surptz, they have a lobbyist. principals, they have a lobbyist. teachers have a lobbyist. school boards also have a lobbyist. the maintenance personnel, they have lobbyists. even the bus drivers have lobbyists. the only group without lobbyists are the students. this year, my friend, the students do have a lobbyist. i'm taking a second job. i'm going to be the governor in -- of the state of new york and i'm also going to be the student lobbyist. and we're going to having to take a fundamental look at what we've been doing. because the purpose of public education is to help children grow. the purpose of public education is not to grow the public education bureaucracy. we are driven by the business of education. more than achievement in education. business of public education. and the attention to the business of public education has brought us to a point where we spend more than any state in the nation. the lack of focus on the achievement and the students has brought us to a point where we're 38th in graduation rates. it's not about the business. it's not about the lobbyist

infamous "k" street ii home of the "lobby elite".it has been said lobbyists are the fourth and mostf the government.jeff barnd shows you the bond between those who maae laws...and those who... whoo.. "paa... to play" play" take graphic over first part of sot: dc lobbying grantt2;16 sot mercatus- 11:58-12:20 legend is that president grant would spend afternoons at the willard hotel here in dc smoking cigars and drinking and people would come by the lobby and ask for ffvors. broll: hill 1-12that's how century.but plenty of favors e - are still exchanged every day thouogh when lobbyists, companies and poliiicans push the limits of lawsaand ethics.sot ercatus :45-:56 higgly sophisticated and well educated lawyyrs, accountants, lobbyists who work and are basically attemptiig to obtain better treatment from governments.broll k street hundreds of compannes, grrups and even cities obby from k- street.some are much more organized than others.sott :49-:53 this is a town based on advocacyapeople making arguments to one another.take graphic - dc lobbying lobbyat&t 1:30consider a-t-and-t and all

hill 1-12that's how century.but plenty of favors e - are still exchanged every day thouogh when lobbyists, companies and poliiicans push the limits of lawsaand ethics.sot ercatus :45-:56 higgly sophisticated and well educated lawyyrs, accountants, lobbyists who work and are basically attemptiig to obtain better treatment from governments.broll k street hundreds of compannes, grrups and even cities obby from k- street.some are much more organized than others.sott :49-:53 this is a town based

the difficulty is people don't know they're lobbyists. they're not registered anywhere. and so we have lots of reason to believe that what they would do was set up meetings with members of congress, particularly chairs of committees, and then charge their clients $10,000 to come to have this great conversation with a great one. >> jon: senator harken has that issue. >> senator harken didn't go, however. when he was told they were charging, he didn't go. >> jon: they were charging hedge fund guys $10,000 to meet with congress people, get information about bills, then they would go back to the hedge fund and make stock deals. >> indeed. and it affected the market. one of the biggest cases of that is asbestos and what happened to asbestos? the stock went up overnight when people learned that the senate bill would not do anything for reparations for people who had been armed by asbestos. >> jon: and so they made a ton of money on the idea that people with mesothelioma would not get compensated. >> and the thing is we know better. i tell you, i know that my colleagues know be

of the last one actually pretty violently but you know you know legislators paired with you now a lobbyist is given to draft legislation and then those corporations that would benefit from that built all coordinate their campaign contributions to help that legislators are not only only our legislators getting ideas from alec and actual draft legislation but once they kind of get connected with a network of national lobbyists whether it's from dow chemical or coal company then those corporations funnel money to the campaign coffers of that legislator are so they can make that go of a reality so basically if you're a new watch maker right and say these these folks at aleko suggest some legislation that may or may not sound kind of ok to you if you sign on to this and go through with this here pretty much guaranteed to get a whole bunch of campaign contribution money well the big loophole here is that you know a lot of states have you know fairly strong lobbying last interview want to provide transparency to the public to see who would help or asians are making contact with which legislators

