i think. over the if you. did you know the press is the only industry specifically mentioning the constitution. that's because a free and open press is critical to our democracy correct. little. bit like you know i'm sorry and on this show we reveal the picture of what's actually going on we go beyond identifying. rational debate real discussion critical issues facing him. ready to join the movement and welcome they've. been in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture. reporters grilled the

president about obamacare at his final press conference for the n.b.a. year today but is the affordable care act really doing as bad as the media says it is we'll talk about that and more and tonight's big picture rubble and meghan kelly ignited a stocking full of controversy earlier this year with her comments about santa claus but lost in all the hoopla over whether set is white or black is the real question why do we use a big man in a jolly red suit to celebrate a christian holiday. greetings you know this netflix is coming out with a new documentary chronicle in the life of mitt romney the trailer has just been released and if you haven't seen it yet it's worth watching it opens with a scene of romney coming to grips with the fact that he is losing in the two thousand and twelve presidential election check it out. i

can't believe you're going to. so we say in a concession. by the way some of them are for the president. one thing that probably won't be in netflix's romney documentary however is any discussion of the ongoing lawsuit that the former bain capital c.e.o. is involved in in southern california back in october los angeles businessman stephen haas sued mitt romney and nine others including goldman sachs over federal racketeering charges the charges relate back to the purchase of haas's former company ito ois by another store k.b. toys that was owned by bain capital the details of the case a pretty complicated but they basically boil down to this stephen hots is he accusing willard mitt romney of being a gangster and to be perfectly honest hoss has

a point when it was running bain capital during the eighty's and ninety's the company made its money by forcing companies into debt and then squeezing them blind for every last bit of cash they had in fancy terms this is called private equity in real reality it was glorified piracy glorified piracy that was made possible by who else ronald reagan when he stopped enforcing the sherman antitrust act and deregulated the financial industry in the early one nine hundred eighty s. leading to the explosion of mergers and acquisitions the carrot characterize the early eighty's the m n a mania former labor secretary robert reich described bain's pirate like approach to capitalism best in a recent video. let me explain the magic of private equity in eight simple steps step one partners in private equity firms don't risk their own money they get other people to give them money to invest. step

two they use this money to buy up companies they think they can squeeze higher profits from for step three they squeeze out higher profits by cutting the company's costs and for most companies the biggest cost is payrolls so private equity managers typically reduce payrolls by firing workers and or cutting other workers' wages and their health and pension benefits step four they also use the company as collateral to borrow a pile of money from banks and since interest payments on this debt are deductible from company income presto the company shows even bigger profits step five they get the company to issue a special dividend to repay the original investors so now everything else is gravy step six then they sell the company for much more than they bought it for because hey it's more profitable. step seven they pocket to twenty percent of the gains

from the sale and finally step in eight because the tax law treats these earnings as capital gains and they pay only a fifteen percent tax on them this is a sham because the justification for lower capital gains taxes investors supposedly risk their own money and yet private equity managers have been risked a dime worse yet you and i and other taxpayers subsidize all this when they fire workers who wish to pay more for unemployment benefits we do when they pump up company profits by deducting interest payments and all that debt quest to make up for the lost revenue we do when they treat their earnings as capital gains and pay only fifteen percent who wish to pay more taxes to make up the difference. we do have and then later when some of these companies go bust under the weight of all bad debts and their pension obligations have to be taken over by the federal government who pays we do you see the magic of private equity is really

a magic trick and it's played on you and me. that's right while mitt romney is friends care rich laying people off and hustling the tax code you and me the taxpayers have to foot the bill is the time i put an end to this insanity let's rumble. joining me for a big picture rival are jesse jane duff conservative commentator and hired gunnery sergeant for the u.s. marine corps christy setser progressive strategist and president and c.e.o. of new heights communications and marc harrold libertarian commentator and attorney great to see you all if you thank you for being with us let's start out with this

