i think. that you know the prize is the only industry specifically mention in the constitution. that's because a free and open press is critical to our democracy right. that you know i'm sorry and on this show we reveal the nature of what's actually going. to go beyond identifying. rational debate real discussion critical issues facing them are ready to join the movement and while they take. i am sam saxon for thom hartmann in washington d.c. here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture. president obama bowed to

political pressure today offering to let americans keep their canceled health care plans for another year so is the president on to something or is it is he just sabotaging his own program for a temporary pole number boost more on that in just a moment also the left coast could get a lot more left that's because seattle may be on the cusp of electing its first socialist city councilwoman could this be the start of a nationwide progressive surge and the scientists are wrong global warming is a lot worse than we thought tom will explain why tonight's daily take. all right let's talk about the affordable care act now during a speech at the white house this afternoon president obama announced his fix for the latest obamacare controversy which if you haven't been paying attention concerns the cancellation of my. of insurance policies under the affordable care

act after those policies no longer met the minimum requirements of what health insurance in america should be the president said that those americans whose plans were canceled or were scheduled to be canceled will now get to keep their plans through two thousand and fourteen. already people who have plans that predate the affordable care act can keep those plans if they haven't changed that was already in the law that's what's called a grandfather clause that was included in the law today we're going to extend that principle both to people whose plans have changed since the law took effect and to people who bought plans since the law took effect so state insurance commissioners still have the power to decide what plans can and can't be sold in their states but the bottom line is insurers can extend current plans that would otherwise be canceled into two thousand and fourteen in americans whose plans have been canceled can choose to reenroll in the same kind of plan look i saw on

a basic level this sounds just like the keep your plan bill that republican congressman fred upton has been shopping in the house for the past few weeks or so up to this bill would allow americans to keep their junk policies their junk health care plans and also allow insurers to continue selling those junk policies that don't meet minimum standards through next year there's one big difference between upton's plan and the president's plan though the president's plan doesn't allow insurers to continue to sell junk policies indefinitely to new customers like upton's plan does it simply allows people to keep their junk plans for a year or longer the president's fix also requires insurance companies to tell their customers just how bad their junk plans they get to keep really are remember those plans that the president is now allowing people to keep aren't really plans at all they're like eleven cars with exploding gas tanks their health insurance plans in name only something that tell us americans eventually find out once they actually get sick but still some americans who haven't gotten sick yet think these

insufficient plans which are much cheaper suit them just fine which is why they were a bit ticked off when those plans were cancelled especially after the president seemed to suggest that if you like your plan you can keep it. the president's poll numbers are now lower than they've been at any point during his time in office and he's been hearing from congressional democrats worried about how obamacare is messy rollout will affect their chances in the twenty fourteen midterm elections so that's fundamentally what's behind today's announcement by the white house it's addressing a credibility issue and politically the white house's fix makes sense in terms of policy however many worry that the president's fix could create some problems that's because many of the people who've received cancellation notices from their insurers are young and healthy now that they get to keep their junk policies through next year there's a possibility that they won't go and buy subsidized plans on the exchange they could throw the program in detail us as sarah kliff wrote in the washington post on tuesday. there's also

a worry among health policy wonks that allowing people to stay on these plans will be bad for the new insurance marketplaces the concern here is that healthier people are more likely to stay in these pretty obamacare plans they're probably more ok with the skip your benefit package and that could drive up premiums in the new obamacare markets the short term fix in other words could become a longer term problem for the president's health care law the president's temporary political fix could create the ultimate policy nightmare an insurance death spiral young people won't buy into the marketplace premiums will skyrocket and once premiums skyrocket people avoid the obamacare marketplace altogether of course that's the worst case scenario so how my all of this play out will help us break all this down i'm joined now by even room executive director of health care for america now you can think welcome back to that area thanks for having me so let's put this into perspective a little bit this controversy over people losing their plans this takes place in the individual market and that really only covers about five percent of americans

of that it's even smaller percentage of the people who who have their plans who lost their plans so really you know obviously anything happening with obamacare is giant story politically but practically you canonically how important is this story it as a story it's not that important the i mean the things that have played out with this are crazy and so like the bill that the republicans said this week they said was going to be a fix that was going to do this that you know the thing this morning right speaker boehner says it's really just a repeal bill what a shock right and so you know everyone is just speculating right now about what this means it does speak to some concerns that certain people have and that's understandable what you said about this about the small number of people as true five percent of the market folks it's fifteen million people now listen if you're one of those people you got a notice you didn't like and you may not know what it means or what to do now. based on your introduction to this segment and all the other conversations i would

