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william cline. the corporation's campaign manager. mr. cline, how is it going so far? >> oh, very well, dylan. we're having an extraordinary success. people around the country are embracing our concept that the greatness of america rests in the country clubs, board rooms and lear jets of corporations. >> one thing that concerned me with your corporation in particular is whether it's too young to run. it looks like it may be even newborn. there are other corporations who have been around for decades and centuries who have a lot more political experience in min ip lating our government than yours does. >> that has been raised. we realize we're making new law here. and testing a new precedent. we do believe we have sufficient age and standing, and also the statute you cite was created for human candidates. we are obviously not human.

Transcripts For MSNBC The Dylan Ratigan Show 20100201

same public discontent with groups like the recently minted tea party. their followers gather this week for a big convention in nashville. and other efforts inside the republican party and other political movements to move toward americans frustrated with the political process, which is riddled with secrets and corruption. and the fast that trillions have been delivered to our financial institutions, and yet no reform whatsoever has been implemented, as we now work our way into the second year after the bailouts. joinings now, marsha blackburn. marsha, how do you regain the confidence of the american people in a debate of how their money is be spent when there's so little trust for the political process by which these decisions are made at this point? >> dylan, one of the things you have to do regain their trust. and you do that by transparency. by moving these discussions out in the open where the american people can see and hear what is being done and said. and i think that's an important step in this process. certainly you mentioned the tea party movement. and enough is enough. that is what people are saying. they've had it. enough is enough. they are looking at a budget that the president has brought forward today that is focused on debt. it is not focused on jobs. and creating jobs. and i think that's why so many people have said, look, we're frustrated with this. one of the things i'm going to do is immediately file the bills i file every year that call for 1%, 2% and 5% across the board spending reductions. let's actually begin to cut what the federal government spends. >> what can you do, and i've had a number of politicians come through here over the past couple of weeks, and i'll ask them the same question, to actually implement an updating of the government process, whether it's the voice vote, secret conference meetings, the flow of money that comes to and from every politician in this country, which is either hidden, completely kept secret, or layered with misdirection? >> one of the things that needs to happen is reform in the earmark process. i think this is absolutely vital. i'm one of the members that does not do earmarks. we need to reform that process so it is completely transparent. i have supported actually ending earmarks until we go through that process. the american people deserve to know what is happening. this is not government's money. it is the people's money. and government will never get enough of the people's money. so that is why it is incumbent on us to be good stewards, to actually be more transparent in these processes, and reform the process that we go through in building the budget. >> i'm sure that you have seen as we all have in association with our own lives, and with those around us, particularly those younger and younger than us, you hang out with a 4-year-old and you'll see how transparent the world is to them, because they can see everything. do you believe that our politicians, the incumbent politicians in this country are aware enough of the earth that they now live on that they will demand the necessary standards that are achievable, or do you think that a lot of the current politicians will have to lose their jobs in order to get a 21st century standard for the american voters, availability of information? >> you know, dylan, every day there are more and more people that realize the american people want transparency, they want accountability. they have had it with back room deals. what they want is for their elected representatives to be transparent with them about what is happening with taxpayer money. and every day we come closer to getting a majority that will pass some of these bills that we have found that would actually cause this budget process to be a transparent process. >> what is the biggest -- we'll let you go here, but what is the greatest barrier to getting that piece of legislation introduced onto the floor and passed so we can go through the process of implementing the end of secrets in the legislative process? >> the bill that has been talked about most recently is congressman paul ryan's. pathway to recovery, road map to recovery. and this going to be introduced. and it's a process we will set on. and congressman's brady sunset commissions that would sunset federal programs. what we have to do is continue getting members to sign wron to these bills. and then help us get to 218, which is what is necessary to pass a bill in the house. and that's what i continue to work forward every year on my 1%, 2% and 5% across the board spending cuts. it's time for the federal government to tighten its belt. it's time to actually make those spending productions. >> i do appreciate your time today. >> thank you, dylan. >> what