Transcripts For MSNBCW Up W Chris Hayes 20130302

For tapping into a wealth of experience. For access to one of the top Wealth Management firms in the country. For a team of Financial Professionals who provide customized solutions. For all of your Wealth Management and retirement goals, discover how pnc Wealth Management can help you achieve. Visit pnc. Com wealthsolutions to find out more. Do we hano. A mower . A trimmer . No. We got nothing. We just bought our first house, were on a budget. Were not ready for spring. Well lets get you ready. Very nice. You see these various colors. We got workshops every saturday. Yes, maybe a little bit over here. This spring, take on more lawn for less. Not bad for our first spring. More saving. More doing. Thats the power of the home depot. Get ready for spring with this ryobi 18volt trimmer, just ninety nine bucks. Good morning from new york. Im chris hayes. President obama officially signed the budget sequester last night triggering 85 billion in federal spending cut this fiscal year and a trillion dollars in cuts over the next decade. Well talk about the cuts on tomorrows program. The state department with an environmental investment that the keystone contract would have little impact on climate change. Im sitting down with top chefs Tom Colicchio. Im excited about that. Section 5 of the Voting Rights act, conservative hero Antonin Scalia said something infamous when he referred to the Voting Rights act to the perpetuation of entitlement. According, thats nothing influence the Justices Court on oral arguments. Its not just how the court talks about race, its about how theyve gone about practices we use to pursue quality in a society that is to this day shockingly unequal. The guiding theory on jurisprudence is a belief in color blindedness. Rather the actual bill of racial equality. Of course, achieving racial equality required applications of laws, metrics and approaches that are race conscious. Universities committed to diverse student bodies need to consider the ethnicity of their applicants and School Districts committed to integration need to monitor and track the racial makeup of their student body. The Roberts Court conservative justices have no decent from this. Roberts proclaimed he found the intense involve innocent in achieving that an icky business. It is a sordid business. This divvying us up by race. Roberts with the factual declaration the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race. That sentence is a perfect distillation of the jurisprudence on race with the adolescent soft history. Its a short distance from that reasoning to asking why there isnt a white History Month . Roberts history of color blindness requires the courts to simply ignore or forget the actual history of institutions and laws and traditions and cultures. The lived experience of human beings embedded in a real society where cutesy proclam nations fail for reckon with the fact of jim crow and their legacies. Never was this more apparent with the Voting Rights act this week where the voting conservatives wants to talk about federalism while ignoring the 15,000 pages of documentation Congress Assembled during its hearings. And the wrath of voting laws still being passed and some cases stricken down in the states covered in 2005. Was left to Justice Sonia sotomayor to raise the fact that the Shelby County, alabama wasnt exactly an enlightenment. Since the city of elyria assuming i accept your premise, and theres some question about that, that some portions of the south have changed your county pretty much hasnt. Well in the period were talking about it has many more discriminating 240 discriminatory voting laws that were blocked by section 5 objections. And why would we vote in favor of a county whose record is the epitome of what caused the passage of this law to start with . That moment in oral arguments reminded me of a moment on our show last week when we were discussing and debating the Voting Rights act. Bishop harry jones are interjected to respond to Horace Cooper to argued that section 5 of the Voting Rights act was outdated to say is this. In alabama, run for office and see if he can win. And i think so that one of the things that wed have to also look at the fact is that, section 5 has been the one thing that has leveled the playing field. For the Supreme Court heard arguments in shelby v. Holder. Deshawn lewis spoke on the steps outside on behalf of the history. One hour later that roberts are and scalia seemed too happy to erase. Through forces in this country, theyre going to take us back to another period. But were not going back. Weve come too far. Weve made too much progress to go back. It may be gone but people are using other means of attacking and technique. Right now, that same john lewis is in selma, alabama, commemorating the 40th anniversary of the semih montgomery march. Joining me, the lecture in law who covered the Supreme Court for the in its its in for 30 years. The new york times. And dale ho, and a member of the Litigation Team for the defense in Shelby County v. Holder. Judith brown diane and friend of the show americas unwritten constitution, the principles we live by. Sterling professor of law. Great to have you all here. Thanks. So oral arguments this week. We talked about the case last week. Im curious. I think a lot of people went in essentially estimating host tim on the conservative justices and they were not disappointed. My first question, and dale, you worked on the Litigation Team, what were the surprises in oral arguments to you . Well, we werent surprised, as you said, that there was some you know, there were some questions raised about the continuing need for section 5 of the Voting Rights act. In fact, if anything, i think people were a little less hostile than maybe they were in the northwest austin case once some of the same issues came up. I think what was really interesting right out of the gate were some questions by Justice Sotomayor how a plaintiff in the county in state of alabama can be a place with a straight face to come before the court and say we no longer need the Voting Rights act in a place like alabama with the record. What i can say, sort of lost in the discussion of the case. So Shelby County, alabama, didnt wake up one fine sunday morning and say lets challenge the Voting Rights act. Right, yes. It was recruited by one person project unfair representation. That found lots of right Wing Foundation money to go out and accept the courts invitation from four years ago in the northwest austin case to bring us a better case. Because this is the playing out of what ive called the roberts project. Last year in the health care case, i predicted that the chief justice would ultimately vote to uphold the Affordable Care act. Why . Various reasons. But basically, i didnt think he was animated by the sort of antifederal government animus that went to so much of the criticism of the aca. But i do think hes animated by, as you said at the top of the show, this color blind notion, and to get the government out of the business of accounting by race and thats what motivates him and thats what this case is about. Racial entitlements. That, i mean, shocker with scalia. Yes. Let me play it out just so everyone can hear it in its context. Whats interesting about the context, when i first heard it, that was kind of the quote of the arguments. I think its even worse in context. Basically, hes making the argument that the reason you need tremendous judicial activism to slight down, right . What congress has passed under 21 hearings. Actually because the democratic process has this fatal through which is, they cahe cannot libe itself from the straitjacket of political correctness. If you call the law the Voting Rights act that every legislator just bows before that. And that that mean theres this kind of role for the courts because the democratic process is so fallen and dysfunctional that they keep unthinking this. Take a listen to justice scalia. I think it is attributed very likely attributable to a phenomenon that is called perpetuation of racial entitlement. Its been written about. Whenever a society adopts a racial entitlements, it is very difficult to get them out of them through the normal political processes. I dont think theres anything to be gained by any senator to vote against continuation of this act. And i am fairly confident it will be reenacted in per pet tutti. Unless a court can say it does not comport with the constitution. I love the line its been written about. The citation, written where . News max and town hall. I want to get your reaction to that quote. And i also want to bring in one of the individuals who argued before the court who is live in selma. We have a little bit of news fromh a retired republican senator who feels court should butt out after this break. Hold on, prilosec isnt for fast relief. Cue up alkaseltzer. It stops heartburn fast. Oh what a relief it is how did i know . Well, i didnt really. See, i figured low testosterone would decrease my sex drive. But when i started losing energy and became moody. Thats when i had an honest conversation with my doctor. We discussed all the symptoms. Then he gave me some blood tests. Showed it was low t. Thats it. It was a number not just me. 