private equity i see is really a small symptom of a much larger problem which is all the changes in the tax code and the basically the wool's of business that are part of reaganomics that we've been living under for thirty two years have moved us from thirty five percent of our economy being manufacturing eight percent. to eleven somewhere between eight and eleven depending how you calculate it and some people say mcdonald's is manufacturing numbers and moved the flyer economy finance. insurance and real estate from being less than ten percent to being over thirty percent of our economy so now instead of making things that actually create wealth we move money around and the people who have money around really efficiently skim a piece off the top and they become billionaires how does this how is this a good thing you know there's this legacy of reaganomics and shouldn't we be seriously considering a role in a bag anybody want to take this debt as disagree that needs being met sally roll back again to understand tax code modification i do appreciate that tax code is

really just grabbing a driving every day as you know what i do but i do think that we need to look at we've got nurses in ohio that benefit from this we have teachers and minissha michigan that benefit i have two sisters that are retired teachers and because of their pension plan which was funded by private equity they retired before they were sixty five years old so there's many people that are not millionaires but there are middle class people that. a very well planned plan an admin private equity that was invested into universities have offered endowments because of private equity that they've invested old in other words they were investors and they got rich just like what mitt romney got really rich my sisters are far from millionaire of their motivation or pension plans and many millions of millions of dollars people invest i mean if we want to use mitt romney as the target he has less than how many of millions but is it a good idea i mean shouldn't if it was pension plan is going to make money by investing should they be investing in a whirlpool factory that makes refrigerators. private well it's not tax it is

a tax scams you don't leave all your feelings on this campus this week did not exist before nine hundred eighty one because the tax code didn't allow it but it's never the gamut as well modifier tax a legal tax scam question yes but there's also there's sort of almost mal intent behind the entire operation it's basically taking trying to squeeze profit out of a company by firing the workers by cutting benefits and then profiting off of others misfortune so there's really something wrong with the very least look into regulating it if not you know outlawing it and that's just private equity i would like to take this to the to the larger picture of what's go back to a trade policy for example protect this country mark we used to have we used to have you know from from the george washington the ministration to the reagan administration we had averaged thirty four percent tariff import tariff on imported goods and therefore everybody who bought anything in america was something made in america you know what we what we make in america right now is a bigger government and we make war that's basically what we do whether it's the drug war the overseas wars that's why the suburbs of washington d.c.

are the richest in our country now instead of gross point michigan as far as going after mitt romney here and i think there's blame to go around on that one of the ads that came out against bain capital that same night i think it was mitt may president obama went to tony james manhattan you know and had a big fundraiser tony james of course is from blackstone so any idea that this is another shot at every private equity blackstone it's even bigger than bain capital so this is this idea here that this is just. you know republican thing it's also a demo i'm not very character i mean there's a lot out there i think people watching might think this is something just romney does this is infused in politics and that's why the loopholes are there really if it is legal and it can still be it's a it's they're not loopholes the idea that loopholes exist i understand what people talk about their planned tax relief for certain industries to basically do these kinds of things and but and until you simplify the tax code and make everything more transparent if you change this and you out while you find a lawyer change one part of the tax code they'll find another way around it simplification of the tax code is absolutely necessary so people can see where their money's going whether it's

a pension fund or the market generally you know i don't disagree but i think that there's a larger issue here to frank's character on h.b.o.'s the wire i think said it best here's a little clip from. you know into trouble is bruce lee. to make it in this country bill. now we should put our hand in the next guy's pocket. and that's what's happened i mean our tax code has changed the incentives tax tax taxes or our social engineering there's no way around it the courage some things they discourage other things and for thirty years we've been discouraging manufacturing and encouraging this fire of course but i don't think i disagree with reach it would change the tax code i think it's it's it's so difficult you have to hire an attorney to file your taxes i mean it's not fair the way it's designed because not everybody has skin in the game that's the first part of it you've got people that are paying more then share than it where you got to be revamped

entirely reported however most profit corporations in america paid no taxes at all i just find it humorous that the left always leans on mitt romney when as our libertarian pointed out that there are multiple people democrat republican i don't know that that idea of like i want all this is going after mitt romney but he's running very broad i mean the fact that you had a guy running for president who got all and we got a president who's made i believe it was on to his staff and i didn't pay any taxes for a decade well that's you know that's not onerous that is not true that was said but it was i was never substantiated and that was an irrational that's not even a rational argument that we were more of tonight's big picture up.