we're seeing today is that it was grass roots efforts that helped get barack obama elected in '08. obama's campaign manager writes in his book the audacity to win "without this hunger for change, driven by a belief that washington was fundamentally broken, the idea of a barack obama candidacy could not have taken flight. now, that same hunger could be what drives democrats ironically out of washington, in their quest to hang on to the status quo. i bring in former new york governor eliot spitzer. governor, do you believe the incumbent politicians in this country, the whole congress, and for that matter the white house, do they comprehend the voter frustration? >> the politics of anger right now is focused on incumbents, on anybody in power. with all due respect to the congresswoman, the party out of power always saying we want transparency. the republicans if they were running the shoe, they were doing the deals to get the bills passed. how do you get health care, no child left behind, a real butt, a bailout package done and get it done properly. i think where the president is trying to recalibrate is he is saying, wait a minute, he gave away much too much of the decision-making power where the deals were cut right and center. he's got to retake control, do it in a public way and say we're going forward under these fwidlines. >> i've likened the president on friday to a marathon runner who has set an ambitious course for himself but is in denial about the fast he has a thorn stuck in the bottom of his foot, and the t.a.r.p. lie, the argument you've repaid back the money, when you pay back t.a.r.p. is but 2% of the barnging system, how far can he get with that thorn if his foot. >> he's got to pull the thorn out. i ran my marathon 25 years ago, but is there enough energy left between now and the midterm elections to redefine the agenda and say here's what we're going to do. and communicate to the american public these are the priorities and here's how we're going to do it, publicly to use your word to use transparency. it does matter. it's important. >> the white house press secretary offering some thoughts on the budget, i presume here. questioned specifically about the president's olive branch on friday and how the republicans tried to hit him back. take a listen to mr. gibbs. >> we are going to have to work to the to solve these problems. it's not going to be one person or one party that solves them. >> do you get the sense that the people that run our government are actually attempting to solve any of our underlying problems? >> the answer is some are trying -- >> to solve the root problems. >> congress has not passed a bill in decades that goes after a structural problem in our economy or government. government has been failing for decades. >> symptoms, symptoms -- >> and taking the path of expediency. she knows she can't make a 5% cut in the budget. just can't do it. the real problem is congress doesn't want to do it. what we need to do is something more fundamental. bipartisanship is overvalued. at some point the president is going to stand up and say i tried. we're not getting any cooperation from the other side. fdr was not bipartisan. the major pieces of creative legislation that have come out of congress or the presidency to change america have not been bipartisan over the last number of years. that's an unfortunate truth. but it may be the point that president obama gets to. >> we understand. we'll bring you back later. coming up here on "the dylan ratigan show," what you need to know about toyota's new troubles, lawsuits in the courts as the automaker tries to coordinate repairs for 2 million cars. gas pedal sticks. i don't know. also, rising tensions with iran, why the u.s. military is deploying anti-missile systems and ships across the persian gulf. plus, what if james bond and jason bourne were so strapped for cash that they had to free lance on wall street. working for the banksters. can't make this stuff up. it's happening as we speak. in our own intelligence agency. we'll discuss in the moments to come. well-informed people are considering chevy malibu. you a cop? no. you didn't hear from me, but this malibu is a best buy. i heard that from consumers digest. it offers better highway mileage than a comparable camry or accord. estimated 33 highway. i saw that on the epa site. so how come the malibu costs so little. it's a chevy. you have cop hair. the award-winning chevy malibu. compare it to anyone and may the best car win. affect wheat output in the u.s., the shipping industry in norway, and the rubber industry in south america? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment objectives, risks, fees, expenses, and other information to read and consider carefully before investing. back with the day's other big need-to-know headlines. rising tensions with iran. lawsuits now piling in against toyota. and you can't make it up, kraflt agents moonlighting on wall street. but first, the obama administration delivering missile defense systems to persian gulf. this to counter a possible attack by iranian missiles, the move to install the land and sea-based systems comes as the president pushes for sanctions against iran for its manufacturing of nuclear fuel. military officials said the four countries that accepted these systems were bahrain, ku tar, and united emirates. emily, i'll start with you. how are we to interpret the deployment headline? >> i think the way it's been viewed sort of a -- you know, if we can't get the sanctions that president obama wants to get, then this another way to sort of threaten iran and say, look, you know, if the sanctions aren't going to work, if we're not able to