republican steve king. christie, it s great to have you on the program. thanks for joining us. thank you. it s great to be here. so we re talking about the ways in which you have a very tightly contested race and all the analysis of what the sort of top swing districts are, it s probably in the top 10, top 15 in the country. we re talking about the way the national politics play out locally. i d like to get your sense of this. do you feel that the issues that are happening in your race are about what s happening in your district? are they about the people s conception of steve king as a national political conservative figure? how do you see this playing out in your race? well, i think we both see this job differently. i see it very locally. we ve lost a congress person in iowa and this district is much bigger. my district is the richest agricultural space in the world and i m going to be representing a lot of people who live in small towns and small cities and they want to make s
giveaways to the interests. i think that s probably worth addressing. christie, i d like you to respond. the farm bill is one thing that didn t get done. there is a lot of critiques that it was put together. does it end up benefitting the people or car gil and monsanto. i think the senate did a good job there. this is one of the only successes i think this year that they created a farm bill that was acceptable to a lot of people but the house was not able to pass the farm bill. i m wearing my farmville now button. basically all of the people in my delegation, including senator chuck grassly, congressman tom latham basically signed the petition that would have forced the farmville to come to a vote last week, but steve king did not. he s an outlier in this regard. i don t know how somebody like that can represent this district which is all small towns and farm fields and small cities that rely on agriculture and not
0 donationness 2011 would have significantly reduced their tax obligation for the year. the romneys then limited their deductions. they paid at least 13% in each of the last ten years. just so everyone s clear, they picked a rate that they needed to hit and then they didn t take their deductions. kevin, you re shaking your head. as a conservative, i would find this deeply offensive. well, i m really upset that romney has not come around to the williamson creed which is that tax evasion is a form of patriotism. you should be running the campaign. not only is this guy willingly paying his taxes, he s paying more taxes than he has to pay. one of the few things that romney ever said that made me happy about him as a candidate. if i was paying more taxes, then i wouldn t make much of a president. i agreed with him on that. why are you throwing mona way? i like the fact that on a typical year he makes about, you know, barack obama s net worth like that, and to me, to me, i will tell yo
headquarters of several islamist militias demanding they be disarmed. we ll talk about that tomorrow. president obama criticized congress in his weekly address this morning for failing to pass the farm bill and other legislation. we ll take a look at how democrats are suddenly putting up a fight for battle in congress. i m joined by my friend, john nichols, washington correspondent and my colleague at the nation magazine. l. joy williams joining the program. a political strategist and part of the program this week in blackness who also baked this wonderful tray of banana bread. it was too kind of you. i already had a peace. kevin williamson and ana marie cox. great to have you here. this was quite a week. quite a week in the campaign. quite a week in the campaign. the latest national poll released friday from the national journal has mitt romney trailing president obama nationally seven points among likely voters. while swing state polls from nbc and the wall street jour
teachers should be allowed to strike. we have special phone lines. if you are agitator, which include teachers and administrators, call. if you are a parent, call. and all other callers can read us.reach you can also find us online. send us a tweet. you can also find us on facebook. we are also on e-mail. let s take a look at the latest on the chicago teachers strike. this is the front page of the chicago tribune the national papers are also covering this story today. we re asking you this morning if you think educators should be allowed to strike? do you see their jobs as too valuable? the class room too important to be put at risk by strikes? or do you see it as an important way they can exercise their rights and their bargaining power? here s what usa today says the also looking at the implications of this politically and seeing where it goes on the national level. the washington post headline is for most of his let s get to the phones to hear what you have to say.