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We dont need a congress because the Supreme Court is going to take care of everything. We dont need hearings, or congressional hearings. Whats the point of that . It is just amazing that a justice could actually say and claim hes not a judicial activist. Right. He is getting ready to just say, the heck with democracy. I am going to decide the facts here. Im going to decide discriminations over. Were in a color blind society. Move on, people. And whats so striking is the constitution of the United States. Says really clearly, whos supposed to decide. 13th, 14th and 15th amendments all end with the Words Congress shall have power. And its by congress, for congress. And stevens, tommy lee jones. Actually written by tommy lee jones. Little known fact. And he says, well, you cant trust the politicians because they didnt vote for this stuff. Thats true. But the politicians weve never going to get rid of this 13th or 14th amendment. Its perpetual. The constitution itself. I want to bring in dabo. Counsel for the defense fund who just argued for the Shelby County. He joins us from shelby, alabama who is taking place in the selma civil rights market. Dabo, first of all, nice job on wednesday. I was incredibly impressed. And second of all, what was your sense of being in that room, standing before those justices, particularly on this question of who should be making this call . Well, i come back to acela mars point that the constitution is Crystal Clear on this point. This is a principle that adheres to the principles of the constitution. And the reason that the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments were drafted and drafted as they are to allocate the power to congress is specifically because states, and to some degree, the court itself, were participants in the perpetuation of racial cast through slavery. And so the country made a different choice. It made a choice to move forward and to actively tend to our democracy with the minority inclusion principle. And the only way to get there is to recognize our history and to recognize its continuing claims. I want to play what i thought was a really interesting moment on this question of the balance between congress and the courts on this question. And this is bert rein is the lawyer for shelby countcounty. Take a listen. I think the problem to which the Voting Rights act was addressed is solved. So thats like saying if i detect that theres a disease afoot in the population in 1965 and i have a treatment, a radical treatment that may help cure the disease when it comes to 2005 and i see a new disease, i think an old disease is gone, why not apply the treatment . You said the problem has been solved but who gets to make that judgment really . Is it you, is it the court or is it congress . Thats a big new power that youre giving us, that we have the power now to decide whether Racial Discrimination has been solved . That does strike me as a big new power. Linda. Well, yeah even Something Else to say about scalia, too. Is that hes mr. No legislative history, right . Hes mr. Lets look at the face of the statute. And we dont look beyond it. All of a sudden, hes including the motives of the senators with the jurisdiction in the house with 33 descending votes, and members of the house and every covered jurisdiction, that theyre somehow cowards, that they cant stand up to the constituents and they look beyond what they actually do when is reauthorize the statute for the fourth time. Debo, is there a legitimate i guess were all sitting here, we dont have anyone on the other side of this issue. I have a hard time seeing the other side. I mean, what is the interest on the other side of this case . It seems to me that you have the moral force of protecting people from systematic inclusion, discrimination on one side. And on the other side, the best you can come up with is like the sovereign dignity of alabama . Right, i think there were two issues at play. Both were in evidence in the court the other day. Those in some way, although they deny it, are contesting the original premise of the Voting Rights act. That is a very good point. That is to say, whether Congress Actually has the power to make these distinction its and treat a problem where it finds it being most corrosive to our democracy. And the second question, and this say question that requires a closer explanation, is whether the problem today still remains most intense in certain places as opposed to others. This part of the Voting Rights act covering all or part of 16 states. And Congress Took a very hard look at this question and it found that indeed although theres voting discrimination in many places, the nature of the problem in the covered jurisdictions is that it tends to be more persistent and adaptive. There are more repetitive violations such that as a single case is inadequate to dispel the discrimination. And thats the proof that congress made. And the court i think is asking the question about whether theyre satisfied that congress did their homework. The important thing that scalia himself criticized some of the courts federal decisions in the opinion where he said its not the duty of this court to ask whether congress is doing its homework. Well have to see how that gets worked out. We were curious on this point. I came away thinking, what the justice is saying is incredibly insulting to members of congress. Right. Basically saying you guys are willynilly not exercising due care. Sbrand on and on to the president who signed it. And to the president who signed it. We actually emailed 43 senators still in vote who voted the first time around. We emailed them and basically gave them scalias statement the republican senators, sorry. 43 republican senators around when it was reauthorized. We emailed them, we said, do you agree with this . You know, we got one response. Probably not coincidentally from a retired republican senator judd craig who said i do believe this is a legislative matter where the action of congress should take priority and does not raise constitutionality that justify judicial action that supersede the legislative branchs role. Thats interesting because hes from new hampshire. And they were on npr rallying against it. He says not because he believes it but because he has to do it to be reelected. He says it in honesty there. In your defense, theres a reason why this is not a balanced panel. Unlike obama care where there will leading academics leading the charge. Not many, but randy barnett, but there are no leading academics that i know of or i think my colleagues know of where saying the real problem in new york is we have a Voting Rights act. Debo, i want you to stick around. Theres a huge affirmative action case up. Theres a case that was one of roberts first cases called parents involved. Its knocked out of the attention of broad public sphere. You stick around. You at home stick around as well. If there is more less stuff then you might want to have some more and your parents just dont let you because theres only a little bit. Right. We want more, we want more. Like you really like it, you want more. Right. I follow you. [ male announcer ] its not complicated. More is better. And at t has the nations largest 4g network. And at t has the nations largest 4g network. When you lost the thing you cant believe you lost. When what you just bought, just broke. Or when you have a little trouble a long way from home. As an American Express cardmember you can expect some help. But what you might not expect, is you can get all this with a prepaid card. Spends like cash. Feels like membership. [ male announcer ] thats why theres ocuvite to help replenish key eye nutrients. Ocuvite has a unique formula not found in your multivitamin to help protect your eye health. Ocuvite. 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I just want to say im not trying to say if youre white you cant complain. Im just saying if youre black, you get to complain hour. You cant take peoples Historical Context away from them. Everyone wants to. White people are like, come on, it wasnt us. They want black people to forget everything. Like every year, white people add 100 years to how long ago slavery was. Ive heard educated white people say slavery was 400 years ago. No it very wasnt. 140 years ago. Two 70yearold ladies living and dying back to back. Thats how recently you could that is amazing louis c. K. , talking about the importance of the context of history. I think it brings a broader issue of how the court goes about protecting racial exclusion. Theres seems to be a debate that the court is having before roberts, but now were going to see it revisited in this term. I guess the question is about how much you can take race itself into account when implementing policies with the goal of producing some kind of outcome that is either racial equality or diversity or some other compelling interest, right . I mean that is kind of am i right that thats sort of the battle on the table, dale, in termses of this jurisprudence . Right, i think the principle is that you have to look at what the history is before you start saying you dont want to be race conscious now. You played that lip or read that line from Justice Roberts p. I. N. About sordid business about race. That didnt start with the Voting Rights legislation. It went on for decades in section 5 of the Voting Rights act. When afro africans could vote, they began immediately slicing and dicing. And selma, where debo is, the Voting Rights act, that can be stopped from the department of justice doing that five times in the 1990s. So its not 400, 700 years ago that were talking about. Were talking about just a few decades ago. And one point about that is that, although this is a challenge to section 5 of the Voting Rights act, if they think that the Justice Department is being too