get those in chase and china's not going to let that happen, we're here. it's also sending a signal to our allies in the area saying, look, we have this under control. you don't need to panic. you don't need to develop your own nuclear systems. we have this a little bit under control. hard to see how this is going to end. but this is a signal to iran for sure. >> but let's be real, it is small comfort to a state like israel that we're putting in a missile defense system that will hopefully shoot down an incoming nuke, instead of saying, don't build the nuke in the first place. this is not a meaningful response. the intent is to stop their nuclear program in its tracks. if that doesn't happen, this will escalate over time. >> the headlines out of iran in terms of the government's treatment of its own citizens, it's own dissidents, continue to be as alarming as ever, torture, killing. i could literally come on the show every day to offer you a little insight and nugget. what real recourse do -- or toes the sufficient and its allies have relative to the threat? >> limited. that is the problem. there are fewer diplomatic tools we would like. the one we have not really pushed is to foment opposition to the regime. >> what about efforts to relieve ourselves of all dependency on foreign oil? and if we do that, how much of that impact would that have on the relationship with iran? >> enormous over time. and the entire middle east. that's why the president in the state of the union, nukes, nukes, nukes. . >> toyota facing at least two class action lawsuits as they talk about a fix to the gas pedal problem. the automaker says it will ship parts to dealers by the end of the week. some will stay open around the clock to fix the 2.3 million vehicles affected by the recall in the u.s. >> some dealers, as you understand, are going to be working 24/7. we know what the problem is. we have the fix. and we're going to take great care of our customers through our dealers to ensure that they're satisfied. >> toyota had stopped production of recalled cars and trucks in factories across north america for the duration of the week. >> i tell you one thing, if i look in my rear view mirror and i see a toyota, i'm letting that car go by. i'm not going to be driving in front of a toyota oh-i don't want to be driving in front of a toyota, that's for sure. >> emily, other than getting out of the way, is there anything washington can do? >> they're holding hearings. >> that's not going to solve the problem. >> i love a good hearing. >> they're going to hold them in front of the committee and they'll have to answer some questions. i don't think they want to know how this will happen, but how will this make this recall. and the extra hours they spent dealing with this problem. >> finally, just imagine if jason bourne or james bond, pick your favorite fantasy intelligence agent, was so underpaid, so strapped for cash, that they were forced to start moonlighting on one of the most corrupt businesses in the world which is the business of gambling with other people's money that currently goes on every day on wall street. that is exactly what is happening at the cia. you can't make it up. political reports that the agency is allowing its operatives to free lance for hedge funds and other financial firms. in one case, cia experts were hired to analyze whether executives were lying by teaching hedge fund managers how to interpret facial expressions so when they interview ceos about their earnings, they can tell whether the ceo is full of it or not. like i said, governor, you can't make this up. did this come up when you were sheriff of wall street? >> i'm not sure who toes better, the hedge funds or kraflt. the cia has misdiagnosed every international crisis the last couple of years. the hedge funds went bankrupt. i don't know who's paying whom for what at this point. >> stay out of the way of the toyotas, you'll be fine. still ahead on the "the dr show," we're breaking down the investigation into the t.a.r.p. bailout. are criminal charges in the works for people who continue to exploit the chaos of our country's financial meltdown, including the deployment of the t.a.r.p. money? we'll talk about it with the t.a.r.p. inspector general, neil barofsky. stay with us on that subject as well. today's by the numbers, rumors about the death of the so-called volcker rule, which would make it harder for some banks to gamble with your bank deposits. apparently that rule's going away and that's good for the bank stocks. we'll talk about it by the numbers. >> egor, egor? >> yes, doctor. >> we need a heart, a spleen and a liver. >> now, that is not -- that is a political ad in new orleans. i'm going to leave it at that. i never as a woman thought i'd get a heart attack. why was i hit with this thunderbolt? 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[ female announcer ] the new classroom. see it. live it. share it. on the human network. cisco. welcome back. quick by the numbers here. two ways the banks make money with your money. they take your deposits and borrow against them to use them as gambling chips. and there ear notice bank that takes those invented ious and uses that to gamble crazily. ultimately they just come to you as the taxpayer to cash them out when it's over. mr. paul volcker came out eight, nine days ago and said i want to deal with the first problem, which banks gambling with your money. they called it the volcker rule that came out basically after the scott brown election and the democrats realized that, hang on, maybe the people realize they're giving away future money of americans so bankers can gamble and get rich today. the volcker