song for people concerned about the auction of our democracy. 94% of the time, the candidate who raises the most money wins. that's not an election. this thursday, yesterday, senator bernie sanders of vermont carried the pitch higher on the capital proposing his version of a constitutional amendment that simply establishes that corporations, by law, are not people. >> in my view, a corporation is not a person. the supreme court says that these corporations have a constitutionally protected right to spend, spend, spend shareholders' money to dominate an election, as if they were real, live persons. >> here with us now, the man who is now at the center, the apex of the great 28 debate, senator bernie sanders. and senator, what must be done as the momentum is obviously accelerating to support not only you, but all of us in this country who are desperate to see this debate for the 20th amendment proceed. >> well, this still is the issue. our job is to educate, to organize, and to put as much pressure on congress, so that they, in fact, pass a constitutional amendment to undo the disastrous, disastrous impact to our democracy that citizens united has done. >> connected to the kitchen table, if i'm sitting there looking at this election year, and i'm worried about health care for my grandmother, i'm worried about asthma in my daughter, i'm worried about heating oil in vermont, how does money in politics relate? >> here's what it is. right now, and i think many people may not understand this, because of the citizens united 5-4 supreme court decision, you can have a group of billionaires, a group of corporate executives sitting around the room. and they're going to say, look, here's a guy in california. here's somebody in nevada. here's somebody in oregon who's opposing our interests. they want to protect the middle class and working families. they don't want to give the rich tax breaks. they don't want to end social security of medicare and medicaid. we have got to defeat that person. all right, i want you to put $20 million into california. $15 million into oregon. $10 million into ohio. they do this, dylan, without disclosure. so somebody goes home to turn on their tv, there's an ad by citizens for a better america, or whatever, attacking a candidate or supporting another candidate. e richest people in this country, without any disclosure, bombarding the air waves, electing those people who support big money, trying to defeat those of us who support working class and middle class families. >> and if you look at a couple of the past amendments, one overwhelming success, one a very public piece of debate that certainly changed a lot of legislation, but failed. i'm referring to the era, which failed as an amendment, but did impact legislation, and changing of the voting age to 18 during the vietnam war, which was perhaps the fastest amendment and came on a justice narrative, not a partisan narrative. how do you cast this, not as a left or right issue, but as an issue of a breach of american justice, so that you can capture the same thing that was captured with the voting age at 18? >> well, dylan, your point is well taken. here's the reality. whether you're a democrat, whether you're an independent, whether you're a progressive like me or a conservative, overwhelming majority of the american people think that what that supreme court decision did is totally wrong. very few people believe that large corporations should be able to buy elections. that is not what democracy is about. so your point is exactly right. what we have to do right now is to build on the frustration and the anger that the american people feel about money in politics, about this disastrous citizens united decision, and move toward a day where we're going to have a democracy where one person, one vote is what it's about, and not see our politics dominated by corporate interests or billionaires. >> do you have confidence that you can enroll a conservative senator to join you in co-sponsoring the amendment that you increased this week? >> well, we're going to try. and i want to tell you something, dylan, if i can do a little self-promoting here. we have a website, sanders.senate.gov. we put up a petition yesterday, one day ago, we have over 40,000 signatures in one day. so i think the word is out and i think there are some honest conservatives who understand that in american democracy, you know, our people historically have fought and died to preserve democracy, the right of the people to rule. not the right of a handful of billionaires to decide who's going to get elected. so i think regardless of political ideology, there is widespread support from the right to the left to say, we have got to undo the severe damage that citizens united has done to our democracy. >> as you know, there are a handful of amendments out there, and as you know, we here on the show initiated a petition to call for the great 28 debate, not so much to advocate for a specific amendment, but to invite people like you to educate us as to why you view those amendments ought to be the way they are, and for people like ourselves to raise the temperature on everybody to actually do this. it's clear that corporations are not people, in your language. i'm interested in your assessment of the debate around whether money is speech, which seems to be the other half of any of these conversations. >> no. the idea that if