>> former govern of new york eliott spitzer, and we are taking your phone calls. we are talking about aig and this debacle about them trying to sue the federal government. what a way to bite the hand that feeds you. 1866-55-press. don't go anywhere. this show is going to be so exciting. but before we do that, i want to find out what's going on in the news. lisa ferguson all the way in los angeles, tell me what's happening? >> welcome back, richard. good morning. gun control room policy is front and center this week. first was yesterday's two-year anniversary of a the tucson shoot that nearly killed gabby gifford. she and her husband have announced americans for responsible solutions, aimed at offsetting the nra's influence in american politics. today and tomorrow have some high-level meetings on tap for washington. vice president joe biden will meet with victim's groups and gun safety organizations at 11:00 this moraling and tomorrow, sitting down with other groups. >> it is not a problem that can be solved by any specific action. it's a problem that encompasses issues of mental health education, as well as access to guns. >> majority leader harry reid could change his stance on gun control. he is a long-time supporter of gun owners' writes and slipped am provision, now in the afterman of the newton shooting the adviceor says reed is in a different place. cuomo is unravelling al package of gun control laws in his state of the state speech. new york is one of seven states that already has a ban soon some type of weapons. cuomo says that has more holes than swiss cheese. more richard fowler on the "bill press show." we would love to see you. log on at current.com/billpress. see on the other side of the break. show, to be able to come away armed with the facts, and the arguments to feel confident in their positions. i want them to have the data and i want them to have the passion. but it's also about telling them, you're put on this planet for something more. i want this show to have an impact beyond just informing. an impact that gets people to take action themselves. as a human being, that's really important. this is not just a spectator sport. [ music ] >> broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv this is "the bill press show." >> good morning. i hope you got that cup of coffee brewing and you are sitting there reading your paper. i am happy you could join me. clearly, i am not bill press even though me and bill were separated at birth. i am just filling in for him this morning, who he is resting his voice, and hopefully, the golden child will be back tomorrow. you guys get me. 0 well, life gets better. as always, i can't do this alone. neither can bill. it's nothing without the great team of folks we have working here at bill press radio or the full court press. we have peter. >> hey richard. >> dan. >> good morning. >> we have phil and cyprian working cameras and phil monitoring calls. we need your calls. 1866-55-press. >> you were kind enough to come in and help us out on monday morning, and those that watch the show know that bill was back in the chair yesterday. and he -- his voice started -- the more he talked, the less his voice was cooperating. so we figured we would give him another day to rest. we brought you in, and we should say, thank you very much for coming in today because today is your birthday. >> it is my birthday. >> happy birthday. >> and we have a special message from the speaker of the house, himself ♪ this is your birthday song. ♪ at a time doesn'tla last too long. hey ♪ >> happy birthday. >> y'all are so sweet. >> thank you for coming in, man. look, i know that on my birthday, either the night of or the night before i don't necessarily want to get up very early to do doctor. >> don't worry. >> the t.v. >> that's saturday. >> okay. good. >> the funny thing is about the birthday so this is all happenstance but my birthday and the launch of the richard fowler show happens to fall on the same week. every year we do this thing. last year, we do the launch of the richard fowler show or do we do a birthday party? so we celebrated on celebrating the show's birthday and not mine and i am the show and the show is me as well. >> it's an extension of yourself. >> happy birthday. >> a celebration there. i like that. >> so we will be celebrating the show's birthday on saturday to a very select few. >> i got an invitation. >> i got an e-mail yeah. dan is going? i am out. >> i will be sure that everybody here at the bill press team and bill gets an invitation to celebrate the richard fowler show. on friday. when the show was live. excellent. celebrated that way, too. enough about me because i don't know. birthdays aren't as fun as they used to be. >> i am the same way. there is a comedian, paton os walled that will has a big about birthdays. he says basically, 1 through 10, you get a birthday. because you are a kid. then after that 17, 18, you have got to really pick and choose when your birthdays are. 13, you get a birthday, because you are a teenager. >> 16, you get your driver's license. >> 16. and 18, you get a birthday because you can vote and you can buy a gun. >> no, you could vote and buy guns and smoke and buy porn. >> smoke and buy porn. 21, you get a birthday, but then after that -- >> 25 and 30. >> after that, it's just every new set of kids. like 30, 40, 60, and then, awe you hit 90 and you are still setbrading birth days for every year that you lift past 90, you get to break a law. >> i like that. >> that's true. >> before we get to the hard news, i thought this was funny for y'all. the texas lawmaker and folks check this story out. it's funny because you know they are so uber so conservative and they want the government out of your personal life and business. they want the government out of your personal life and business but they want strippers, people who are in the sexual -- i the sexual-oriented careers to wear photo identification on them at all times. so the funny thing about that whole story, guys is that how do you do that? >> that's a good question. >> what does a stripper do when you are done stripping, where do you put the id? >> hello my name is name tag. >> i guess. i was think being maybe like some add she'sive or little things you put on kids' back packs or lunch boxes so they stay. >> absolutely. >> i guess you have to have a photo id with your full government name on there? >> if you are go to go have a name and an id i mean we are looking at something that's probably the size of a driver's license. >> yeah. >> you know where are you going to put that that's not going to be some kind of distraction. >> exactly or uncomfortable. >> right. >> if you put it on your ankle, it's uncomfortable. you have to move anground with it. now, the mystery and, you know, the mystique of, you know that particular genre of work goes away. you could be diamond or alcohol lat -- chocolate. >> or lexis? >> you have to be like geraldine or whatever your real name is. >> the second i have to like come face to face with a stripper named harriet. ? >> or gertrude. >> i mean or sue ellen, i don't know. either way. now we are going to our peter jennings for the "full-court press." what do you have for us? >> other headlines making news on wednesday espn apologized for the comments about alabama quarterback aj mccarron's girlfriend during the game monday night as the cameras zoomed in on her, he said wow what a beautiful woman. his commentary went a little tour too far bull catherine web, the former miss alarms said she was not bothered. she laughed hysterically when she heard what he sed. >> oh, boy. >> the thing is, she is not -- she is a private