the 25-member advisory commissi -- david vitter of course is probably still most famous for this. >> there's news today in the case of louisiana's david vitter who you will recall taught us last summer, he was involved with an escort service. he is on the preliminary witness list for the upcoming trial of deborah paul fry, the dak madam. wh >> since then i've gotten up every morning, committing to trying to live up to the important values we believe in. >> i have to say, i actually do not want to spend time, every time we talk about david bitter, i don't want to spend time playing that tape. because i agree with him full heartedly, that people who commit infracks, even crimes, should be allowed to seek forgiveness, pay penance and move on with their lives. but here is why we did play that tape tonight. because that same david vitter who should know a thing or two about redoes dejs, and fresh starts, introduced this week as an amendment to farm bill to people convicted of certain crimes, once you've paid your debt to society and you've served your time, i want to make you ineligible f

so there are shared brown and david vitter recently introduced a bill that has all the town talking this bipartisan proposal to end too big to fail policies by imposing high end capital standards on the biggest banks i'm joined now with the host of the big picture tom hartman who met with senator sherrod brown yesterday about this new well tom thanks very joining me a pleasure to be here parry and welcome so the us is dig right into the nuts and bolts of this bill under current law the biggest banks are only required to hold four percent of tear one capital it's to be considered adequately capitalized and under senator sherrod's bill that would be changed and here is what the senator had told you yesterday about that. it sets capital standards high enough for me banks have to hold equity in their of a long as a as a fifteen percent of their assets and that means if the bank has a seven or eight percent drop in value because of some market forces or some mistakes they make they still are protected against going under against unsustainable as a financial institution that's. well now fiftee

senator sherrod brown and david vitter recently introduced a bill that would impose higher capital quire man's on the largest of bangs i asked mark levine if he believes this bill would mitigate systemic risk. absolutely absolutely frankly this is what does break attempted to do it was going in that direction and then a certain set of scott brown of massachusetts in that brief interim between kennedy and elizabeth warren insisted on exempting all kinds of insurance companies and trust of small banks and basically he drilled holes into the vault and regularities nine thousand pages i knew we still needed this is actually one thing to like about brown bidders it's simple it's eight percent if you're a small bank fifteen percent if you're a large big capital requirement that's a very clear and precise rule it's the kind of thing that i wish frankly dodd frank had been allowed to keep before scott brown ruined it. the way to. go and i would disagree on whether i think scott brown is to blame i think i think it was a lot of problems and i think it's a real testament to brown vitter that actua

requirements to protect against over leveraging and counter party risk sitters sherrod brown and david vitter have introduced legislation to increase bank capital requirements but even these measures may fall short of what's needed to avoid a bailout fifteen percent for these big banks is enough to fifteen percent capital protects them and protects the public however represented brad sherman thinks that even this amount may not be sufficient finally in the event of a failure an orderly liquidation process is designed to go into effect overseen by the f.b.i. see in such an event shareholders would take losses yet defining the trigger for this process is devil number three so looking at determining whether a bank is insolvent if there is a quantifiable and consistent way to do that even. unbiased typical yes it is simple leverage ratio is the primary measure of capital strength but these approaches that address too big to fail may be ignoring another problem of too interconnected to fail harvard law professor how scott sees contagion as the major issue here i think our french made it worse beca

david vitter senator vitter is so politically opposite of you and so many issues how did this thing come about this this coalition or this this this piece of legislation i was sitting in banking committee one day and he sits we sit in a semi-circle in the republican sit across from the democrats and i listen to him question secretary geithner about capital standards and realized he was pretty aggressive and he was willing to say some things that i thought or were a bit of a challenge to wall street to the large five six seven banks and wall street and i just walked over and start talking about i think we can work together in some of this and i think that there's the skepticism that that many progressives have about about big banks and wall street is not too different from the skepticism people on the right have about government and i think in this case there are there's some overlap there that the regulators and wall street and the influence wall street has with the regulators all of that combined does in fact put our economy our whole financial system puts main street at risk and that's

and so the sherrod brown and david vitter bill is an idea of how to have that pile of cash available, ready if there's a problem. well, banks don't like this because they want to deploy that cash. they want to earn money on that cash. they want to, you know, take risks with that cash. and so of course they object to that idea. >> bill moyers: do you think there's any chance that an intelligent-sounding, seeming bill, like the sherrod brown and david vitter proposal has a chance of competing against the army of lobbyists that jamie dimon and others can send down to washington? >> gretchen morgenson: it is a formidable, formidable army. i grant you that. i just hope that people on main street will rise up and support this idea, support this bill. otherwise, we are simply going to have another crisis far sooner than we would otherwise. i mean-- >> bill moyers: why? >> gretchen morgenson: -- these banks are not getting smaller. they're getting larger. there are now more too-big-to-fail institutions than there were prior to the 2008 crisis-- >> bill moyers: dodd-frank was supposed to preve

