senator on capitol hill looking out for the working class and not the banks toure's and that's bernie sanders thanks to his efforts we the taxpayers are privy to exactly what the federal reserve has been up to since the financial meltdown of two thousand and eight and the latest release of numbers from the fed to senator sanders office reveals that over the years the largest banks in america have pulled off one of the biggest scams in the history of our nation. since two thousand and eight the fed has been creating money out of thin air and then dishing their cash out as low interest loans we're talking really low interest loans like one percent after sent quarter percent to some of the biggest banks in the nation like j.p. morgan chase bank of america and citi group the idea was that the banks would use their money to loan out to small businesses to hire people again basically to jumpstart our economy or so we were told and the truth is as revealed by senator sanders those loans were merely vehicles to transfer billions maybe annoyance of billions of dollars from you and me the taxpayers dir

founding vision of this country as one where the average voter had as much power as the rich as as bernie sanders suggests with public financing but do you trust more to god is that the republicans will owe their allegiance and political survival to billionaires and corporations or the author of the declaration of independence thomas jefferson well some of the democratic party and that's it for tonight thanks so much for being with us and don't forget it begins with you. see you. here broadcasting live from washington d.c. coming up today on the big picture.

the debate over the dodd frank bill last year there was a sort of a bipartisan coalition with bernie sanders and ron paul and alan grayson and they were kind of fighting just generally to get the the feds books open in the end they weren't able to completely open the fed's accounting but they were able to get a small window of numbers from the feds activities from the end of two thousand and seven through say the middle of two thousand and nine and it's basically covered the entire bailout it was a very limited look at the fed's books but one of the things they were allowed to see was who had received health loans it was really talf the feds emergency landing so they ended up with this list of twenty one thousand transactions that showed you who received financing through the talf and there are so many crazy newsom's list you know i got a call from senator sanders office and he's like do you have to look at this you won't believe the people who got money from the federal government during the bailouts and so what we do is we just went through the list and we found the craziest names we could

knock on president obama i mean the democratic party as a whole there's a there's a few actually bernie sanders probably the best kind as to. because he's an event caucuses with a down supply i think they've had a fairly good program recently to talk about jobs and pushing jobs and saying how they're going to defend jobs but what we have to do for the american public said there's two people six this creates jobs and here's how this doesn't create jobs and here's why and then let them pick because i think they're going to pick job creation every time today on my radio show this or called in and said she was listening to fox news on the radio station it was newscast atop the hour and these cast they came out and said the democrats the house of representatives today failed to pass legislation that would extend unemployment benefits and it sounds like it was the democrats' failure and there you know it blame the democrats really was blocked by the republican absolutely who have these bizarre economic theories i'm wondering your opinion. of whether the republicans are blocking things like unemployme

lived in montpelier which is state capital all nine thousand people office and i remember when bernie sanders was a congressman and first organized the first buses on saturday mornings for. mostly older people to take a bus up to mont. just about a three hour drive to buy prescription drugs and the state would say there are two wouldn't they be able to the bulk buy drugs i believe you know exactly and they'd be able to negotiate better rates but hospitals and providers this is doc areas i mean when you have that large pool pool there's a lot of things that you can do with it that you can have when you have you know if you hunt profit diminish parents companies all doing their own thing around it when you have a public service just like any other public service so here we have peter shumlin the good governor actually ran on this and and you know i knew him back when he was in the legislature the money's a good guy and he's been and he's going to be a great governor you have both the senate the house has passed very close versions that there's no doubt the reconcile woman probably next week som

all of whom would have gone down in complete secrecy had not been for the efforts of senators bernie sanders and franklin i was ron paul to make the fed open up their books and let us taxpayers take a look. so are you still wondering why the fed's actions aren't fixing our economy let's imagine for a second that this wall right here is keeping our economy from collapsing think of it as a giant dam but this dam is starting to crack and holes are starting to form due to all the pressure behind pressure joblessness massive student loan credit card debt student loan debt by the way just exceeded credit card debt over trillion dollars for the first time in the history of america millions of home foreclosures rising health care costs and norma's trade deficits all of the things that are pushing our economy to the breaking point i think of ben bernanke he is the little dutch boy with his finger in the dike all i can do is plug up some of these polls the only thing he has to do them with is money that's all the fed can do is manipulate money that's it plug up a few holes by buying up depth for examp