citizen and all of that, but she is also miss alabama. >> uh-huh. >> so she knows she's hot. she realizes she probably gets a lot of guys gawking at her. >> brit muscrove looked like a pervy old man on the broadcast. >> folks in braz he'll are getting really even the prostitutes. members of the prostitutes' association in brazil have begun signing up for english classes so they can better serve clients when the crowds come to town next year. at least 300 prostitutes are expected to sign up for classes. prostitution is, in fact legal in brazil. >> you don't have to know a whole lot of english i bet. >> they are doing it because they want to better serve the client so they know what turns the client on and, also, so they are making the right amount of money so they can tell the client exactly how much money they have to pay in english. >> that's in important. >> another day, another possibility of the celebrity running for the open massachusetts senate seat urging singer james taylor to seek john taylor's soon to be vacant seat. he has not public delispoken about the opportunity. ben afleck was recently room ordered to be considered to go for the seat but he has beensaid that he will not. >> i have seen fire and i have seen rain. i have seen sunny days that i thought would never end. >> thank you dan. >> on our conversation about the strippers, we got a comment from the current chat room. lost views has, maybe on the bottom of their shoes which are occasionally up in the air anyway. >> that's a good one. >> excellent point. >> that's definitely a good one. well, dan, thank you very much. >> you got it. >> i got your name wrong before. >> i get dan and bill confused all the time. >> to be honest, i would like to acknowledge the fact i made a mistake. i acknowledge it and i'm sorry. >> a talk show host acknowledging a mistake. >> that's what you've got to do. >> hope somebody appreciates that. >> i love it. >> i mean, you know, hey. listen, let's talk about, you know, let's talk. we were talking about strippers. now we can talk about guns. >> okay. because i guess that's appropriate. either way. >> go hand in hand maybe. >> in certain parts of the country. people cling do their guns and their strippers. >> jerry yeah. >> stripper poles. >> i was going to say religion but i thought it would be inappropriate. >> maybe. >> so, you know, there is a lot of movement on this whole gun control thing which i think, you know, it's good for the country, for one. for us to have this conversation about gun control and clearly figure out what gun control really means for, you know, this country, especially after sandy hook and a lot of other stuff that's happened but interestingly enough, joe biden will be meeting with the nra. that was announced by jay carney. let's get the clip of that. >>? >> this is not a problem that can be somed by gun legislation alone. it is not a problem that can be solved by any specific action or single action that the government might take. it's a problem that encompasses issues of mental health of he had cations as well as access to guns. >> i think interesting about that, you know, i think we have to, you can't just look at banning guns in a vacuum. you have to look at all of the things surrounding gun violence in this currentlyountry. i think that is a step in the right direction. joe biden is meeting with the right people besides the fact he is meeting with the nra and the gun safety groups, hollywood, video game makers everyone who has anything to do with and the proliferation of guns and the de desensetization. >> you got it. >> of guns. he is meeting with them to have this conversation and et getting support from democrats that are gun owners one being senator mancien in west virginia mark warner says he supports some of this gun control stuff and he has gotten some support from some people we thought he would. a recent interview with diane sawyer, gabby giffords and her husband, mark kelly, they are big on this. >> that's their next sort of step moving forward. let's take a step. >> gabby and i are both gun owners. we are strong supporters of the second amendment. we have to do something to keep the guns from getting in the wrong hands. >> this is such a crucial moment for this movement of gun control and how we regulate guns an especially assault weapons. buzzfeed, who we talk to often on the show said chances of gun control dim in washington. basically what you have is the president is looking to congress to help come up with some gun legislation. congress is looking to the president to the help come up with some gun legislation, so no one is really willing to take the first step and say, this is what both sides can agree on because there are some people who are going to fight really hard for keeping assault weapons around and there are allotted of other more sensible peeled people, i would say, so the fact that mark kelly and gabby giffords are saying we are here to offer input to the conversation, here to have the conversation, here to move this forward i think is really a big deal. i mean i know it's a story but i think it's a bigger deal than people realize because it's so hard to take that first step in this conversation. >> i think you are right on that a most phenomenal quote we got from the interview is i think from mark kelly when two years, saying congress has extra ordinarily done nothing to solve our gun control problem. if the shootings continue to happen and i think now is like the right opportunity for us to get this done. you know, i think joe biden is the one to begin the charge. >> yeah. >> i think there are a lot of republicans softening to gun control. we are going to get calls about people saying all republicans believe in guns but governor jan brewer said i want to consider gun regulation and arizona is the wild wild west when it comes to guns. >> absolutely. the moment is here for gun control. people who have addvocated for gun control for a long long time have known that this is something that needs to get done. i think now everybody is on board. they have seen what can happen when you mix mental illness with assault weapons. so you really got to wonder and you have got to find out who is going to find that right compromise that makes something happen. >> to add to that another -- i hate to say this but this is really not a zero sum game because there is so much political capital that you have so later on the show we are talking to angela kelly from the centre for american progress. the question is: does gun put immigration on the back burner? does gun happen before congressional march madness and that means immigration is put off to the side or does immigration happen first? i hate to say it but because our congress is so fickle, you know i guess we only deal with one at a time. >> i don't know. we will be right back on "the bill press show" after this, but don't go anywhere. give us a call. with you 855. >> 866-55-press. we want to hear your calls. we will be right back after the break on the bill press show. >> on your radio and on current tv this is "the bill press show." that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. 