sherrod brown is being made an example of clear message being that corporations are sending to lawmakerssimple mess with us and you lose your job oh and don't expect to hear about any of those stories that i just talked about in the corporate news media the news media is all owned by giant corporations but are also spending fortunes lobbying congress as corporate buyout of our democracy is happening right out in the open for anyone who wants to see it but our news media which carries the water for these same corporations isn't reporting on it at all this should be headline news it's a relentless attack on our nation's most basic fundamental democracy it only a small slice of americans know what's happening and we can thank the supreme court for that thanks to a series of radical rulings by the high court corporations have secured new rights for weapons to lay siege to our democracy from the buckley vs vallejo decision in one thousand nine hundred six the first national bank of boston versus bill oddie decision in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight to citizens united twenty ten the su

i'm joined now by sherrod brown. sir, great to have you here with us this morning.s this bill so important to you? what are you hearing from your constituents? what are you worried about for the future of students in this country? >> well, in the last month or so i've been at cuyahoga county community college and ohio state and the university of cincinnati and wright state talking with students about what doubling the interest rate would mean to them. it's a lot of money. the average ohio four-year college graduate has $27,000 debt burden when they graduate. i don't want to add to that. it means those young men and women are less likely to buy a house, to start a family, to start a business, to do the things that we want young people to do to contribute to the society. and doubling the interest rate for them when the burden is already so heavy makes no sense in a moral way and no sense in a practical way. >> that was democratic senator from ohio sherrod brown with me earlier today. we'll bring you the results of that vote right here on msnbc. >>> mitt romney critici

your friend sherrod brown, trying to get another term as a senator. they've already thrown $6 million at him. i mean, heck, it's not even june 1st. they're throwing money at him like crazy. so is that the weakness, maybe not being able to match the money? what do you think? >> well, you have these roaming billionaires who want to get involved in these races whether it's against sherrod brown or somebody else. the bottom line is we've got to be organized. what's good about ohio, we've just come off the collective bargaining campaign last year. so the coalition of police, fire, teachers and others, nurses, are all together and ready to do the deal again this year. >> your thoughts on, guy from ohio, house speaker john boehner, setting up this fight for the debt ceiling again? >> i think it's a big mistake. obviously, the generic polls are showing that the republicans are obstructionists, and i think it would be better for him to sit down with obama and cut a deal. >> but isn't there strategy to do this and let mitt romney heckle from the stands, saying,

joining us now is sherrod brown. he was with president obama in ohio on saturday.nks for coming on the show tonight. >> it was great seeing the president in front of 14,000, pretty enthusiastic ohioans. thanks. >> now the president went right after mitt romney. was that a surprise to you, and will it play well into ohio? >> yeah, governor romney's got a bunch of things he's got to answer to. he's got everything from his offshore accounts to his support of the budget that really goes after medicare and goes after meals on wheels and food stamps and all kinds of middle class and working class and programs, too, for the poor. but he's also in ohio. governor romney's got to answer his opposition to the auto rescue. he's got to answer his support for rolling back collective bargaining rights which is a shot directly to middle class. he's got a lot of explaining t do in ohio, and i think you are going to see the president making the contrast between what governor romney believes and what the president believes. and i'm there with him because i have an opponent the same t

senator sherrod brown of ohio chaired the two-hour hearing. >> mr. volker nice to see you. we have three panels today. i always give moderate short opening statements. senator corker always gives thoughtful and even shorter statements. we'll begin briefly with that. i wanted to help everybody involved in getting some excellent qualified individuals to discuss such an important but admittedly broad set of topics was not easy. so i appreciate the cooperation of all of you who are major players in your own right throughout the financial system. i'll keep my message brief. i've simply say it's vital we take the necessary steps sooner rather than later to end government policies and support and encourage large complex institutions. that's why today i'm introducing my legislation the safe banking act that was known formerly as the brown kauffman bill and amendment. i think the ideas today have traction on both sides of the aisle. the full committee's ranking member shelby voted against the act in favor of brown kauffman when it was an amendment to the dodd frank bill. >> thank yo

