobody likes it nobody likes a bill that's about libertarian ideas and nobody likes the idea of sequester except john boehner who said he got ninety eight percent of what he wanted in the debt limit deal that created the sequester right he said that this question was obama's idea the idea that's going to go on for a decade is it doesn't pass a lot it was a major congress still in the sequester in fact i don't think many on capitol hill like to think that if they don't like it lead to the way it ought to go while i think also they don't want to way to stop it let's keep in mind let me just throw out the word peace devastated massive cuts they're not there minuscule and what we're talking about is all these missing jobs in the jobs report let's an unfair assumption because first off that there has been not since the suppressed went into effect for these jobs. numbers to actually be reflected in the report of its march

obama's favorite economist mark zandi said that very little support on the site is now worth it hold on hold on a second for example in the district of columbia itself right if you look at education education title one funding into schools and take a seven percent hit that means a lot of teachers a lot of teachers a lot of you know cafeteria leaders are going to get fired because they can no longer afford them how do how those jobs have been going to happen over ten years in the back one hundred forty nine airports i think we're going to happen it's actually had even called these cuts these are close to ten percent increases of ten percent slashing about employment benefits i mean as you can hear let me just say this i hope that the government is slashed in size and other publications went out of my libertaria i understand that you guys think we're spending too much money i get it but i don't really don't you recognize that cutting spending is having harmful economic effects how disappointed they want to do it i can understand if you do it if i know what you're going to be painful but we have to get through that's fine but at least acknowledge that cutting government spending does harm the

government that's about it the government doesn't it how it harms the government forms of government that it hurts rich i've been able course when i don't hear government g.d.p. to g.d.p. growth is how you determine how an economy grows correct that point one of the inputs for g.d.p. growth is government spending when you decrease government spending you decrease g.d.p. growth that's just the formula am i wrong no you're correct what exactly so that means decreasing government spending means you hurt the economy no it doesn't mean but you decided to give us a big no i'm talking about is the employer that if you take the crease what are the inputs the g.d.p. so g.d.p. therefore decreased. the second i guess what happened and this is something you might be able to celebrate here the government will still spend more money next year than it did this year and continually we increase even more you have more you know we have triggered and there's an. increase is and they can be on done at any moment so why don't we john. better get to work get them on done and so it's

a little but they know it's not john painters' fault if john boehner is the reality that obama signed by when i think most of the laws originate in the congress and nobody knows what congress obama had vetoed the sequester but you know i think we're missing the point here when we created the sequester we're going to create the committee of twelve a committee of twelve is going to come together everyone you know when disaster so how do how do you how is bipartisanship ever a disaster it's not bipartisan when you just say we're going to take a look at maybe six feet of snow over here i'd suggest a room and say let's get to work the democrats said we're willing to work here's the were going to propose and said that to know they did it yes how do you walk away from the table they walked away we have been able because let me tell you why the walked in from the table how they walked off the table because they said that you guys want to increase revenue and we were absolutely positively never because of grover norquist and other lobbyist increase revenue and obama said that we won't and he won't agree with you either we want that's not your president and only trying to present propose a trillion dollars in cuts to the cost of this and cuts in spending and not have

republicans already and whatever we do with the second hold i'm going to have a hard time with you just you just got the big nugget here you said a trillion dollars in cuts of what was the sequester this year how much did that cause the president already put there's already been a trillion dollars i started a trillion in the budget this year but yet here we go we cry that the roof is falling it look this all these people are going to be fired but guess what obama found a way to save all the customs and border patrol agents obama from the way to save all the food people that were going to be cut their meat was can be contaminated obama found the way to keep the forty radiation from occurring since that was supposed to happen today the supply side i'm not saying this is a republican or democrat issue i'm saying that this is an issue. that's look at president obama's budget that he proposed today and he's going to propose cutting social security and into this is still with that austerity mentality that all three of us all three of you guys should speak to at this point i think they're always why you're here i'll share it why am i on trial say i will always have. that's the

president's budget here that's going to propose change c.p.i. which is going to work out to about fifteen hundred dollars less in social security benefits for average senior over throughout the year should we be taking money out of people's pockets during a time when we need people to be spending money it's out of their pockets first of all it was only out of their pocket when talking about corporations millionaires and billionaires and you can take out of their pockets but you can take it to grandma's pocket but it's not in their pocket it is in their pocket that's the money she's paid into the so security system nationally to get it out she paid all that money and yeah over lived over a lifetime of work to pay off she paid into a small business of this system that then goes and it's a pyramid scheme and we're seeing this on ramp or your plate what's the end game that's why obama suggesting i want to what do both of you think is the endgame here as long as we keep cutting and keep cutting and keep cutting are the layoffs i mean are the layoffs can eventually stop if we keep cutting what's the what's the end game you think you guys think we want to spend as much that's what's going to happen when you guys buy this bunch i mean i'm just curious keep the people have more money in their pocket that so that he doesn't battle but that's exactly what