somebody is a billionaire, they can have unlimited ability to impact an election, whether it's senate, house, mayor's election, presidential election. that is not what democracy is about. all of us believe in the first amendment. we all believe in freedom of speech. i take that very, very seriously. but freedom of speech does not mean the right of billionaires to buy elections. you know, dylan, a moment ago, you asked me what the real world impact of citizens united and money in politics is about. i'll tell you what it's about. when somebody in the united states senate has to go up to the table and cast the vote, and you're sitting there thinking, if i vote against the interests of wall street, if i vote against the interests of the military industrial complex, if i vote against the insurance companies or the drug companies, will i go home next week and find millions of dollars of ads bombarding my state against me, because i cast that vote? maybe i shouldn't cast that vote. maybe i shouldn't stand up to the big money interests. maybe i should not oppose tax breaks for the rich, because they may unload on campaign ads in my state. those are the day-to-day realities that elected officials deal with because of this disastrous decision. >> and the other thing that really has disgusted me since i left cnbc a few years ago and got into the sausage maker that is the american political system is the realization that my representatives and the representatives in our government across the board spend a stunning amount of time, especially in the house, where it's a two-year term, not learning, not debating, not even legislating, but literally in a fund-raising contest, like it's a bake sale for the girl scouts, and it's insulting to the american people! >> you're absolutely right. it is insulting, it is demeaning. you go privately, just do it off your tv camera, talk privately to republicans and democrats and say, how do you feel about having to hustle money? you'd spend huge amounts of time, not only spending the t time, but doing the thinking. how do you do your job? which is trying to legislate, trying to figure out how we solve the enormous problems facing our country when half of your mind is figuring out, how do i raise $5 million in the next year. and what citizens united has done, because it has unleashed huge amounts of corporate money and billionaire money, it makes those people who don't get that money say, my god, i'm going to have to work twice as hard now, because they're really going to spend huge amounts of money against me. it is a horrendous situation and your point is absolutely right. talk to republicans. talk to democrats, and ask about, you know, i may disagree with some of these guys on issue after issue, but they did not get collected to sit around, getting on the telephone, hustling money. they want to do what they're supposed to do to represent their constituents, and very often they just don't have the time to study the issues, to fight for those issues, because they're doing fund-raising or they're raising money on the phone. >> very quickly, senator, because i am running a clock, but i have the benefit of former governor buddy roemer also in a gust in this show today. as you know, he is the only republican presidential candidate running on the singular platform of getting money out of politics, and yet he continues to be marginalized in the context of the republican debates, and in terms of including him in those debates. in brief, your thoughts on the roemer candidacy, and his role in the republican primaries? >> well, to be honest with you, i'm not all that familiar with mr. roemer's positions. but i think money in politics is the issue. and anyone who is concerned about the economy, health care, global warming, education, if you do not understand the role that money is playing in politics, in protecting the interests of the wealthy and the powerful, then you really don't know what's going on in washington. >> and i could not, obviously, gre with you more. we've got 250,000 people on the get money out petition, we'll have 11 different amendments up, including yours, for people to study and learn about corporations, people, money, and speech. thank you. thank you, senator. >> thank you very much, dylan. >> thank you. coming up on "the d.r. show," a presidential candidate, buddy roemer, who is more fired up than any of us. he's so fired up about this issue, he doesn't just have a petition, he's running for president! former governor buddy roemer, our guest in the moments to come. plus, how much of the bailout really cost all of us a stunning figure. and wrap that package in red, white, and blue, my friends. the made in america holiday shopping challenge and you can get involved. just one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defends against occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with three strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at "probiotic." [ female announcer ] phillips' colon health. luck? i don't trade on luck. i trade on fundamentals. analysis. information. i trade on tradearchitect. this is web-based trading, re-visualized. streaming, real-time quotes. earnings analysis. probability analysis: that's what opportunity looks like. it's all visual. intuitive. and it's available free, wherever the web is. this is how trade strategies are built. tradearchitect. only from td