This is real money. You are the most important part of the show. Tweet me or hit me up at facebook drought come. The fall out for burger king to tie out tim hortons is brewing into a Public Relations nightmare. Dick durbin blasted the 11. 4 billion deal. He said today how disappointed he is in, quote, burger kings decision to renounce its american citizenship. Billionaire investor warren buffet whose company is financing part of the deal is now in damage control over the tax breaks that burger king will get by becoming a canadian company. Buffet, as you recall, is famous for calling on americas wealthy to pay their fair share to your honor sam. His participation in this deal puts him in a wal awkward position. Burger king is the latest of a company who purchases a foreign firm and then moves into its headquarters. They continue to operate in america but by doing so they take advantage of lower tax rates outside of the United States. Burger king denies that this deal is about denying uncle sam its due. It says hes merging with tim horton because its opening new business vistas for the company. Still inversions let companies transfer money that is made outside of the United States to the Parent Company without paying additional u. S. Taxes on income that is generated abroad. That is very important for a company like burger king that plans to expand its business overseas. Now, burger king will be able to use the extra money to purchase new assets or pay out stock dividends so its hai shareholders, thats why investors like inverts. Like it or not america is going to see more Companies Like burger king who choose to ditch uncle sam, and we companies we consider quintessential american are already anything but. At least 75 large u. S. Corporations have moved their address abroad. Some of those companies have my profile names. Many have moved to places bike bermuda and Cayman Islands where there is no Corporate Income tax. One example is th the Consulting Service price water house. And the under wear manufacturer fruit of the loom moved its Corporate Headquarters to the Cayman Islands in 1998. But lately more u. S. Companies are using a technique called inversion, and it could wind up costing the u. S. 20 billion in lost tax revenue over the next deck kate, inversion is where an u. S. Company legally arranges to become the subsidiary of a foreignbased company and thus pays taxes to that foreign country instead of the u. S. One of those companies the American Icon sara lee merged into 2012 with de master blenders an International Coffee and tea company and now has its headquarters in the netherlands. Chiquita brands and medtronics will move their headquarters to ireland when their inversions are complete. They say theyre announcing their citizenship to avoid the tax rate, the highest in the world. The critics say that Companies Often use loops holes to avoid paying the full 35 Corporate Income tax. And that it invert and relocate abroad they still enjoy all the benefits of u. S. Laws. The critics go on to say if congress reduces the u. S. Corporate tax rate it will only rob the u. S. Of even more tax revenue and ignite an arms race with other countries which will lower their tax rates, too. For now policy makessers are exploring their options and embracing a bigger wave of corporate defections and inversions. Research of companies that have left have significantly increased performance. Studying inversion deals for more than a decade, she joins us from chicago to plain more. Professor, thank you so much for being with us. This burger king deal, theyre telling everyone it is not just about inversion in fact, theyre saying its not about inversion at all. Is it or isnt it. This is an interesting deal because there are very Good Business reasons for burger king and tim hortons to combine. So weve got a Business Combination thats motivated by good substantial business synergies, but we have a structure that is formulated purely for tax considerations. So its both. What is the benefit . If it were not a tax benefit, why would a company that has been headquartered in the United States for all of its history choose not to be . Well, remember that tim hortons was owned for a long time by wendys. Its clear to see that there are advantages to a Company Whose primary focus is breakfast with a Company Whose focus is lunch and dinner. Burger king had some gaps in its breakfast presentation to the market. And so tim hortons offers a really Good Business synergy with burger king. Lets talk about the idea that the critics say the u. S. Studies say that the u. S. Stands to lose a lot of tax revenue if this idea of inversions accelerates. But others say its going to accelerates unless the u. S. Changes its tax laws. What are the tax laws in question that need to be changed in order to stop companies from taking advantage of that part of things . Well, first let me talk about the way that were structured. So the u. S. Stands alone among the major industrialized nations in taxing on a residents basis. If you are an u. S. Company, if your headquarters is here and youre a resident in the u. S. That means that you must pay Corporate Tax on all the money that you earn no matter where its earned across the globe. If you are in any other industrialeddize country, you a pay tax based on source. Tim hortons is in canada, and it pays tax in the jurisdiction where is it