there is just too much threat is a society. that. i suspect. they would like to do if you did you know the price is the only industry specifically mention in the constitution. that's because a free and open press is critical to our democracy correct albus. them you know i'm sorry and on this show we reveal the picture of what's actually going on and we go beyond identifying the truth rational debate and real discussion critical issues facing america ready to join the movement then welcome to the big picture. but i'm tom hartman in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture. the farm bill is supposed

to help america's farmers survive disaster and people pay for dinner so why are republicans using it to give billionaires and it's more on that with my cabin tony just a moment also unlike every other country in the developed world the united states has no national paid sick leave law this is insane but some people think it's just a go to toe to toe on that topic with conservative commentator david ceilidh later on in the show and ignore all the social issue mumbojumbo the republican party only cares about one thing tell you what that one thing is in tonight's debate or. you need to know this while everyday americans struggle to put dinner on the table the super rich get billions of dollars for free from you and me the taxpayers via the u.s. government and they'll most likely continue to get that free money if something

doesn't change on capitol hill first a little back. story ever since one thousand nine hundred sixty five lawmakers in washington have put together a farm bill that has two pieces the first piece is designed to protect farmers particularly small farmers from disasters like floods or droughts and to encourage them to grow crops that are in the nation's best interest that are dates all the way back to the great depression the second part of the farm bill funds food stamps so that the product of the farmers work can be in small part to live or to americans who are down on their luck and hungry i came about with lyndon johnson the war on poverty historically by combining the rural concerns of farmers and food with the urban concerns of poor city dwellers and food the farm bill has attracted broad bipartisan support were all mostly republican lawmakers vote to keep their world constituents safe and healthy while mostly democratic legislators who represent america's cities supported because it keeps their constituents safe and

healthy too for decades it's been a reasonable area of agreement and has supported farmers and hungry people alike but then in the one nine hundred eighty s. ronald reagan stopped in force in the sherman antitrust act and big ag companies started buying up farms across america it devastated the american rural landscape you had willie nelson try to raise money for for poor farmers who had been driven off their homes in other cases wealthy people bought farms just so they could get federal subsidies the result is this farm bill now that has a giant welfare program for big business is rich people attached to the food stamp program according to a new york times analysis of data collected by the environmental working group the federal government paid one paid eleven point three million dollars in taxpayer funded farm subsidies nine hundred ninety five to twenty twelve to fifteen billionaires or businesses in which billionaires had some form of ownership at

a list of fifty billionaires includes people like microsoft co-founder paul allen and investment type. charles schwab it s. true it half the owner of chick fil a to have a collective net worth of three hundred sixteen billion dollars if that doesn't sound bad enough consider this those billionaires probably received more handouts but we're really never get to know how much they got because the government keeps the names of some farm subsidy recipients secret we do know that michele bachmann is among them welfare for the wealthy is nothing new but these giveaways are rages given the context in a special stimulus funding measure expired last friday's snap food stamp program was cut by almost five billion dollars translates into a loss of roughly twenty meals a month for a family of four food stamp recipients now have to survive on less than a dollar forty a meal good luck with that awful if that wasn't bad enough republicans want more

cuts and they want them now republicans want to cut down credits want to cut four billion dollars which is pretty bad the republicans want to cut for he'd billion dollars from the food stamp program not the farm bill welfare of the ridge people the fluence tipper to add insult to injury this new farm bill will make it even easier for billionaires to scam the government that's because most of its giveaways come in the form of something called crop insurance subsidies which are quote not now subject to income requirements payment limits in other words when the amount of food while the amount of food stamp recipients can get as an absolute limit of a dollar forty a meal be about a billion or can get from crop insurance subsidies has no limit whatsoever feed the rich screw the poor business as usual in washington for more on this i'm joined now by mike papen tonio attorney and host of ring of fire radio and refer to the free speech t.v. hey pap how you doing tonight. great every five dollars of food stamps

you know money that we that we run our tax money that goes into food stamps that is given to hungry people that five dollars generates and nine dollars of economic activity out there in the real economy that's a great stimulus why would republicans want to cut that out of the economy. well because poor people don't have the ability to give politicians money tell the very fact that you raise is very misunderstood in america they don't understand that you build capitalism from the bottom you don't bill cavaliers them from the top by giving billionaires as you just pointed out it's a staggering story where billionaires worth three over three hundred billion dollars are still good the people that own these farms fifty of them that they're getting muddy while the poor people that are supposed to buy this food can't even afford the food is about effect forty seven million dollars are taken away from them so it's look didn't we just see this just with the oil companies i mean what