ameritrade. welcome to better trade commission free for 60 days when you open an account. we're back now with another one of the many voices in our campaign to get money out, with a great 28 debate in this country. and this one, former louisiana governor and presidential candidate, buddy roemer. and governor, did you ever think you'd have so much in common with a progressive from vermont being a conservative from louisiana? >> i'm frightened, man. somebody's wrong. >> did you listen to senator sanders' interview at all? >> i did. it was fascinating. he nailed it. if a corporation is a person, i can't wait until they get drafted in the next war. i mean, it's ridiculous. i mean, where have we come in america? a corporation is a person. but this issue, as you know, dylan, goes much deeper than that. if you have a big check, you stand first in line. and i don't call that a representative democracy. >> i want to talk about a "washington post" profile of you today and read folks a quote from that. it was a great piece. and if you haven't checked it out, you should. and bear in mind, governor romer is the voice in this year's presidential election for this agenda. and it reads as follows -- "far more defeating were the external expectations of a modern presidential campaign, by which his always fell short. most early debates invited only candidates who had at least 2% support in five national polls, but sometimes romer wasn't even included in five national polls. another debate required candidates who have raised $500,000. that's funny. in the past 90 days, he had managed only half of that." again, he's running to get money out, mind you. "the florida republican party picked nine people for its ballot and chose not to include him. south carolina charges $35,000 to be on its ballot, so roemer decided to run there as a write-in." i guess they don't want you in the conversation. >> that's fair. who wants to hear about running for president and taking four $1 million checks. that's mitt romney. who wants to hear about a man who has seven super pacs? that's rick perry. who wants to hear about a man's money be described as a lobbyist for the top 1%. that's newt gingrich. you can go right down the line. jon huntsman has a super pac funded solely by his father. his father could give him the money, but they'd have to pay taxes on that. anything to not pay taxes and get around any limits. in the old days, dylan, when i was on the floor of the congress, as a conservative democrat, we debated between the disclosure of money and the limit of money. liberals wanted limits, we conservatives wanted disclosures. we now live in a country that has neither limits nor disclosure. we have the worst of both worlds. and a president ought to be free to lead, or he's not worth voting for. >> are you encouraged by the emergence of hundreds of thousands of people in our undertaking, a dozen amendments, it seems, now floating around that go to this end. you, for a while, were a voice in the woods, long before people like myself showed up. you were preaching the gospel of money as the foundational corrupting issue. are you encouraged by the increasing temperature? >> about once every three weeks, i get a chance to go through my campaign headquarters with a tv on your show, and i'm always encouraged, dylan. i really appreciate it. you and guys like larry lessig and mark mckinnon and people who have help med me so much. i appreciate it. you know what i need to win, and i expect to win this race -- now, listen to me. the republican candidate hasn't been picked yet. there's a new flavor every month. and the guy on top now cannot last. some time, some where, some place, somebody's going to say, buddy, what do you have to say? i'm the only guy running who's been a congressman and a governor. i've built a $1 billion bank with no bailout. i am a competitor. i took a state with 12% unemployment and dropped it to below 6. it can be done! but you have to be clean and free at the top. washington is bought and sold like a sack of potatoes. >> governor, i could not have said it better myself. i am a huge supporter of yours and i'm encouraged by the justice narrative emerging that i can set a gentleman like yourself on television right next to bernie sanders, and when it comes to the principles of our country, both of you, as men and as politicians and as americans, say the same thing. and that is inspiring for me, governor. thank you. >> thanks for giving me a shot. >> absolutely. the mega panel is here. two aris and a krystal, it doesn't get any better. it's friday fun. ari melber, ari berman, and krystal ball. that was wonderful from bud dy roemer right there, krystal. >> yeah, it was. and he's obviously got a big hill to climb in terms of the republican nomination. maybe he'll run as an independent or go about this another way, but i'm awfully glad he's out there raising the issue. and it seems like he's getting more buzz and there's more talk about his candidacy. and just having him out there advocating makes a difference. >> and if you look -- if he lays out his qualifications, fairly simply, governor of a state, served in the federal office as a congressperson, ran a financial institution, which was a small bank, which is the opposite of these too big to fail banks. this is going to be an ari-off, we'll see which ari is going to take this. >> i think we know who's going to take this