it. was like to go did 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 i'll. go on. to make you know i'm sorry and on this show we reveal the picture of what's actually going on and we go beyond identifying. rational debate real discussion critical issues facing america are you ready to join the movement then welcome to the big city. and washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture. every time someone proposes a minimum wage hike big businesses like wal-mart have the same thing to say well

you can order goods. but they're like the reason why in just a moment also corporations pray the tenth circuit court of appeals thinks so i ask our guests with their degree in finance loan liberal rubble and stay tuned for a special thanksgiving edition of your take by take a live and then up later on in the show. you know this doing business in america and pretty much every other developed country in the world is a privilege not a right in order to do business you or you and a group of participants most petition a secretary of state for a business license if your petition is granted you will be given a set of privileges ranging from the ability to deduct from your income taxes the

cost of your meals if you have to discuss business to a whole variety of special tax breaks and said it was and immunities from prosecution for things that had you done them as an individual you oh my otherwise go to prison for. when we set up this country more than two hundred years ago we established some of these pro privileges and associate it with some pretty heavy responsibilities of until the eight hundred ninety s. a corporation couldn't last more than forty years in any state which prevented them from being used as a tool to accumulate massive and multi-generational wealth a corporation had to behave in the public interest and when they weren't or didn't thousands of them every year were given the corporate death penalty their assets dissolved their stockholders losing everything although nothing more than what they had invested. over the years as the supreme court has given more and more power to wealthy individuals and corporations these responsibilities receded so far into the background that one state in delaware your articles of incorporation could be

a single sentence stating that you intend to do whatever is legal in the state of delaware which is probably why more than half of all the companies listed on the new york stock exchange are delaware corporations the reason we originally allowed business to do business in this country was so that some benefit to society would come from it but since the era of new deal in economics was replaced by reaganomics the principle rationalization we used to give limitations of liability and privileges to corporations and their masters has changed from the question what is best for society to the question is how can somebody best get rich quick this is a perversion of the entire concept of why nations allow people and corporations to do business and why we facilitate that activity by providing at public expense stable currencies in a stable banking system predictable and fair court systems transportation electrical water septic and communications infrastructure a criminal justice system to enforce the rules of the game of business and educated

workforce at the public expense and protected with a public pension called social security we do all those things so the business will provide some good to the public while in the meantime enriching its owners but a new business model has emerged in the united states companies still get the privileges but they no longer have to conduct themselves in ways that are near a net positive to the public companies are now free to demand not just huge welfare payments tax breaks subsidies but can actually play one state off against another in a competition for which state is most willing to transfer the most dollars from the taxpaying individual people to the corporations in their billionaire c.e.o.'s similarly corporations routinely use. right to work for less laws empowered by the tax hartley act of pit workers in high wage states against workers in low wage states producing a national race to the bottom boeing for example is participating in both of those

practices right now having just taken billions from the state of washington and now playing their workers against desperate workers in old confederate states senator bernie sanders has recommended that when states participate in letting corporations play states off against each other both states should lose federal highway funds that or any other remedy is pretty unlikely as america continues to raise from being one of the world's wealthiest nations pre reagan to opposed reagan dystopia the first modern fully developed industrialised nation to actually dnd us to realize and move in the direction from first world status toward third world status simply is the result of thirty two years of reaganomics finally a particularly pernicious form of this new business model has emerged in part out of the radical restructuring of the welfare systems in the one nine hundred ninety s. led by newt gingrich and bill clinton because welfare reform in the one nine hundred ninety s. tied the ability to receive welfare to having to work low wage employers discovered

that as long as they kept their employees pay below the poverty level you and i through our tax dollars would pick up the rest of their employees cost of living through food stamps medicare things like that or medicaid the result is higher taxes for us and billions in additional money for the c.e.o.'s and stockholders of america's largest companies this is not how business should be done in the united states of america if a company refuses to pay for their business model is so bad that they can't pay at least a living wage they should not receive the privilege of doing business in this country and when it comes to not paid a living wage one of the worst offenders is our country's largest employer wal-mart . joining us now from our new york studios for more on this is kathleen virtually a policy analyst at demos cafe katherine welcome back. tom thanks for having me

back so catherine you know it's going to. i was just going to tell you if you're fired up about the kind of corporate practices you were just describing you're going to be really upset about what i have to tell you today ok that's that you know these aren't just abuses of privilege these company behaviors are actually at the core of what's holding our economy back increasing inequality across the board and depressing the consumer spending that would in you know another circumstance have us thriving with more jobs and more to go around for everyone so care through your news story for the most suggests that it would be really easy for a big company like wal-mart to start offering its workers a living wage what could they do right now to give their workers for example a five dollars eighty three seven hour raise which many suggest would take people to you know the upper edge of poverty to a reasonable living starting. that's the workers that are speaking out against

