to get your message out, i don t care if the american public swallows your agenda, they will not hear about it if you don t have money and they won t beat back the opposition and their money with the blocking and tackling of politics even if everyone in america supports what you do. that s never going to be the case in our country. i don t think the party will say don t worry about raising money, it s not a big deal. i think there are process reforms a lot of members may want and pass. what for instance? well, i think that some members feel as though leader ship and committee chairman have too much say over whether a bill can go to the floor. they have too much say over whether or not amendments get a vote and so you might find a scenario under which some rules changes are adopted to make it easier for members to get amendment votes and get some bills to the floor. but there is a broad push here to take power away from the majority leader and the speaker
business interests of those donors. that s really well said. an i think there s an argument to be made that on the presidential level, there s already so much money involved, the addition of a sheldon adelson or a foster freeze doesn t matter that much. but, you know, one other thing i would point out, it s not just at the state level, i mean our whole federal politics and the whole policy landscape is essentially dictated by the wealthy donors who are funding candidates on both sides. that s why it s so hard to get a minimum wage increase, that the overwhelming majority of america supports, that s why it s so hard to get action on climate change. that is why our whole policy change is obsessed with deficit reduction because those are the interests of the very, very top 1% that totally dictate our policy at all levels. so sheldon adelson and the presidential primary, that is a
07. and we think it can be the case again. we just have to get to this threshold of 218. but you of course were quoted recently, sir, saying that the petition is the only tool you have to get a vote. does that tell you anything about the country and the democratic process and its desire for this change? well 70% of america supports increasing the minimum wage. the house of representatives has referred to as the people s house. if we are are the people s house, we should be response touf what 70 purse of america is telling us. that s certainly my message to my colleagues in the house on both sides of the aisle. it is one of the few tools that we have. the majority controls the floor schedule. the majority controls the means by which, or the process by which legislation moves from committee to the floor. and this is a way of forcing the majority to do something that by all appearances they re not
for the middle east and iran and israel basically having a faceoff through syria? i wrote this, help me out here. see if i got this straight. al qaeda hates assad, israel, qatar, turkey, hate assad, iran, hamas hate israel, america supports develop. iran, hamas, syria, muslim brotherhood, can i just suggest we stay the hell out of this place for now? figure out what s going on, not get involved. it is a powder keg. why light the match. why then would we get involved? allies. americans at risk. two allies, jordan and israel left. saudi? saudi arabia supports the attack. why don t we let the saudis do it. they don t have the money.
supports it no, no. america supports to the middle east. and unless there s a shift in the engagement in the middle east, shift that money from military to development, to creating jobs. because that s what the arab spring is all about. i don t see i mean, i agree with you, that america always supported the middle east and we have to stop that. and the engagement in syria is a very complex one. there s sunni shia in it, hezbollah, iraq in it. america has to show support, but not in engagements. since we re in the thicket of this dilemma, let s make it even more complicated by bringing the most sort of intense and high-stakes issue to the table, which is iran. we ll talk about iran and what we should do about iran and how the past colors are perfect perceptions of what the path forward is in the middle east, right after this. dave, i ve downloaded a virus. yeah.