strict courts are in charge, ultimately of the enforcement of that, if they feel that the whole jurisdiction in the Voting Rights act is so tight. They can dial that back. Instead what is happening in this case, congress fundamental choice to have a Voting Rights act. And the other thing, treating some states differently than other states. The sovereign dignity of alabama and news flash to the justice, the very process of which it was adopted, Voting Rights histories were treated differently. Required to ratify the 14th amendment. Required to have Public Schools, even though other jurisdictions didnt have to have Public Schools. Were required to give blacks the vote before other places actually were obliged to do so. Right. Thats baked into thats part of the dna of what this is. This racial entitlements language. This is first of all, gop talking points. But the important part is the Voting Rights act, thats not about an entitlement. Right. Its not like a its also not like the kind of remedy we would see in an employment case or affirmative actions case. Section 5 stops discrimination before it happens. I can tell you under section 2 section 2, just so were clear, you can bring a private suit after the law has happened. Right. So its very difficult. Florida, 2000, it was difficult, we could not remedy it. Your votes rights have been infringed. The right to vote is gone. You cant go back and say president bush actually gores the why that hes sitting with. Part of this that debo brought up, the idea that were on some sort of trajectory towards some final steady state of equilibrium of equality that things like the history goes away or weve made progress. Everyone is sort of like, weve made progress, but is it enough. Debo, i want to ask you, is that the right way to think about of it as where we are after an historic tra yekt tore . If your tires need to be rotated, you have to get that done as well. Jackie, tell me why somebody should bring theyre car here to the ford dealership for service instead of any one of those other places out there. They are going to take care of my car because this is where it came from. Price is right no problem, they make you feel like youre a family. Get a Synthetic Blend Oil change, tire rotation and much more, 29. 95 after 10. 00 rebate. If you take care of your car your car will take care of you. If by blessed you mean freaked out about money well we suddenly noticed that everything was getting more expensive so we switched to the bargain detergent but i found myself using three times more than youre supposed to and the clothes still werent as clean as with tide. So were back to tide. Theyre cuter in clean clothes. Thanks honey yeah you suck at folding [ laughs ] [ female announcer ] one cap of tide gives you more cleaning power than 6 caps of the bargain brand. [ woman ] thats my tide, whats yours . So, debo, as you stand in front of the pettis bridge in selma, thinking about the right way to conceptualize what the proper remedies are in the United States governmental machinery for redress for racial exclusion and discrimination. So, chris, here i go back to the constitution. It begins by inviting us to make the union more perfect. Its an aspirational document. It contemplates more progress. It contemplates the fact that the democracy must be tended to. So as i stand here from the Edmund Pettis bridge and as dale referred on the panel to the discrimination that was occurred right here in Dallas County and some in the 1990s, it seems almost denying reality to suggest that we that we cant encourage more progress. And ask for it. We dont dishonor our progress. By asking for more of it. And i think its remarkable that the court would not look at case like the mcgregor case out of alabama, that we cite in our brief where a federal judge in 2011 cites the last Supreme Court case interpreting the Voting Rights act. And says, look, it may well be that weve made progress in the south. But some problems in alabama remain stubbornly the same. And he points to evidence in that case where members the state legislature that sit today, referred to africanamerican voters as illiterates and aborigines. And this was caught on a recorder that the legislator himself was wearing as part of the sting. Linda. Well, in fact, we should point out that the Voting Rights act itself contemplates progress. Because if a jurisdiction can show ding, ding, ding for ten years its not a Voting Rights allegation it, quote, bails out. And dozens of jurisdictions have bailed out including the ten counties in virginia. Other jurisdictions in the south. And so its not, you know, sort of a badge of dishonor that the jurisdictions have to wear forever. They just have to behave themselves. And on the flip side if an uncovered jurisdiction misbehaves it can be put in by a judge. It can be bailed in. This statute has its own tailors, its own updating built into it. And its not frozen. Thats right. And congress has repeatedly reviewed the legislation with thousands of peoples of documentation. But it does seem to me, the underlying thing here comes out in the krueger case on affirmative action which i think Justice Oconnor at the time, i think its her opinion, right, i think she says 25 years from now even gives a time frame. Theres a kind of underlying assumption in all of this. Its like its all moving towards some place where we can get rid of all this ugliness. All this sordidness. I wanted the response of scalia to maybe about perpetuity. I think the assumption that seems to frame all of this for the moderate swing or the court like oconnor before and kennedy now, theres not some horizon to which were marching that somehow that invalidates. It seems that things that are good that can prevent bad things from happening as long as to protect them from bad things as long as there are bad things happening. One of the worst things she could have done is put that number out there. 25 years. 25 years, because people are counting down. Unfortunately in this case, you have Justice Roberts who says, no, actually, its less than 25 because we have a black man in the white house. Its a preposterous thing to litigate. Debo adegbile who just argued in shelby versus holder. Joining us from selma, alabama commemorating the 40th anniversary. We thank you so much. With the Supreme Court 30 years, dale ho from the Litigation Team. Judith brownedianis and akhil amar. We learned a lot. 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A new documentary released called a place at the table. In the film, barbie escagerro talks about feeding a family of two. The assistance programs in the United States are very hard to qualify for. Its like either youre starving or you dont get any help. Well, what defines starving . Like if you dont eat for eye a day, are you starving . In their eyes, no. In your eyes and the way you feel, of course. Millions of americans do not have enough to eat. The government spent over 15 billion in 2011 alone subsidizing a food system that overproduces the worst types of food. A system that encourages the cheap processed foods laden with fats and leaves fruits and vegetables more expensive. Two americas when it comes to consumption, one that consumes cheap and widely dangerous foods. And joining us is Tom Colicchio. Top chef and founder of the colicchio restaurant. Its a pleasure to have you here. Thanks, chris. Tom, the documentary is you know, its horrifying to watch this unfold. And its moving in seeing the faces of people that are just kind of grinding along. And i came away thinking, well, whats the failure here . Like what is wrong that we are doing wrong . Is this broadly a problem with poverty in general, and hunger is the simpymptom . Do we target hunger itself or do we need to make sure people arent poor . Actually, i think both. It is a symptom of poverty but you cant target the symptom. The discussion of poverty taking on a much bigger political discussion. You start getting questions why are People Living in poverty. It goes into how can we fix that. We know we can fix hunger because we fixed it before. Back in 1968 there was a doc that came out, a news doc that came out called hungry america. And it showed near starving conditions in the United States. Very quickly the populous demanded that it be fixed. You had senators dole and mcgovern got together, created legislation and signed into law by Richard Nixon and created the modern food safety net. And until the 80s and ideologies changed. That happened before the recession and started to creep up. We now have what we call supplemental assistance programs used to be called food stamps. Massive expansion in how many people are using it in the wake of the great recession. One out of every two children is going to have Food Assistance . At some point in their lives, yes, one out of two children. To the point thats not enough, i guess the question is should that be bigger, should eligibility be expanded . Well, it should be. Its not enough. Especially how you look at how food stamps are calculated. The government using something called a thrifty food plan. Theres four plans that they use to sort of benchmark, how much calories or what foods you can buy. A thrifty plan, a low plan, a medium plan and high plan. Its used for things like paying alimony and Child Support or how much calories the military can receive. They use that only to determine the food stamps. When theyre budgeting allowances for calories, for the specific, the needy, you get the thrifty. The thrifty. It takes into consideration, for instance, fish, they assume the only fish youre going to buy on this plan is canned tuna. They calculate that, you have more time, for some reason, i dont know, that you can cook. So the average person spends just about under five hours a week cook. Where on this plan, they sort of saying that you have 13 hours to prepare a meal. And then, you know, with that comes the because you have 13 hours, you can buy other foods that take a long time to cook like beans and rice and stuff like that. So theres a bunch of assumptions about how people are bowing to get by with this assistance, baked into calculating how much assistance they need that squeezes people . Thats correct. Exactly. The other aspect, and it comes through you spent some time on it in the film. Is a lot of the other program is free lunches and breakfast that kids get in schools. And theres a great scene. I think we have the scene, dont we, from the top chef challenge to create a meal on budget constraints, take a look. Youll be feeding students using the same restrictive budget that our Public Schools have. 2. 