operates. Burger king is in the United States, so it pays tax on all its income no matter where its earned. So when they combine the joint entity would not want to subject tim hortons to tax globally. So theyre choosing to combine under a corporation thats head quartered in canada so they will be in a territorial regime. So we constantly hear largely from conservatives on tv that the tax rate in the United States, Corporate Tax rate is too high. Canada has a very low Corporate Tax rate, thats what its about. The u. S. Lowers its Corporate Tax rate this wont happen. But youre talking about shifting from a two different types of tax regimes. Thats right. Ali, the o. That the Corporate Tax rate is too high simply doesnt stand up to the evidence because belgiums tax rate is 34 , almost the exact same as the United States, weve got companies incidentally, companies owned by the same shareholders a 3 g. Theits not the tax rate but how we tax corporate business in this country. What a good discussion and thank you for clarifying that. Professor at the university of illinois at urbna champaign. The. In ferguson, missouri, the majority of residents are black. The majority of voters are white. Why are africanamerican voters staying away from the polls . And in gaza and israel, a tenuous ceasefire takes hold. This is the last time u. N. Plans to foot the bill. Even before gazas latest violence the palestinian enclave suffered from unemployment in excess of 40 . 70 of its citizens already relied on some form of humanitarian aid and that was before the damage rocked by a 50 day military offensive that left scores dead and its infrastructure in ruins. Initial estimates put the cause of rebuilding gaza the 6 billion or more. We have have more ahead on the reconstruction. In just 50 days much of gaza was destroyed. The morning after peace return here the dust was literally settling. 1. 8million gazaens facing the worst destruction. This would be a great Business Opportunity for this but his building has been hit. We need to get the materials we need to repair the factory, metals, cement, and other materials. Easing rules so reconstruction can begin but similar measures were promised in the 2012 ceasefire. They were rarely far reaching enough to make construction in gaza any easier. Money from the International Community will be needed to rebuild gaza but this wont be the first time. Again and again here Infrastructure Projects paid for by foreign donations have been bombed by israel. The Yasser ArafatInternational Airport was a multi Million Dollar initiative paid for by the International Community. This airport was to International Standards just over there where that dome is. That was the vip section of the airport. Beyond that was the runway. It opened in 1998 but it was only opened for a few years before it was bombed by the israelis, and it has never been functional since. Three times over the last six years gaza has needed reconstruction after conflict. This time says the u. N. Is the last time. Were all tired of this cycle. This must be the last time that we are repairing gaza. And even before the war there were plenty of things to do here. 62 without work. Young people without hope. And 95 without portable water. But without a real political solution to the palestinianisraeli conflict people in gaza will end up rebuilding their lives from scratch, many more times. Jane ferguson, al jazeera, gaza. Well, the open ended ceasefire between the israelis and palestinians in gaza appears to be holding for now. As part of the agreement israel agreed to ease air and land constraints in gaza. I asked if the goal was to bring israel back to the table despite years of fruitless negotiations. Heres what he told me. No. This time we have a plan, and this plan is yes or no. They havent done it so far. They havent done it so far. They continue the sentiment activities, and our legal status now in the United Nations i in 2012, we are a state under occupation. We are exactly like korea, philippines, belgium, holland, norway, france, in the Second World War under the japanese and german occupations. So israel has a choice now. The choice settlements or peace. They cant have both. Occupation or peace. They cannot have both. Either they become full responsible authority for palestinians as occupying power or they allow this to take palestinians to independence within a very specified time frame within the International Community. You can see much more of my conversation with him tonight on consider this. All week long im filling in for antonio mora. Thats 7 00 pacific and 10 00 p. M. Eastern tonight. We look at whether hijackers attacked jp more ban chase, hackers, im sorry. The attack far beyond the capability of ordinary criminal hackers cooler to Security Experts cited by bloomberg. They say that the hacking incident led to the loss of Sensitive Data and it may have been caused by malicious computer code known as mallware. A jp morgan spokesperson did not confirm the reports. Twothirds of the ferguson, missouri, population is black, you wouldnt be able to tell that on voter days. We have been talking about the dramatic events that unfolded in ferguson, missouri, in august. Thats when unarmed 18yearold Michael Brown was shot and killed. Twothirds of the citys residents are black. But five of the six members of the city couple are white. The towns police force is also mostly white. In last years elections 6 of blacks turned out to vote. While only 17 of whites voted last year. Its a different turn out where youre beaten over the head in ads. 54 were blacks and 55 whites, and that holds true not just for ferguson but nationally black voter turnout exceeded white voter nationally. 