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 for. wealthy british. writers.

market. what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines to conjure reports. on your. face i think you're right. the pleasure to have you with us here today i'm sure.

the bag of big picture i will join in the jesse dane duff christie said it's her and marc harrold let's get back to it start with the success of obamacare so spank of montana had her health insurance and was understandably upset she called her state government and found out that because of obamacare she went from a horrible policy with high deductibles because three hundred fifty dollars a month to a new policy that cost her thirty dollars a month that has a deductible of only five hundred dollars for the national journal spank is now thrilled with their coverage and states that created their own exchanges are reporting huge surges and sign ups just days before the first of all deadline california average fifteen thousand and romance a day last week up from an average of seven thousand a day the week before and in kentucky in raleigh. forty percent since thanksgiving as states as three thousand kentucky ends a day are being approved for medicaid or qualified health plans so isn't all this

proof. that at least in those places around the country were republicans are not sabotaging obamacare it is incredibly successful mark no i don't think so i mean first of all your dad i thought well first of all you're talking about the fact that all these people are signing up when they're compelled by law but i think it's a bigger question to pragmatically we can look in so you can tell by law they're compelled by the tax code of our previous discussion well but seventy five bucks you know the understand it is the out as the as the drug war goes down a diminished importantly i.r.s. will go up as one of the main components of law enforcement this country but i think it's a bigger question in a way the idea here is if it works we should do it the idea is that government should solve any problem that theoretically can and i don't think that's the case i see i don't see this is an absolutely inroad into do personal information a way to control people away to take over their health and their iris already has that information that we're exactly enough really good numbers but now they're giving that being there that they had had to come down and getting in medical information government and getting medical information and you know the databases

it's not what they're designed to do it's what they can do is the problem i have with it you'll get a. the things you characterize the basis of this is that of the thirty four most developed countries in the world the o.e.c.d. nations thirty three of them have national health care systems that work really well they have better outcomes than we do in the united states lower infant mortality longer lifespan better all the costs but what we're spending this is crazy what we're doing we had an incredibly broken system before it's obviously working and this was the administration's gamble all along from the moment they decided to embrace the whole obamacare mantel was that people would eventually see past the right wing propaganda groups like americans prosperity you know going after young people talking to not enroll because they a fundamentally believe that the product was good so so again it is now paying off i mean even paying off in places like like kentucky where people say they hate obamacare but when you tell them that they're signing up for. the state version whatever and they're very happy with the results. you know we're seeing the fruits

of that right now unfortunately the administration obviously stepped on their own foot with the rollout so people person question was a negative one but even so we're seeing the positive just how many of these people . how many of these people signed up have been signing up for medicaid as my first question and that those data numbers have not come out the second thing is i fall under government health care and it's offensive to me for somebody to tell me that is great because if i go outside the beltway i can't even get health care because what they want to pay those doctors is so low that they won't accept my insurance many insurance carriers cannot cover this anymore because the government is regulating the cost of these doctors can charge and if i leave this beltway i can't get the care at walter reed that i rate or qualify for you want to look at government health care look at the five hundred thousand veterans who can't even get their health care covered for the last five years who have been pending in the v.a. medical system playing. government health care because i fall under and i am up to i am and if anybody tells me i'm great. number one i don't every survey done by

republicans or democrats don't care what i already know my boner government health care. i want everybody of who's happiness with their health care of the united states because the people who have tri-care or who have government health care socialist medicine through the military are the happy ones that are close there's a basis in some way for. you know what we call the hologram you know that they're not accepting applications because the doctors won't get paid enough the paper is so i want you to hear that there is a disaster going on in the military in the veterans of the grounds of george bush declaring two wars one camera double where the military budget died without being out of a backlog before george bush said don't get even get you know that there has been a big debate you know the v.a. backlog as a result of the secretary sentient not planning for the agent orange you know the bulk of these backlogs is agent weren't. it is not desert storm it is i'm sorry it is not iraq afghanistan so your numbers are wrong there it is agent orange do the data do the research they're finally recognizing that the finally recognizing p.t.s.d.