say every single person in america is learning what a junk plan is and so you know people are going to start serious people are going to start looking at their plan and saying for a couple hundred dollars what am i getting so and that's something that the president's plan outlines here is that it's not only is he going to allow people to stay in these sort of junk plans if they want to but he's going to force insurance companies to notify their customers about just how bad those plans are and then tell them where they can find alternatives it seems like a good thing that seems like the educating process that people need to go through that the white house is kind of not done a very good job at telling these people look you shouldn't like these plans that's why you shouldn't keep them but how does that practically work how do you force the insurance companies to be honest telling their customers about what's not in their plans and where they can find these alternatives that's question one question two doesn't that leave conservatives who just want to criticize anything saying this is more regulation more paperwork that the fix is going to lead to the insurance

companies i mean i think there's a couple of things the first is that a million people have signed up to start shopping for the affordable care act health care and those a million people are going to be talking to other folks and so that what we're going to see is what we've always said which is that the beginning of people understanding this hurry hearing about and saying i want in a second is listen it's hard to keep the insurance industry honest it's not what they do what they do for a living is there is that of this so but now the spotlight is on them they have to send out notices that says exactly what the deal is right your customer we've been selling you a policy that's of no value and we've been taking your money for there's an alternative if you'd like and for most people they're going to spend less money and get better benefits six out of ten folks are going to pay one hundred dollars or less twenty seven million people eligible. for subsidies right now so we're on

almost every one of these people and by the way not to criticize the media because i want to be on shows like this but every one of the people virtually everyone who's been every person who's been paraded out who said i'm getting screwed by this it turns out that they would all do better that i'll do better under under the affordable care act i mean there has been enormous this information about who is really being victimized by this law right now but this speaks to this concern that that was brought up in the washington post by sarah kliff about. if we're going to go ahead and admit that this is a problem that people aren't able to keep these problems could that lead to young people who this law depends on very much if it's going to work young people going to these marketplaces buying insurance from their will this lead to these young people saying you know what i'm just going to keep this plan i don't think i'm going to need some of this coverage that that these better plans have and if young people aren't going in the marketplace what's that going to do the law i think

young people are i mean the premise that this is somehow going to change all that makes no sense it's pure speculation and just like the numbers that were announced yesterday we don't have to speculate because an you know they'll be another announcement and another announcement so yesterday what we found out was huge numbers of people want health care and what we're going to continue to find out is young people want it just as much as we thought that they did and they're not going to say i want to go buy a policy that exposes me to financial ruin that's right i think i'm going to go out and do they're going to go out and say let me get a good policy at a good price that gives me protection that makes sense and a lot of their friends are going to be in employment you know working for their employers and they're going to have good quality health care and that's of people going to buy despite the president's announcement in this fix there are still efforts in congress to do something legislatively and even has democrats on board wanting to do something why. is that kind of appropriate precarious route to take

legislatively anything when it comes to fixing obamacare at this point i mean the main thing is that you actually can't get anything done in the united states congress right and so because you have a senate that's completely held up by the republicans and then john boehner set out to be a do nothing speaker he set out to have a do nothing congress and he's an overachiever i mean they're doing nothing at extraordinary pace what they are doing is that they're going to forty seven repeal . which is like shocking because i mean in most instances you want to get a day job what is going on so that's all they're doing is they're going to pass repeal vote after repeal vote so if there are unproven myths to be made and there certainly are. the fordable care act now's the time to do it not because the politics are right but because there's such a level of rank partisanship that it ruins the legislative process all together is

is obamacare is the formal care act does it does it entrenched the private market or is it a step towards universal right to health care private we only have like thirty seconds left. but what is it ultimately we'll see this law is built on the existing system and if that works great and if it doesn't we're going to move towards a system in which people can get health care without going through a middle a middle man will have to see which way things go very well thank you so much for thank you know right coming up the tea party has taken over the republican party shifting the party to the far right and leaving reagan republicans even in the dust but are we seeing the political far less response now more on that next.

wealthy british scientists are some time to. market why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kinds or report on our.

people or. body has something to say everybody has the story i'm not the type of person want to sit next to on an airport. i mean there's always in the waters about how that's whether it's a ballet dancer a ballplayer present things that are curious to me is it just things i think about . them or not a. world of kuwait's technology innovation called the latest m l m and around russia we've got the future covered.