question. >> in other words, what is the barrier to buddy roemer, ari, what is the barrier to buddy roemer being able to get this message more broadly communicated, ari. >> all right. ari berman, i guess i'll take it. i guess the barrier is the fact that the republicans who are running want to exclude him. he's been very vocal in support of occupy wall street, for example. the republicans don't want to hear that. he's been very vocal about campaign finance reform, the republicans don't want to hear that. he's been very vocal about the influence of corporations in our politics, and the republicans don't want to hear that. and that's why he's excluded from the debates. >> i'm glad ari is on this show, because i agree with everything that ari said. i'm going to stop. look, here's the thing. here's the thing about this. it is true that there has been a wider spectrum of candidates getting airtime and getting heard in this debate than usual. in theory, that could be a good thing. in theory, having people who aren't lifetime politicos getting a crack at the debate conditions a good thing. in practice, though, what we've seen are ridiculous people like donald trump hijack the discussion for personal gain, and i think relatively unserious people like herman cain come in to sell books. meanwhile, someone like this gets shut out because of his ideas. so that's my big point. i'm all for having more people on the stage, but he's been shut out for the ideas. >> i have an answer. i think i can tell you exactly why this is. the media determines who goes to the debates. the media makes money by selling advertising against ratings on television. they don't care about policy or politics. if i put a carnival on television of people who will never get elected, i can get higher ratings, make more money, and, yeah, i'm having a good time. if i put people who say things like buddy roemer on television, well, guess what, the money in politics that gets spent with the cable companies will destroy the actual profitability of the cable company that's hosting the debate, because they put the guy on that's going to take away their revenue stream! it's as if there's literally a collective self-interest in preventing this conversation from becoming a central conversation, because it is so threatening, krystal. >> i think that's absolutely right. and the other piece of this is the only gauge of support, of momentum, of operational expertise, et cetera, that washington insiders know how to look at is how much money people are raising. so governor roemer -- >> because it's an auction. >> -- took the very bold stance of saying no special interest money, no pac money, no contributions of over $100. and because he did that, because he refused to play in the game, he's not in the game. >> he might be yet. >> here's what's interesting about it in this cycle, the republicans have agreed to 21 scheduled debates through the end of january, okay. they've made a bad strategic decision, hurt their own self-interest, and as you pointed out, ceded more authority to pick candidates. >> and that's how you get newt gingrich. >> that's how you get newt gingrich. we just explained newt gingrich by accident. the panel stays. up next, researchers out with a new tally for the bank bailout. i want you to hold on to your hats. and before we go, if i gave you $1 million a day since the day jesus christ was born and you spent $1 million every day since then, you would not have spent $1 trillion. let's just say the number's bigger than that. o0 c1 2 o0 hey guys, what can i get for you? i'd like a decaf 360 calories please. i'll have a triple iced 410 calories please. you know what... i'll have this instead. 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[ male announcer ] introducing spark the small business credit cards from capital one. get more by choosing unlimited double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. what's in your wallet? ♪ and just let me be [ male announcer ] this is your moment. ♪ your ticket home [ male announcer ] this is zales, the diamond store. take an extra 10 percent off storewide now through sunday. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] everyone deserves the gift of a pain free holiday. ♪ this season, discover aleve. all day pain relief with just two pills. all right, $29.6 trillion. that would be $30 trillion among friends. that is how much of your money and mine has gone directly to western banks as a result of the financial meltdown as we subsidize a $700 trillion secret credit insurance gambling parlor they like to call the swaps market, so it confuses us. $29.6 trillion in direct lending, which does not include the indirect and massive costs of potential inflation and the onrising cause in cost of food around the world that has doubled the cost of food for the poorest billion people that are on this planet. keep that number in mind and now consider another one. 46.2 million, that the number of americans currently living below the poverty line who cannot find work because all the money in our country goes to subsidized credit gambling and trade deficits. that poverty number is the highest since the census bureau began counting. there will always be inequality in life and in any society. but this is not inequality. this is structural bought, gross inequity. which begs the question, is there no longer such a thing as a middle class? and is there