300 amendments hurled at the new immigration bill being marked up as we speak. historic vote. new numbers confirm african-americans turned out in record force at the polls in 2012 and debt overload. the new senator wants to take breaks given to big banks and give them to college kids. those are big topics flagged for us today by our panel covering progressive issues. panel, it is great to have you here. heather, i want to start with you. i want to play with everybody where we are on the markup for the bill right now because we have senator ted cruz who made statements about it just in the last hour. take a look.
overtime pay. these are hard working americans and aspiring americans. it s not just about the rhetoric. it s also about basically am i going to achieve the american dream and unfortunately conse e conservatives have been waging it against the american dream. new information coming out from the census talking about the fact that black voters, minority voters have been more inclined to break out and come and vote as we look at the trends we ve seen here, the black versus white vote, 66.2% of eligible blacks voted. 64.1% of whites voted in reference to last year s election. this is an encouraging trend where we see more people feeling engaged in the minority communities to express their voice and cast their vote. this is great for america. it s great for the democratic party. it s not so great for the gop. it s going to scare the white out of the white haired old man. it s not just about diffic t