senator bernie sanders who is then a very important part of this political equation in the state's largest city. unless you have a formation like that it has been campaigning for single-payer is in vermont is the mid-1970s. this is not some new ideas the democrats just cannot wait for the legislature in montpelier. that tendency will be to drive to the center for the right and you had with the mishmash that came out of congress last year that could have gotten more and better in some cases would've put us on the road hopefully for a more inclusive and cost effective and less wasteful insurance systems. keep an eye in vermont and the real lesson is if we build viable political alternatives we can make these people more accountable. any final thoughts? >> one more question if i can ask you to take one more question. before you pick up tonight folks, i would like you i'm trained to announce that busboy and poets have a new labor series. [applause] thank you so much. we would like to drop more people into this american labor movement. this is kind of like an internal discussion in many ways. a

senator, bernie sanders. less you have a formation like that that is campaigning for single payer in vermont in the case of bernie since the mid-1970s, this is not a new idea democrats just came up with in this session of the legislature. their tendency will be to drift to the center and further right you have the mishmash coming from congress last year when we could have got something more and better to put us on the road to a more inclusive, cost ineffective less wasteful insurance system. keep your eye on vermont. the idea is if we build alternatives, we can make the people more accountable. final thoughts? yes, over here. >> time for one more question. if i can ask you, steve, to take one more question, and before we break up tonight, folks, i would like to announce that busboys and poets started a new labor series. we would like to thank you so much -- we'd like to draw more people into this american labor movement. this has felt like a kind of internal discussion in many ways. we want to draw some new fo

he had a similar reaction on the left where senator bernie sanders said this is robin hood in reverse taking from the poor and give to go the rich. there's no question that there will be a reasonable amount of opposition to this. my sense is it will go through but not without a lot of complaining. >> suarez: now that we've gotten this kind of reaction, are the lines starting to form? is the terms of debate starting to emerge for both raising the debt ceiling and that coming vote and negotiating the 2012 budget? >> i think the lines are formed. i think if anything we're sort of setting the stage for fiercer debate. i think from the republican perspective their appetites have been weded for even more cuts. you know, one reason that some of them are going along with this is because they have the understanding that there are bigger cuts to come in the 2012 budget and around the debt limit. democrats on the other hand feel i think many of them like they've given a lot of what they can give. on the one hand it sets the stage for these coming fights. on the other hand i think it will make th

caller: i know about the new governor and you and bernie sanders all wanted single payer. explain to me a little bit more about that. ino, the nuclear path yplant vernon. they said it is all right for keeping a running for another 20 years. the plant is 40 years old. they have had a lot of problems. can you be more specific about the health care and the plant. guest: i can. i have sponsored legislation to allow the states do have a waiver so they can implement their own program in 2014 rather than 2017. that makes a lot of sense generally to conservatives. basically what that would do is say to a state is if you have your own way of getting from here to there, maintaining affordability to meet the federal objectives of access to health care and affordability, do it. if your approach in vermont is single payer, it do it. if you're in another state and think you can go through an insurance-based program and present that, you can have at its. it makes sense to do in 2014, because that is when the federal law goes into full effect. why have a waiver that goes to affect in 2017

center bernie sanders -- center bernie sanders put out a list of about 10 companies that avoided paying u.s. taxes. this is an expensive issue. when i put bernie sanders'list on my blog, i could see that it touched a nerve. that is why this appointment in the white house may become a focal point during the campaign. host: joy jones -- joe joins us from massachusetts. caller: i was on the internet and pulled up something about previous democratic presidents that have cut into the debt. all the democratic presidents as far back as kennedy have cut into the debt by increasing revenue. unlike two years some of your comments about that. -- i would like to hear some of your comments about that. and like to hear about how the revenue was increased. guest: i think paul ryan said we do not have the tax problem. it is spending. when you talk about closing tax loopholes that will raise taxes for somebody, you do raise revenue. you also may create a fairer system for funding government. it is hard to have these discussions about tax equality when people ask if you are going to raise their taxes or

here are some comments from bernie sanders about the deal reached on friday. >> mr. president, we are at an extraordinary cross roads both from a moral perspective as well as an economic perspective, and the reality today is i think as most americans understand is that the middle class of our country is collapsing over the last ten years income went down by $2500. millions of americans have lost their jobs, secured new jabs at -- jobs at substantially lower pay. younger workers are finding it very, very hard to get a job at a livable wage. furthermore, mr. president, what we don't talk about terribly often here on the floor of the senate or certainly in the corporate media is the rather unfortunate reality that in the united states, we have the most unequal distribution of income and of wealth of any major think on earth. today, the top 1% of earners makes 23% of all income. top 1% earns 23% of every dollar, and that is more than the bottom 50%. top 1% makes more money than the bottom 50%. the percentage of income going to the top, 1%, mr. president, nearly tr