. >>> upton sinclair almost added a new title, governor.or an interview. >> with me journalist and blogger greg mitchell, just released a new e-book, rereleased, "the campaign of the century, upton sinclair's race for governor of california and the birth of media politics." now, we say it's a new book. it's new in e-form, going to be released obviously a new version, a new edition in hard cover form. set the scene of the ray upton sinclair, famous author decides to run, set the scene of that campaign, 1932. sip claire, as you mentioned, was a famous muck ray, wrote the jungle, many people familiar with that book, he also in the early part of the century is also one of the most famous writers and agitators and in america and around the world and a life long socialist. he decided in 1933 he would run for governor of california. of course, franklin roosevelt had just been elected, we were in the deppette of the depression anticipated would form a movement called end poverty in california and lo and behold -- >> was he drafted in or did he do t

upton sinclair felt as if that was the wrong move. others worried that the party would be destroyed by this. it would be labeled unamerican. >> we will take a call from nashville, tennessee. your question, please. >> thank you for your discussion tonight. >> thank you for watching. >> unfortunately, socialism means there is a group involved in the central planning of our economy or society. that leads itself to a small group to decide how citizens should behave. socialism, wonderful in its ideals, it does not actually exist. i believe that james madison described it correctly. we are in competition with each other. that is what leads to individual freedom. it just leads to someone in a small group [unintelligible] >> that was not too far off from his position. he was arguing that the central planners of his day were the large business owners. they had a lot of political power and influence and were the central planners of the economy. he would have been with you on that. he wanted there to be a more diverse group of people, working pe

moment in the sun, and that was a time when the workers of the country, that was the sort of upton sinclair era the workers were getting desperate and you had that teddy roosevelt smart enough to say i love corporations and big businesses that this is a moment when we have to take action to begin to regulate, to modulate the concentration of wealth and power. so, when we look at moments in time we are increasing government participation we are increasing social safety nets there are bad things about it, but there are good things. you don't overdo it, the bureaucracy of handing out checks, but understand that stability, economic opportunity, the ability to earn a paycheck, and of course by the consumer in this country all of these things are necessary for capitalism to forge. for small and medium businesses, entrepreneurs, innovation, all of that must have that kind of a social setting. so it goes back to balance. madison, james madison, have to have both the liberal voice and the conservative voice to keep things balanced. so as i was working on the book, one of the things that hit me looki

look, it's like the upton sinclair thing.i'm not going to get it right, but when someone's salary is based on opposing you they are not going to oppose you. it's just the way it is. obama still think he's so persuasive and these solutions will be so beautiful that they have to give well, they don't. and what is forsaken and what's not given credit is the dimitism of leadership. and axlerod is like get out there and say this is what you want to do and fight and don't flinch. and what you'll see is the tumblers will click and the plates under the surface will start to shift and move and that dynamic process is one that creates the opportunities of leadership. obama wasn't doing that. and ultimately i think he's frustrated because of it. there are moments that's fascinating where he knows his best thing is he says i can give an amazing speech. and he knows that. that's my skill. but time and again what he finds like after that great speech in 2009, which is just breathtaking. i've seen it, watched it read it ten days, it's so mu

madam speaker, the republican leadership's legislative sausage would shock upton sinclaire who wrote "the jungle" 100 years ago. he said it's difficult to get a man to understand something when a salary depends on his nonunderstanding. instead of wrapping special interest policy riders and giveaways into a package, we should have payroll tax cuts, domestic clean energy incentives and unemployment insurance extension. the economic recovery is too fragile, madam speaker, to risk on the higher health care costs, higher gas prices and economic hardships that some of these republican proposals would otherwise create. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from ohio, mr. gibbs, for five minutes. mr. gibbs: thank you, madam speaker. i rise today -- about three weeks will mark my first year in congress. i ran for congress because i thought i could make a difference. i was concerned about the direction this country was headed. i think we are making a difference but we are frustrated because still almost a year later we still ha

lobbyist giveaways and ideological poison pills that it would make the author of "the jungle," upton sinclaire's nose turn blue. the bill before us today slashes unemployment benefits from virginia, my home state, by 38%. it increases federal employee pension contributions by 63% while reducing total pension payments. federal employees, in other words, will pay more and get less, retirement security after a lifetime of public service. for good measures it extends public pay raise to five years. it has a rider that will increase all exports to china and raise american gas prices. it repeals part of the clean air act, allowing polluters to spew forth mercury, arsenic and other toxic pollutants from industrial boilers. in fact, repeal of the clean air act public health standard will burden the american economy with $20 billion to $52 billion of additional health care costs every year. we must remember what state we are in economically. thanks to the recovery of the -- thanks to the recovery act, the unemployment rate has dropped to 8.2%. it would be 8.6%. the number of underemployed and long-term u

roosevelt's administration in response to appalling food processing conditions described in upton sinclaire's "the jungle" congress passed the first comprehensive food safety regulation. 100 years later the reins act on the floor today would block even the most commonsense regulations. new standards to protect americans from deadly contamination of chinese and mexican imported foods. the reins act is a wordy piece of legislation for those among us who actually believes that chinese factory farms should ship contaminated, uninspected food to americans' dinner tables. roosevelt protect the grand canyon and thank god they did. when congress at that time refused to designate it as a national park. the reins act would prevent federal land management agencies from issuing regulations to protect america's greatest places from degradation from mining and offload vehicles. the reins act would also block regulations subsequent to the roosevelt administration including such landmarks bill as the clean air act, the clean water act, the occupational safety and health act, along with the regulatory account