66. 2 for blacks and 64. 1 for whites. Thats for president ial election. But its way more important to show up for municipal elections roland, a syndicated columnist. You and i tweeted we were going to be on together, and someone tweeted to say, are you saying that the color of their skin, these white City Councils in ferguson, missouri, youre saying that theyre not qualified because of the color of their skin . Thats not the argument. No, the arguments not that. If you have 67 of africanamericans in a city you would think that you would have more representation on the city council, on the school board, but that is not the case. Ali, i call this invisible shackles. That is there are a lot of people who simply believe their vote doesnt matter. They believe their vote will not make a difference. In a town of 21,000 people, this tells me that you do not have a real structure there when it comes to voter education. We see this all across the country. Well see significant voters turn out or vote in the president ial election but then when you go to u. S. Senator, smaller number. Congressional races, smaller. When you go down the ballot it drops down big time so people focus on the big races. You show up and go right to the ballot box, but they vote for the president. Right, this happens across the country. The majority of people say their lives are more impacted by what happens o on the local level. When talking to a group of young men. How many of you would like to be on the jury when officer Darren Wilson would be indicted. He said, you know i cant serve jury duty if youre not registered to vote. They stopped in their track. Mean people feel they cant make a difference. Look at what theyre doing, but look at the rules. The income o comes from caught fees and fines. Three warrants to every household in ferguson, and that says what whole lot. But thats the way the superb ban thingsuburban things come in. This is what a lot of africanamericans were complaining. They feel like theyre disproportionate stopped, traffic stops, three warrants, outstanding per house. Weve heard people say this is how the town raises money. But the power is in your hands. Who you elect as cit city and town representatives, they hire the police chief, the fire chief. This is why you need to have organization, youre going to see thati think youre going to see people there finally realize they cant be violent. Thecant be silent, they cant complain. It means that you have to stand up and use the power that is in your hands. It doesnt mean that the city council has to be twothirds black. It just means the powers are in your hands. Lets see if whites still win i want to see if more white folks vote. I want to see where those precincts come from. If youre 67 black if you look at those numbers you probably had an organized effort when it came to white folks who live in ferguson, so you dont need a large number because africanamericans are not turning out. Seize the power. Let me ask you this, are a lot of africanamericans who moved out of the st. Louis city, to the county, theyre republicanners in ferguson, missouri, as opposed to more white residents who are homeowners, does that make a difference in feeling connected to your community and showing up for elections. It does make a difference. Homeowners pay property taxes. When you own a home you feel like youre a stake holder and you have a different view of the community as opposed to someone who rents. That play as role as well. One of the things ive been seeing when you look at trayvon martin, jordan davis and this case here at some point we have to go from a moment to a movement. I believe what this has exposed is not just peoples anger towards the Police Department and also the encompetency tense of the city, its exposing people who dont believe they matter. They have to be told and instructed you do matter. Guess what, you have to show up. You have to go to council meetings, go to hearings, get registered, care about your neighborhood, and the most important thing. Voting is the end of one process and the beginning of another. You vote for who you want, and then you have to hold them accountable. Stay right there. I want to talk to you about the black middle class and what can be done to keep blacks from falling out of it. Thats a big focus of concern. Stay right there. The Unemployment Rate for july was 6. 5 down from 7. 7 this time last year. Following suit Unemployment Rates are down all over big metropolitan areas than they were this time last year. Cost to cost there are a handful of big cities that jumped in unemployment. The highest is struggling detroit. Much higher than the national rate. On the west coast Los Angeles Tops the unemployment list at 8 . Even though its high to other big cities its doing better than it was doing this time last year when the Unemployment Rate in los angeles was 9. 7 . Ngo surprise, casino towns are suffering. Las vegas with big unemployment. Smallercys in other casino towns. Atlantic city made headlines with its annual decrease in jobs we know that considering how many casinos have closed. And for smaller cities the town with the worst unemployment in the country is yuma, arizona, right on the mexican board. 