wal-mart are calling for a wage equivalent to twenty five thousand dollars a year now that's not a lot when you think about raising a family investing in your future but wal-mart says it's too much so we decided to look into their financials and see what was really possible and what we found is that wal-mart could actually surpass that without costing consumers a dime and without even reducing the dividend payments to their shareholders and that's because wal-mart is doing fine they're making seventeen billion dollars in profits a year of those profits that they allocate about seven point six billion dollars toward what are called share repurchases that's when they go into the market market and buy back their own stocks what that does is temporarily bump up earnings per share. where as the same revenues are spread over fewer shares and but it doesn't have any long term benefit for the firm we'd also though it helps the largest stockholders tremendously which is the walton family. the family is worth one

hundred forty four billion dollars and as they repurchase the shares of the company their stake in the firm grows so as the number of earnings out there in the public hands decrease the wal-mart heirs have gathered a higher than fifty percent stake in the company for the first time incredible incredible i'm sorry interrupted you at midstream that you're going. ok so the punchline is if wal-mart instead took this seven point six billion dollars that they're basically spending unproductively now and used it instead to invest in their workforce they could give every worker a five dollar and eighty three cents an hour raise on top of what they were earning now in addition to that the company itself would benefit as those workers become more productive stick around longer and the and the wal-mart itself would have less costs in terms of the employer employee turnover and training. it sounds to me i

mean you look at. sam's clubs big competitor. with lots or cosco operators. you know their workers stay longer they have higher loyal to they have lower turnover they have lower you know the walton. family the wal-mart wouldn't have to pay all these you know millions of dollars to union busters i mean would you just be easier for them to do business in an ethical fashion. you know cosco for their investment in the workforce actually generates sales per worker double of what sam's club is raking at and so there's a huge benefit and it's kind of an amazing moment when the low wage workers movement has identify. something that c.e.o.'s have really missed and that's that the well being of their workforce is really critical to the success of their business yeah it's a funny idea that without the people doing the work the fact cassava job or didn't

have any money they grab you know business good and they're not only the people doing the work but they're the people coming back spending their paychecks in the store every additional dollar that you give to a low wage worker gets fed right back into the economy that leads to higher growth more jobs better sales and more goods going to go around you know. we have just a minute counter there's a series of strikes labor actions pseudo labor actions i guess they are unionized what's what's the status of those with the go to walmart around the country. well there have been nine strikes so far across the country in cities as wide as l.a. and miami in addition to the midwest and you know these are some really brave workers to stand up to the most powerful company in the world one of the most powerful companies in the world on friday were predicting about fifteen hundred strikes now this is bigger than we've seen even as we've gained momentum over the

last year and these strikers are joined by workers from other low wage industries like the fast food movement as well as their communities who come out to show their support and customers if you're out there shopping on friday you should stop and give a chair to these workers if you don't support the workers and also buy locally from small locally owned companies catherine russell and thank you so much for being with us. thank you for having me on the show again a pleasure. coming up south carolina residents have paid millions of dollars into medicaid over the past few years so why won't governor nikki haley let them have that money back that and more into the eyes of the lone liberal rumble right after the break.

well if you will show harmony why should be making college face i just i feel alone . a pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today i roll researcher. i've got a quote for you. it's pretty tough. if they wait substory. let's give this guy like you would smear that guy stead of working for the people most

issues the mainstream media are working for each other bribe writers be sure to fight. the good rather.

liberal rommel or david alaska director of communications for the new york republican state committee who's visiting from our new york studios and neal asbury host of the truth for america radio show joins us from miami and david and neal well both of you thank you tom good to be with you good to have you with us and just just so we all know and so our viewers know there's just a very slight delay in the feed to and from new york so you know if any will will will do our very best this the votes are improv one which mandates a fifteen dollars living wage for airport and hotel workers in the seattle suburb of seat act has passed voters approved prop won by a seventy seven vote margin so a recount will probably happen but even the fact that it reached that point is

amazing in and of itself it also ties that minimum wage fifteen dollars an hour to the in inflation index it ensures that tipped workers don't have to share tips with their employers and a guarantees a six point five percent paid sick the six point five paid sick leave days per year for every worker prop one also exams most small businesses genuine small business in these requirements so why not make prop one a national requirement you know what's what's wrong with this neal. well tom does anyone truly believe that we have a job crisis in this country twenty six million unemployed and underemployed americans because the minimum wage is too low yes come on you have similar minimum wage sensible weight has been created away as their commitment to their pockets it would stimulate the economy it has done every single time the minimum wage has been raised since one thousand thirty five you cannot identify one of the single of the year since one nine hundred thirty five when raising the minimum wage failed to