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[ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. you know who is coming on to me now? you know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. you would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. >>absolutely. >> and so would mitt romney. (vo) she's joy behar. >>and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking? [ music ] >> this is "the bill press show." >> we are back on the bill press show. good morning to you. thanks for the birthday shotout. we have dan griffin. thank you so much for the birthday shoutout. any birthday makes me happy. i am filling in for bill press today. let's take some calls. let's do it. what do you think, peter. >> let's do it. let's talk to anthony from las vegas. hey, hanthon e how are you? >> thanks for taking my call. >> you are welcome. >> i appreciate it. well, i guess what i wanted to talk about was off of the standpoint of the reasons why our society should have assault rifles. it's a striplingic thing. i don't want to speak lightly of the events that have happened but i wanted to ask you guys: have you ever heard of operation northwoods? >> i have not. >> it was discussed by the government, the joint chiefs of staff during the kennedy administration. it was a plan to actually use cia opinion operatives to use falsified attacks in miami and washington where, i don't know, i would assume attacks on civil civilian targets and blame it on the cast row communeadministration and use it as a pretext. >> so anthony, what's the crux of the argument here? >> the crux is that if our government at one point would discuss some kind of attacks on its own civilian population to use it as a pre-texastext to the sway society's opinion to go to war, can we trust the government at any point now? i am not coming from the standpoint of -- >> are you for or against assault rifles? >> well, the thing about it is i am against violence period. >> wait. >> are you for or against assault-rifles ban. that will seems to be the point. >> if there is a ban i think is it quo increase firearms. >> thanks for your call, anthony. i don't know if that makes much sense at all, but i don't think it does. i think if you get rid of assault rifles and nobody can buy them, you will have less guns we saw people buy them, at the end of the day, there has to be universal background checks and you have to -- what are you doing with an assault rfl, people?ifle, people? with 31 bullets in there. it doesn't make any sense. fran from springfield, hopeful you are more upbeat. >> fine. what kind of country cares more about guns than mental health care preventive measures? our system has been going downhill, since bedlam or whatever progress we made. ation reagan threw everything out of the window. support groups for skitsphrenics have been cut. programs that help families get help for their children. you have to pay close to $15,000. >> thank you so much, fran. we appreciate that. i agree with you whole-heartedly. we need mental healthcare. let's talk about that and not why we need more assault rivals on the street. that doesn't do any good for anybody. talking to former governor eliot spitzer about the aig crisis. stay with us. get that cup of coffee. get that newspaper. >> this is "the bill press show." hand of government" ... i want to have that conversation. let's talk about it. really? you're going to lay people off because now the government is going to help you fund your healthcare. really? i want to have those conversations, not to be confrontational, but to understand what the other side is saying, and i'd like to arm our viewers with the ability to argue with their conservative uncle joe over the dinner table. >> chatting with you live at current.com/billpress current.com/billpress, this is "the bill press show," live on your radio and current tv. we are back on the bill press show. as bill would say, there is always a seat for you here at the table. so you can always join our -- you go on current tv and join the currents t.v. chat where peter is monitoring and chatting with the chatters. or go to facebook.com/bill press show. or give us a call 1-866-55-press. listen to the podcast any time. hoy do you get to the podcast. >> billpressshow.com. >> billpressshow.com. >> we cut out all of the commercials. >> you get bill for three hours. >> or if you are listening today, you get me for three hours. >> there you go. >> listen monday, you get me. you can debate who is better. no, bill is better than me. >> we are happy to have you along? >> that's why i am filling in clearly i wasn't sure because i wanted to bring up. these are the kind of stories that could slip through the cracks unless we point it out. yesterday, we got all of the climate information from 2012, how warm it was across the country. it turns out 2012 was the hottest year on record. >> ouch. >> by a lot for that matter. normally when you have year to year fluctuations and average temperatures, it's a matter of a degree. this was a full degree hotter than the hottest year on record. i am looking at the numbers around the country. every single state had the record breaks temperatures. 20 states had record hottest temperatures. texas, they set a record for 118. it's not just the western and southern states. a lot of new england states, northern states, new york, 118. ver washability, 115. connecticut, 118. village, 116. ohio 118. 118 118. around the current tree, we set records on how hot it was. so for those people mocking politicians and leaders that want to get something done on climate change, there is your data. it's only gob to get hotter. >> about time for some climate change. there is so much we have got to get done before, you know this is on the desk. greg, how are you? >> caller: good morning. >> i am good. >> i want a respondents to your caller from las vegas. he goes into storage documents. those were no match to an f 16, a blackhawk or apache helicopter or to a predator drone or a tank. what is this guy thinking? that has nothing to do with the second amendment. we could call up a national guard in an event that the spanish or the frfrnling who were the super powers at the time to come back in and retake lands and territories that were in naerning not established or purchased at that time. 4iz thinking about what the second amendment means is totally off. he has brought bought into the fear tactics. it's a shame. it has not allowed him to think clearly about rational steps to have a safe and workable society. >> thank you for calling. i think their tactics are not the way to go. we talked about this on monday. fair tactics, sort of destroying the nature of security in this country. unfortunately our policy has been so dictated by fear, thanks to the right side of the aisle that we are in a situation where everybody is fortunately for everything. at the end of the day, we need to find it. >> at bp show rd writes in and says if you are in a hunting blind looking at a rivalfle and you think you need 30 rounds to bring down a deer? >> it destroys the benefit if you are trying to eat the dear it messes up the muscle and the meat tastes horrible. it shreds it. >> why would you want to go hunting if you are going to turn the deer into a fine mist. >> what's the point of killing it if you are not going to eat it? brian from rockford, how are you? >> thank you for taking my call. hey, you guys had spoken earlier about the gun control laws and everything, you know, possibility, like immigration may be put on hold. my question being: i understand guns, violence should be addressed. my big concern is, you know if we start putting other issues on hold to deal with one, you know because there are so many out there, where does it stop. my other question or statement with that is, you know, the criminals have the guns. you know, i live close enough to chicago that the people who don't use the guns are the ones who have them. what's to stop them? >> okay. thanks for the call brian. let's break that up into two. unfortunately, as much as the president wants to get done and gun control is on that, i think the president also wants to deal with student