and now they are a lobbyist -- and now is a lobbyist and has a thriving lobbyist company. >> has he been on the hill for a while? >> yes. in the early 1990's and in the arly 1980's he worked for senator on the agriculture committee. senator culver. and he worked for,. >> and he is now with you all? >> yes. >> who are some of the other fellows you have that we might recognize? >> matt miller is a senior. he writes on "the washington ."st quote they are all brilliant thinkers. we have a full roster. eric alderman is a senior with us. there it is much more liberal. we consider ourselves progressive. we are central on some issues and particularly liberal on some issues. >> one of the things that has developed over the years are rich people who give money to washington institutions, for whatever reason, i'm thinking of the man who did all that money to the newt gingrich campaign for the koch brothers. you have a number on your list like george soros. >> no single donor accounts for more than 10% of our funding. we have a diversified portfolio. we have a lot of small donors. there is no single

unlike the lobbyists, they are nameless. under the current law, they are not required to identify themselves as they go about their work, completely unregulated. >> the comments of house representative luis slaughter, democrat from upstate new york and her district includes rochester as she spoke on the house floor about the stock act, and the vote is scheduled for tomorrow, and peter shroeder of the hill newspaper writing that the white house also critical of the house republicans, and jay carney saying that the eric cantor is caving to the fres sure of white house lobbyists. peter hill is joining us from the newsroom. thanks for being with us. walk us through what happened today when eric cantor put forth in this stock act, and what we expect to see tomorrow. >> well, what we saw today actually late last night, the a majority leader's office released the amendment of the stock act that they will be bringing to the house floor tomorrow, and notably the one provision that is getting a lot of attention -- it is similar to wha

and becomes the most popular lobbyist in the entire country. i'm sure it's because of their expertise for government. so my advice to you would be if you don't want to run for office and get on the gravy chain to marry into a. that probably will -- [inaudible] >> i don't know about that. you have to take that up with somebody else. yes. question right here. >> i'm wondering what will the staff of the congressional office, oftentimes congressional leaders don't seem to be the brightest folks. and their staff for the ones pulling the strings, writing the legislation, ultimately controlling things, writing the rules that are passed on to committees that are then passed on the agencies. what kind of reforms can you put in place to limit their transactions? cast light on their actions and their shortcomings as well. >> that's a great question. because congressional staff as well, they are in the same position, free trade stock as aggressively as they want to. actually, the "wall street journal" has done a couple stories on this where, again, i found

and now is a lobbyist. and has a -- has a thriving practice. >> has john being on the hill for a while? >> yes. in the early 1990's and in the 19 0's, he had worked for -- in the agricultural committee. he worked i believe for chuck culver's dad, don culver. >> senator. >> i.o.s. and he worked fsh tom daschle. -- he worked for tom daschle. >> he's actually a distinguished fellow with us. >> who are some of the fellows we might recognize? >> carol. matt miller is a senior fellow. he writes in "the washington post" and is often on msnbc. and you know, andre kerney is a senior fellow with us. he worked in the clinton administration and was a speech writer for a lot of folks. they were all brilliant thinkers. and we have a hopeful roster of -- eric alterman who is a senior fellow with us. eric is much more liberal. and we like to -- we consider ourselves progressive. we're a centurist on some issues particularly in liberal an others. >> one of the things that has developed over the years is rich people who give

get free trips medications and all in hotels all kinds of things lobbyist paid one hundred thousand dollars to be there they were voting everybody had an equal vote on whether legislation would be introduced to the particular states that seems to me like corruption. well when you get the regulatory environment is so you know invasive and so what i mean how so far mental regulations alone tell me one regulation that is means one regulation that is harming us yeah i mean half of it god frank yeah. one regulation that's trillion dollars that's the estimated cost that's imposed on the private sector from the entire regulatory state that's harming the economy nonsense so that as soon as it is washington he has a regulation the says here's your smokes they can do it can't amid all that crap. they're going to have to hire somebody to design a scrubber they're going to happen stall this rates going to create jobs are ok what about regulation is that you were just talking about that created the you know the private one c three you know the electioneering environment where you have the shadow