stimulate the economy and make things better the liberal solution for everything is to spin somebody else's money the problem is that in the obama economy this is those the not creating jobs are not somebody else's money it is these workers money they are earning this money they are making they are making the products they are doing the works and they're there making the profits that are being skimmed off the top for the fact cats who are working who are sitting around their desk or on my job carousel are sitting around their pool waiting for the devil to but david let me bring you in on this. why shouldn't we simply raise the minimum wage i mean we don't have to take it up to fifteen dollars an hour we're going to get back to where i was in one hundred sixty eight and work just fine i already went to college and ten cents an hour. i'll tell you what i think what happened in sea-tac is a perfect example of how we can protect workers without needing a massive one size fits all federally mandated minimum wage the people in this small town of twenty seven thousand took

a look at these two industries they only applied the minimum wage increase to the airline industry in the hotel industry and they said we can race in here and as you pointed out they exempted small businesses and crucially they gave unions and employers the right to waive the state mandate if it's not working out so this is a this is a way we can actually raise the minimum wage without killing jobs so i think this actually speaks sort of why we shouldn't do this on a large federal federal way as you tend to support doing so you're suggesting david every community in america should have a referendum on their own local minimum wage. and i'm saying at the state level at the county level or even at the town level like they didn't sleep in sea-tac you know this is there are fifty states in this country and thousands of towns each with different economies each with different cottage industries the same minimum wage doesn't work across the entire i don't i don't disagree with that minimum wage that's and that's why i say you know ten dollars and ten cents an hour which is the you know used to be the federal minimum wage. in today's dollars back in sixty

eight would be at least a floor according to a study from the economic policy institute increasing the national minimum wage from seven twenty five to ten dollars and ten cents an hour by july first two thousand and fifteen would result in a net increase in economic activity of approximately thirty two point six billion dollars and over that period would generate approximately one hundred forty four thousand new jobs so what neil what what do you have against one hundred forty four thousand new jobs and thirty billion dollars in additional economic activity we're going to disagree the evidence clearly shows that jobs are lost it also shows that they're going to shift to more part time jobs what have it ready already the part time jobs are killing this country they are because i've read about wage hasn't gone up since i've seen sixty eight people who are working part time are more likely five times live in poverty than those working full time so let's raise the minimum wage you're going to push him you're going to push employment out of these communities tom that's the problem let's create an environment where

entrepreneurism can flourish and we can create good paying jobs in this country i'm not satisfied with nine dollars an hour but you don't mandate it from the government you're just going to destroy businesses that way tom it's going to be a so ever. it is never and businesses are going to leave the community more poverty more people in despair ok i'll leave you with a last word on that and our viewers can make up their own mind south carolina rejected the obamacare medicaid expansion but that doesn't mean the medicaid won't be expanded in the palmetto state according to state officials south carolina's medicaid rolls are expected to grow by sixteen percent by. june of two thousand and fifteen or health news that's actually a higher growth rate than a than expected in many states the did accept the obamacare medicaid expansion you're seeing and wonders of republican economics of politics at work here the obamacare because poverty is increasing there the obamacare medicaid expansion allows people making up to one hundred thirty three percent of the poverty level side of for medicaid benefits in states that allow the expansion the federal

government going to cover one hundred percent of the cost of that for the first three years and ninety percent forever after that but south carolinians other get out the pay for it themselves this is totally bizarre south carolinians paid all the whole bit o. all of my work pretty much paid federal taxes they paid federal taxes which goes to the federal payroll into the federal budget and then the and then obama obamacare says oh and by the way we'll take one hundred percent of the cost of medicaid for the first three years ninety percent forever and we will give you the tax payers of south carolina will give you your own money back why is nikki haley prevent teen to the taxpayers from south carolina from getting their own money back from the federal government doing it. well so basically what the obama administration is telling these governors is if you like your level of medicaid spending you can keep your level of medicaid spending i don't blame any of these republican governors for being afraid of taking on a massive expansion in medicaid which is already on sustaining expand which is

already has been a loaded wasteful fraud fraught why damage you're not answering my question walt you're not to ask me my question john k. six. i'm going to allow the taxpayers of all to get back the money that they paid in taxes to the federal government and g.m. who are in arizona said i'm going to allow it i'm going to let the taxpayers of arizona get it back from the federal government the tax money that they pay to the federal government why is that nikki haley and all these you know not all of these but so many of these other republicans are saying you know we're going to continue to send federal tax money to washington d.c. but when it comes to washington d.c. giving us tax money back sorry we don't want it we don't want our taxpayers to have their own money back i don't get it will topple tom that's because nobody believes that the government can do this efficiently and whatever the government is telling us there's no trust there are any more well american people don't trust obama anymore and they definitely don't trust him on obamacare it's