rule wants to limit the size of institutions and prohibit them from risky proprietary trading. that trading done by borrowing against your bank deposits. it's based on the belief regular lending is so vital to the economy, what a bizarre concept putting money into businesses would be so vital, that it should be roped off that would impair the availability of that credit or lending and if it drives down compensation from heedless risk taking, so be it. mr. summers, geithner, and even rahm emanuel are more protective of the bank's right for you to gamble your money however they want. the volcker rule caused a huge sell-off in jpmorgan, goldman sachs, the biggest banks lost well in excess of 10% of their value over the course of the past week, week and a half. i don't know if we'll have those charts up for you. good news for the banks, i've got to say, because word is the senate has no interest in applying this separation of powers. again, i guess those are the charts there. as a result, the bank stocks came right back up today. so the good news is, that apparently the senate has no interest in making it illegal for banks to gamble with your deposits, which is not necessarily good for you or america, but it's fantastic if you're a bank, because wouldn't you like to gamble with somebody else's money? the big banks, a direct reflection of how serious our government is about reforming the banks. first gains, again, since the volcker rule was announced. coming up in today's "busted," education secretary arne duncan saying, katrina was the best thing to happen to the educational system in unless. oh, really? why do people pay taxes for the government? if the only thing that will fix the educational system is a natural disaster? mr. isn't. we could all use this advice, but on this one, think before the speak. cherry picking his numbers in a clash with the president. was there a deficit of facts? i think you know the answer to that. but first, in today's breaking it down, a financial csi continues in this country as the top cop for the t.a.r.p. bailout, looks for clues at the crime scene for that financial meltdown. money taken, not returned, no rule changes. and our politicians claim they work for you. we'll talk about it with neil barofsky coming up. ♪ each day is too much ♪ you can never, never, never get enough ♪ [ female announcer ] our bodies need water... and women who drink crystal light drink 20% more of it. ♪ crystal light.... water your body. to start losing essential nutrients? not long. in fact, green beans lose half their vitamin c in a week. that's why green giant freezes them within 8 hours to lock in nutrients. ho ho ho green giant when it comes to things you care about, leave nothing to chance travelers. insurance for auto, home and business. alka-seltzer plus liquid gels rush relief everywhere you need it. it's the most complete relief you can get in a liquid gel, so you feel better, fast. alka-seltzer plus liquid gels. today some more disturbing news in a report from the t.a.r.p.'s top cop. the hope that the actual perpetrators of this mess could ultimately get their come upins, and we could restore capitalism in this country. this weekend t.a.r.p. special inspector general neil barofsky released his report. t.a.r.p. is not only not working, it could actually be putting us at greater risk by further empowering the organizations that brought us to the brink. but giving them even more of other people's money and making them feel for certain they can get away with it. and i'll quote, "if t.a.r.p. saved our financial system from driving off a cliff back in 2008, absent meaningful reform, we are still driving on the same winding mountain road, but this time in a faster car." on top of calls for systemic changes and greater transparency, which you and i both know are necessary to move forward, barofsky's office has also thankfully launched a wave of criminal and civil investigations ranging from insider trading to public corruption in the wake of the government bailout. again, that t.a.r.p. money was originally -- think about weapons of mass destruction -- the t.a.r.p. was created to create a marketplace for toxic assets and as soon as it was approved, the money was just taken and given basically without strings to the banks and they don't even know where half the money is at this point. what has the inspector uncovered and who, if anyone, will take responsibility. the inspector general, neil barofsky. and mr. inspector, it is a pleasure to see you, sir. you say you've launched a string of inquiries here. what actual powers do you have when you identify either civil or criminal wrongdoing? >> we have full law enforcement authority. we're almost like a smaller version of the fbi, dictated exclusively to the t.a.r.p. i have special agents with guns, badges, the power to arrest. anything that a normal federal law enforcement agency has, we have at our disposal. >> what types of investigations do you have ongoing right now? what types of crimes? on a small level, this is just with t.a.r.p. money being sort of misallocated, mishandled. we'll get to the bigger stuff in a second. >> that's exactly right. we've had a little more than 75 investigations. they really run the full gamut of what you would expect. as we discussed before, the t.a.r.p. is really ten different programs right now. for example, if a bank or financial institution was cooking its books or committing accounting fraud when they applied for t.a.r.p. funds, that falls squarely within our jurisdiction. we have a number of investigations into banks that were basically lying to get t.a.r.p. funds. modification programs with servicers and potential