congressman spencer baucus who is the ranking member of the house committee on financial services he has reportedly taken over four million dollars from wall street and pledged to find against tougher rules for the financial market the list of corporate favorites on capitol hill is long and not only republicans are on it the democratic process is supposed to be a check on corporate power and instead what we're seeing is corporations hijacking that system in order to funnel more money to themselves many argue the new supreme court decision which made it possible for corporations to invest unlimited amounts of money in politics and be able to be credited as anonymous donors has basically legalized corruption one definition out of core option privatization of public party beer mongering is arguably the main tool corporations use to gain public support for the candidates they choose some channels like fox news are especially good at getting their message across and it's clear that pushes people to the streets i would like my boat to come as you would be more democratic. next monday and s

rich and other republican congressman spencer baucus is going to be the chair of the house committee on financial services he has reportedly taken over four million dollars from wall street and pledged to fight against tougher rules for the financial market and it seems there is no way around it the election system in the u.s. is such that it's virtually impossible to run for office without strong financial backing but the bigger the backing the more candidates over to their benefactors many argue the latest supreme court decision which made it possible for corporations to invest unlimited amounts of money in politics and be able to be credited as anonymous donors has basically legalized corruption one definition of core option is the private to think of public policy two years ago corporations supported obama knowing it was going to bail them out but now that he imposed tougher rules on the financial market. and wants to increase taxes for the rich they are betting against his party fear mongering and constant attacks on obama were arguably the perforations the main tools for making things work their way

. >> lehrer: a second hearing will take place before the house financial services committee on thursday. in the meantime, the obama administration has said it sees no reason for a mandatory nationwide halt to foreclosures. to judy woodruff. >> lehrer: and to judy woodruff. >> woodruff: we get the latest now on the foreclosure problem and what's being done about it. brady dennis has been covering this story for the "washington post." he joins us from the "post" newsroom now. brady din it, thank you for talking to us. first of all, what sense do we get, do you get today after hearing this testimony and based on all your reporting of just how serious the foreclosure situation is in this country right now? >> you know, i think that's truly something that everyone from the regulators to lawmakers to the banks themselves are still wrestling with trying to get a handle on just how deep this problem goes, you know, how serious the reverberations from it may be. last night senator ted kaufman who now heads the oversight panel put it succinctly and pretty well when he said this may turn out to be