was a forty billion dollars that the oil companies get in subsidies during a time where they're making profits that have never been seen in the history of the world so look it's the golden rule in the beltway and that is the people who have the gold make all the rules and the everybody else suffers this is a great example of it one of the most vocal supporters of food stamp cuts in congress is tennessee republican congressman stephen fincher who took home three million four hundred eighty three thousand eight hundred twenty four dollars in farm bill subsidies between one nine hundred ninety nine and two thousand and twelve and he's still out there running around saying we need to cut food stamps and he wants to keep getting that money how can republicans live with that sort of hypocrisy how does this guy look in the mirror at night well there is they realize that there are at least honest with themselves that there's really no rational economic discussion that's going on here it's an ideological discussion they

realize that the more you say it the more people believe that i was raised in the south tom my entire life i've lived in the south and in the south there is this notion that people aren't deserving of this money and they in there for weeks. we can victimize them by taking the money away without ever understanding that a woman that is raising four children by ourself and working two jobs is anything but a deadbeat the second part is that that typical low information low hanging intellect fruit that's out there talking about talking like that doesn't understand the economy well enough to understand that they're actually hurting themselves by taking money away from people who will take that money go to the corner grocery store and buy goods where is you give that same money to a billionaire and all they're going to do is buy another jet they're going to buy another vaiko kasian home and pango pango in the economy is not going to have any

benefit at all from that transaction it's low information but it it drives anger to the point that we're not even rational and this fellow that you're talking about right here saying that he's been raised like that it's the dumb gap it's all he knows it's all he's been taught all of his life and he's never fought his way out of it although he is a multi-millionaire now as a result in part of our of our of our largest our economy has proven that you can become a millionaire without having a lot of good sense very good trick is to to be able to set aside your scruples in many situations tragically less than a lot of democrats off the hook by the way they want to cut not at all billion dollars from food stamps the democratic base doesn't want these cuts why did the senate why did the democrats the senate pass them well i mean it's the same reason that we're it's the same thing happening tom that we're going to see in the fight that's coming up in january and february you have max baucus dianne feinstein joe

manchin chris coons tom carper durbin all of the folks that are wall street democrats have already decided that poor people and the middle class working poor don't matter anymore because the nature of politics now is poor people do. don't have lobbyist poor people don't give people like dianne feinstein money they get their money from wall street billionaires and so they you have a wall street an arm of the democratic party that has been getting bigger and bigger that is the wall street democrat that has their hand out they know hillary's getting to run getting getting ready to run and they know hillary's going to need money from wall street just like bill clinton took so much money from wall street just like obama took so much money from wall street so it is the mismatch is has become so incredible incredibly one sided that short of some spectacular decision by the supreme court that we're never going to see where we

take politics in money and separate the two we're never going to see a change to this we will have working poor the victims for year after year we're going to see this all the time now there's another piece to this too it seems to have. in the united states increasingly and i think that you can take this all over probably back to nixon and reagan turned it into an art form even though the vast majority of people in the states who are who are poor are white when a white politician refers to poor people or lazy people but in particular poor people i mean it is sometimes though they'll go so far as to say things like lazy really this is just racial dog whistle as. well the welfare queen was involved in it was invented by the republicans you know george h. bush ran under the idea that the welfare queen is destroying our economy lee atwater engineered that very capably and it's taken its legs look things have

changed dramatically from the time that l.b.j. said we need a new society in order to advance is a culture we have to take care of the least of our society was very powerful meaningful statement that l.b.j. made since then we have. dumbed down we've become we've become a culture where greed is good we've become a culture of gordon gekko for god's sakes where this is a character that was supposed to be a satirical let's make fun of this greed is good type of character and instead we have this what we have become and so that's the other part of it you have you have people coming up through the ranks right now moving into politics from every part of the business community that probably have always lacked a sense of moral compass and compassion that we're never going to see corrected until something radical happens and that is it starts costing them elections and

that only happened when we have the money shift in politics in general there you go mike happen tony i had perhaps stick around you've got some thoughts on chris christie the so-called moderate i want to hear after the break ok i'll be glad to be here. people are interested but he has something to say everybody has a story. that a person want to sit next to an airport. i mean it's always in the was and. that's whether it's a ballet dancer. things that are curious to is it just things i think about. them or not it. from the look of a little it was a. very hard to make out of the significance of the life that

he ever had sex with her thick hair flowing. through much. of. the city with a. slow slow slow slow slow slow slow slow slow slow slow slow slow slow one of the feel of the flow.