. >>> taking a look right now at sherrod brown. he's at ohio state university.e's warming up the crowd, if you will. we've also had former governor ted strickland. former senator john glenn. we are making our way to the president. he's expected to take to the podium. we will take you there live once again when the first lady takes to the podium. stay with us here on "weekends with alex witt." [ woman ] my washer had a foul odor that made the whole room stink. [ woman #2 ] even my laundry started to get a funny smell. [ female announcer ] got a bad odor in your high-efficiency washer? clean it with tide washing machine cleaner. [ female announcer ] three uses will help remove odor-causing residues and leave your washer clean and fresh. to help maintain your he washer, use tide washing machine cleaner once a month and always wash with tide he detergent, specially formulated for proper he performance. tide washing machine cleaner. clean laundry starts with a clean washer. do you read in bed? do you read out loud or in your head? do you need a lamp to see? and does

we talked about sherrod brown about the money in his campaign?es is why would republican donors throw millions and millions of dollars at the leading republican candidate? i think it often gets boiled down to they share an ideology. the substance of their vision for the future is critically important here which is: which is. . i got mine. i don't care about you. i have my life raft. i am doing well. instead of throwing you a life raft and seeing if you will survive, i am doing okay. i don't care about you. >> that's the plan mitt romney holds. it's the vision that these guys, these major super p.a.c. donors are happy to endorse a tax benefit plan that has no state tax. shelf the move -- money pass it around. these would have devastating impact for working families. >> the two i saw here that are not republican individuals, the national education association. >> yeah. >> i guess the other is this cooperative of american physicians? >> that's right. i don't know a ton about them. obviously we know where the national association stands the number on

he has democratic senator sherrod brown from ohio as a cosponsor now. that is something a lot of senators support. it is a little controversial. i don't expect it will be adopted onto this bill. we have some other amendments from bernie sanders has had some amendments on clinical trials. we're going to see a lot of different things pop up. we might see flood insurance program from david vitter come up on the bill which doesn't have anything to do with the fda but something he is trying to get passed. >> the cq article writes about the issue of regulation of sunscreen. what can you tell us about that. >> some of the democratic senators want the fda to have stronger labeling restrictions on sun skeen as especially it is summer and hope some of us get on the beach and use these products. they want the fda to have tighter restrictions how the sunscreen products can be marketed and labeled. >> how have fda officials responded to senate bill? >> fda officials very much want the senate bill to come through. they have worked out agreements with the industry. th

>> one of the biggest ones is senator john mccain and sherrod brown of bohon leota would have a lot of people prescription drugs from canada which would be of a lower-cost that's something we've seen come out in the senate for the past few years now but it always gets a lot of support but never quite enough to actually get adopted and will require 60 votes to get it adopted so we are not expecting it to meet that threshold. >> why do supporters say this bill is necessary? >> the programs funded in these fda bill to give them a lot of its money to do some of these reviews for drugs and devices on medical products. i think the prescription drug part is about 60% of all of the money they get in the prescription drugs comes from the user fees put in this bill so if they didn't have it they would lose a lot of money and have to fire a lot of staff they would start getting pink slips to employees this summer. >> what about the administration or what is their view of the bill? >> they've come out with administration policy saying they support the well and want it to pass. >> is the senate bil

and so, wisely, senator jack reed and senator tom harkin and senator sherrod brown have put in legislationand president obama has been fully, fully supportive and he has talked about this at length on campuses throughout america and in other places throughout america -- and when they put it in, amazingly enough, most of our republican colleagues, places like club for growth and american enterprise institute, said, we're against it, let the students pay 6.8%. that was sort of the 21st century analog of mary antoinette saying, "let them eat cake." because these days, college is much more of a necessity than it ever used to be. even for jobs, you k

first the safety act, which sponsored with senator sherrod brown, will bring minimum safety standardsto the inner city buses. it doesn't deal with the intercity buses or transit systems but the buses that go across the state lines particularly those that are hired by the groups, church groups, elder briggs have had a notoriously bad record and this cannot continue. our bill is pretty modest and requires seat belts to be in the buses offered for higher. i would think that would be a minimum seat belt. it makes it more difficult for bus companies that have terrible safety violations to then reincarnate themselves to use the exact same equipment under a different name which has been the case with some of these horrendous accidents that have killed people in these buses. i think that is a very good bill that has strong support in the senate and we can work with the house to include it. the commerce title also reauthorize is ntsa for two years and gives it the tools necessary to protect and save vehicles and equipment from entering our country while protecting the supply chain from unneces