lands and education and there are a lot of different pieces that he wants to deal with at the end of the day. in order for that to work he has to get through the united states congress. we have had a republican caucus that they don't want to get anything done. because they don't want to get anything done, the president has to pick and choose his agenda. the question a lot of immigration are asking, you have to get it done in the first 100 days or you lose the political capital for winning the election. it's going to require a progressive. i said this all the time. what progressives are going to have to do, it's not b waiting on the president for the president to take up our agenda. we have to bring our agenda to warrant, pursh our agenda through the congress and the president will sign it. we can't depend upon the president to carry our agenda. >> that's what you are going to see in the next coming weeks or months and hopefully, angelie from the center for american progress will tell us what they are going to do moving their issues forward. before we go to break, we want to talk to stewart in saint petersburg, florida. >> good morning, guys. when we talk about assault weapons and mental health issue, okay. the tragedy this young man did he at the school but if we are talk about mental health issues, if this guy walked in with handgun and killed three kids and himself, would we still be talking about the mental health issue and guns today? the answers will probably be from the left no, because it wouldn't have been on their agenda. >> i hear you. i hear you, stewart. i think you are 100% right. i think now is the time for us to have this conversation about mental health because a lot of folks that do gun violence happen to have mental illnesses. the interesting thing about this from the african-american community, if you go to the enter inner cities, you know people get shot down or people get, you know, trampled. you don't hear the mental illness argument. you here they are thugs. they are criminals. what happens in suburban, you hear that mental illness issue a lot. i think what we have to discuss as a country is that on both sides, both urban violence and suburban violence and mass shoot shootings, when you decide when you take it upon yourself to kill somebody or to actively shoot somebody i think it takes a level -- for no cause. there is a level of mental illness we have to discuss as a country. hopefully this will be a broader conversation we cannot only have nationwide on how we sort of solve these issues. >> we will cial right back on the bill press show. we are coming back to talk about the aig and the fact that they are suing the united states of america after we bailed them out. what a way to bite the hand that feeds you. talking to former governor eliot spitzer. stay with us on the bill press show. we will be right back after the break. >> this is "the bill press show" live on your current tv. [ music ] >> heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is "the bill press show". >> and we are back on "the bill press show". the music, on our great wednesday morning. >> i know not bill -- i know i am not bill press. you saw a black man. >> that's not bill. bill is at home recovering from a lost voice and so i am filling in for him. we were separated at birth. >> you both wear glasses. you look something like. >> there was a time when we did the radio show and bill went to go visit. i forget -- ihe went to go visit some listeners and the guy says i have been listening to you for years and i thought you were black. >> true story. a ying-yang thing. >> either way, we are talking about aig. there is nobody better to talk about aig than person we have on the line with us former -- former governor of the state of new york and i would call him the guy that broke wall street. governor eliott spitzer. welcome to the show. >> thank you. kind words. i am not sure we broke t i am not sure we did enough to it as we found out in the 2008 when all of the structural harm and crises erupted and destroyed our economy but it's amaidsing to see the folks at aig saying to the government, we are going to sue you. it's one of the most remarkable things you've ever seen? >> it's completely remarkable. the simple fact that not only are they planning to sue but the fact that, you know, they released this glittery ad talking about how they thanked the american people so much. what a way to stick it to the american people. >> i understood the thank you at thisment last week when they said, look. we know we got this $182 billion bail-out. we are trying to pay it back. to turn around and sue and say, return this to the helpful owners. >> i don't think its way off, the kid who murders his parents and begs for mercy because he is an orphan. these guys killed the company. we came in as tax paired and saved it for them. now, they are coming back and saying, but you saved it on terms that were a little harsh. guys, you must be joking. of course, the person leading this is hank greenberg who was thrown out of the company by his own board, you know, he used to go on, went and said if you don't kick them out his own board threw him out because he took a 5th amendment with respect to allegations that were brought to us when i was attorney general by warren buffett and warren buffett's company about all sorts of wrongdoing inside aig. >> to those folks listening and watching in, when they say, aig is suing, it seems to be a group of a majority of the shareholders want to sue the federal government for the fact and the reasonable for the suit is because they said they charge owners amounts of interest and fees and so on and so on. those folks at home are foggy on now. >> think of it this way, hank greenberg had a lot of shares in aig. when the company imploded the value of his shares went to virtually nothing. when the government restored t the value was resuscitated. what he is saying is, my goodness, if you had given better terms, my shares would be worth more. he is wrong because his shares would have been worth less. he is now really saying, i want more back from the government beyond the assistance you gave me. somehow, i have a fiduciary duty, the board has to do it. to join me to get more money back. it's perverse logic because their value would have gone to zero if the government had not come in to safe them in the first place. >> a good point. they lost money on this. imagine where they would be if there had been no action. >> they would have gone to zero. the company would have been bankrupt. the harm to the economy would have been greater than it was because, let's not forget adg was at the center of the web of all of the financing structures the credit default swaps, akronims we heard so much about back in 2008/2009, that have faded from our memory a little bit, but aig was at the center of that web. hank green berg had built the company for a fair number of years did well but unfortunately for everybody at its core something metastsized andradiated out and did great harm to our economy. >> now, will this be -- is this going to be the beginning of a slippery slope for other folks who accepted bail-outs to try to sue the federal government or a one-off. >> this is a one-off. i think you are dealing with something in hank greenberg who has a unique perspective on how to goo about doing these things. it's boo by know means they will go with this. they will getting so a much adverse press and being beaten up by not only elected officials but academics and editorial boards saying, you must be joking, this is the height of hubris to do this. other banks are saying we don't want to go near