68 per child. Thats 134 for all 50 kids. Of that 134. Im going to take 4 away for the 268 that the school has to serve lunch, labor and supplies, and anything to get it to the plate, 4 is a gift. The bananas, despite the fact that ive been cooking them for 20 minutes, they taste like white bread. Theyre very starchy. Ill add sugar to break down the starch. Did you find you had to add more sugar because the bananas were starchy . I believe theres a total of two pounds of sugar. Thats what happens when you we dont use good ingredients, you add a lot of sugar or fat to make them taste better. Thats your classic top chef reaction with the eyes bugging out. I just thought it was a good illustration of the way price constraints lead to food that is actually good to the person eating it. Exactly. The food program, it started in the late 1800s in response to children that were hungry. They knew children showing up for school couldnt focus and werent getting good grades. And became a federal program under truman in 46. I think we need to start looking at these programs as nutrition programs. Its not a handout. You know, we send kids to school. We give them books, we give them a desk, but we dont give them food. So were providing a meal now, but its not a good meal. Its not a healthy meal. Its not a nutritious meal. When you think of it as a nutrition program, as opposed to what . People look at feeding programs whether a school lunch as a charity program. We have to look at it as sort of a tool to prepare our children to eat. Theres a new study that came out by deloitte that was done by share a strength, no kid hungry. Theyre showing when kids east breakfast in school, their math scores go up by 17 . They have less incidence of being kinds of benefits. The school lunch program, right now, its just not funded. That clip actually set up i actually testified in front of congress on behalf of the school lunch program. And the president asked for 10 billion over ten years. It gets watered down in the house to an 8 million over four years. And then 4. 5 million. Half of that money comes from snapp. While we have record numbers of people qualifying for snapp in eligibility. By the way, the film is codirected by your wife. My wife and her partner christy jacobson. I did not know this that your mom ran a School Cafeteria . She did, my mom ran a cafeteria in new jersey. I didnt quite know that my mom had more of a Mission Managing this cafeteria until i tried to get her to retire. She was in her early 60s. He said, tom, i know the kids coming into my School Lunch Room for breakfast and lunch, i know this is the only meal that some are eating. That kind of hit me. Pie thought mom was going there for social time. I didnt reidnt realize a grean behind it. I want to talk about the food and the food thats comes from. It gives us an opportunity to spotlight the makeover of the pastry plate. Well talk about that right after this break. Im here at my house on thanksgiving day, and i have a massive heart attack right in my driveway. The doctor put me on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. Go talk to your doctor. Youre not indestructible anymore. A talking car. But ill tell you what impresses me. A talking train. This ge locomotive can tell you exactly where it is, what its carrying, while using less fuel. Delivering whatever the world needs, when it needs it. After all, whats the point of talking if you dont have something important to say . Did you know not all fiber is the same . Citrucel is different its the only fiber for regularity that wont cause excess gas. Its gentle and clinically proven to help restore and maintain regularity. Look for citrucel today. Like other precious things that start off white, it yellows over time. When it comes to your smile, if youre not whitening, youre yellowing. Crest whitestrips whiten as well as 500 professional treatments. Guaranteed. Crest 3d white whitestrips. S that the remade up pastry plate courtesy of the pastry chef at toms restaurant craft. Some people on the internet have noted i think rightly the juxtaposition of this gorgeous bounty of food here were talking about hunger. That is the point. The point is there really are two americas in terms of food. People have the resources. Im among those people, spend a lot of money in getting fresh, highquality food to the table, and thing like that. And theres a whole part of america who is increasingly food insecure. An getting whatever they can in areas that dont have fresh, right. You made a point how invisible that aspect can be . It is. Part of the reason for doing the film was to sort of change the face of hunger. I think were conditioned in the United States to think of hunger in terms of third world hunger, war victims. Theres hunger here but it doesnt look like that one in six americans are food insecure. Meaning they cant figure out where the next meals coming from. In new york, most likely, there are people that are hungry sitting next to you. Theyre in the community, you may know them. So its really important to sort of show that. The plate i think illustrates it really well. Theres abundance and people who are struggling. But also, you know, its very are easy to demonize people for making a bad choice. Youre feeding your kids sugary foods and sodas and things like that as if they actually had a choice because healthy foods, fruits and vegetables are very expensive. You do a good job in the film showing that. You go to mississippi, where can you get fresh. Just the basic logistics of a huge truck is not going to go to the back roads of a small town to unload to a local grocer. Theyre going to go to Major Centers and supermarkets. Its a problem in rural areas, also a problem in urban areas. I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday who opened up a food store in new orleans. In an underserved community. You know, we need more of that. Theres some programs here in new york where, you know, theyre taking bodegas and getting refrigeration of bodegas. In the city you have to get buses to find fresh fruits and vegetables because its just not there. Im really curious about the increasing role that food plays. Top chef, and julia child had a cooking show, that never existed before. Now a million on tv. Theres a cooking channel. Top chef is massively successful. The nation magazine where im editoratlar editoratlarge, it has a food section. You didnt have the culture that food has now. Its definitely become part of pop culture. I have my own theory on that, back in the 80s when everybody was going to club for entertainment, studio 54, stuff like that. Eventually woke up from their cocaine high and decided they needed another form of entertainment, but they still wanted to go out so they gravitated towards restaurants. Thats just my point. I think its become it says very interesting about where our culture is, particularly this inequality we have. This abundance on one end. Raj patel that you have in the film talks about stuffed and starved. I want to talk about that, a great clip from portlandia i want to play for you right after this break. Plete multivitamin designed for mens Health Concerns as we age. It has 7 antioxidants to support cell health. 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Since enbrel helped relieve my joint pain, its the Little Things that mean the most. Ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you. [ doctor ] enbrel, the number one biologic medicine prescribed by rheumatologists. Okay why . More is better than less because if stuff is not le if there is more less stuff then you might want to have some more and your parents just dont let you because theres only a little bit. Right. We want more, we want more. Like you really like it, you want more. Right. I follow you. [ male announcer ] its not complicated. More is better. And at t has the nations largest 4g network. We dont let frequent heartburn come between us and what we love. So if youre one of them people who gets heartburn and then treats day after day. Block the acid with prilosec otc and dont get heartburn in the first place [ male announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. Zero heartburn. Welcome to new york. Im chris hayes here with Tom Colicchio chef and executive direct of the place at the table. Were talking about the role that food kind of plays in our culture. I want to play this clip from portlandia that satirizes the obsession with food. Take a look. If you have any questions about the menu, please let me know. I guess i do have a question about the chicken if you can tell us about it. The chicken is a heritage breed. Woodland raised chicken thats been fed a diet of sheeps milk, soy and hazelnuts. This is local . Yes, absolutely. What if you just wanted to and its local . It is. Is that usda organic or portland organic hazelnut is a local . How big is the area that the chickens are able to roam free. Here is the chicken youll be enjoying tonight. Absolutely his name was colin. I think thats funny. At one level, right, theres a level of critique of the current industrial food system that says we have this huge directory of farms, subsidies, lots of cheap calories, corn gets in everything because were subsidizing corn. The reaction it to create something thats local farm to table. But that can sometimes feel like fetish to shtick do you feel that way . Sure. Its like what is the middle path of knowing the name of your chicken in a restaurant you eat in brooklyn, than nothing but canned goods and sugary sodas. Theres definitely a middle road. The middle road, a lot has to do with education. It was interesting i was reading from Mika Brzezinskis book obsessed. And talking about how culturally taught to eat, but he didnt know any other way. But there is a middle ground. Im not suggesting that organics is the way to fixing the food system. Were suggests its a way to subsidize fruits vegetables. Not organic, but that would be great. To teach food how to prepare feed, how to cook it and nod the fetish side of what kind of air the chicken is breathing. Its kind of over the top. Right. And i think the School System is the sort of the place to do that, right . Theres a connection with what youre saying the way we fund a School Systems food and what quality of food theyre going to get. You sort of hope some of that fetishness, the over the top, i want to know where things come from. Filters down to parents to say, lets start with our kids. Its okay for the 20something hipster to go to brooklyn to get that. But what about teaching our kids a little bit of that. Not that it needs to be so over the top. I think thats where it begins. Theres a lot of programs to get Fresh Produce and local produce into schools. Although it is being met with a lot of School Systems dont want to do it because they dont have kitchens. He would rather mass produce food. Its cheaper. But its expensive and this gets to Something Else about cooking, right . You said the average household spends five hours like cooking. I even see in my own life, as you go through and your jobs get more demanding and you have kids, the amount of time its easy to start cutting corners on cooking. And whats happened i think is very interesting we cook less and think about food more. Those two things are happening at the same time. In some ways, i spend the hour i could cooking watching top chef. You can cook and watch at the same time. How do we get that back . Its interesting, i find im cooking more now that i have children, 2yearold and 3yearold at home. Im home at that 5 30, 6 00 slot cooking for them. The time i spend in the kitchen i can get things done a lot faster than the average person. I think weve moved away from cooking. You can watch food programs all day long. All day long. But people are actually cooking less. Its paradox. I think it started when we took homeec out of schools. Were not teaching anymore. The whole generation that learned how to cook, theyre not passing that down anymore. From parent to parent. You interrupt that chain. Top chef i want to talk about for a second. I love the show. Theres something about why it works so well. What is it this is a real fanbased question, why doesnt it work like that . Somebody who does television for a living. The structure of it really would year in and year out . That structure is something that were always messing with. Sometimes we mess with it too much. Were constantly tinkering with it. We figured out early on, the big problem eye were a food show, you cant taste it. Fashion shows you can see it. Other shows you relate to it. We needed to have a serious honest conversation about that dish, about what it tastes like about the technique involved. About the certainly style that that chef had to sort of get people to understand that food is more than just a recipe on a plate. I think whats interesting about the show, its actually more of a food criticism show than a cooking show, right . Yeah. The emphasis is actually on developing a vocabulary for people that arent used to doing this. The same way that people who, you know, are art critics, you know, develop a vocabulary to talk about a sculpture. You guys have this vocabulary that the viewers learn. I love when someone is in a restaurant, you actually hear the vocabulary. Its kind of funny. Yeah, but not only that, its its a mentoring at least from what im judging, im trying to sort of give an insight to sort of help them. Its really great. Were not allowed to interact with the contestants during the shooting unless were on camera. Afterwards, i get letters and notes saying thanks for the feedback. Because it changed the way im doing things. Im thinking a little differently about food. Do you think it changes its funny the way fashions will come and go in restaurants. Every restaurant now has brussels sprouts. You cannot go anywhere without brussels sprouts, right . Five years ago, nobody was serving brussels sprouts. Do you think that shows like top chef acts as accelerants to spreading that . Yes, gastronomy which has faded away. We that this man who really knew what he was doing. He became the poster boy. And people who have been sort of practici practicing av vanguard cook. The chefs definitely follow trends but it gets amplified through the show. Im glad were talking about restaurants because one of the most remarkable facts about how americans eat is how much more they eat out than 20, 3040 years ago. Eating out is a much bigger part of peoples lives and thats up and down the social hierarchy. Even people that dont make a lot of money are eating out more, probably because people have less time to work. To be clear, if you have food stamps, you cannot use that to eat out. Absolutely. I want to talk about the industry that youre in. The Restaurant Industry, there are workers who make that food, clean those kitchens, theyre visible because theyre in the kitchen. I want to talk about what industry looks like, particularly because its an industry thats producing more jobs than any other industry. I want to talk about that future and bring in some other guests right after this break. [ female announcer ] does your color have staying power. Or just seem to fade away, day by day . Dont compromise. New Vidal Sassoon pro series from the original salon genius. Starts vibrant, stays vibrant. Precision mix formula saturates each strand for 100 gray coverage. Hydrablock conditioner helps fight fade out for up to 8 weeks. New Vidal Sassoon lets you say no to compromise and yes to vibrant color like this. New Vidal Sassoon pro series salon genius. Brilliantly priced. New Vidal Sassoon pro series ive always had to keep my eye on her. But, i didnt always watch out for myself. With so much noise about health care. I tuned it all out. With unitedhealthcare, i get information that matters. My individual health profile. Not random statistics. They even reward me for addressing my health risks. So im doing fine. But shes still going to give me a heart attack. Were more than 78,000 people looking out for more than 70 million americans. Thats health in numbers. Unitedhealthcare. In 1960, according to the cdc americans spent just 26 of their food budget eating away from home. By 2011, that figure had almost doubled to 49 . Food retail and service one of the healthiest growing industries in the country. For the past decade Food Industry job growth has far outpaced totally sector job growth. Yet by any estimate, most of these are not great jobs. Food workers use government assistance programs like medicaid and food programs much higher. Compared to 19 of the general workforce, over 13 of Food Service Workers receive food stamps compared to just 8 of the workforce. An advocacy group, nearly 80 dont have paid sick days or dont know. 83 do not receive Health Insurance from employer, and 58 do not are any Health Coverage at all. From the bizarre archaic constitution of tipping which i want to talk about. Food Service Shops continue to be a larger pat of the economy its time we take a serious look at the way food functions. Joining us is sarug deramen. Andrew mozell. A registered lobbyist for the new york state restaurant. The largest food Service Trade in the world. Victoria bretton, a banquet veteran and still with us Tom Colicchio of top chef. I want to talk about the Restaurant Industry. Its such a distinct industry. I worked as a waiter, and i loved waiting tables and i had family in the industry. It seems to me, it just is different than other industries, right . What are the sort of main ways thats the case . Well, right now, the industry has over 10 million workers. 