fraudsters taking advantage of struggling homeowners, we're looking at insider trading claims. there's a wide array of different types of white-collar investigations we're conducting. >> you've also launched an investigation into the federal reserve's cooperation with your group when it comes to the disclosure of the e-mail trail of the federal reserve and the money given to aig. and then the aig money given to goldman sachs and the other banks. you've stated your group didn't receive many of the documents related to the new york federal reserve that were provided to congress. why the discrepancy and where do you stand relative to the fed aig and goldman? >> that's absolutely correct. and the question of why the one we're going to find out the answer. because we did request certain documents from the federal reserve, and the federal reserve bank of new york. we didn't receive them. and then after documents started getting released, we found out there was a whole bunch of documents in there that we had never received. we were under the impression simply it did not exist. so we have launched an investigation to find out the why. was it purposeful obstruction of justice? was it a mistake? was it incompetence? we tonight know the answer yet, but we're going to find out. >> i think i smeek for more than myself when i ask you this next question. how long will the american people have to wait before we see who is legally accountable for fraud like aig financial products, who will be legally accountable for extracting wealth, using this mechanism, and will we ever see handcuffs in or clawbacks? >> i think we're certainly going to see happened cuffs. we have more than 75 criminal investigations ongoing. it's hard to predict exactly when those are going to result in formal criminal charges. we have indicted several individuals for some smaller frauds in tennessee, and atlanta. some of the bigger cases, i think some of the larger scale frauds are in the pipeline. it's hard to predict exactly. because one thing we don't have is actually to bring the cases ourselves. we have to work through the department of justice. but there are significant cases in the pipeline and i think offer the next few months we'll start seeing some results. >> the treasury secretary as we all know has the greatest power to reveal information to all of us, so that we can figure out what exactly happened and what is happening. he also has tremendous power to make it difficult for us to acquire information. i want to offer his comments in regard to the taxpayers' relationship with aig when he testified recently and get your sense as to whether he's in fact being transparent with us. take a listen to the treasury secretary. >> if you join with the president in adopting his sibility fee, american taxpayers will not have to pay one cent for the actions we took on aig or the actions we took with the authority congress gave the administration to stabilize this financial crisis. we expected this particular transaction, the one, the very one that is the heart of so much controversy, will be paid off in full with interest generating some profit for the american taxpayer. >> does that cross with your analysis, sir? >> well, what that is, is it's a very carefully calibrated statement, the second part, with respect to the taxpayer being made whole on a part of the aig counterparty transactions. we were very critical, treasury put out a statement similar to this recently and we've been very critical of it. it suggests we're going to get 100 cents on the dollar back for the skurlts. and what the secretary stated and what the treasury department is talking about is the payments to aig counterparties were really in two parts. in one part was part of a federal reserve loan. and the other part was collateral payments, payments made separately by aig. on the one part, on the federal reserve part, it is true that that portion of the loan, a little bit less than half, will probably get paid back with interest. the other part is really inextricably combined with the other losses at aig, recently projected to be a $30 billion loss. someone not as familiar with these transactions, would hear that statement, and be left with the misimpression that, hey, we're going to be whole on these transactions. that's not true. that's not transparent. and frankly, i think it's unacceptable. >> why is it that the u.s. taxpayer in general is expected to be grateful for the fact that trading positions that never should have been taken by financial institutions whose executives were purely trying to get the biggest possible bonus by betting the biggest possible hand, even if they didn't have the money, why are we being told that it's a good thing that we've paid out their bets for them under blackmail of collapsing our financial system and we're supposed to be grateful when they can return any of it to us? meanwhile, nor are we supposed to claw back any of the mon or have windfall profits made with our taxpayer money? is that because taxpayers are not actual human beings, and as a result they're supposed to be harvested like a plant? >> i think you hit the nail on the head particularly when you talk about reform. the justifications for giving all this money was to save the system from collapse. when we gave this money, and then secretary paulson i think said it at the time, that the united states government was going to stand by these institutions and not let them fail. that was -- that may have been fine as a short-term strategy to prevent a collapse of the financial system, but where has it left us long term. it's left us with an explicit guarantee that no matter whaps, that these companies