this. other banks are playing a more subtle game. you saw headlines yesterday that the three regulations designed to ensure stability in the banking system in terms of the capitol that would underpin banking structures have been relaxed. what other institutions are doing, eating away at the vogel rule, at the dodd-frank regs that would change the way the system works. they are saying let's not worry about suing for stuff in the past some of the good work that had been done, not nearly enough of course but some of the good work that had been done is being eviscrated by that the. >> speaking on what they are doing, the pressure one has come from, i guess you would call her the progressive liones of the senate, elizabeth warren who has been adamantly opposed to this. she is like are you serious, aig? do you think we will see more banking regulation come down to besides dodd-frank? what do think will happen? >> we should but we won't. the congress has a rhythm to it. congress will be very hardpressed to go back to an issue it dealt with so recently. it should. barney frank is good friend somebody i respect having said that, dodd-frank didn't go far enough and as far as elizabeth warren and sherrod brown, academics as well. to get congress to go back to that issue when it has to deal with immigration, it has to deal with what one hopes gun issues, with the debt ceiling, they are their band is not broad enough for them to undertake another major examination of something where they will say, hey we just did that. let's see how it plays out. you also don't have a consensus right now. truth be told, i don't think the votes are there to revisit these issues. you have a republican block that wouldn't go for anything stronger and a lot of democrats that wouldn't be there. i don't think we will get new legislation. we may get rule making but another legislative effort i don't think that will happen. >> the think about the sec, something that has come out recentlied, the sec has asked for corporations to release how -- what their political activities are. >> it's funny, i have been calling on shareholders to make the same demand of corporations for many years. one of the things, in the last moment here, i think ownership trumps regulation. we own these through our pension funds, the endowments universally have shares, mutual funds which we invest in. shareholders should stand up and say we want to know what you are doing. >> governor, that's all we have. you are their hero. thank you for being on the show. governor eliot spitzer, right back on ""the bill press show"" right after the break. >> this is "the bill press show." [ music ] i want the people who watch our show, to be able to come away armed with the facts, and the arguments to feel confident in their positions. i want them to have the data and i want them to have the passion. [ music ] >> we are back on the bill press show. we don't have much time because the governor got us so much good knowledge. we have sweet says eliot spitzer is my hero. receipt at tweets in my father says she is handsome. tell yourpe thank you. >>don griffin says liz warren will put aig in her place. how could any judge allow for this lawsuit to happen. dodd griffith, i agree with you. we will be right back on the bill press show after this break. >> this is "the bill press show." [ music ] >> we are back on the bill press show. this withhold ai gichlt thing is something americans should be concerned about. we gave this money away to the corporation and now they want to sue us. if you talk about wall street greed and corruption aig is the face of that corruption. we are going to talk about that later on in the next coming hours. also, the good news is if you are a lover or hater of wall street greed and corruption. we were talking about that in the interview with spits he. they said they want corporations to review their political activity. we are going to talk more about that. we have more to come. we have to go to my good friend all the way in l.a. lisa ferguson. what is happening in the news? >> hey there, richard. good morning, everyone. a conservative group is targeting a new ad campaign against fellow republican mitch mcconnell mcconnell. the organization for america is upset the senate helped negotiate the fiscal cliff deal and is now pushing a series of online ads in then kentucky reading who's side are you on is? joe biden and president obama. >> brent bowsel said what the minority leader did was 100% unacceptable. mcconnell is up for rely in 2014 and will have to fend off a challenger. we are seeing push back against michelle bachmann now that she is appointed to a key position. the literal advocacy people people for the american way called the decision an outrage. am crusade against muss lem. people for the american way is circulating a petition when they plan on hand delivering to speaker boehner. they bachmann's fear mongering is below the discourt course americans should expect. we know americans do not think much of congress with ratings typically below 20% but here is a new way of looking at that. public policy polling has stacked congress up against some of the worst things, lower than col on ausccopy and the banned nickel back but better than lindsay lohan or the car dashians. more richard fowler on the bill press show. we are life in our chat room. join us there at current.com/billpress. alright, in 15 minutes we're going to do the young turks. i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. >> broadcasting across the nation, on your radio, and on current tv. this is "the bill press show." >> we are back on the bill press show. no, i am not bill press. just filling in for him as he rests his voice and recoup rates. you know, i have got to tell you, folks. what this aig thing sort of means, i think for the broader country is that, you know, no matter how much you try to help corporations and no matter how good they will be, they just aren't. we wrote a blank check and wall street is saying. we are going to sue you for $23 $23,000,000. a billion dollars. excuse me. >> i think the addage is true. you don't bite the hand that fees you. bill made a good point yesterday when he said, you know, if aig is so upset about this, give the money back. >> give the bill ions of dollars back. the government's help, give the money back. i hope governor spitzer is right on this, this is a one-off. if we see this from more banks, i would hoe we see the american people say hold on a second. the sad part, when you talk about the bail-out and this is one of those things that is near and dear to my heart. there has never been a time where congress has ever tried to bail out working class middle class families, young students seniors, they never bailed them out. corporations and, you know, lobbieby accidents can get checks. >> that's part of the problem here. i think speaking to that goes to, you know, what we have seen from the republican party. they are willing to write a blank sheet. democrats are capable on writing the blank check to wall street: they don't want to raise the debt ceiling unless we break the backs of the middle class and working class. it shows where our country is and they don't stant for their constituents. they line the coffers. we need to get corporate dollars we can go on and on and on and on. >> it is interesting, as you go through that and the terrible job that congress was doing. new approval ratings. all time low, whopping 9%. people like cockroaches more than congress. a root canal. find a list of things, because they pulled people on other things. the banned nickelback they are more popular than congress. >> joining us on the show