permanently now this category of platinum citizens, purchasing our government, extracting our nations, and enriching themselves? both in western europe and in america. our specialist today explores that question in his recent piece in the "national journal" titled "the left-behinds." michael hirsch is their chief correspondent. michael, how can any self-respecting leader in america or western europe stand before his or her people, as a governor, as an attorney, as a president, as a congressperson, a senator, or a prime minister, and explain to them that providing $30 trillion in value to subsidize a financial system that does not invest in our country, that does not lend to our country, and that is depriving our country of the exact investment that we are desperate for to create jobs and health, energy, education, and infrastructure, how can any leader in the west stand before their people and justify the statistics that we just reviewed? >> because they don't want to talk about them. you're the first person, actually, i know who's put those two figures next to each other, and it is extraordinary. it really explains a lot that's happened over the last several years. the unreconstructed nature of wall street, the fact that tim geithner and the obama administration did nothing to change the structure. it shows the extent to which ben bernanke, the federal reserve chairman, had to go to rescue and put it on sort of an artificial sustenance, the wall street sector that had gone so out of bounds in the lead up to the crisis. and the fact that all of the this trading is still going on. the swaps trading, the derivatives trading -- >> it's the equivalent of citizens united. >> it's gone from $600 trillion in nominal trading up to consider $708 trillion. >> since the president took over. it was $600 trillion under bush and president obama decided to add $108 trillion. >> all this capital is going to sustain a system that has remained unreformed, despite bringing on the country the greatest downfall to the country since the great depression. and now the big financial firms, nothing has changed. you're seeing something similar in europe. >> krystal? >> michael, obviously, we passed the dodd/frank financial reform bill and we were told that now banks wouldn't be too big to fail, that we'd fix the problem. i mean, where did that effort go awry? what should have been in that bill that isn't or what has gone wrong in the implementation? >> well, first of all, the bill itself was deeply flawed. they put something in there called resolution authority, forced the big banks to create what they call living wills, which is, this is how you liquidate me if i go wrong. but implementing that has always been a difficult thing to imagine. jerry corrigan, used to be with goldman sachs, actually still is, used to be president of the new york federal reserve, told me that never in the entire history of mankind has a large financial firm been unwound in a large way. >> cuff a functioning financial system where you allow people to gamble without using their own money? >> i mean, no. >> have you ever seen one? i've never seen one. >> ari, go ahead. >> well, you've written about some of the reformers who have actually pushed on that effort to try to do some of what krystal's talking about. obviously, senator dorgan, who's now left. my old boss, senator cantwell. tell us a little bit about where that fits into the balance of power. because sometimes people feel like there's nobody in washington looking out for these interests. it seems like there were some, but they lost. >> look, there were a small group of senators, including cantwell, byron dorgan, bernie sanders who were warning barack obama early on that he had to be tougher on wall street. that, indeed, he was really missing the boat. this was an opportunity to win the center, even win some of the right. because one of the things that went wrong in 2008 in the financial catastrophe that upset the right, conservatives, just as much as the left, is that capitalism was corrupted by wall street. it wasn't working. >> no capital requirements! >> and you're supposed to fail when you screw up, right? >> that didn't happen, still hasn't happened. so he had a chance at that time, the the president, to really take them on. his treasury secretary, i think, and larry summers, his chief economic adviser, didn't give him very good advice. you had people fighting in the trenches like senators dorgan and cantwell and sanders. in the end, even al franken added a couple of really useful provisions. >> and senator tom coburn. there were conservatives along with senator cantwell, who are capitalists. who know that the financial system must drive investment in our country in order to solve the problems of our country. go ahead, ari. >> is the agreement that's coming up in europe, do you think it's crafted better than the arrangements here? >> i think it is interesting that the one holdout is great britain, which wants to protect its own wall street, the city of london, which operates according to mainly the same rules. i will say that it was a very impressive performance by president sarkozy of france, the germans seemed to finally get their act together. to little notice, mario drahi, the new head of the european central bank, was sort of acting as a german stalking horse on this. basically saying to everyone, you know, look, you're to