europe to europe that we're not going to spend this year as well yes they did they made a drastic unless asked what are you talking about and you talk about greece because i'm talking about you know if you need to go i think go through all of the problems of note of first of all go to the united kingdom where they could only think they slashed education funding by six percent but six percent on the part of the point of the i wasn't all staring the point of the of this austerity regime as we've seen in europe is to reduce debt to g.d.p. ratios all across so when they're cutting spending in hopes of so they're lowering the spending hoping that if you bring the spending down then the debt to g.d.p. ratio go down to i think a little or c. and not for anything like well europe we are seeing in a recession or grow the sourcing in greece spain and italy is dead to g.d.p. ratios are actually increasing more and more with us today because now there's many people are able to pay revenue into the government because they aren't spending money and don't have you know they don't have a job so they can't pay any taxes but i wonder who is clearly not working so what is the endgame here which is not to reduce that one bad assets is a total loss. and

a half weeks or so the sequester spent but congress is going to tell us that we're going to send it in effect in europe in five years it's been going on what are you going to take all of the economies and in the tank here to sequester three weeks old let's go i don't think i don't get me wrong i don't think our economy we want to be but i would i would i would say that from when the president took the keys of this economy to where we are now our economy is not in the tank we've seen growth in g.d.p. when he took office we had negative four percent g.d.p. growth now every quarter since he's taken office you seen an increase in the spiral out of what we've all but we just about the let's talk about that let's talk about the economic facts economic facts are there's never ever been a time where deficit spending has resulted in an economic downturn it's actually quite the contrary we're going to we've seen what we had here all know that recessions been over years ago according to the national bureau. of economics is that you know i'm not saying that we're going to tell that to all of those of millions of people that don't actually want to do that are going to find you have to you are came the ism so keynesianism so you had that i think and it worked and it didn't work it works don't want it working the third not going to work you have

to just know that you're not there you cannot say that what we have right now is. we had it for i don't have years and a reasonable back the reason why we saw all the somewhat improvement in the first four years of the obama administration it was the stimulus that's the difference between the united states and between europe is that we passed a stimulus package while europe chose austerity ever since that one stimulus package was passed not one single bit of stimulus has been passed anywhere in our economy which is why we're going sinking back into recession we're projected this year didn't work project is this year to have the same amount of austerity years in there and see what's happening here either the let's let's let's go i just want to touch on this point because i hate when republican and conservative say the stimulus and work that's just not true first of all this is that this is the stimulus was all republican ideals the first thing that was in this that was the biggest middle class tax cut ever passed in american history that stimulated the economy beyond that point the stimulus created almost one point two million jobs because it put fire. fighters back to work in police as police officers back to

work nurses teachers back to work it good rehab classrooms that build bridges that put people back to work why wouldn't they don't want it's not happening still and they want to read literally every day as if it was minimal at all. it wasn't big enough to solve the passion democrats always say when it was you know when you know it was there you have a seven trillion dollars hole blown in your economy i mean well yeah i would like to know what an employer paid them before ten am one hundred trillion dollars christine romer you know his advisor put it two trillion dollars number out there they way way less to get republican support but we've got and here we'll be right back more tonight's big picture rumble after the break.

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back to the big picture rumble joining us tonight our other sermo out of by leave let's get back to yesterday we had fast food workers on strike all across new york city there are many fifteen dollars an hour you know the least they should be asking for are you considering the massive profits that the fast food corporations like the brands in the rest of the i think we have a chart showing it right there mcdonald's brands wal-mart huge profits workers are getting minimum wage but this is just happening in the fast food sector this is been a trend that's been going on for the last thirty years if you look at worker productivity averse worker wages i think we have a chart for that too coming up is that they used to track together for one hundred years as worker productivity went up so did worker wages go up then around the late seventy's in the early eighty's they split and now workers aren't getting paid anywhere close to their productivity levels if they were getting paid close to