this morning, the one and only congressman peter welch, democratic stallwart. >> congressman how do you feel? i know how you feel but i think the american people want to know how you feel about this whole aig debacle. >> it's astonishing. guiterrez said don't think about it. aig was the poster child for, for the greedy self-dealing taxpayer and shareholder be damned company that e pit omized the crash in '08. the beneficiary of a bail-out from the taxpayer. the poster child for too big to fail and now they want to be for corporate ingratitude and hutspa. they want a better deal. you can't make that up. >> not at all. >> speaking about it all sort of tied in together. so willing to write a blank check to wall street to help bail them out when it comes time to deal with working class, students, young people, we see a congress that's not that excited to do that to the point where the only way they will raise the debt limit is only if they can hut and hurt middle class families and hurt senior citizens? >> that's right. >> that's a moment of truth for us. an for the country's future. you know, we blew it last august when we allowed speaker boehner and the republicans to make a linkage between their willingness to raise the debt ceiling and their desire to get their way on the budget. the reason why is that there is -- it's -- the debt ceiling is not about authrising spending. it's about paying bills. to the extent they want to send us over the cliff, last time they did it, we had our first credit downgrade. it's going to cost us $90,000,000,000 interest payments. we do it again, credit downgrade and the president is not going to play the game. they send us into default. the power to do that is the power to destroy. the power, they have the restraint not to. if we increase the cost of debt service for taxpayers 1%, that's a $1 trillion additional expense over 10 years. this is just not to rabble. >> i know the people of vermont that are listen this morning watching in on current tv should be very very proud. congressman welch, you are tryingdor something about it. one thing, you have entered into two resolutions. one that would get -- they would cut the strings that the republicans want to attach to the debt ceiling. what's the other thing you are working ol to make sure this doesn't happen again? >> it's a reimplementation. this was elimination of hypocracy. what it would say is that when we voted on a budget the debt ceiling would be up or down to accommodate the budget we just voted for. you would have a joining rather than a separation of authorizing spending in the obligation to pay for it. so, let me give you an example, the ryan bucket my colleagues all voted for would require the debt ceiling to go up $5 trillion because it slashed taxes so much. in order to accommodate the budget they voted for, they voted when the debt ceiling comes up the high and mighty they are against big spending even though they sold it for a budget that required to go at $5 trillion. >> you have to face this question of what it means to the debt ceiling at the moment you authorized for the spending in the rant budget or the unfunded iraq or afghanistan wars. >> i hope you would explain that to some of the viewers and listeners out there. when congress pass approximates a budget, it's the job, it's not the president racking up the debt. congress and george bush congresses. the prescription drug bill that wasn't paid for congress. republicans voted for those things. they are saying they don't want the government to pay for it. >> when people understand that that's what it is you are paying for the bill and you want to default on it they are totally appalled. but if thing -- if they think it's an abtraction, they don't like that. >> you bought your credit card. you use it. 20 days later, the credit car bill arrives and you are over your limit. you say, i am not going to pay the bill as though that's some kind of excuse >> you have to pay the credit card bill. >> now, congressman, you have also -- you have also asked for the president if, you know, john boehner decides to play hooky or a game of cards with the debt ceiling, nancy pelosi, she should be, they have sort of said that they would be willing to do, you know, the approximately should enact section 4 of the 14th amendment. >> that's right. >> if congress is so reckless that it's prepared to send this economy into turmoil and the only option for us to avoid this default is the president to invoc the 14th amendment, i encourage him to do that. we cannot let this economy become the victim by tact cal politics. >> those aren't sure, how would the president enact the 14th amendment. >> how would the steps play out there. >> it would be a straightforward excuse me order. the 14 th amendment. you can't if the congress refused to authorize it, the president by executive order would direct treasu tree to meet the obligations coming due and that would include the bondholders who have lengtht us money, the contractors in the middle of construction of a road and then, obviously, there would be a lawsuit that followed an the courts would have to sort out who is right or wrong, but our view is that allowing either party by the way, republicans now to use this as a tactic economic nuclear weapon has just got to be off limits. >> the other option we have heard from which i think is the more comic cal is that the secretary has the power to print through the u.s. mint. any sort of denomination, a coin a bill he could print a trillion dollar coin. >> i guess it is. >> it makes your head scratch. it would be a technical way around. i am not a big fan of that. i think that it would be scene by an awful lot of people as just a little gambut. >> the gebhardt rule where we have to take responsibility of the debt implications. people understand that. >> that's about accountability. if the president exercised the 14th amendment and said look. 9% now you want to default and you go into negative approval rating and hurt the economy, the coin feels like something that might technically work. not sustainable. >> congressman peter welch, we appreciate you for being on the bill press show this morning? >> thank you. >> the fight on the hill fighting for progressive values. for the great people of vermont, thank you so much, congressman. >> thank you. >> this is richard fowler filling in for bill press. we will be right back after this break. what you're saying. (vo) she's joy behar. >> this is the full court press. "the bill press show." live on your radio and on current tv. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. (vo) she's joy behar. >>current will let me say anything. these talking points, that the right have, about the "heavy hand of government" ... i want to have that conversation. let's talk about it. really? you're going to lay people off because now the government is going to help you fund your healthcare. really? i want to have those conversations, not to be confrontational, but to understand what the other side is saying, and i'd like to arm our viewers with the ability to argue with their conservative uncle joe over the dinner table. >> this is "the bill press show" live on your radio and current tv. >> they are back on the bill press show. richard fowler filling in for bill press, at home recuperating. listen, folks. there is so much we are talking about today. we are talking about aig. we are talking about the sec decision. to make sure who the donors are. they are the donor. we are talking about the debt ceiling and taking your calls, 1866-55-press. we have a caller on the line all the way from where i was born. welcome to the bill press show. >> eric coburn played nice with these men. he should have been playing mean with these people. >> that's the problem. guns ain't the problem. greed is the problem. greed is the problem in america and until that ends we are going downhill, baby. >> thank you so much joey. i think you are right. greed is indeed the problem. >> it's true. it's totally true. >> greed is the problem here. it has nothing to do with -- it has nothing to do with this whole idea. i hate the argument when republicans say, free market privatization, capitalism solves our problems. the private sector cannot solve all of our problems. to that extent some of the private sector is not that private because the united states did not intervene, aig would not. i think the current tree would have been in a different place by far a worse place. >> i don't know what they are thinking exactly. i don't know what they are trying to say because if you follow their logic that, you know, they got robbed, they got screwed, they should have got more money the next time that a bank, someone that's too big to fail is in trouble the united states should think twice. >> of course. >> you know what? screw you guys. the sad pat of this whole situation is is that aig, all of the banks that got bailed out, they didn't do -- do you think, you know, you want to be your brother's keeper. like it says in the bible, you don't want to do unto others and i think there is a parable in the bible and the judge freed one person and forgave him. this is the exact example of what we see on wall street. wall street got their bad ills for givengiven by the american people. they got this blank check and didn't stop foreclosing on homes, defaulting, any of the horrible things that got them into this crisis to begin with. >> yeah. >> that's part of the problem. >> that's a sad part of going forward. you know, the sad part is that i think members of congress to some extent are totally complicit to some of these actions. >> i think you are right. i think that the american people see that. they are pretty fed up with congress. in fact we have polling that will shows how unpopular congress is. they are at a whopping 9% approval rating for public policy polling. you might ask yourself who could possibly get a worse rating. they have a helpful list of things that have a higher approval rating than congress. they include. head lice. replacement referees. root canals. nickemback, the not orous all of band dan likes colonoscpys, used car salesmen, ghengis khan brussel sprouts, ebola. >> limited see lohan. >> she has a higher approval rating. some people still like the love bug movie she did. >> maybe the sad event one on the list, the kardashian family has a higher approval rating. the kardashian family is a part of the american culture. >> i love you, too. >> you are dead to me. >> the kardashians? >> you sound like one of my best friends. are you here? >> i like the defender of the american dream. >> a good point. >> examples. a flight attendant. she built an empire. >> that's the american dream. she married into money and found a way to make money off of doing nothing and get paid to do nothing. you couldn't pay to do nothing. kim kardashian is running her own business. are you insane? getting her own pay. >> that's a business. don't hate. play the game. we will be right. "the bill press show." we will be right back. i am pretty sure the car dashians will come up again. i will defend them all did a. >> this is "the bill press show." i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. >> frattingchatting with you live, this is the bill press show live on your radio and current tv. >> we are back on "the bill press show." i am dancing to the music. >> they still are an example of the american dream whether you like it or not. i will get like e-mails and hate e-mails about it either way. let's get back to the story of the day. we will talk about the kardashians later. the story is at ig and the kerfuffle they have created by trying to sue the federal government government. shame on you. the funny part about this. i would say the ha-ha about this is days before they think -- they thought about suing, the federal government, they released this nice ad for all of the american people to hear. let's take a look. >> we are now leaner and focused on what we do best. we repaid every dollar america lengtht us. aig, we turned it around. >> thank you, america for the freedom to ensure. no thanks, aig for the fact you want to sue the american government. no. >> thanks for having me. >> bill woke up. he had no voice. >> nice to be here. >> thanks for coming in. >> i am pretty sure you are upset about this. >> i love this story. i prayed last night that the board of directors, the board of directors we have a new definition of hutzpah. >> explain to the people. >> it now is when a child murders his parents and please for the mercy of the court because he is an or fan. we have aig who got bailed out with 160 or$160 or so billion dollars of taxpair money. suing the government. >> precisely in a couple of hours, the board of directors, aig will mere two presentations in their board room. he would argue that the terms of the bail-out were onerous. because of that they were out some $22,000,000,000. the government will argue the more obvious case that this is absurd. >> the board of directors will decide whether to join the case or not. i pray that they do and this is a story that survives more than one day and we had yet another big example of one of the 2 -- why the too big to fail policy. >> i think we have heard that -- i don't think we have heard that yet. what happens if we actually get the lawsuit? right, the lawsuit goes through. does that do more good for those who believe. wall street gone too far all of the people in that camp, how crazy and obscene wall street is. >> the problem with wall street reform we require tremendous tragedy before we can fight through the army of wall street lobbyists that have washington in its grip, with $2 million al day they spend on lobbying the 4,000 lobbyists that have wall street interests in mind and it requires absurd outrageous events such as this to cause washington to think clearly that we have a serious problem that we need to address. this problem is going to go away by tomorrow. this will be a footnote. this will be part of ripley's believe it or not. but were it for the half a percent it goes through, it will be yet another important sign that we really have to break up these big institutions. >> i can't agree with you more. i think we have to break up -- this idea of being too big to fail is sort of the mindset that, you know, how lower manhattan operates is just i think it's sad for -- it's a sad -- it's sad for the american people, and, you know, places like mississippi and places like florida and places like southern virginia. they are failing because they have their too small to succeed. >> also, i think, you know, when you look at this idea of what's going on wall street, the american people see these -- a company that is greedy over the top, and dangerous and this really just drives home the fact that they are a greedy greedy business when you have someone who helps you out this way after you ask for it. i mean what if the government was going to say fine. you didn't like the deal. give us the money back. aig has given us the most visceral aspect of this bail-out because as you recall. it started when essentially what is in effect a rogue department in london, aig financial products. wrote way too many essentially fire insurance products, the credit fault swap fire insurance you can buy on a house you don't own, you can