the going to get any bond buying from me, the ecb, unless you agree to much tougher standards. so we'll have to see how the markets react, but it does look like they've gone much farther than they have before. but none of this really changes the theme of what we're talking about here. you're talking about an unreconstructed financial system, giant banks that in some cases, in the case of italy and greece, actually got into trouble because of the derivatives that were sold to them by some of the big banks here, like with goldman sachs. >> and we're going to wrap it up, but the thing with these giant banks is not just that they're big, but because they don't have to use any capital to work, their incentive is to manufacture debt, not to create value. so you go to work every day and citigroup, jpmorgan are basically giant debt-seeking machines, because if they don't have to create capital and they can ensure debt, you just need to have debt to exist to ensure it. whereas if you have capital, you go to work to create value, because you want to manage that capital base. and right now, we literally have a system that incentivizes the manufacturing of debt at the expense of our nation. all we can do is talk about it and raise the temperature, because we will end up with a global debt restructuring a la the marshall plan. it may not be this year or next your, but it's the only way out of the situation. and i thank you for helping us to understand it better, michael. >> thanks for having me. >> just ahead -- good-bye to ari berman, ari melber, and crystalbacrystakrystal ball. coming up next, lights, camera, "greedy bastard$!." grab your popcorn. 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[ male announcer ] yes, it is. that's the cold truth! insurance ... but afraid you can't afford it? well, look how much insurance many people can get through selectquote for less than a dollar a day. selectquote found, rich, 37, a $500,000 policy for under $18 a month. even though dave, 43, takes meds to control his blood pressure, selectquote got him a $500,000 policy for under $28 a month. ellen, 47, got a $250,000 policy for under $20 a month. all it takes is a phone call. your personal selectquote agent will answer all your questions ... and impartially shop the highly rated term life companies selectquote represents for your best rates. give your family the security it needs at a price you can afford. call this number or go to selectquote dot com. selectquote. we shop. you save. we've been talking a lot the past few months about my upcoming book, greed yis bast ar ards. first we want to bring you a glossary of the key terms in there. the overprocess has been an education in the book business. do you know when you write a book, the publisher makes you do a book trailer, kind of like a movie trailer for your book. so, here you go, simon and schuster. this tape's for you. >> we're fast approaching the january release of my book, "greedy bastard$!." i'm hoping "greedy bastard$!" will inspire people to get after it. that we do actually have the tools to do this. that we have been through these problems before. that it's not as insurmountable as it is perceived to be. we have restructured our debt, we have restructured our health care systems. we've made a mission to the moon. you're telling me we can't have energy independence? it's easy to obsess over the problems that we have. the problems that we have are obvious. we have energy problems, we have health problems, we have educational problems. but the other side of every single one of those problems is an opportunity to improve education, to improve health care, to improve the way we manage our energy efficiency and what is revealed in the book is the fact that there are people who already have plans to do these things and they're already doing them. we can participate in helping the people who are already helping to fix our problems to do a better job of it. for greedy bastards, it's much more profitable to take money out of america than to invest money into america. it's not a matter of american ingenuity or willpower, it's our ability to work together as a group and decide to do these things and confront the greedy bastards that prevent us from doing that and i'm hoping the book inspires that very action. and earned this heart, for being heart healthy. ♪ feel the beat? 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we're having a hard time. >> the idea, a simple one, buy products made in america. when you do it, you invest money in america, which is used to hire americans to do jobs. but as it turns out, it's just not that easy. trade rigging, tax codes, all these things screw it up. and our next guests took to the streets of new york city and played santa claus, giving shoppers $704 each, the amount economists say the average american spends on gifts during the holidays. the only catch, they had to spend 100% american-made items, because economist says if every american spends an extra 18 cents a day buying goods made here, we could create 200,000 jobs, which by no means is the 30 million we actually need, but it is a start and it's worth the conversation, because it's based on the right principle. with us today is david sellictarr, founder and ceo of keepamerica.com, who has created a one-stop shop website just in time for the holidays. interesting from my perspective to know whether it has been