29. 2 . Thphiladelphia went from 59 of the city. 59 of the city was middle class in 1970. By 2010 it was 42 . Philadelphia is poorer now. Its lost more taxpaying middle class residents as a whole. Only baltimore and detroit has higher percentages of lower households. But one community has managed to keep it together over the last 40 years while others around it got hollowed out. Im talking about the neighborhood. Wind field. [ singing ] reporter its sunday morning at Penn Memorial Church in west philadelphia. Francis austin has been going to this church for decades. She moved to windfield in the 60s when the neighborhood was primarily jewish. This churche church used to be a synagogue. One of the few predominantly black areas. It looks like every other area that is middle class but many of these blocks have blocks captains who keep an eye on whats going on, garbage collection, snow removal or crime or deciding who is holding the block party. Winfield has a strong identity. Its got curving treelined streets. Its not usual to see scenes like this in wynnefield. Someone sweeping the streets. 74 of the middle class was white. That number decreased to 54 . Now blacks make up 42 of the middle class but austin said the general feel something there is a difference between white and black middle class in philadelphia. When you look at the Median Income its such a wide gap from blacks to whites you never catch up to what whites mr. Making because you dont have those opportunities. Income varies between white middle class and black middle class by income. The Median Income for wynnegield, 40,000 a year. In roxborough the Median Income is 60,000. Even though there are more blacks middle class they dont have the jobs of the white middle class. A lot of that is generated by Public Sector jobs, related jobs and some africanamericans analysts and scholars will tell you they have not made as much progress in the private sector. Some believe it makes it harder for after american africanamericans to climb the social ladder and send their children to different schools. Philadelphia is poorer today than it was in the 1970s when 15 of the population lived below the poverty line. That number is now 27 among the highest in the nation. But austin is optimistic. She says many people who left wynnefield in the past are starting to return and reinvest in their neighborhood. You see them moving back because the taxes and blatant racism, these are middle class people who decided its better to come back here and then to make changes because they have that courage and passion. Okay, more than half of black middle class residents in philadelphia feared they could one day slip out of the middle class. But for more on black middle class families and the rest of the country, lets bring roland back. Roland and i spent most of the financial crisis talking about this around the country. You lived in chicago. You lived in washington. You lived in houston. I still own a home in the dallas area. Yes, youve seen this struggle. Weve used philadelphia as a microcosmism has it has been hit in the middle class. Here is the most important thing that was said in your piece. That the middle class jobs that africanamericans have have Public Sector jobs. As a result when the economy goes down. When there is time for budget cuts. When you have a tea party and republicans who are saying, slash, slash, slash. When you start cutting teachers jobs, when you start cutting city hall, government, youre cutting africanamericans. Many will say well, you have to deal with the reality the role that race plays when it comes to the private sector. Studies show very clearly if you have a blacksounding name you have a 50 chance of getting a call back for a job than you do with a socalled white sounding name with the exact same resume. Same resume. Simply different names. You also have this serious problem when it comes to education. The Unemployment Rate for an africanamerican College Graduate is twice that of a white College Graduate. And so we have a systemic problem in america when africanamericans are being shut out of a lot of these jobs. And look, im going to use media as an example. This is a perfect examiner. You cant tell me in america you cant find an africanamerican who can host a primetime show on a cable news network. Somebody will is be saying thats no big deal. It is a big difference when you see bill oreilly, anderson cooper, shawn tha sean hannity. And you see these huge salaries. There may an show host, but were not saying 10 million to 300,000. Take that same model and take it to Corporate America and the private sector. Thats the reality where we stand in america. Thats what contributes to this disparity when we talk about white middle class and black middle class. If you have a blacksounding name, you dont get the job. Whites and blacks went into banks with exactly the same statistics, the same resume, and the same credit scores, blacks got a higher Interest Rates than whites didder did. We have heard people stilling us this week that housing makes up such a big part of the difference in the wealth of a black house how would and a white house hold. It takes longer to blew areas. Areas dont gentrify an they end up with a lot less money. Heres what happened. If youre africanamerican and you got one of those predatory loans, one of those subprime loans, then when the housing crisis hit you were more susceptible to losing your home. 53 of black wealth was wiped out in the last six years because of the home foreclosure crisis. Lets say you kept your home. Guess what then happened . Wall street journal did a story. 