mr. madoff had promised investors. under federal guidelines, she could have faced life in prison. the judge ruled she wasn't an architect of the scheme and was just following madoff's instructions. ken, is six years enough of a punishment? >> actually, reverend, i think it is. i think it was eminently fair that this judge recognized this particular defendant may not have known what was going. on she was willfully blind. that's what the judge said. which indicates that she might not have known the illegal activity that's were going on all around her. she had been brought up in that firm since a teenager so it sounds to me like the judge was very fair. actually getting a sentence less than the defense attorney asks for. it shows the judge recognized that a punishment was needed but also that it needed to be fair base the on this factual situation. >> as ken points out, her own attorney was surprised with the sentence. he had argued that a term of eight to ten years would be sufficient punishment. and at the sentencing he said the judge showed greater mercy than i believed was possibl

madoff's former secretary goes inside the multi-billion dollar scandal. later, why america's economy taking a hit from a declining number of babies. ♪ >> ...people ready then... >> mrpresident >> who should answer for those people >>> a third of the world's billionaires live in america according to forbes magazine. while not are all politically active, many are spending big bucks. charles and david koch are the biggest spenders but they are just two of the well known billionaires who have spent billions of dollars to benefit mostly republican. jors soros is one of the leftists who have put their money behind the democrats. i am joined by darrell west, vice president and director of governance studies at the bro brookings institution. bill yon airs, flex on the upper crust. good to have you with us. you quote forbes that american billionaires who controlled a trillion dollars in assets 10 years ago have seen fortunate more than double since then. they feel a lot to spend on the candidates and the issues that they care about. but there has always been wealthy people interested in influencing politics. is today any different than the past? >> today is different from t