1 in 10 americans actually works in the industry. One of the main ways its different, its actually one of the top two Largest Industries in the country. Unfortunately, also happens to be the employer of 7 of the 10 lowest paying jobs in america. And the two absent lowest paying jobs in america. Youve got the largest portion of america basically prolife indicating the jobs with the least benefits. The least amount of paid sick days. So workers in this industry dont have a way to get paid while sick. Which means twothirds report cooking and preparing foods while theyre ill. Another thing that makes a difference, as tom will tell you, its a lowfrost busines l. Three out of five restaurants fail within three years. Its because its very difficult to make a living in food and public. Around new york, and the country, restaurant jobs while a lot of those are entry level jobs were providing jobs to people who wouldnt have them. Data shows that profit industry is 4 to 5 . You compare that to 1 which has a 1 profit margin at walmart. Which actually is not a bastion . No. True. A 1 profit margin and the industry has a 4 to 5 profit margin, i think, especially for the large corporations there is the ability to pay better. Its the makeup here. I think when you think about what do you consider a restaurant, the local diner or craft, right . Most of these jobs if im not mistaken are large nationals. Chain restaurants. Im sure most of your members probably arent that, but if you were to take the pie chart of the revenue of the new york state restaurant association, most of that is coming from large . Yes. Youre right. Profit margins are tight. I would suggest if you actually pay a better wage, youll attract better employers. Better employers will increase that profit margin. Whether we have 103 partners around the country that are great Small Businesses from small mom and pop restaurants. Weve been able to show over and over again they have less turnover because workers dont leave as offer. They have higher productivity because people feel really invested in their work. I know from personal experience that a lot of us in this industry are very transient. We go from restaurant to restaurant, looking for better wages, better tips to just to support ourselves. So i couldnt agree with tom more, i dont want this conversation to be in the context that every single restaurant worker is only making the minimum wage. Sure. Only about 5 making the federal minimum wage of 7. 25 an hour. As tom said, the restaurants, the vast mortgage of actually paying them more. What were saying that should be a business decision thats up to each individual owner. The fact is, you can afford to pay your employees. You have welltrained employees and high retention rate, you can do that. But what we dont want is to have Business Owners who cant afford that to make that decision. You guys hold that should there there be no minimum wage . Well, thats a very difficult issue, we probably dont have the time to address here. Theres been studies on both sides. Some say it oppresses job growth and bad for the economy. I went to the university of chicago, in economics, i know all about people who dont think there should be any minimum wage. Yes, do you. We are in the Restaurant Industry in favor of paying our employees a wage that is going to make them happy employees and better employees. Yeah. I think we can agree that we want workers who can support themselves. Who can put food on their own tables and take care of themselves when theyre sick. And unfortunately, we need some guaranteed minimums because right now, food server workers use food stamps at double the rate of u. S. Workforce and suffer a poverty rate of three times the rest of the workforce. We need minimums to help people up to a livable standard. Im in favor of raising the minimum wage, for that very reason. Look at it this way, in 2007 when minimum wage was increased, it actually gave a tax break to Small Businesses who were employing people are lower wages. So we could do the same thing again. I mean, i think thats a good fix. Kind of a both sides deal, right . If youre in favor of Smaller Government. Using up to people to a higher minimum wage, i would suggest 11 is probably better. You can move people off public assistance. And then get tax breaks on the back end to fix. It was sort of favoring Smaller Government and lowering taxes. The certain element in the room, of course, is the tipping system. Because the weird thats the weird thing about food service. We have two different minimum wages. Theres the minimum wage for everyone. And then theres minimum wage for tipped employees which right now is 2. 13. I want to talk life as someone who works for tips. What that means. And the tipping system as a whole right after we take this break. Weve all had those moments. When you lost the thing you cant believe you lost. When what you just bought, just broke. Or when you have a little trouble a long way from home. As an American Express cardmember you can expect some help. But what you might not expect, is you can get all this with a prepaid card. Spends like cash. Feels like membership. Pop goes the world pop in a whole new kind of clean with tide pods. Just one pac has the stain removal power of six caps of the bargain brand. Pop in. Stand out. Of six caps of the bargain brand. Living with moderate to semeans living with pain. Is it could also mean living with joint damage. Humira, adalimumab, can help treat more than just the pain. For many adults, humira is clinically proven to help relieve pain and stop further joint damage. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. 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See whats right for you at constantcontact. Com try. Ah. 4g, huh . Verizon 4g lte. 700 megahertz spectrum, endtoend, pure lte build. The most consistent speeds indoors or out. And, obviously, astonishing throughput. Obviously. You know how fast our home wifi is . Yeah. This is basically just as fast. Oh. And verizons got more fast lte coverage than all other networks combined. So its better. Yes. Oh, why didnt you just say that . Huh what is he doing . Theyre about 10 times softer and may have surface pores where bacteria can multiply. Polident kills 99. 99 of odor causing bacteria and helps dissolve stains. Thats why i recommend polident. [ male announcer ] cleaner, fresher, brighter every day. Victoria, you worked as a waitress. I did. For a number of years. Absolutely. What was it like to essentially plan a household and a life, an economic life, around the tremendous uncertainty that comes with working for tips . Well, first of all, i was a singleincome household. And i had young children. So that limited the amount of time that i could work. So i worked predominantly lunches. As im sure you know, lunches arent the most profitable shift. You need to turn your tables over to make money. I was still getting paid on average 2. 13 an hour. Well, i think was 2. 68 back in 1991 when i started. Plus tips . Plus tips. If we got a slow lunch, a whole hour would go by, no table, no tip. My paycheck would be eaten up by taxes and social security, there were times i made no money per hour. What did that mean for how you went about paying theres such a volatility . Sure, every day was a crapshoot. Every day at the end of the week, id sit down with the money i made, had to make tough decisions. Okay, this would go to rent. Okay, we have to choose between the electric bill, gas bill or the phone, i would borrow left and right, just trying to balance my budget. It was not fun. It was not. Its a hard way to make a living. And also to put food on the table. To produce for my family. Lets remember the history of how this came about. Yes, please. Its kind of a fascinating story. So its been stuck at the federal level at 2. 13 for the last 22 years. Back in 1991 even though, rick i just want to clarify. Thats right. Regular federal minimum wage has been raised a number of times. The tip employees wage has hot . Thats right. The tipping wage has gone up with the regular minimum wage, in 96, herman cain, president of the National Restaurant association, struck a deal saying they would not oppose the minimum wage to rise as long as the tip wage stayed frozen. I have a new book out. I tell stories of people from texas, from michigan, earning less than 3 an hour. Sure, there are times when they earn tips on top of that. Plenty of time as victoria mentioned zero tips. You get a paycheck and it says this is not a paycheck. And first of all, i think herman cain a president ial candidate is a stretch. No, but i guess my guess my question here is, why do we have this institution . Why dont question just pay i mean, get is heres the first question. Could restaurants survive. Like, imagine a world in which you wave a magic wand. And you get rid of the institution of tipping, okay . And you pay a wage like do in every other business. Thats right. The number of restaurants what would happen . Youd have to increase prices by 25 to 30 . Then its okay youre saying above but gratuity right now is 15 , 18 , 22 in there, youre saying increase pricing above its not income that youre taxed on. To get back to the same level well, we just put out a report called a diamond day. We showed that even if you raise wages by the current proposal in congress the one that obama mentioned in the state of the union, it would not increase money in the restaurants by a dollar. Food restaurants. Some there would be some increase but thats only if restaurants passed 100 of the increase. What chris is talking about is the tip. I understand that. Raising it to a substantial level would not reduce the prices. Do you think Restaurant Owners would you like to wave that magic wand where it was all on the table . I match people in different industries, but its the fact that it is difficult. Not only are Profit Margins very, very small, but theres tremendous labor costs. So its a way of keeping down labor costs and making sure that the people can still afford the product that were selling. Would if you could go back, would you rather have made a