23. 09billion in loans to Small Businesses backed by the sba were loaned out. Africanamericans got 1. 7 or 385 million. Why . Because even if they kept their home, if they refinanced it or had some kind of modification it hurt their actual credit scores. The sba ive been dealing with for the last four, five months saying what are you going to do to fix this problem. You were hurt by the predatory loans. Hurt by modification. Now you cant get a loan. You cant grow your business and you cant participate in the recovery. Its a triple whammy for africanamericans. What sets them back on track . There are many people who want to be part of this middle class. They are hanging on by their finger nails. Once you slip out it is much harder to climb back. Let me tell you something. I have been very critical of the president and the department of housing and urban development. They have done a woeful job when it comes to keeping americans in their homes. Barney frank told me in the hallways, he told me one of the biggest mistakes i made was not doing more for the homeowners as opposed to the banks. And so we have to have the department of Housing Urban Development do more. Also we got to do more with what happened with sally may and fannie mae. Thats critical. If we get rid of them, im not saying theyre perfect. But if you put it back in the hand of the private sector thats where a lot of problems are. You have to have government a governmental intervention. Most africanamericans, their wealth comes from their homes. The study is clear. Average white wealth, 100,000. Average africanamerican, 5,000. That means you cant leave money to their kids when it comes to paying for their education. It goes far beyond that just one home. Youre talking about generational issues, generational poverty. We have to reverse it to keep some sort of generational weal wealth. Row lap, come back regularly. Just let me know. Im here any time. Coming up a new debt load. Why its dangerous for you and your family. And forget this years harvest. Many farmers in america havent gotten last years harvest to market. Ill tell you why. The Congressional Budget Office or sbo is cutting its projection for americas Economic Growth this year cit ing surprising weakness in the first half of the year. The u. S. Economy will grow 1. 5 this year. In february it was expecting that growth to be more of a robust 3. 1 . The report paints a rosy picture for the next couple of years. 3. 4 growth in 2015 and 2016. Driven by business investments, consumer spending, faster household formation and increased home building, and the cbo thinks the slack in the labor market will largely disappear within three years. The revised forecast i applaud the budget deficit, the shortfall for what the government pays out for programs and the money it takes in for revenues. The report is worried that the debt load is not going to be solved. The debt of gdp will hit 74 this year. Thats the highest level since 1950. And if capitol hill does not get its act together it will rise to 77. 2 in ten years. As a result we should expect some, quote, serious negative consequences. Bill hoagland agrees. He said it not only hurt the economy but weigh on the living standards. Bill was one of the first employees when the cbo was created back in 1975. He served as a staff member of the Budget Committee for more than 20 years. This guy knows this stuff. Hes a Senior Vice President at the bipartisan policy center. He joins me from washington. Bill, at some point im surprised you not pulled all your air out. This is not only a serious problem it is entirely solvable, and it would have been solvable if you had on it a long time ago. This is a problem that doesnt get involved because people dont have the political will to solve it. I agree with you, ali. This is a problem that has been going for quite some time. Youre right, i should have pulled my hair out a long time ago. Its tilting a windmills to get this under control. The issues are stark from my perspective. Yes, the deficit has improved as you outlined. They have improved over the last couple of years, but the under lying trend is still bad as you said. The debt to the gdp, the public debt held is well into the 74 . Thats historically well over the 40 it has averaged over the last 40 years and continues to grow even though the deficit comes down. In the near term it levels out but that debt continues to grow as you indicated close to 78 . Why is that important . Individuals can have some sense of what they earn and what their assets are, when go for a mortgage, they give a sense of your debt to your assets and what levels these are problematic. But from a government perspective why is 78 dangerous and 74 bad and 40 good . Well, the economists are argue until the cows come home what is the right level or what level is sustainable. My bottom line is you cant spend more than you take in in revenues whether its government or household. There is a time when there has to be a deficit in