that was never recognized till two thousand and nine so please don't tell me where the backlog comes from this is my topic i know this topic like the back of my hand and when you look at this seven minutes later the notability people have no health and no i didn't suggest that but don't tell me that the government health care is the right way to go because right now they are telling these doctors we're going to hear that when i have to help here it is not a myth the government is not going to give you free haircuts health care through this and what they're doing is they're regulating what you can charge what you can build you're telling a doctor what you can do and try to get it more you get rapid you know the private insurance has to go to the regulator and site and they are telling the doctors what they can bill what i can tell you that i want to go until they i have to accept health care i am one of those few billion people who have been in the individual market because i'm self-employed so i actually know exactly what it's like to pay three hundred fifty dollars a month and get really crappy health insurance and i have to say that i'm sure that i'm one of those plans that would have been considered a scam plan and not gotten married a couple months before this went into effect so most people's experience with the insurance market is a really terrible one i definitely feel for you that you're that you've had

a negative experience or but the truth is that most americans have had a negative experience and it's. because the private insurers well not having to do any better somewhere already they say well here's here's another here's a much larger problem i think and this is the gap in the in the coverage as a consequence of twenty five states twenty five largely republican governors a couple of days as democratic governors with republican legislatures this graphic shows this where in these states where they said no we won't take the medicare expansion if you're genuinely poor you're covered by medicare if your you know making a little more than the average mcdonald's worker but not much more than you're covered by the obamacare subsidies but there's this area between you know roughly i don't remember the exact numbers but maybe maybe people making from twelve thousand to twenty five thousand dollars a year roughly where they can't really afford health care but they're not poor enough to qualify for medicare and they're just screwed in the states i mean they're just out in the cold they've got no coverage at all there's not

a don't qualify for the subsidies they don't qualify and they get in and it's being in this is intentional sabotage of the john roberts authorized in the supreme court it's not built into the law it's not the way they're always written this is the supreme court did this and this is intentional sabotage being done by republicans in these states at what point and what these republicans are saying what rick perry is saying to texans what rick scott is saying to floridians is you paid federal taxes it was in the federal tax system and i'm not going to let you get that money back i'm not going to allow that money to come from washington back into the state of florida i'm not going to allow that money to come back into the state of texas don't these people in these red states have the right to have their own tax money back and they'll take care of that at the election this is a very big moment for federalism we're going to see how this works these governors are standing in the way they don't believe in to be there any logically or they don't think will work one thing that's interesting though is at this point the litmus test for obamacare and whether it works or whether it doesn't and we still have to see certain things everybody is declaring victory just because people can

sign up for it we haven't seen how it actually works we haven't seen if the doctors will take it we haven't seen what the care is going to be. actually these are all these are all the existing right here in scope would still be showing us the story and i don't care what the mission accomplished here is sort of like well geez the website's finally working people are actually able to enroll in this huge program so it must work it's working now because people are able to sign up i don't think the fact that people can sign up for it means it works it just means people can actually access i think we've all been in it for their commitment to move on and one of if it's this week congress passed this bipartisan budget deal and you know too much hoopla oh you know and so that's the least worst terrible program or. the one of the things that paul ryan apparently demanded was that there be no extension of unemployment benefits which i find bizarre you know it's like why would somebody want to stick to one point three million americans three days after christmas you know just shove in the back. what's going on i mean why are the republicans why is the flag the paul ryan planted on the hill that was the