their productivity levels today they'd be making way more than fifteen dollars an hour so isn't just this common sense ok we're used to fast food example that's become a widely automated industry much more so than it's ever happened the last fifty sixty years where you might notice that divergence have never been to an automated mcdonald's it's simply i have it both stories are pretty much like that it isn't but that doesn't mean we have all necessarily be laying people off i mean what does on it why does automation necessarily have to lead to laying people off and it's increasing productivity can't those games grow to more large hotel workers people. sick since you'll see only on matters toe it's these people are sitting on i could understand if these people were struggling to meet payroll but they're not struggling to meet payroll never know whether robbins has it worse and it will have never been higher in. the history of the country so you're saying seven twenty five an hour in new york city is a fair wage if that's what they're willing to do and that's what that gets you by about ten. percent or

a little most of the cost of so this is the this is the problem that i have with this whole thing is that they pay seven twenty five an hour you guys say it's a fair wage but then the program would be unfair actually might be too high well ok so that's the government so the government that everybody does pick up the government doesn't want you know i've got to the government and the picking up the tab in government programs if we pay them a higher wage the government would have to pick up the tab for them or have to pay for section eight housing or welfare or wic programs if we paid the american worker the what they deserve we're the richest country in the world and the minimum federal having a federal minimum wage i think you're right i mean new york city fifteen dollars an hour may make sense i mean it's an expensive city and i if i go buy a big big macin new york city it can be a lot more expensive than if i didn't have the federal minimum wage though then what i'm saying it doesn't think would see that's a problem democrats often say well it's fifteen dollars in new york city and he's a fifteen dollars across the board is back to me start making what i think what democrats are arguing or what the president argued at least is that we need to

raise minimum wage to ten dollars and instead of having congress act every time we match up to inflation i mean every most or in the cost of living or the cost of living most that most people most folks who don't work minimum wage get a cost of living wage regardless most companies give their executives three four point three times more than the cost of living wage point is goldman sachs goldman sachs pays its part time board members half a million dollars a year they only need fifteen times that's the reason why these folks who work at mcdonald's forty hour forty hours a day forty hours a week of school or forty hours a week very productive they work forty hours a week and they only make seven twenty five an hour which was fifty thousand dollars a year less well that's a crazy way to actually hired some states they do make one some point five so that's actually unfair to. bring up the stress issue that's their choice we limit a lot of choices. people can you know if you're not making a choice you're actually forcing certain choices are damaging to the economy in deciding to pay your executives more than they can ever spend while paying your

workers poverty wages tell is a bad. inflated wage is limiting choice you're not letting the market set the wage you're saying well it's so unfair we're going to have the same learned in global markets as wage and we do is we have to compete with bangladesh they want to raise the bottom this is absurd this is absurd what you're doing is here you are forced to raise black if you are going to be a market you are arguing over who the and your are basically it sounds like you're justifying shantytowns and a rate on where you are not that it's just that simple either way that's absurd and that's an added element of that other opinion but i would argue that people should have the choice to get you to show you here and argue it for race to the bottom would be a lot of people out there you go out and campaign stop to go the reason is that some problems are not talking about an open american market anymore we're talking about an open global market can american workers parachute up with partners in bangladesh these workers when they set the rate at which way the five government heard aid workers are free there are people that cannot get work because the rate

is at seven twenty five and there are fortunately not we're seven twenty five have you got a break is going to point out to say the right on a second you do that's just not true because they don't want speeding up companies can't afford to pay that if a company is making money hand over fist labor all these are making at anytime you hand over this every dollar john is goes also on the chart hierarchal pointed out as a fact that it's scientific there is one thing certain on earth and that's you know the law of supply is that you have one certain things and every time you raise that wage here it will raise the unemployment rate here and don't you know you carry around the a recent report from bloomberg estimated that eighty three of the biggest companies ship one point four trillion dollars of their money to off shore tax havens right and a quarter of the public interest research group the tax havens cost the us government one hundred fifty billion dollars a year individuals a thousand and twenty six dollars a year enough money to feed a family of for four. a month right at the core of the corporate corporate pay is the fact that the corporate pay is effectively the fact of tax rate of twelve percent what is actually thirty five percent you're telling me that this i didn't i

just understand why we can't close these loopholes ok. first off. i think we now have a simpler tax system you know i mean i don't think that the reality is simply what is what i mean. i mean i think there are quite a few suggestions out there i like the idea of a flat tax. you know when conservatives say we want to simpler tax code that means they want to raise taxes on people who currently don't make enough money to pay taxes so that they can lower taxes on people at the top right what i am saying is a wise thing on the tax basis that's what i'm saying is that the tax code is too complicated and and this car people who can afford to find loopholes do and i think we closely probably make a point i think this really does look more like that sam was making was when you create a flat tax where everybody plays nine percent across the board those who have a higher discretionary income they're going to end when you have a lower income you have a marginal margin to consume a lot more because you just have less money and you have to pay for all your