who is john podesta and the podesta family, the brother, tony podesta and his wife are big lobbyists what kind of role did they play in this town in the last 20 years? >> john was chief of staff to bill clinton and then a few years after the end of the clinton administration started center for american progress and has been with the center throughout. he took a leave to be the head of president obama's transition team and then came back to the center and was the president before i elevated. his brother tony and sister-in-law heather, tony has a long history of people for the american way and worked on the cue cawkiss campaign as chairman of the california dukakis campaign and worked a fair amount in pennsylvania and now is a lobbyist. and has a thriving lobbying practice. >> had john podesta been up on the hill for a while? >> in the early 1990's and 1980's worked for senator leahy on the agriculture committee and worked, i believe, for chuck culver or chuck culver's dad, john culver. senator from iowa. and he worked for tom daschle at one point. >> and tom daschle is now with you al

but one big part is lobbyists.x it is say if you're a member of congress, when you leave you cannot become a lobbyist so that disproportionate voice can't be p heard on behalf of special interests. >> let's talk about this. much like banning insider training or superpac transparency, this is in the domain of the phenomenally idiotically logical sort of thing that people in america can't even believe isn't already legal. they discover it and they become -- everybody's approval rating goes to 10%. then all of a sudden they like north korea as much as they like the congress. that's where we are today. then obviously no one in congress is going to want to help you do this because what the heck are they going to do for jobs after they're done in congress when you take away their job? as a practical matter, how is it that -- and how can people like me and others in america help you exert this the simplicity of a solution like this knowing that none of your colleagues are have any incentive to do it, that it's a direct hi

wouldn't allow lobbyists at the white house and gave waivers for lobbyists and his staff wouldn't be allowed to meet with lobbyists at the white house so they walked across the park to a coffee house where they met with lobbyists and now the flip-flop on the super pac itself. it's a super flip-flop. it's a president who has to act as if he's smarter, better, more moralistic than his opponents and everybody else while his pattern of behavior is to have words that are wind but his actions are just like everybody else's in washington. there's nothing reformist. nothing change orientated about barack obama when you get to the heart of it. >> bill? >> i mean, you know, it's hard to take seriously criticism of reform from an administration that really didn't do anything to reform washington at all. now the president actually did take steps to really reform the way things are done and reform the information that people had about the administration, about the people who were coming to visit it and about keeping lobbyists influence out and pushed campaign finance reform during the presidency,

he said he wouldn't take money if lobbyists and now set up a super pac that lobbyists can contributeinst the wall street wealth if the people on wall street keep it for themselves and in favor of them sharing a little bit with him and then the campaign manager goes to wall street saying he won't vilify them just after vilifying them in the state of the union address. this is a classic case, just like his flip-flop on super pacs, just like his flip-flop on not taking public finance for the 2008 campaign and he did. he'll say one thing and then go right out and do whatever's convenient to be re-elected. >> cornell? >> sounds like he's been reading, you know, talking points against romney. look. the president isn't setting up a super pac. he has nothing to do with the super pac. >> except -- >> isn't he going to send out folks to fund-raisers for -- >> no. are democrats going to line up and start -- and sort of fund raise for their own super pacs? absolutely. it would be stupid, would be political suicide for democrats to disarm and not engage in super pacs. karl rove's superpac raised

it is their lobbyists. it is corporate ceos. so much of the policy decisions, whether they are the decision to keep the minimum wage low. i mean, if the minimum wage was at its peak in 1968 and lost nearly half its purchasing power, think of that one policy decision that is the number one target for the chamber of commerce year after year to make sure the minimum wage stays low, that absolutely benefits people who are invested in big corporations and the executives of big corporations, but the american worker has seen their buying power erode and erode. >> so is this what you meant in that speech when you said what has happened to your generation was the consequence of a social experiment? is that what you mean? >> yeah. it's been a really grand experiment that has in neoliberal economics trackled down. the experiment that said in fact the best way we can shape our economy is to make sure the most gains are amassed and kept at the very top, and that somehow those would trickle down. that's been the experiment. it was a theory th

we'll have more on this and a number of related stories about how defense lobbyists are lining up to try to protect certain areas of the pentagon budget. congressional negotiators are trying to finalize a $150 billion measure which will extend a cut in the payroll taxes through the end of this year, provide additional jobless benefits for millions of out of work americans. republicans retreating and now supporting the proposal. there is no pay for this measure which means that the proposal will go forth and likely add to the overall debt in deficit. it does cut the social security payroll tax by 2 percentage points.