that was a bipartisan budget plan so you also have patty murray on that budget no less is not in our hands yet even about that and put it in the let's put it all up paul ryan democrats pass this plan we believe that argue for iowa yet they had nothing to do with it they voted for it to my grandmother it is going to die down voted for to cut the retirement so in your code you're condemning now i'm not condemning anybody i'm just saying it's not only hot ryan so is everybody voted for this there are very few people who did not pull back outside of the senate it passed in the house and it passed in the orphanage s.e. evenly no argument now you have a democrats who controlled the house and controlled the senate the filibuster proof way do you think that unemployment benefits would not have been extended if passed in the senate without a filibuster there was no argument no would do unemployment benefits have not been extended unemployment benefits never passed they were never ever going to have had run if they would have probably read more about her own grams that would have gone on and on day one you know there are many more there's got to get into the trillion

dollar debt and we'd they've done nothing to cut any of that they're actually i mean in our audience our deficit has been cut in half. and yet it's i think that it's needlessly crawl i mean you're sort of saying that yes everybody alternately. everybody else might have to buy just yell at you know two party system of course i agree with you but i'm saying this was one party who was pushing to not increase unemployment benefits and there was one party that really would have much preferred that we didn't create them i find it particularly galling that it's at a time when you know many republicans privately republicans in congress will tell you that under the ministration he's not creating jobs the economy is terrible people just can't find work and yet they're not willing to you know to extend benefits at this point either so we have removed a loophole for the illegal immigrants either which is seven billion dollars of that income tax right they didn't fight it the republicans went to them and said let's cut this and they didn't offer that so you're just talking about how bad republicans are what about the democrats who could have made greater cuts they didn't try to climb it any idea they laid down they totally laid down everything so

please don't dump it all on republicans there was no resistance from democrats on this zero name one senator who resisted one and think all of the above and not in any of them came out publicly in this get out they did what did nancy pelosi say eat the sucker they eat or something like that affair you couldn't care less mark you agree i don't think there was a lot of pushback on this it was voted the way that you can look you own your vote i mean what if you don't push back on something this idea that well you know listen this is a terrible budget it's way too big look we know i mean this is this is what i really do we cannot you can this country cannot continue with this kind of debt you know you really do want to return you're going to have to cut entitlements and you're going to have to cut defense i mean there is no way around it what are you actually those are no way really don't we don't you have to know you don't actually know this this cannot go on in perpetuity i mean what we're going to hand on the children grandchildren i you cannot carry this kind of debt no person could no

company could the only people that can work this way this far over their means is the. because you're not spending your own money so you don't really care but i don't think this is a real it's a terrible budget doesn't do anything really it's just status quo to me we just have thirty seconds to finish this up well they didn't make the cuts that i would have a pup i agree with the defense budget that wasn't enough they did not they didn't take military retirement though they did take three thousand five hundred dollars out of my annual income right there where the only ones that took a cut why did you take on what i once was not only selling hamilton were the only ones they increase that defense spending go did not go out and they did not go after they got to the federal workforce to even put into their retirement because they have a union protecting them they did nothing with this budget other than go after military retirees and everybody voted for. more of tonight's big picture of.

the old. technology innovation all the developments around russia. the future covered. wealthy british style. sometimes right. around the. market why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's cause or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kinds of reports . i've put. aside. i think corporation kind of can. do and the bank i think it's all been all about

money and i think that's like that for a politician right a lot and with. bankers coming. here just to pledge. today. that. i've got a quote for you. it's pretty tough. stay with substory. let's give this guy like you would smear about guns instead of working for the people most missions the beach or ritual right on stage into. the. back of the ongoing big picture for the good jesse james christie sets are

a marker oh let's get back to it today the canadian supreme court struck down all all of canada's anti-prostitution laws just said all of them are violations of the rule the constitutionally guaranteed right to life liberty and the security the person in fact if you look at the experience of australia and most of the western european countries where prostitution is legal when prostitution was decriminalized it reduced the rates of sex crimes to reduce the rates of sexually transmitted diseases and well there's a big argument about whether it's increasing the quality of life for sex workers or not i'm curious we have two women i'm just curious everybody's take on this side i have so many mixed emotions about it one i believe in less government i believe in less government in the bedroom i believe in getting less government involvement so from a less government perspective fine less laws i'm fine from a woman's perspective i feel that there's so much sex trade there is exploitation.