expenses when you're rich or a millionaire or a billionaire you don't consume that much so if you're not so you're saying anything rich people don't use the government is as much so i'm saying that rich individuals they end up saving more because they save more they don't buy more so they don't pay into the flat tax. ok that's a pretty good logic wasn't going to be why but the funny part of how it's set up on how the flat tax believe this economic this is. this goes back to when mitt romney said forty seven percent of the country don't pay taxes even though they do pay sales tax it's a process. that we're talking about and that is a tax system that should be fair how it works is all of it out of the system and it's not fair and evenly across the board i mean how would you would it be a payroll tax would be a sales tax the locals take a compromise and do a sales tax you can figure out how to do it i don't know if you were going. anywhere near imposing such a system but what we do know is that what we do know is that corporations you cited the factory said it's costing these people money it is it's not yes it is it's not

what you're talking about is a government that doesn't budget correctly and boss this is why there's a company to watch morrison nobody called and then says oh if it wasn't for our own law that we wrote we would have the most is why it cost middle class and working families more a cup of the first reason why it cost middle class and working families more is because there it results in results in government deficits right because not enough money coming into this is going to pay out the system and also know that all this will cause a comment it also cuts critical programs like education programs like hospitals firefighters and fire fight firefighters firefighters and police that there's a year before we go there we have so much pork that we get we get rid of if i mean part of it yet and i'm not going to defend bloated spending anywhere and it's across the board yes i will take it into education hospitals let's look at like the federal bureau like you are oh yeah you're right borough. we have

a subsidized burros like there are so many things that we do that are unnecessary and people don't even know about you there's nothing they seem to seem to agree on this point that we should get rid of loopholes we can all agree that we should never loopholes but that god damn sure i'm going to get rid of pork we'll cross the border why don't we do that and we agree about and we're going to if you're going to conservation programs that look to study how you know certain carcinogens affect the forest or whatever you know that's not pork that was very important things to our side of the fence the farm and with a chainsaw we're down. another does a federal judge ruled yesterday the f.d.a. had to strike down the current age restriction on over the counter purchase of plan b. the morning after pill and twenty eleven the abomination of the f.d.a. to restrict over the counter purchases to only those over seventeen concerns argue that the pill induces abortion not. true it stops being fertilised or makes us promote he will to reach the so was it was this the right decision either let me say this right now as a teenager you can't go into

a drugstore and buy birth control pills and what this emergency contraceptive pill is is a double dose of birth control pill so it's ridiculous that there's this inconsistency that as a teenager you can go in and buy this but not you know birth control but that he literally is a contraceptive a man could go will make you go into a pharmacy and buy condoms a woman could go in the pharmacy and buy. her a moment we're talking about hormonal pill and imo no birth control pill that obviously people think can be abused especially by minors to such a lift the age district restriction on this but to say that birth control pill is still by prescription only taking a morning after pill an abortion i didn't say that i said it's a hormone hormone pill it's filled with more about these i've got a birth control pill is which is why we have restrictions on who can buy it you have to have it when people go to the use of the morning after pill limit abortions . but i've been talking about that right now we're talking about is whether minors

should have access to this pill in a drugstore without having it minors or showing we can't we can't get around that i think is right now what this judge is really about what this judge is saying is that my eleven year old boy can go out and buy it that's me saying no age restrictions by bubble gum and emergency contraception that every time i do a story take it out of either the obama administration we don't support or the problem here is the problem here is that children all unfortunately in our culture whatever you want to call you would call pop culture you want to call it music they are making adult decisions so should they have the right to get the ball here is another weird thing that's going on right now just introduce this year we have a bill that would restrict cough syrup from being bought by minors you have to show that you are eighteen years. why because five percent of teenagers at some point have abuse cops are up and gotten high on it so we see that you know teenagers

should not be entrusted with cox they're up but you can go and get emergency contraception there's all hormones for teenagers yale's have a field day i mean you know how do you tell this if there has been intelligence on the morning after pill that have proved that it is a safety net is that even if it is ok i think it's not as hard as i say to him i did take morning after pill is and go and make speed with this but you don't always have the borrelia try to tell the world. that is. how they are out of thanks so much for being on the big picture of us this friday having us. looks after the break the united states used to lead the world when it comes to. internet and technology but times have changed and we've fallen behind so where do we stand today compared to other developed nations will ask susan crawford in tonight's conversations with great minds.

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