. >>> republican david vitter offered and senate democrats accepted an amendment that would bar anyoneain violent crimes from ever getting food stamps. what that means is a 19-year-old who commits a crime does his time, and 20, 25 years later, after working, paying taxes for years, finds himself laid off in a recession, needs food stamps to help feed his family, his children will pay for his crime by going hungry. the farm bill which is actually a massive agriculture socialism program that subsidizes farmers no matter their criminal record is still being considered on the senate floor. david vitter's vicious amendment can be struck from the bill, if somehow human decency prevails in the united states senate. >>> up next, anthony weiner's political come back. [ musick ] i knew there were a lot of tech jobs available out there. i knew devry university would give me the skills that i needed to make one of those tech jobs mine. we teach cutting-edge engineering technology, computer information systems, networking and communications management -- the things that our students need to know in

. >>> republican david vitter offered and senate democrats accepted an amendment that would bar anyoneonvicted of certain violent crimes from ever getting food stamps. what that means is a 19-year-old who commits a crime does his time, and 20, 25 years later, after working, paying taxes for years, finds himself laid off in a recession, needs food stamps to help feed his family, his children will pay for his crime by going hungry. the farm bill which is actually a massive agriculture socialism program that subs si diezs farmers no matter their criminal record is still being considered on the senate floor. david vitter's vicious amendment can be struck from the bill, if somehow human decency prevails in the united states senate. >>> up next, anthony weiner's political come back. ve an oreo ♪ ♪ to somebody out there who i didn't know ♪ ♪ would they laugh after i'd gone? ♪ ♪ or would they pass that wonder on? ♪ ♪ i wonder how it'd change your point of view ♪ ♪ if i gave one to you? ♪ when ouwe got a subaru.s born, it's where she said her first word. (little girl) no! saw her first day of s

the hope for him comes in the form of david vitter. vitter used the services of shall we say ladies of the evening. >> the d.c. madam. >> right. he has managed to still remain in the good graces of his party. maybe they can hang out together. >> well, maybe. last month mr. sanford as you know took to the street and held a detailed political discussion with a cardboard cutout of nancy pelosi. now, mr. sanford was asked about this and he reflected on what happened just today. listen to this, gentlemen. sorry, ladies and gentlemen. >> i think there were two pillar points in this election, if indeed that proves to be the case. one of which me standing on the sidewalk with a nancy pelosi cutout having a debate we weren't able to have in the first district. >> i think sanford's going to need more cardboard cutouts. those of speaker boehner, eric cantor and others. because if he wins, i can't see many republicans wanting to have their picture taken with him. can you, dana? >> that was a priceless moment in american political history. >> it wa

it doesn't matter what david vitter and i think. what matters is the market knows that.herefore, the bonuses depend on this risky behavior. the more you borrow, the more leverage you use, the more dollars you're making. the more as a wall street banker bonuses you get. it really skews the system toward more risky behavior. it has been five years since we know what happened in 2007 and '08 to where our banking system almost imploded. taxpayers had to bail out these mega banks and main street suffered greatly. people's 401(k)'s, lost jobs, especially in my state. all those things. we want a more conservative common sense approach with margaret discipline. let the markets work here but take away the government subsidy advantage that wall street has lobbied its way into getting with far too many cases, with regulators and with the federal government. >> the tentacles of wall street reach so deep into the capital that meaningful reform is essentially impossible? >> it is not imposryble. i think if you go back a year, this brown/vitter proposal which we had not written but we'

sheila bair says one answer is a bi-partisan bill from senators sherrod brown and david vitter requiring banks with more than a half-trillion dollars in assets, such as jp morgan chase, citigroup, b of a and others, to hold capital reserves of 15% - a much higher standard than exists today. a hedge fund founder is using tough talk to keep employees in line. cnbc reports sac capital founder steve cohen told investors the hedge fund would impose compensation clawbacks on employees who break rules with stock trades. cohen says it's to "deter conduct that threatens the integrity of the firm." sac has been the subject of insider trading investigations. intel's new leader may switch things up a bit. company veteran brian krzanich takes on the ceo role in two weeks, after paul otellini retires. krzanich is expected to steer the company in a new direction. analysts say he may turn over some production facilities to other chip-makers, as the industry switches from pcs to tablets and mobile phones. intel is first in the pc market, but has been slower to enter the mobile world. warren buffett has s