straight wage that you knew you could count on. Absolutely. Sure. This way at the end of the week, im not playing i go into work. I know how many hours ive worked. I know how much im coming home to. I dont have a voided check. I can do my budget math and make things stretch better than tonight i need to make 300. Come on 300. Right. I dont have to do that anymore. And walk home with 75. I think also you inject more of a sort of an idea of marra to come crazy in restaurants when that happens . How so . Right now, say youre working in a restaurant that tips their poles. You could have somebody that hoo is not pulling their weight and getting money. Right. It definitely changes that. It also changes the relationship so youre making an argument for ruthless individualistic capitalism against the socialist of pooling your tips is basically what im hearing . Well its a great idea in theory. But there was always some exception where like tom was saying theres that one person who is not pulling their weight. And we would have to take the brunt of financially, we would suffer because of that one person. As opposed youre saying everyone making a wage like they do in other would you like to see that happeny. Actually i wouldnt mind it. Its happening now, restaurants like per se in new york are doing it. Back in 19 late oh, 2000, i guess 2004, when i worked for quilted and barry, barry did that, too. I have this from a 1916 antitipping manifesto written by william r. Scott member of the antitipping movement. There was an antitipping movement in this country. It was actually a big labor fight calling the itching palm. In the american democracy to be servile is incompatible with citizenship. Every tip given in the United States is a blow at our experiment in democracy. The custom announces to the world that we do not believe practical cale that all men are created equal. Also a waiter can be a gentleman, democracy say failure. If any form of service is menial, democracy is a failure. Those americans who dislike selfrespect in servants are undesirable. They belong in aristocracy. What do you think. On behalf of the new York Restaurant Association . Emitting, the reason we call it the service industry, the fact that people are providing service. And tipping is away to keep those people its to provide a high level of service. Its something written about in the new york media that service is actually on the decline. I guess in terms of formality of the entire culture, were just getting more informal. Theres a lot of restaurants, very good restaurants, where they dont take service seriously. You think you align the incentives . Right. Andrew, it sounds like we agree. Hold that thought. Ella university, youll be better equipped to deal with todays issues and make an even greater impact. Lets get started at capella. Edu. But with kids growing up fast, fighting seven signs of aging gets harder. Introducing total effects moisturizer plus serum. For the ninetytwo practices, two proms, and one driving test yet to come. Shell need our most concentrated total effects ever. But they havent experienced extra strength bayer advanced aspirin. In fact, in a recent survey, 95 of people who tried it agreed that it relieved their headache fast. Visit fastreliefchallenge. Com today for a special trial offer. The question on the table is tipping. An insult to american democracy . Well, andrew was saying tips are a way to ensure Better Service. Line incentives across the board . Thats right. But i think wed agree, in that system, in asking for Better Service, no one, the customer or worker, no one thought of the tip as the wage. They thought it as maybe a way to create an sincentive for Better Service on top of the wage. I dont think most americans think that theyre actually paying the workers wage. The vast majority of the wage is being paid by the tips. In other cultures, the tips are like that . Right . Yeah. Exactly in that in seven states in the United States, including california, oregon, washington, montana, nevada, these are states that are doing really well. California has the largest Restaurant Industry in the country. And theres no difference between the minimum wage for tipped workers and not tipped workers. The tip is on top of that base wage. To ensure Proper Service if that were the case, wouldnt you tip before . Thats great. Heres my question, though, when we talk about service, i mean, what i think is so fascinating with this quote to be servile. As we move towards the service economy, right. When we think of the hardship of labor in the 19th century. We think about blast furnaces. The physical toil. There are many people still in coal mines. And there are physical dangers in a kitchen as well. As everyone who has worked in a kitchen knows. Everybody has their horror stories. Im curious, victoria, if theres an emotional toll that Service Takes . You know what i mean . That is the service analog to what the physical toll of these kind of 19th century jobs . Well, absolutely. Lets say for instance you have four tables. Two people over here. Four here. Lets make a sixtop over here for fun. Theyre all here to have a good time. Nobody goes into a restaurant looking for a bad time. Its not like youre going to the hospital, im sick, ive got to deal with this. To, you go for a good time. Open restaurants, right . You go in there, that is your job. That responsibility is there. Youre the gobetween between the kitchen and your customers or your guests, as we call them. So, okay, this guest has an allergy over here. You need to address that. This guest, its their anniversary, so they want special attention, too. And these people have to make a show at 8 00. Here you are. Keeping all the balls up in the air, something goes wrong in the kitchen. That falls on you. They ran out of something or that allergy cant be met, we have to go out there and address that as well. So youve got a lot of balls in the air. You can to placate to everyone for a tip you may or may not get. You dont know if thats going to come out at the end of the night for it to take care of you when its time to pay the bills or whatever you want to do. Did you like the Human Interaction . I loved it. I love it. Current tense. Can i say, in our organization, weve surveyed thousands of workers, and for the most part, people take great fried in hospitalitiy. Absolute. Were trying to live up the stories in the book. Were here to provide a good time to provide an experience. Coupled with the good food that you came in to enjoy. Thats right. Its a career. I think its something we can agree with the Industry Association on, that we want this to be a career that people take great pride in. Its professional. Its professional. Thats right. And provide a ways for people to live on. Its not a job sometimes, we hear from the industry, this is a kids job, people move on to something better. No, people make theyre careers. Livelihoods out of this. We raise our children, go to college. Take vacations. Were regular people just like lawyers, just that we got to hustle a little bit more. Thats a great line. I want to talk about kitchens, too. The issue of immigration. My experience, if you deported every undocumented immigrant in new york city there wouldnt be any restaurants theyd clean out a restaurant. I want to talk about that. We have a great quote from from portland. [ male announcer ] how could a luminous protein in jellyfish, impact Life Expectancy in the u. S. , real estate in hong kong, and the optics industry in germany . At t. Rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. Its just one reason over 75 of our mutual funds beat their 10year lipper average. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. Request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. [ barking ] come on, boy [ barks ] oh, heavenly day here we go. Chachacha dont you know that i love ya chachachachacha always thinking of ya all around the World Everybody singin along singin along fly me to the moon let me play among the stars let me see what spring [ birds chirping ] [ male announcer ] with the best lineup of vehicles ever, introducing the new chevrolet. Oh, heavenly day why just go from a to b when imagination can take you everywhere . All the clouds blew away chevrolet. Find new roads. All your important legal matters in just minutes. Protect your family. And launch your dreams. At legalzoom. Com we put the law on your side. Now, in major cities around the country and all across the country, kitchen staff, particularly, are heavily foreignborn. And often in my experience, in new york, often undocumented. I know when i worked places, a lot of undocumented workers. I wonder where the industry is as Immigration Reform kind of coming up on the horizon politically . When are they . Are they support of Immigration Reform . Presumably, if i. C. Shows up in a kitchen, you guys in are in bad shape . Well, i want to address a quick point that goes to this and also some other things had they we talked about. Whats amazing about the industry, its an entry point for immigrants to get their job. Not just kids but people in all walks of life. And thats what makes it such a great asset to us here in america. It gives people an opportunity to work a job. Its true, a lot of people go on into that industry. They may not work the same job, though, they may not work the same job or go on to better responsibility in the same restaurant. In terms of that, no one wants to see mass deportation . Yeah. Because is relies very heavily on immigrants. And were in favor of strong Immigration Reforms to make