hard for you to populate that website with companies like somebody myself can be guaranteed is an american-made manufacturer of some kind. >> at first it was. we actually went to several conventions in las vegas and across the country looking for suppliers. we were very, very, very pleased with the response we got. i got more hugs from guys from texas than i could ever imagine, and really, the response has just been phenomenal. we're getting calls every day now. more and more suppliers are joining our site. we're proud to have a platform for all manufacturers in the u.s. to provide their products. >> and this is an entrepreneurial idea on your part, is that correct? in other words, you're saying, we're going to consolidate and make it easier for dylan ratigan or anybody else in this country to go to this one place where we can see in categories apparel, furniture, whatever it might be, and then you work with the suppliers to drive traffic to them, is that the business model? >> that's exactly right. you make the purchase off of our site and then we, you know, we share the profits with the supplier, where the vast majority goes to them. >> you just commission the sale, effectively, for consolidating this thing, i presume. >> exactly. even with free money to find american-made products. we want to give the opportunity for all consumers to have a place to shop. >> and i presume certain things are largely made in america, jelly, jam, food, these sorts of things from the farm. and then down the line through -- i'm interested through apparel, furniture, electronics, toys, which things we still have a lot of that were easy for you to find and which are still impossible? >> there were many in apparel. i came from jewelry originally. my family cease in the jewelry business. still manufacturers here in new york city, we're very proud of that, for 30 years. furniture was a great find for us. there are still many manufacturers of furniture here. the most difficult was electronics, obviously, it's nearly impossible, unfortunately, these days. toys, it's very difficult to find. which is actually where the inspiration started. i do have young children at home. i have three daughters, and the inspiration for this actually began lacking for products for them, because of all the recalls you hear about from overseas, with the lead paint and other safety issues. and then i heard about other recalls in the automotive industry as well as apparel and cadmium and jewelry. and i just want to provide a place for americans to have safe products and high-quality goods made here in the usa. >> it's an interesting situation, from a business standpoint. right now, if you and i were to start a business, an electronics business or a toy manufacturing business or whatever it might be, we would be able to get much lower cost labor, much lower cost manufacturing overseas in china, because their currency is rigged, they tax our imports at 25% to their country. we tax their imports to our country at 2.5%. >> unbelievable. >> and so it's -- even in the case of the people we would look at as greedy bastards, to steal the title of my book, it is frequently, if not always a system, who is taking people who may not be inherently evil, greedy people, who are being told, if you want to do this, the -- your competitors are going to use much lower costs. and if you don't do that, you'll be driven out of business. is that a fair assessment? >> absolutely. in the short-term, it is cheaper to buy from overseas. your item breaks after three weeks and you have to buy it again or you have to, you know, safety issues for your children. in the long run, is it really worth saving a few bucks to put your family in jeopardy? and, you know, there's no better quality than american-made products. >> so how's it going? how long has this been going? how's the traffic? what can we do to help? >> our official launch is actually presidents day weekend, 2012. we are launching the this weekend. we'll have a $64 page called 64 us. the average american spends $700 on holiday shopping. every american, according to the economists, spends $64 of that $700 on american-made products, it would create 200,000 jobs. we had suppliers who deeply discounted a lot of their products, most of them over $100 retail, and posted on our site $64 from now through the holidays. and this way, everyone can have an immediate impact in creating jobs together. where the entire site from now through new year's eve will have tons of items for $64 each. the magic number to create jobs here in the u.s. >> and if you were to look -- if you were to get ambitious, beyond what you've already done, what would be your vision? what is your dream for what you have begun here? >> i've got to tell you, obviously, to be a household name, that everyone shops at, is the goal. i was actually recently approached by somebody to even create brick and mortar stores and franchise this in every city of the u.s. so that could be down the line. right now we're just strongly focused on creating this site and making it perfect for the american shopper. >> and it sounds like if there are any american toy manufacturers out there, you'd like to hear from them. >> absolutely. we're open to any manufacturer, no matter how small or big. >> and if there's, god help them, an american electronics manufacturer left in this country, you'd love to hear them. have you found