double up, triple up. there were 70, trillion dollars the credit default on underlying loans which only if you could count it, only like $12 trillion worth of locations outstanding. in other words, like 10 people buying fire insurance on your house. now, if you step back and think about that really in the interest of those people who owned fire insurance on your house to burn down. they collect on it. they haven't lost their house. that was the underlying problem. aig didn't have real collateral. they were happy to pay off when the market crashed. the government bailed them out. on one sense, we bailed out aig but what we did was bailed out the people who owned the fire insurance and made the claims. goldman sachs and deutsche bank. >> i remember when the aig crisis first started, people tried to explain the aig inter connectivity. to boeing, to air bus. there is a whole bunch of inter connectivity. >> aig fell basically, if wall street fell, we would lose jobs o and on and on and and on. it happened. because of that we were at 8% unemployment, you know. so the fact that after all of that, these folks, after being -- after being saved, especially the board of directors, they received profits. their stocks went up pennies. it didn't because of the federal government: the fact that they want to sue the federal government, it's just, you know, there really is no silver lining in these clouds. >> also it address did some of the disfunction of how corporate law and corporate principles clash with basically civic understanding. >> responsibility. >> responsibility. so in other words, it is true that there is legitimacy to this lawsuit in the courts. a sober judge has let this suit proceed as far as it does. the board of directors have two obligations, the duty of loyalty and the duty of care. they have to put the company first. they cant be thinking about the public. they can't be thinking about anything other than what is best for the company. they have to be cavin about it. >> that's what's happening today is the duty of care. presumably the duty of common sense will play a role. it will in today's board meeting. they are not going to accept and become part of this lawsuit, fortunate for me as a lobbyist. but it sort of shows the corporation has a life and a set of rules that really present serious problems for the civil society that we live in where common sense and decency should play some role. >> the question i always have and we are going to come back after the break to talk about this is whatever happened to the golden rule treat the person next to you as you would like to be treated. wall street does not have that message. we are coming back with barton nailer. we will talk about the sec and their decision or they are making rule making that says corporation has to tell you where they are spending their political money. filling in for bill press. we will be right back after this break. >> this is the full court press. "the bill press show," live on your radio and on current tv. i want the people who watch our show, to be able to come away armed with the facts, and the arguments to feel confident in their positions. i want them to have the data and i want them to have the passion. >> heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the bill press show. >> we are back on the bill press show. i am boogying because it's my birthday and i can do that. we are back with bart nailer and peter as always. the co-pilot on this ship. social media, the people, we are tweeting @bpshow. find us there. the lawsuit. harry says when did the banks -- when did we hear the bank bail-out. it didn't look like it saved many jobs except for those who worked for aig. aig agreed to the bail-out. wouldn't this be them suing themselves? if corporations were people and this was okay, i am going to sue myself for bad past decisions. where was the jilted shareholder while aig was playing the default swap game? waah. we are tweeting at bpshow. >> or at richard fowler monitoring tweets,@bp the, monitoring tweets as well. outgoing chairperson of the sec who is leaving, i think her term ends. i don't know the exact date when it ends. happen air shapiro stepped down i believe, so the acting chair is aelease walter they are passing a new rule. they proposed a new rule that would force corporations. what their political activity is. in response to the over reach on citizens united. >> that's close. >> i am no financial policy person. >> celebrate when we can. and this progress is something to celebrate. what the sec has decided is to put on its agenda on its to do list. consideration as a rule as you say force to disclose their spending so shareholders can say that's a good idea or not. we can come to citizens united. the reality is the sec notoriously that is man dated to pass. getting us on the to do list is wonderful. will it be done? what did citizens united say? justice kennedy unfortunately didn't we don't need to stop political spending by regulation. the shareholders will do that. that they know i don't think well, we don't actually have the ability to call up the ceo or have a vote on this. even if we did, how would we know what they were spending. >> that's a rich moment. i think people listen okay current and on the radio and watching on current, they didn't hear that right. in the decision of the supreme court, they said the whole idea, that the shareholders would be able to control how the ceo or the government affairs when it comes to politics. the sad part is, the ha- ha as i like to say, these individuals have no idea because this has not been disclosed to them. >> it's crazy. >> you could go down to google or do a search and find out some of this information. you pretty much don't know. you don't know how much they give to the chamber of commerce. you don't know how much they pay in lobbyists. you don't know how much the individuals are paying or the corporation is paying. >> really in the loop. >> this is absolutely insane. >> a vacuum. you take it to the vacuum. organizations people for people who support cats or people for american freedom, american prosperity insert age jest adjective. to run these attack ads. against the president or against issues. you have no idea where this money comes from. the people who own the company that providing the money, they don't know that they are spending the money. >> that's right. >> that's crazy. >> a simple think is to say mandate that this be disclosed. the sec has this in it's power. the sec was created in 1933 or, you know, in 1933 or through the '33 and '34 acts, now, they want to be able to tell their investors as little as possible and they are fighting tooth and nail against anything like this. >> corporations to stand and say, yes. >> this should be passed in a hair's breath. we think it requires a lot. it requires a heavy lift. i think a half a million people have signed a petition to the sec calling for this. the other question i have now speaking about that is: what with can we do? a short time lift. what kate american people to do. we can go on to our website. citizens.org. if they are an investortor through mutual funds, they can contact their company and ask them to voluntarily disclose. some of the companies do. they can call their congress person and ask them to support a congressional effort to mandate that the sec do this. >> got it. thank you for being on the show bart nailer from the public citizen. we appreciate you. >> thank you. >> we will be right back on the bill press show after this break. don't go anywhere. get another cup of coffee and sit with us. >> this is the full court press live on your radio and on current tv. 43