the target of a bill by sherrod brown and david vitter looking to reign in the label "too big to fail." take this congressman from texas, a politician when he was further from power was willing to criticize the financial stability. he voted against the 2008 bank bailout, railed against the too big too fail maximum and then a funny thing happened. he is now the chairman of the house services financial committee and here's the result when he mitigated to the center of financial power. he now opposes the idea of downsizing banks. how does somebody like jeb get to that place? in a great piece by justin elliott, an examination of his campaign finance filings show just six weeks after become financial services chair, he was joined by representatives of the banking industry for a ski vacation fund-raiser at a posh park city, utah resort. good time was had at the saint regis resort. more than a hundred people enjoyed the weekend, paid for by his political action committee. a lobbyist from the mortgage bankers association donated $5,000 to hensarling in february. also present, a representative

and he hasn't been there for more than three or four months either and i don't believe that david vitterlly looks in the mirror and thinks he is going to be the next president but i'll take that up with you for another time. when you look on the about ted page on his website, there is no mention of canada. why do you think that is? >> first of all the tea partiers will definitely give him a pass. he could have been born on the moon, and he acts like it, and they would give him a pass. but when are the republicans going to learn? didn't they learn from christine o'donnell, or sharon engel or richard mourdock, these tea party candidates who they love and even karl rove has complained about this that they nominate, and they can't win. >> michael: yeah the way they continue to shoot themselves in the foot, i don't understand. that brings me to pat toomey who said quote . . . you know, it's -- that's -- really goes to what you were just talking about. i mean they -- they see something that is a good piece of legislation. they know probably in their heart and minds and politically it is right,

. >> michael: you're to young to run for david vitter's seat, zach., brett erlich goes online to look for a date and ends up on alex jones conspiracy website. his journey on the right, after this. you know who is coming on to me now? you know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. you would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. >>absolutely. >> and so would mitt romney. (vo) she's joy behar. >>and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking? >> if you believe in state's rights but still support the drug war you must be high. >> "viewpoint" digs deep into the issues of the day. >> do you think that there is any chance we'll see this president even say the words "carbon tax"? >> with an open mind... >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> ...and a distinctly satirical point of view

i hope you concur by agreeing to travel, sincerely david vitter.i think that very much incorporates where we are and particularly where i'm coming from and where i hope we go in terms of the productive path forward. and with that madam chairman i would like to make this latter letter part of the record. >> without objection. let me say before we moved to a vote i welcome all of our colleagues and i think the colleague from jersey. it's a joyful experience to see your beautiful face here. all of us feel that way, believe me, all of us do. i want to respond briefly and i want to go to a vote because i don't want want what senator vitter said go unheard. i have seen nominees, but i couldn't agree with and i didn't agree with the agency, the way was run or anything else but i never took it out on the nominee who has an opportunity to do her job. i'm stunned at this. it is holding somebody hostage until you get an answer that you want to have. this is an important position. she is qualified. she is decent. we have voted for her before unanimously and i

david vitters is grades. who cares?you're a republican, you have a much better chance to get away with it. you'll have to get him out of there with a crowbar. >> i think if he wins, he'll have a primary fight in 2014. cenk: i think he'll win that fight. >> you may be right. cenk: i think people dismissing mark sanford are doing it prematurely unless he loses we get results in about 15 minutes and it turns out he lost, then yes, presumably, he can go on any trail he likes. beth, a quick question about the politics. the republicans pulled money from mark sanford's campaign once he was accused of trespassing in his ex-wife's house. were they also pulling money because they would rather not have mark sanford win because he's a stain on the party if he's in the house and figuring if colbert busch beats us this time around, we'll beat her next time. >> when it first happened, i thought this is crazy an example of washington not being in touch you with voters. i thought why pull the money from this guy in a republican district

more than 600 of the questions to gina mccarthy have come from one senator from louisiana senator david vitter. this is the 123 page questionnaire exchange between senator vitter and the epa nominee. 123 pages of questions and answers. she has answered all of his more than 600 written questions. in response today, republican senators refused to even show up for the vote on her nomination because they say she has been unresponsive. they say she has not answered enough questions. the eight republican senators on the environment committee led by senator vitter boycotted the vote to protest how unresponsive gina mccarthy was to the more than 1,000 questions they have asked her. which she has answered. they consider that unresponsive. what do you think the odds are we get to 2,000 questions? maybe we can get to 3,000 questions. advice and consent? >>> 1983, i was 10 years old, it was a formative thing, matt threw broderick and ali sheedy in war games. >> shall we play a game? >> i think it missed him. >> weird, isn't it? love to. how about global thermal nuclear war? >> it's a good game of chess? >