sure we can have the workers that the industry can function in a way thats above board. And that the workers have rights that everybody else does. Thats really important that theyre able to stay here. Speak up when there are problems on the job. Complain about working conditions and if they need to have to their rights vindicated. Otherwise, youre still going to end up with an underclass has has less rights than everyone else. And its really not an incentive for those who want those rights. This have a line cook in portland in talking about the sustainability, and the movement in restaurants and so forth. And wait that labor is not a part of that vision. He said ive worked as a cook in the Restaurant Industry for the past decade. Its become clear over the years, the food system ignores one key element, working conditions. In other words, it ignores me, the grunt, the cog, the line cook making your dinner. The price of a plate of food in a fine restaurant, no matter how high hour low seems to be the customer, depends on the people making it. Do you think thats a statement of fact or the way things can be different . Well, i just want to say because im know im going to get a lot of pushback. I dont pay minimum wage in my restaurants. I pay well above minimum wage. My cooks are making well above minimum wage. But also, we promote our workers. So someone who is a busser, two years later, they can be a captain. In theres issues with language, we actually bring in people to teach language courses. Thats sometimes a weird cast system. Thats right. Oh, heres the college grad who has like hipster glasses and is going to be a waiter. And here the guy who is going to pus tables for 15 years and cant go anywhere. Thats right. No, were constantly looking to promote. Same thing with cooks. Someone will look to a cook and then a sous chef and then eventuallile chy lchefs. So a sous chef that makes 50,000, 60,000, theyll double their salary when they take that next step. Were looking at new talent to promote people through the system. And ive worked with people who have started off as dishwashers and worked their way up through the system. When it works, it works, it definitely does. I started as a prep cook in a restaurant. Yes. And tom is a shining example i think of how workers can go up the ladder and be paid well and make a profit and do well and grow. Unfortunately, theres still a 4 wage gap between white workers and people of color in this industry nationally. And white workers and very little we did a study in new york where we sent 200 pairs of white and people of color applicants in fine dining restaurants to see who would get hired we found white applicants with a lesser qualified resume had twice the chance of getting these jobs with the same accents. Sometimes, unintelable accents, they got the jobs. We need to see workers of all colors get these opportunities. Im sure tom will agree, when you have someone who is with you 20 years moves up the ladder, thats a better worker. We have people with me 12 years who dont want another job. They like what theyre doing, they get raises. That would have been a dream job for me. What do we know now we didnt know last week . My answers after this. Hold on, prilosec isnt for fast relief. Cue up alkaseltzer. It stops heartburn fast. Oh what a relief it is in just a moment, what we now know we didnt know last week. First a few updates on stories. Yesterday, the dreaded automatic budget cuts known as swe sequestration took effect. Lawmakers across the aisle were calling them disastrous. And yesterday in a direct plea toe members of congress. Go to work tomorrow if youre in session. You wont be in session half a day on thursday. On the off chance you ever go to congress, just pass a onesentence bill that repeals sequestration. Well, my prayers were answered. Four days after my plea. A group of progressive house members led by congressman john conners of michigan introduced a onesentence bill called cancel the sequester act of 2013. The effects of those cuts become known over the next months, perhaps members of congress will get on board. And an environment am statement over the Keystone Pipeline which would transfer oil to the United States. The report did not find any conclusive environmental reason the pipeline should be built despite the act that as denailed the show, abstracting oil providing more Greenhouse Gas emissions than more conventional forms do. Now a Public Comment period followed by a review and National Interest investigation. So on whenever to build the pipeline isnt likely for this year. Deciding to accept federal funding to accept people across the public line. Chris christie became the eighth republican governor to support the expansion. He say we are putting more people first and hopefully the republicans will do the same. And what do we know about wealth . The gap has grown massively over the past quarterer century. According to a study by Brandeis University says that the gap has tripled from 30,000 to 206,000 in 2009. We know that one of the chief components is the real disparity in homeownership. The study points out that decades of segregation including unequal access to credit, it is no surprise that the rate of homeownership is 28 higher for whites than others. We often see that the policies have made black people poorer, and we have never seen a revolution in our era to stop that gap. And we know that 33,000 additional troops were not sent in as said in january by nato forces. They reported a 7 drop in attacks, but when questioned about the figure, they said there was a mistake, and in fact, attacks by taliban did not decline last year. And we know that a number of people were produced to publish articles to discount a pro democracy leader. Conservative pundit was under contract for nearly 400,000 between 2008 and 2011 to lead the effort which involved him paying a series of writers sums of money to write pieces that appeared in red state, the Washington Times and the huffington post, but none of them were printed without any opinion by trevino who lost his job for failing to disclose his ties with the malaysian government. He said he should have come clean in 2011 when smith was at politico and asked him if he was being paid by the malaysian government. He told busby that it was a standard p. R. Operation. I want to know what my guests now know that they didnt know last week . Well, this week, i am excited to find out that there is a bill introdu introduced in congress by senator harkin and George Miller in the house that will raise not only the overall minimum wage, but the wage for the first time in two decades, and to get sick days paid for workers who have the flu in this time. And so in case you dont know, it has been a sick bill introduced here by the city council. Yes, it is up to all of us who eat out to speak up about this. Andrew . In the new York City Council as you mention ed some actual cooperation between council and the Mayors Office to lower fines on business in new york e and if that happens and we make small policy changes to free up the capital for resturateurs they can do some of the initiatives that we talked about today to help businesses and the workers. Victoria . In philadelphia, we are are about to pass the paysick leave. I am a huge advocate of that as someone who has worked sick. It is not a pleasant experience for you or for me. So i am 100 behind that. Did you have paid sick days in working of a restaurant . No. There is insane data about the number of transmissions of stomach bugs. Well, 90 of foodborne illnesses can be traced back to restaurants. How can you do that . Are the the centers for Disease Control, standard. Well, i have been trying to do that for decades, and there is no way. Well, if the scepters for Disease Control doesnt know about foodborne illness, i dont know who does. Well, 85 of the 25 Million Pounds of antibiotics in the country go the feed livestock. Yesterday the centers for Disease Control warned that dangerous bacteria is increasingly resistant to the arsenal of antibiotics and the World Health Organization said that a strep throat or scratch can be deadly. We have to get them out of the food system. Yes, and bugs and super bugs and there is a bug about super bugs that you can put up that is horrifying. Thank you to saru of the Restaurant Opportunity Center united and andrew moezle of the restaurant association, and Victoria Baker who works as a chef, and andrew who is a editor of a new documentary a place at the table. Thank you for joining us for up. Tomorrow, we will have Gerald Bernstein and david sirota. And also, a scathing new report from demos is coming up next on mhp. We will see you tomorrow at 8 00. Aim going to eat some pastries. Thank you for getting up. [ female announcer ] what makes you walk a little taller . Where does goddess begin . It begins with your skin. Revealed by venus for a confident glow the whole world will notice. Venus olay gently exfoliates with 5 blades. Plus olay moisture bars help lock in moisture for less dryness. Only from venus olay. Any venus cartridge fits any venus handle. Thats the beauty of venus. Wears off. [ female announcer ] stop searching and start repairing. Eucerin professional repair moisturizes while actually repairing very dry skin. The end of trial and error has arrived. Try a free sample at eucerinus. Com. Ya. Alright, another one just like that. Right in the old bucket. Good toss see thats much better that was good. You had your shoulder pointed, you kept your eyes on your target. Lets do it again watch me. Just like that one