[applause] >> the large banks have the lobbyists in the industrial complex as the two lobbyists for every congressman. this -- they can do that without the support decision. so where does this -- where do you see what does this do -- clearly the american people are the only group that doesn't have the lobby group in washington. >> that is a really good question. the question is we have this huge lobbying problem. so in between elections come in between you have got billions of dollars spent on the corporate lobbyists, military-industrial complex, what is the amendment do for that? short answer is the amendment alone doesn't do as much. the question is whether we will be like the progressive era or others where the amendment is a way to carry the conversation about the underlining propositions of the country, and with that i think we will have a wave of reform because we make the argument that we have a structural problem that we need to fix government of the people was losing. we are not going to get it if we don't do a set of fixes. the amendment i don't propose as the only thing or the

but it seems those with the real power are lobbyists who dollarra year business. business.s.../// áá.andáá... those... who/ who...// "pay... to play play take graphic over first part of sot: dc lobbying grant 2;16 sot mercatus- 11:58-12:20 willarddhhtel ere in dc smoking cigars and drinking and people would come by the lobby anddask for favors. broll: hill 1-11thaa's how lobbying started in the 19-the century.buttplenty of favors are still exchanged every day in d-c.quustions suuface thouogh when lobbyists, companies and politicans push the limits of lawsa&ann ethics.sot mercatus :45-:56 highly sophisticated and well pduccted lawyers, accountants, lobbyists who wwrk and are basically attempping to obtain better treatment froo povernments.broll k street hundreds of companies, groups and even cities lobby from k- street.some are much more organized than others.sst :49--53 this is a town based on advocacya&people making arguments to one another.takee graphic - dc lobbying lobbyat&t 1:30consider a-t-and-t and all of its connections.according to the center for responsive politic

the american league of lobbyists support this legal action going to the president of the group. the lawsuit was filed in the fall through members of an industry trade advisory committee or seeking to serve on one. today is valentine's day. the republican national committee has distributed 18 fake cards jabbing democratic politicians in a light-hearted way. one of the cards mocking congressman dennis kucinich from ohio says, i have a short list of valentine's this year. it has the bottom portion of his face cut off, with a knock at the fact he's short. another one bearing the image of debbie wasserman schultz says happy tuesday. that's as sweet as i get. some other democrats on these cards, attorney ar eric holder, and former new jersey governor jon corzine. president obama talked about valentine's day today. he talked about the payroll tax cut, but he started off with just a note about today. >> good morning, and let me start with a quick public service announcement for all the gentlemen out there. today is valentine's day. doon do not forget. i speak from experience here. it is

they understand what's going on because when you're getting bribes and millions of dollars from lobbyists for your campaign it's really hard to be in touch with the needs of the average american. really is and so what do you think if you are these politicians are really this ignorant or are they just trying to stick to the talking points that appeal to their base. if they aren't this ignorant and that's really sad that they would have to dumb themselves down to appeal to a base and not you know not know really obvious things geographically and politically so that's really sad if they are this ignorant they shouldn't even be a relevant political figure so either way it's just really strange that these people or the political discourse well at the end of the day seeing this play out. as you call it a dog and pony show is this all looking pretty good for president obama oh absolutely absolutely i think it's a really in the bag i mean there's really no one out there that's like i said everyone that i know who even is really upset with obama is going to vote against whoever the g.o.p. candidat

loophole congress is basically paralyzed today because nearly every single republican has put a lobbyist's oath above their oath to support depend on the constitution now the republican lapdogs grover norquist have a new strategy. a lot of people are saying the house republicans caved yesterday when they proposed extending the payroll tax cut for the rest of the year without paying for the straight clean bill basically what democrats were asking for all along but this is not a cave this is merely the release of one hostage one hundred sixty million working americans who are eligible for the payroll tax cut and the retaking of another hostage millions of unemployed americans who depend on unemployment insurance benefits to survive by deed linking the payroll tax cut from unemployment benefits republicans can avoid looking like they're about to raise taxes on working americans but at the same time quietly hold millions of unemployed americans hostage until they get the spending cuts they want or at the very least until they kill any prospects of tax increases on the rich that's not a cave so