the democrat-controlled senate, the agriculture committee has approved a proposal by republican david vitterpermanently drop anyone convicted of violent crime from ever getting food stamps. meanwhile, the house agriculture committee has approved $20 billion in cuts to the food stamps program over the next decade. the cuts could result in nearly 2 million people losing access to food stamps and 200,000 schoolchildren losing free school lunches. one of the most vocal supporters for cutting the budget for food stamps has been republican congressmember steve king of iowa recently crammed president obama is trying to expand what he calls the dependency class. >> we want to take care of the people that are hungry and we watched this program grow from a number i think the first memorized when i arrived here in congress about 19 million people, now about 49 million people. it appears to be the goal of this demonstration is to expand the roles of people on snap benefits and the purpose for doing so in part is because with the gentleman has said, another purpose for that that is just to expand the dep

senator david vitter, 40% less likely to support him due to "no" vote on background checks. you vote for the interest of the people, it helps you. against it, it hurts you. >> you know, it's interesting because karl rove recons they can get the senate back this next time around. it's one thing for people in the house district to go out there saying, i just need to look after the majority of the majority. just the hard cocore republican. even as you point out in these red states, what we've never seen before is when you lose one election, you go out there saying, mitch mcconnell is going to defeat the president. >> right. >> and that doesn't work. that's 2012. but we're going to try it again in 2014 and some reason, even without president obama, even being unable to defeat him once, we're going to defeat him again and somehow win. this strategy doesn't hold. it doesn't hold with the polls. it doesn't hold as well. president obama cannot be defeated anymore. he's there. that's it. he's done. so it doesn't unify them and it doesn't work statewide. >> congressman, michael writes

a democrat-controlled senate, the agriculture committee has approved a proposal by republican david vitter to permanently drop anyone convicted of violent crime from ever getting food stamps. meanwhile, the house agriculture committee has approved over $20 billion in cuts to food stamps program over the next decade. the cuts could result in nearly 2 million people losing access to food stamps and 200,000 schoolchildren losing free school lunches. a russian court has denied parole to a jailed member of the russian feminist punk group pussy riot. maria alyokhina announced this week she is going on a hunger strike after she was barred from attending her own parole hearing. a fellow crew member was also denied parole last month. both women are serving two-year sentences in remote penal colonies for the group's protest against russian leader vladimir putin in an orthodox cathedral last year. student inld honor florida who was expelled from her high school after a science experiment went awry has received a full scholarship to u.s. space academy, courtesy of a nasa vet who, as a teen, was accuse

we've seen david vitter in louisiana survive touches of scandal.t is this election of mark sanford telling us about voters' attachment to scandal when it comes to the ballot box? >> you know, lawrence, i think that was -- you were right to do that sort of historical review. because i think historians may look back and say there was pre-clinton and post clinton. and that the comeback kid was the sort of water shed moment for -- a change in acceptance of adultery, basically. i mean, it's not that americans now love adultery. it's just that i think there's more of an understanding that this happens in families, this happens to people, and they can kind of look past it. >> yeah, crystal, part of what you're seeing in these stories are reflections of what everyone has seen in their neighbors' lives, in their friends' lives, their families' lives, somewhere. there's some story that's a little bit like what this politician just got caught doing. >> yeah, lots of people can relate to it. and there's also this sort of desperation to see our politicians as n

there's growing pressure, i think not just from liberal, but from conservatives, too, people like david vittergovernment to take a stronger hand in trying to prosecute some of these folks, take them to trial and ultimately try and yield or extract that guilty plea. >> the interesting thing here, though, is there's a lot of focus on this case, s.a.c. capital. who is not involved in the shenanigans which brought down the economy in 2008. which is the point that elizabeth warren and others have been making. that we never really came to terms with the people who did that. how could all of this happen and the prosecutions didn't materialize. not one wall street banker -- >> i'm not saying the case should be proceeding, it's a fascinating, jay gatsby character and policies and mansions. >> david's point is described as don't hate the player, hate the game. like at this point the notion that going after this one guy, right, whatever the problems may be. you know with cohen. but leaving intact the entire system that both rewards this kind of behavior and also -- encourages sort of the more legal versi

. >> reporter: the battle intensified recently, when republican senator david vitter of louisiana included a provision to extend to oyster farm's lease for at least ten years in a bill primarily designed to expedite the keystone xl pipeline and oil and gas development in alaska. in marin county, the environmental action committee is leading the charge to get rid of the oyster operation. >> you can see all these outflow tubes. they just had a cease and desist order placed on them by the california coastal commission. >> reporter: amy trainer, the committee's executive director, is working with neal desai of the national parks conservation association to convince the courts and the public that the oyster farm doesn't belong in a wilderness area. they say, drakes bay oyster company has despoiled the estuary. >> they have grown non native species, they have dumped thousand of pieces of plastic into our marine waters which can potentially harm seabirds and marine mammals. it's polluted our national seashore beaches. you see the invasive species called marine vomit growing all over their oysters