a contract and you know it doesn't require a truss it's a contract year escalation of course escalation and let's talk about medicaid for a second just because you have medicaid doesn't mean you have doctors and hospitals they're dropping medicaid in droves tom and the people who really need medicaid will not have it because of this and if you could actually here's the south carolina got their own tax dollars badly does it from the federal government oh they they might be able to take the taking that money into the hospitals the tragedy is time you're taking mobile medicare you really need ins of dollars from from from hospitals in the poorest neighborhoods in the states we wouldn't need the expansion to begin with so now he's a minute wait a minute. you know the. in the states that are saying we're not going to take back our own tax dollars we're not you know where the republican governors are saying we're not going to allow the taxpaying people of of the state of texas you know where rick perry says i'm not going to allow the taxpayers of texas who paid federal dollars into the federal government i'm not allowed going to allow them to

take that money back in the form of medicaid health care dollars it's not going to happen say in those say what people have in those states now right across the board bill and you are now seeing hospitals going out of business because the way the law was constructed did not expect the supreme court to be able to allow rick perry to refuse to take federal dollars. so why is why is this a federal power a power grab from the beginning and look i get these hospitals closing in some of the poorest neighborhoods in america this was one of those great things about obamacare that we would find out about after we passed our right these hospitals were open before this law was passed they're closing now and they can't stay open without a massive incursion of federal power and a massive assumption of financial let him he is he can stay open without the governor saying yes we will take back the tax dollars that we already gave you but speaking of obamacare i wanted and without any allying here examples of other supreme court on monday agreed to hear the case of sebelius versus hobby lobby stores as obamacare story. based arts and crafts store claims that the obamacare

birth control violates mandate the birth control mandate violates their first amendment right to religious freedom now this is you know hobby lobby's kind of a right wing store to begin with but where it gets really weird is that hobby lobby always used to provide birth control to their employees until suddenly obama keeping a carrot came along number one and number two what is it that corporations got to have religion you know are they going to get married next i don't get it david fill me in a. well first of all if you want to call hobby lobby a right wing company will take it because this is a company that gives ten percent of their annual revenue away to charity they have a self-imposed minimum wage of fourteen dollars an hour they made they currently do offer fourteen of the sixteen of the twenty means of birth control required under obamacare however this is a privately owned company and you're asking one family that owns this company to

pay for the morning after pill in the week after pill and what essentially amounts to forcing them to pay for abortions so david is free to even if there's anything in this kind of instead of if this company if the green family that owns this company instead of being evangelical christians who do not believe in birth control pills if they were instead christian scientists who don't believe in antibiotics should they be allowed to offer a health insurance plan which is not a free at a box or hospitalization but only pays for prayer. well here's the here's the difference in you know the hypothetical you just gave in reality and reality no this reality the abortion issue is a. who is not paying for antibiotics name one employee i mean that's absurd absolutely there's no our neighbor all across the country are doubting whether or not. the second group the supreme court decided to take the case was an issue of the mennonites and so you may be getting into some of these issues i mean if the

supreme court you know i would just have a minute i don't want to hear your thoughts on this if the supreme court says that your religion can determine what kind of health care you're offering and christian science is a major and credible religion isn't this isn't this what's next well i think i think it's out and i think that aren't as a bridge to what that what the bigger the bigger issue here is the liberal the view that they just totally destroy respect the proud tradition of religion in this country i mean religion in this country is under assault in this is just the last we of christian science and business owners should be able to sell their employees sorry you can't have any and it by those who have conscientious objectors in this country i mean you have a proud tradition in the consciences objectors are dealing with the government not private and employers. well it's that will corporations in this country at this private citizens i mean that's what you've mentioned in the earlier part of the way that they are incorporated is to do good for their communities they have the very

have the image they have the protection of private citizens so why should i bother me actually in many ways they tell the guy and i thought in that that's a canard we're at the back has more and i slung over rubble right after the break. and. 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 or. i

know c.n.n. the m.s.m. b.c. fox news have taken some not slightly but the fact is 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 and for the truth from the might think. it's because one full attention and the mainstream media work side by side with you is actually on here. and our teenagers we have a different brain. because the news of the world just is not this funny i'm not laughing dammit i'm not god. i'm. sure you got a sense of the jokes that will hand out to me that i'm.