in the bus to the rest of the news new jersey republican governor chris christie easily want to re-election tuesday night the now democratic challenger barbara buono christie won reelection in a deeply blue state leading many to think that he'll run for president in two thousand and sixteen and that he could potentially win over democratic voters meanwhile down in virginia tea party republican ken. cuccinelli lost to terry mcauliffe in that state's gubernatorial campaign that cuccinelli is defeat in christie's easy victory some pundits are arguing that moderate republicans can

still win elections in america and can beat tea party conservatives in the upcoming two thousand and fourteen and two thousand and sixteen elections may be even be democrats as chris christie really a moderate republican or is he the twenty first century's version of ronald reagan let's bring back mike papantonio a pap. so we've had do it i'm sorry go ahead why i was just going to say i remember ronald reagan and i remember you know democrats in seventy nine actually talking about how cool it would be ronald reagan would run for president because he's so easy to be because he was such a he was such a crazy because they knew about his policies but when he ran he just ran as this friendly affable guy you know it's is chris christie reagan well we've had to endure hours of post-election pundit stupid talk about how chris christie might even be a moderate democrat at heart just crazy dog the pundits do that because they don't

arm themselves with actual facts the truth is that the bar has been and has been set so low for republicans these days i mean the stupid factor is just been set so low that you have the media that is willing to embrace a guy like chris christie in hopes that they can create a horse race to where you actually have a horse race creates profits for the media so take a guy like chris christie who is nothing but a main spirited oafish bully who is union busting anti-education anti women's equality anti public workers rights pynchon busting you name it he has all of the papers he's in favor of corporate welfare he's willing to take away from the middle class working poor to give it to the rich he's wholly owned and operated by wall street super wealthy donors so here's the point the media loves this guy only because the bar is so low for republicans they tried to do the same thing tom with

ted cruz remember they tried the media tried to do the same thing with john baner for god's sakes so here's a guy that's given two billion dollars in tax breaks to corporations that support him and he's taken that money directly away from working poor and you have these idiots that are talking head. in the media these days and you know he really might be a moderate democrat really yeah he vetoed a minimum wage bill vetoed a tax increase on millionaires three years in a row opposes roe v wade actively oppose the legalization of same sex marriage pulled a jersey out of the regional climate compact refused to set up at obamacare exchange supports private school vouchers act there's another piece of this that i think is interesting and that is that if you look at the history of republicans who they run for president with the singular exception i believe i may be wrong on this but i've read this in several different places with the single exception of droit eisenhower

basically since the since the twenty's anyway the republican basically for a century the republican party has always run as their presidential nominee one of the people who ran strong in the previous four year earlier primary which does not include chris christie i'm curious your thoughts on that republican tradition and and you know let's do some occasions here what are you thought well let me let me let me tell you this right now first of all i think that goes out the window because really no republicans did all that well except mitt romney but i think i'll just. think about this you now have chris christie is the guy in charge of governors all over the state he's in charge chairman of the governor's organization throughout the united states he's going state to state making these what we're going to see is he's going to go state to state making these speeches that are trying to characterize himself in the republican party is gee whiz you know we're

a new party where moderates ignore the crazies that are still in control which here is the tea party and the media tom is going to eat it up because they are is oafish as he is unfortunately you have producers in this business in the media business you have writers in this business that simply always go for the easy story. and the easy story is going to be you know what we have a we have a contender now we have a horse race now and so if hillary does run it's going to be a you know i hope somebody besides he'll reruns because i'm not that in them or with hillary to begin with but if you have a meaningful democratic contender with what the democrats have done with what the republicans have done to themselves in the last eight years the democrats are going to win again so why not have a horse race media loves they make money by creating a horse race that's what chris christie is all about i personally don't read much at all into what happened at the new jersey i really don't yeah i think you've

nailed it mike patton tony thanks so much for being with us. thank you joe. in scrooge news the united states is currently the only country in the developed world that does not guarantee its citizens paid sick leave while some towns and cities have their own paid leave laws there is no national requirement in any of the end of the fifty and of the fifty states only connecticut makes businesses offer their employees paid time off due to illness patchwork of laws means that according to the most recent data approximately forty million americans lack paid sick leave labor activists and workers are fighting hard to change this over the summer they want to major victory when the new york city council overrode a mayoral veto and passed a sick leave bill for that city meanwhile lobbying groups allied with big business of doing their best to try to make sick leave laws illegal yes illegal ten states

have now banned cities and counties and passing their own paid sick leave bills this is the newest project from alec it appears seven states have done so in just the past year this is an all out assault on workers' rights but not everyone thinks it's such a big deal i'm joined now from our new york studios by david silly commentator and conservative commentator a tax attorney david welcome back. good to see you tom thanks for having me on it's always a pleasure so you know setting aside the morality of this i don't get the practicality yeah. you must work even though you are sick i mean that just seems immoral. what you want to draw out of the reality of it. no i would like to say is that you have businesses struggling just to make ends meet you know we have an adversarial relationship with local state and federal governments already and these new laws