as the old saying goes the more things change the more they stay the same four years ago today the country was locked in a bitter battle over obamacare angry town halls or update from florida arizona as average americans who were hurt by the financial crisis and sensed something was very wrong with their country let out their rage at a health care law they didn't fully trust and a law that had been badly sold and even more badly slender around this time the wealthy elite in america saw an opportunity and they listed the help of these low information angry americans and used them as foot soldiers in a budding astroturf movement the tea party four years ago today with the help of a lot of shady corporate money a strategy for a far right wing political takeover was being laid out in one of the reasons this takeover was eventually successful again beyond the huge amounts of money was that

an embrace the political truth that everything is local check out this strategy video from two thousand and ten from a get out the vote party group known as the concord project. what's the most powerful political office in the world it is not the president of the united states it's precinct committeemen precinct committeemen and only precinct committeemen get to elect the leaders of the political parties if you want to elect the leadership of one of the two major political parties in this country then you have to become a precinct committeemen. second you can't get any more local than a precinct committeeman but shrewd political strategist knew that if you take things over locally at the ground level you can enact change all the way to the very very top which is what happened at the end of two thousand and ten in those midterm elections that gave the far right wing in america enormous political power yes this political change was lubricated by corporate money made possible by the citizens united decision that same year but don't discount the power of local

politics now back to today and whether americans like it or not there's still a lot of fighting over obamacare and americans still have a sense that something is very wrong with the country and they still want change only this time the change they are demanding looks much much different and it's not being hijacked by billionaires like the koch brothers it's being pushed forward by genuine grassroots movements which are far more powerful and lasting the city of seattle may elect its first openly socialist candidate in history as of wednesday evenings socialist candidate for city council sharma sawan held a four hundred two vote lead over the sixteen year incumbent there's still a lot of votes to be counted she may not win but it's a big deal that she's even in the race and it might be a testament to the occupy movement as a.p. reports so one forty one drew attention as part of local occupy wall street protests that included taking over a downtown park and

a junior college campus in late two thousand and eleven she backed efforts to raise the minimum wage to fifteen dollars called for rent control in the city where rental prices keep climbing and supports a tax on millionaires to help fund a public transit system and other services city council seat may not seem like a big deal but it really is as we know from two thousand and ten and this potential victory comes on the heels of new york city ousting its plutocratic mayor michael bloomberg the same guy who had viciously cracked down on occupy and electing bill de blasio a supporter of occupy who ran on a platform of wealth and. quality borrowing many ideas championed by occupy and a year ago massachusetts elected one of the fiercest champions of occupy and working americans elizabeth warren to the united states senate and in just that one year since her election there's already talk of her being president remember all those criticisms leveled at occupy for not successfully transforming their activism into political success they were dumb then dumber now and while those cold days at

the end of two thousand and eleven seem like a distant memory occupy is still very much around doing amazing work through a number of offshoots helping struggling americans find a financial footing again we just learned that in the last year the occupy affiliated organization rolling jubilees successfully purchased and wiped clean almost fifteen million dollars worth of personal debt belonging to struggling americans. plus there's the ongoing occupy sandia to help those still in need after hurricane sandy and there are the numerous other occupy projects targeting indebted homeowners and students look occupy it was never intended to deliver revolutionary change on day one it was intended to argue articulate the problems and begin the process of fixing that and i'd argue looking at the last few years that process is now well underway there's a debate about labor rights as teachers low wage fast food and wal-mart workers have walked off the job since occupy there's a debate about civil liberties in the wake of n.s.a. revelations by edward snowden voting rights and changing how we vote is occupying

mainstream debate as drone warfare and military misadventures around the world you can't cleave these developments over the last few years from the occupy movement born in two thousand and eleven just like you can't believe these recent political victories in new york massachusetts and now maybe seattle from the movement either the investments made by those in zuccotti park and elsewhere a few years ago are beginning to pay off today and this could have a significant impact on the american political system so let's talk more about it joining me now is that socialist in seattle who may be sitting on the city council soon shall most want and from new york jesse meyerson he's the co-host of disorderly conduct podcast and the author of the book onward occupiers guide to understanding the current crisis schama jesse welcome thanks thanks both for coming on i want to start with you still votes to be counted but your showing is making a lot of news around the country do you attribute the success of your campaign in seattle to seeds planted by occupy

a few years ago that are now growing in showing some real progressive roots in the political left. thank you for having me on the show first of all and i also wanted to update everybody you know this is a million ballots and today's ballot count has just been recorded by king county and you are now as fifty point one seven percent of the votes and we have exceeded our gains from yesterday yesterday if you were for over four hundred votes i had a fire in court and today we are more nearly two hundred votes ahead so it seems like we are really on a victory here and might have the socialist elect see guns and. yeah it certainly does but what will what do you make about their child i mean do you see any any connection as i kind of brought up here in the intro which when what was going on in the country in two thousand and eleven and what we've seen now leading to what could looks like a victory in seattle. yes absolutely it's a continuum you know these are not isolated events are counting has everything to

do with the state of the economy and society in the united states for some of decades but especially starting with now the great recession in two thousand and eight and the fact that all the burden of the economic crisis was placed on the shoulders of working people and young people and he only while the big banks were done very cost financial collapse led to the economic crisis are being rewarded and that was you know that was one of the occupy movement did it and give the silence on the anger to our study the quality and you know the message was the max going to build out and we got sold out and our campaign is. coming out of that whole political shift that happened with the occupy movement and i personally was actually involved with the occupy movement through my organizations of just alternative socialist i don't know this is a nation way are using economic and social justice activists and we were very