times of war, recession. But over time you should balance it out. The problem is in the creation of this debt, Interest Rates. The good news in the short term the Interest Rates are low. But if those Interest Rates trend back to normal as we say or revert to normal, in fact, the cbo report points out the Fastest Growing component of the federal budget will be paying the interest on the bubble debt. Thats a tax burden on the future generations. Recently, im a grandfather for the first time. My grandson in the future will face having a tax applied to him to bear the burden of that high interest rate. Which would be fine if that money was spent on investments and things that your grandchild is going to benefit from. But we cant get an agreement from members of congress to spend money on that. Theyll just have the bill. Thats right. The component of the bill, if it were seed, infrastructure, science, those areas have been squeezed. Medicaid is growing at 15 this year. Those are unsustainable into the future. Those are the kind of politically very sensitive types of programs to address in terms of politics, but were unwilling to take on them, and as a consequence were shortchanging those other investment programs that we talked about that are necessary for our longterm Economic Growth. Thats the fear that i have here with this level of debt. Its shortchanging and making Economic Growth in the future even more difficult that it already is. And its not an intractable problem. It is not any incurable cancer. It can be solved. Guys like you know what the solutions are. We just need folks to make tough decisions and realize it might cost them to do it but it will benefit the rest of us in the long term. Bill, good to see you. Good to be with you. Bill hoagland, the three hour train delay is an annoyance, a three month delay is a problem. Why it could soon be costing you. Thats up next. Coming up right after real money the mother of an american hostage pleas for her sons life. Steve sotloff being held by the Islamic State group. And how theyre attracting fighters from around the world. Plus questions about guns in the hands of children after a nineyearold accidently kills her shooting instructor with a sub machine gun. Its all coming up right after real money. Well see you then. Its harvest time in the great plains and Grain Farmers are looking at a bumper crop. That should be good news. But in some states brai grain and soybean farmers are still trying to unload last years harvest. Its 13 weeks behind on more than 10,000 railcar requests. The situation is so dire the Surface Transportation Board is holding a public hearing in north dakota to discuss the crisis. The agency is directing the two major rail freight players, canada pacific and bnsf to attend the meeting. The states farmers are desperate for a sick. But as reports, this backlog goes back more than a year. Well do everything that can be done to restore service levels. Railroad officials are under fire as traffic jams snarl freight trains throughout the midwest. Focusing on two primary rail lines. Burlington northern santa fe and canadian pacific. At issue weeks and months, costing coal miners, power plans and farmers millions of dollars in lost revenue. A group of rail customers advocating for more reliable service. All the groups that ship goods by freight rail that are located in this part of the country are being effected. The problems began in lat late 2013 when the crude was being transported. Combined with increased rail shipment of consumer goods, it put a train on the system. Including along the northern corridor. Record snowfalls forced rail ways to use smaller trains. Despite this, the slow down continues. Bnsf stressed the good news there is nothing systemically wrong. By bringing in extra crews, they claim service is already improving but some rail customers have been warned they may not see normal service for the remainder of the year. More has been moving but were currently in a backlog situation with respect to grain and coal and it will take some time to sort of work some of that backlog off. Bnsf has announced plans to spend approximately 1. 6 billion for new equipment this year. With another 900 million going to rail expansion projects. But for customers like steve sharp real change will take an act of congress. There are only two industries in the United States right now that enjoy a broad exemption from the countries antitrust laws, and thats the railroads and baseball. We dont have any quarrel with baseball. Al jazeera. From coal to grain the backlog continues and the pain its inflicting can be measured in dollars and cents. A recent study showed that shipping delay cost state farmers 100 million in the last year. As corn, wheat, soy ben sits for weeks in silos and worse gets exposed to elements in open piles on the ground the prices they fetch go down. Corn growers pegged their losses at 0. 