i tell you what, mr. reich, it just seems to me mitt romney's releasing of the tax returns is the right place at the right time for a good political discussion in the country about fairness, what do you think? >> it's not just a political discussion, ed, it's an economic discussion, discussion whether we're on the same boat together as americans. look back in the 1950's under dwight eisenhower, republican president, nobody ever accused of being a socialist, the top tax rate was 91%. now you have mitt romney earning $20 million a year, more than anybody, how many people do you know who are earning $20 million a year, top one-tenth of 1% taking in more money than a percent age of total income since the late 1920's and he and most other very wealthy people are paying 15%. we have a budget deficit, we are laying off teachers, our roads are impassable. we don't have money to do what we need to do and here you have the wealthiest people in america getting off not doing their patriotic duty. it's morality. >> you win

. >> mr. reich, doesn't this make him an enemy to the tea party that companies would be getting taxpayer dollars, wouldn't this run up the deficit and the debt? what is this about? >> if there were logic to tea party ideoology and consist deny s -- consistency, yes. he was using state tax dollars as governor to lure companies from other states in massachusetts. whether he was the head of bain capital and pocketing the money or governor of massachusetts and doling out welfare, it's the same it has little to do with producing real products and services. >> what is the economy danger of a romney presidency? if this is where he came from, you can only imagine about what kind of laws he would be in favor of having passed by his fellows in the house and the senate. he would obviously have some real corporate friends at the front door saying "do this" how dangerous could this be, how much could it take us in the middle class? >> deep in financial capitalism, ed. what we have really got to understand and th

mr. reich, great to have you with us tonight. is this a good idea?ould it close the gap? what do you think? >> well, it is a good idea, it's a minimum tax, in other words, it is the least that somebody who is a millionaire would be paying, and the estimates are really somewhere in the range of 40-80 billion dollars. this is not chicken feed we're talking about. it's fair, most americans support this, i think republicans will be in a very difficult place and difficult position saying no to this. >> here is republican senator jon kyle on the floor today. here it is. >> president obama's campaigning for reelection on a soap the rich kind of platform. argues income inequality and check with fairness, in his narrative fair society requires more balance or redistribution. >> mr. reich, if we go back to the old rates, which they were when you were in the clinton administration, were you soaking the rich back then, did it work? >> not only were we not soaking the rich, the rates were higher than they are now, but ed, we had massive growth, 22 million net new

. >> you know, mr. reich, i remember three years ago this month some things happened to me in business. and the mood of the country was holy smokes. over 700,000 jobs. how are we going to stop this? how are we going to turn this around? i don't think the country really realized how bad off we were and how quickly we could have gone into the tank and things had to be done with leadership to turn this thing around to get ahold of it. shouldn't republicans be thrilled with private sector jobs increasing and public sector jobs decreasing? what about that. >> you would think so. all we are hearing from the republicans is the same old republican mantra and that is corporations need tax breaks, rich people need tax breaks, corporations need regulatory cuts, so-called regulatory relief. i mean, the absurdity behind that is corporations are still making huge amounts of money and they're sitting on $1.5 trillion of cash right now and the unemployment numbers are looking better. why should they have tax relief and so-ca

reich is professor of public policy at the university of cal berkeley. he's a very wis see blogger. nice to have you on the program. you said that mrs.>> i think she's a proven campaigner. she is obviously sharp and intelligent and has a fuj following. the most recent gallup polls show that she and the president is the most respected men and women in america. on top of that, she's done, i think, an ex sems nally good job in foreign policy where the obama administration has shined and even though the economy is likely to be a little lackluster by election day, having hillary clinton on the ticket would enable the president to put together his foreign policies easily. >> you make several points about this. i want to go through one at a time here because each of them really is worth a discussion. you also suggest, as you sort of started to talk about here, that it would divert voter's attention from the struggling economy back to the global stage and you think that would be good for democrats? >> i do think it would be good for democrats. the foreign policy successes of the administration in terms of al qaeda, getting are rid of the hea