involved in the occupy movement not only in seattle but also in minneapolis in new york city in boston and the anger that gave rise to the occupy movement hasn't disappeared because the conditions haven't disappeared they're only gotten worse rather that's a good point for a lot americans they are a lot worse jesse what's your take on this you've reported in return occupy extensively do you see a connection between that movement that started back in two thousand and eleven in in some degree continues today and this string of recent political victories i mean sure some criticism could be leveled at the blasio and even warren and just how you know they are tied to the mainstream democratic party after all but really they're progressives who aren't afraid to talk the language of occupied their departure from the status quo what do you make of it. yeah well look if one thing has been perfectly clear since two thousand and eight it's that the dominant ideology in the current system and i'm not just talking about our particular brand of unproductive over financial as capitalism but actually capitalism more broadly are incapable of producing just an equitable outcomes so you know. probably you

know probably the great victory of occupy was busting open the overton window and you know aggravating a sort of thirst in this country a latent thirst for alternatives some of them quite radical so now in the last week you have both the new york times and business insider writing about a universal basic income which sounds like it's totally inconceivable said to the extent that figures like warren and de blasio represent a kind of fracture in neo liberal gemini i think your thesis is basically right. shell that this is a local race in seattle it's a progressive part of the country but it's significant no socialist ever of one in that city's history in terms of strategy how important is focusing on local politics in hopes of changing national politics i covered the green party annual meeting earlier this year there's a bit of an internal struggle over whether the party should focus more locally or build its national party what's your take on how the far left socialist greens you name it should target their efforts. i think. why you know

any article shows or. you know marginalization of the left for you know should we do it at a small there will are a larger level at it but i having said that i think it is absolutely true that running a campaign finance of the will does give a certain leverage for the left in terms of the campaigns that we want to run i mean i want to make clear that you know our camp being is on the cusp of victory not by following on the rules of the democratic party you know we floundered on the rules we did not see any democratic party endorsements i'm running as an independent independent again electron the two big business parties were running as open socialist we didn't take a dime from big business and all of the funds that we raised were from grassroots contributions we mobilized over two hundred fifty volunteers and people are still pouring into the gavin office trying to help us and so it's

a question of how far their strategy can be successful and there is no question that we need more and more movements and electoral campaigns from the grassroots in every city not just in seattle and there's nothing unique about yemen that's and in fact i will say that like most major cities in the united states seattle is ruled by the democratic party establishment and we see a crisis of affordable housing the proliferation of low wage jobs you know generally unlivable conditions in seattle and many other cities for the vast majority of working people are the responsibility for this lies at the doorstep of the who kind of party establishment they don't have republicans to blame for this and what does that tell us the lack the lesson for us is that we have to break from the democratic party and the republican party and find our alternative there was the recent poll that showed nationally that sixty percent of americans think that the two party system is not working they are fed up and they want a change and as far as de blasio

a. and this requirement and so on i think we need to understand that even if oh you know somebody's neck and this is that warrant is very violent and should i mean i admire her as an arson but watch her within the democratic party establishment it's going to be extremely limited and be on the sash have to be very careful not to have a huge an indian in the democratic party went out and i want to bring jesse in real quick with with what one last one last question here just occupy is national recognition but fundamentally it's working on local projects how is that building. and what kind of change might we see come from that in a few years we just have thirty seconds well it's it's so look the phenomena that animate the young left are global phenomena but it's very difficult to confront globally it's hard to confront like global finance capitalism but you can do foreclosure resistance and it's hard to confront nato or something but you can do copwatch so it's about finding the knishes where like these global forces of exploitation and violence meet the lives of working class people like i think that

the. the volunteers that brought up are animated by the spirit of reversing the trends of capitalism but they you know they are they're pursuing the goals that a local race can achieve at the most want to regulations by the other is just american thank you we'll be right back. played it was terrible they come up very hard to make a plan to get along here is a plug that never had sex with the perfect their lives let's play. lists. lists lists lists

lists lists lists lists lists lists. a. plenty well. science technology innovation all the list of elements from around russia we've gone to the huge earth covered. i think. everybody. should you know the price is the only

industry specifically mentioned in the constitution and. that's because a free and open press is critical to our democracy which. then again i'm sorry and i'm this show we reveal the picture of what's actually going on we go beyond identifying. rational debate real discussion critical issues facing camera ready to join the movement and welcome. and welcome back to the big picture i'm sam sachs in for tom hartman coming up in this half hour senator dianne feinstein is introduce new legislation aimed at reforming the n.s.a. the national security state but in reality it's just another win for the surveillance industrial complex why is her bill so much weaker than other proposals on the floor.