30 a bushel. Thats enough to turn a banner year into a loss. The railroads moved Minnesota Spring wheat by rail to the pacific snort west to be put on ocean vessels for expert. This serves the north dakota oil reserves which has led to congestion and later delays. There are an extra 200 million bushels of corn and soybean sitting in Grain Elevators or on farms across minnesota according to bob zalanka director of minnesotas grain and feed association. All of that grain needs to get moved out before harvest begins in late september. Bob joins us now from minneapolis. Bob, this is a truly amazing story. The representative from bnst told our reporter there is nothing systematically wrong. Thats good news. That means that the railways are not broken. But thats not useful news for people who need to get this grain to market. There is a problem with the positioning of the equipment. Congestion is the biggest problem were dealing with right now. I think the railroads are doing what they can, particularly bnsf. Communication needs to be improved but we have grain in storage that needs to move. They keep pushing back the timeline and im afraid were going to run into harvest with a lot of grain on the farm from last years crop. Elevators, you cant build new ones. They fill up. I worry about grains rotting. Tell me the logistics of this. Well, we buy the grain from the producers and we contract to sell the grain into the export market. And we have contracts to sell that grain. We will continue the grain, dry it if necessary, but were the local market for the producers. We have contracts with end users when we cant deliver we get discounted and that effects our bottom line in terms of what we can make and pass on to our customers. I believe youre under stating it. Not only do you pay fines on the contracts, but everyone is borrowing money from someone in the industry, and i imagine if youre fighting oil to get products shipped out. The cost of afraid has gone up substantially as of late. Oil is pushing that in terms of what they pay to access freight. It does seem that the impression is that there is priority given to oil. You see oil trains moving all the time. Its difficult for a Grain Elevator manager see an oil train go by and hes eight weeks late getting to his. Thats a challenging problem. I understand from your end where you have grain in elevators. What happens when you can no longer get that grain from the farmer because you dont have space in the elevator. You pile it on the ground. Elevators, you cover it with a tarp but its not like putting it in fixed storage. But in minnesota you have 75 of the total available storage located on the farm. Farmers have less ability to handle grain beyond putting it in their own bins. At that point it begins to be a problem at some time. Let me ask you. You said a lot of this grain is for export market. And you have contracts with end users. Does this mean that youre not find ailing problem where it will effect end users because theyre paying more for grain . No, i dont think so, but the problem is getting it to the port on time. The people we sell through through the i will evaluators. Theyre lining up oaks freight to coordinate with the arrival of the trains. And if the timing is off it makes it difficult and runs up the price and impacts our bottom line on the discounts on our contracts. Are you satisfied that this hearing and im is on top of it and will lead to an improvement . Well, i think what the they did was more transparency so we have a better understanding of what theyre moving, how theyre moving and what the turn around time is. Bnsf has been doing a better job as being being transparent than cp, but we have a problem, im glad they did get involved. They put together metrics that the railroads need to provide but time will tell whether they can meet the demand that is still out there in terms of moving last years crop. What an interesting story. Well stay on top of it. We stayed on top of the oil by rail story and th the an the ancillary effect ever it. Thank you for joining me. A Government Shutdown last year was an ugly affair that showed just how dysfunctional politics have become in this country in washington in particular. After all the smoke cleared americans could only hope that democrat and republicans in congress would think twice before pushing america to the brink, but we may be headed to another showdown and sooner than you think. The budget deal that came out of the showdown drama set spending levels through 2015 but the funding they approved expires a month away. Congress will have to approve more funding at current levels or face the prospect of another shutdown. That concerns me. Already some basic legislation like an extension of funding for the Export Import Bank not to mention even more ambitious legislation that both parties say they support like immigration reform. Its getting nowhere. And guess what, folks, we have midterm elections coming up in nevada pop incumbents from both parties may not be in the mod for compromise hazard they try to prove their own stubbornness to their own voters. The fact that so many people are running for office this time around may leave room for a deal. Americans may react badly to the prospect of another shutdown and they may boot out all the good for nothing applications in congress who would rather burn the house down than get the job of government done. We can only hope. Im ali velshi. Thanks for joining us. Hi everyone. This is al jazeera america. Im John Siegenthaler in new york, and coming up tonight stephen has no control over the actions of the u. S. Government. A desperate plea from the mother of an american journalist held by the socalled Islamic State. Thousands have taken up arms in syria. How the Islamic State is recrueltying so many from all around the world. Tragedy. A nineyearold girl