plus some recently deregistered lobbyists and spouses of currently registered lobbyists. both rely on special interest cash. the president's people talk of running a cleaner campaign, but the numbers and the facts tell a different story. dylan? >> a wonderful occasion to bring the whole show together. i want to make sure i understand it correctly. what you're saying is that while most of the -- while the number of donors in the obama campaign giving small numbers is a lot of people, that most of the money comes from a small group of people. >> that's half way there. most of the donations are small. there are some donors who gave $3 donations last month bring the total up to $10,000. so each time you give $3 to win a lunch with president obama, that's one of these donations that they are counting. >> so what you're suggesting is that there's an interesting marketing trick. you get the headline that says look at our small donors. we're the peoples' politician. >> but there's a slice of donors that's very small. >> it's the 196 people that our buddy ari talks about that's po

without public input. >> from 2009-2010, montgomery soccer paid almost $20,000 to a well-known lobbyist. he says he did not actually lobby at all. >> he was brought on to help us understand the public-private partnership and help us understand the proposal. >> i'm flabbergasted they would make us -- they would file -- they would make that kind of suggestion. documents were filed under oath. >> the non-profit also insists that he did no work related to the proposal. >> the notion that we have any type of undue political influence is completely belied by 11 years of not succeeding on any of the projects we have proposed. >> he currently serves as vice president of pepsico. he was at the center of a story involving a political campaign. he did not respond to requests for comment. residents demanded records related to him. >> this obviously raises very serious questions. i think it would be an excellent idea for him to release the documents to the public and the press. >> the group says it will release all proposals he was involved in but that will not include anything he was not involved w

state legislator lobbyists state legislators are paying one hundred bucks to be there in some cases they get free trips and vacations and in hotels all kinds of things lobbies paid one hundred thousand dollars to be there they were voting everybody had an equal vote on whether legislation would be introduced to particular states that seems to me like corruption. well when you get the regulatory environment it was so you know they used to and so it would be made out so it wouldn't fire mental regulations alone tell me one regulation that is this one regulation that is harming us i mean after the dodd frank gap one one regulation it's yeah it's really in dollars it's the estimated cost that's imposed on the private sector from the entire regulatory state that's harming the economy nonsense that is that's why she is he has a regulation a says here's your smokestack can't go can't admit all that crap. they're going to have to hire somebody to design a scrubber they're going to happen so all of this gets going to create jobs you're ok but it's pretty regulations that you were just talkin

newt gingrich is an error lobbyist -- uber lobbyist. barney frank talk about michele bachmann. he also called out newt gingrich and said he held him responsible for the demonization of opponents that has contributed to the atmosphere we live in today. i do think he came into the house. he slashed all of the caucasus and civility. we are seeing this. this is a man who a few days ago talked about education reform in the context of firing the janitors in schools and putting the kids to work. a lot of the media called that unconventional. [laughter] let's repeal child labor laws that we fought hard for in this country. bring in dickens to chronicle it. i do think there is the cruelty amidst the reality show debates we have been subjected to. who is running this, entertainment or news? there is a cruelty when people cheer that someone dies without health care or bbo a soldier that dies in iraq. >> i am joking about herman cain. he is a guy who cannot hide the truth well. that makes me more comfortable with the idea that i know who he is about so i can make a decision. >> are you tal

at the white house, that he gave wavers for lobbyists. and so what did they do? they walked out the front door of the white house, across the park, and to a coffee house where they met with lobbyists. now this flip-flop on the super pac idea itself. this is a super flip-flop, but worse than that, it's a president who has to act as if he's smarter, better, more moralistic than all his opponents, everybody else, while his pattern of behavior is to have words that win, but his actions are just like everyone else's in washington. nothing reformist or change oriented about barack obama when you get to the heart of it. >> bill? >> it's hard to take seriously criticism of reform from an administration that really didn't do anything to reform washington at all. the president actually did take steps to really reform the way things are done, to reform the information that people had ability the administration, about the people who were coming to visit it, about keeping lobbyist influence out, and he's pushed campaign reform on this. since it was bl