they sound so good in a classroom or in an assembly but in real life they just don't work and how many employees just want to bang up a free sick day stay at home watch television go to the beach and if they know they're going to get paid for crying out loud they're going to abuse that system and that's not moral is it i've never experienced that i've been an employer for over forty years i've never and i've always offered paid sick leave never ever seen that to. fact we had let it be let it be a personal decision yeah my associate producer and lawyer on the radio this week you know he was he was sick tuesday and wednesday and he didn't come in and i'm really glad he didn't because i didn't want to catch his cold i don't know a video director catchin is called i don't call you know i he could shut down my business come in sick it seems to me like it's stupid joyousness not to offer sickly. well then let the businesses decide if they have a person who was sick and you know this person has

a good attendance record normal am doesn't have to constantly be disciplined. if they have to bang up sick let the employer decide to pay them let's not make it a law where they just take off and they still get paid because after you know a data short period of david would you at least apply this to the food service industry i mean you and i both eat in restaurants from time to time do you really want to walk into a restaurant knowing that that restaurant has no paid sick leave policy and that its workers are making so little that they really do need every single paycheck and so you know the dish that just got brought out from the kitchen has been sneezed down by three different people. no tom i don't want that and it would be silly to say that i did but the reality is once you know it's a great once a favor becomes a right that right is abused and that's the case particularly here in a city like new york you get a lot of individuals who they believe the only purpose of business is to give them

benefits and to give in giving give this is just more of the same where you know let me have something for nothing let me produce nothing and pay me all the same but these are real people behind these paychecks people who are struggling to keep the roof over their head to keep the lights on to pay the workers compensation you know why can't the employees also have a little skin in the game and why can our elected officials just blood out of business for crying out loud but there is i mean you've got major chains major businesses major food businesses in the united states that have no paid sick leave policy whatsoever operate in new york city and elsewhere how can you feel safe going to one of those places to eat particularly during flu season. you know come on i hear the argument that the people are so sick but they go to work because they need that money they do you know that smacks of the stripper that's dancing her way through graduate school it's cut from whole cloth i don't buy it and i think that most employers are pretty decent men and women and they know and let them decide

and the employees when they come on board it's a national jewelry that they have there's no there's no possibility that the local manager can say sure take a day off with the local manager can only say to the employees if you don't show up you're not going to get paid i mean you can take a sick day but you're not going to get a paid sick day and it doesn't it just seems to me like. bad policy you know again setting aside the well what about if it's companies with a thousand or more employees that they would be required but less than a thousand should not be required would that be for i don't think anybody and any business where they're handling food. at the very least but you know for that matter i don't want to walk into macy's and have sorry i've no idea what their policies are but i don't want to walk into some retail store and have somebody sneezing on me while they're out and pick out a sweater i mean you makes a good point people are sick they should stay home and if they're sick it is none of their and they're not sick because they have a hangover that you know they should get paid for that day in my opinion and david

we're out of time but. david. thanks a lot for. being on the left are. the obama support for the phones on mr miller. for tonight's politically correct that i'm correcting fox so-called news contributor erick erickson erickson took to the blogosphere to continue his attacks on texas democratic gubernatorial candidate wendy davis in a post on his conservative red state website erickson went on and on about a one thousand nine hundred sixty defamation lawsuit that wendy davis was involved in in the suit davis' claim that an editorial in the fort worth star telegram defamed her and caused damages to her mental health of course erickson jumped all over that claim saying that they go to the texas democrats could fight iran is a lady who admits that open court newspaper editorial caused her mental health to

be damaged what erikson this feeling to realize is that making a claim of damages to mental health is a key part of any defamation or emotional distress court case you have to use that language in davis' case the claim of damages to mental health had to be made if she had any hope of winning the lawsuit in no means does it bear on her ability to be governor of texas were real mental health and that's why erick erickson has been politically correct. i would rather ask questions to people in positions of power instead of speaking on their behalf and that's why you can find my show larry king now right here on our t.v. question. i

know c.n.n. the m s n b c news have taken some not slightly but if i just i admire their commitment to cover all sides of the story just in case one of them happens to be accurate. that was funny but it's close enough for the truth and might think. it's because when full attention and the mainstream media works side by side the joke is actually on here. and our teen years we have a different approach. because the news of the world just is not this funny i'm not laughing dammit i'm not sure. if. you got a sense of the jokes that will hand out to make us. happy. this

is my ego like whenever i'm feeling hulloa going to look at all this i still can't believe it i stoop into it so. my first he says is. try to be good for. the fortune maybe the hope of those. billion maybe i'm very proud of them so that these wars and the like to. give you buddy or. a good look at them or. welcome to your take my take it live our phone lines are now open so if you want to share an opinion make a comment ask a question live on the air give us a call at two o two nine zero four twenty one thirty four add a one for the number if you're calling from outside the united states but first we go to our video comments our first video comment of the night is from mark from why .