one? >> not one. i'll give them my cell phone number right now. get them on the phone. >> if you were to look at the demand, what people are buying, is there anything that you're seeing in terms of people's desire to buy a particular thing, a type of thing? are they more interested in one type of thing or another thing, or is the simple justice narrative of knowing of whatever you're buying in your world is investing money back in american jobs, really all you need? >> across the board, i believe it's anything to help create jobs and help get the economy going in the right direction, but i think toys and jewelry and apparel, because of the safety issues, and automotive parts as well, we've be supplying, because of the safety issues, it really hammers home the whole concept. >> you know andrew liverus, the ceo of dow chemical, he's got a book called "make it in america," sounds like he's your kind of guy. you're made in america. telling the same story. >> i like it. >> david, a pleasure. congratulations. >> thank you very much. >> an inspiration for all of us. keep after it. keepamerica.com is the website. do check it out. official launch soon to come, but still a little more to come here. "hardball," first off. newt's on top. chris taking a look at whether he'll last. but first, here and full of holiday cheer, none other than imogen lloyd webber with a daily rant on how to survive what she calls the festive season. ♪ i'm burning out this useless telephone ♪ ♪ my hair is gone ♪ cheap cologne ♪ motor home ♪ i'm the rocket man! [ both ] ♪ rocket man ♪ burning out his fuse up here alone ♪ burning out his fuse up here alone? ahh. [ male announcer ] crystal clear fender premium audio. one of many premium features available on the all-new volkswagen passat. the 2012 motor trend car of the year. ♪ and i think it's gonna be a long, long time ♪ they won't be beat. oh, actually... then i'd be like, you rule! and my kids would be like, you rule! i'd be like, yes, i do rule! ohh! that rules! oh, load up the sleigh; this is going to be a great christmas. yeah. ring dinga-ding, ring dinga-ding, ring, ring, ring me up. 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[ female announcer ] phillips' colon health. ♪ and just let me be [ male announcer ] this is your moment. ♪ your ticket home [ male announcer ] this is zales, the diamond store. take an extra 10 percent off storewide now through sunday. well, the holidays rapidly approaching, and so here is imogen lloyd webber with some tips on how to survive the season. imogen, take it away. >> thank you, dylan. december has huge significance to religion and many families. naturally, all our thoughts are with those for whom it is a tough time. but in the spirit of friday fun, i now prevent some tongue in cheek of seasonal survival tips. it is the season to be jolly, so we're told. but fun is organic, spontaneous. it cannot be enforced. therefore, don't feel guilty if you are grumpy in december. there are a multitude of irritants about, and not just cliched christmas songs on a loop. there's the false deadline of the end of the year. people who you see once every six months say, oh, i must see you before christmas. why? there's all of january, where you're completely free, unlike manic december. offer to buy them a 2012 calendar. another odd annual ritual, the work party. you spend a whole year trying not to say indiscreet things at work, but suddenly, you're supposed to drink bad alcohol on an empty stomach with your coworkers. keep yourself on handy to record any scandalous behavior. you may need to bribe someone not to shout about your own. many families gather together, or try. this can get complicated. relatives are upset before you've even arrived anywhere. and dreaming of a white christmas? no! you try to travel during one? set the boundaries for the family gathering now. length of stay, presents, conspicuous consumption is so 2007. encourage random people to attend. randoms act as a buffer and make everyone more likely to behave. we houseguests have some sacrosanct rules to abide by. the conversation, talk to people about themselves and they will listen for hours. help out the hosts. don't interfere with anyone else's parenting. this is not the time to reveal to a child that isn't yours who santa is. and write a thank you note, not an e-mail! something that involves pen, paper, and a stamp. and then there's new year's eve, an overpriced night where you reflect on your year's failures. manage your expectations and keep it low-key. if you're single, be relieved you have no one to kiss. there are a lot of germs floating around this time of year. it has been said that christmas is a time when kids tell santa what they want and adults pay for it. well, deficits are when adults tell the government what they want and their kids pay for it. on balance, the festive season is pretty harmless. so happy holidays, america. dylan? >> an absolutely sensational guidebook, imogen. happy holidays to you. >> happy holidays. >> i tried to complement your festive attire with my tie. see this? and we'll see you on the mega panel sooner rather than later, we'll assume. >> monday. >> that's going to do it for us. this wild week. if you remember, we started in l.a., watched a municipal resolution passed saying that corporations are not people. we saw senator sanders head to the floor of the u.s. senate yesterday upping the ante