are now incentivized knowing that the taxpayer is going to back them up. that is an enormous problem. the fact that the t.a.r.p. got extended and while with don't criticize that as a policy decision, that sends a message to wall street that the secretary's going to keep several hundred billion dollar war chest available for any future bailouts, at least through october of this year. >> if you fundamentally believe allowing a few people to gamble to get rich, isn't this the best way to go? >> it's a dangerous system, that's for sure. >> mr. inspector general barofsky, i thank you for your time. former new york governor and attorney general, known as the sheriff of wall street, eliot spitzer. i would like to ask you about goldman sachs for a minute. talking about an investigation into fed and aig. if you look at the goldman sachs benefit, no one benefits more than goldman and jpmorgan to support the financial system. no one will pay out more money in bonuses than goldman sachs will. hank paulson, who ran -- you know, we go down that list. i've got a chart of it here. too big to fail, banks are bigger than ever. the fact that paulson ran the place. the fact that they're reformed as a bank holding company but continue to be able to do proprietary trading. at what point does the american taxpayer have the right to see every e-mail at goldman sachs period relative to aig and the rest of the financial system when you look at the amount of state support we're giving them? >> mr. barofsky is one of the few heroes in this. he's doing the right thing. the pushbacks against the so-called volcker rule is beginning immediately. they are terrified they will be limited in their capacity to tap into taxpayers money and then gamble with it, as you have so exquisitely articulated on this show. third, we should be taking a good look at goldman and aig, and the other treasury programs, where we began -- where i suggested we begin is the aig corporate e-mails itself. from there, it would radiate out to all the companies. but goldman has been at the heart of this. the numbers that i think are staggering, we gave goldman $4.9 billion in that transaction in the aig deal that has so rightly been heavily criticized. the entirety of their profit, that one transfer from taxpayers, which neil barofsky and so many others have criticized as completely unwarranted, somebody should dig into that. the single biggest tension, the treasury secretary said goldman would have failed without that infusion. goldman denies that. somebody is not telling the public the straight story about goldman's financial system. somebody has to dig into that. >> is it not possible that none of these people cared? they're so unconcerned with the well-being of anybody who's not associated with the financial system, if you will, that money comes in and they don't want to reform the system? >> that may be their best defense, if they actually had stood up at that moment and said, guys, we were panicked because the world -- you know what, that might have been enough to get them through it. honestly, because everybody would say, you know what, the system was collapsing. in retrospect those deals were deeply flawed. what we're getting is conflicting stories explaining it and that doesn't explain it. >> and the secrecy and all of that didn't help. thank you for your time today. corporations, in case you were wondering, they're people, too. we're going to talk to the campaign manager for the corporation that is currently running for congress. i hope that the corporation is old enough. but first, in today's "busted," i'm not making that up, by the way -- the corporation is running. a scary political ad. i'm not making this up either. the lengths that you would have to go to to become the coroner in the great city of new orleans. who knew that the political advertising could get so heated for such a race. but there it is. frankenstein on your tv in the big easy. ( music playing ) get the taste of a home-cooked meal at work with new marie callender's home-style creations-- a delicious meal made fresh from your desk. just cook them, strain them, mix them. marie callender's home-style creations. a little touch of home for lunch. find them in the soup or pasta aisle. a little touch of home for lunch. host: could switching to geico 15% or more on car insurance? host: is ed "too tall" jones too tall? host: could switching to geico 15% or more on car insurance? host: does a ten-pound bag of flour make a really big biscuit? somewhere in america... there's a home by the sea powered by the wind on the plains. there's a hospital where technology has a healing touch. there's a factory giving old industries new life. and there's a train that got a whole city moving again. somewhere in america, the toughest questions are answered every day. because somewhere in america, more than sixty thousand people spend every day answering them. siemens. answers. that keep you cool and dry have now inspired stayfree® to create a whole new level of comfort when it comes to your period. only stayfree® ultra thins have thermocontrol™. designed with the comfort of athletic fabrics in mind, stayfree® with thermocontrol™ quickly wicks moisture away for exceptional dryness. so you stay incredibly comfortable no matter where your day takes you. stay dry. stay cool. with thermocontrol™ only from stayfree®. back now with "busted." shiping the spotlight of transparency on those who we think are less than transparent, or just downright misrepresenting the truth. we begin with house republican jeb, who confronted president obama friday for skyrocketing budget deficits since he moved into the white house. here's the testy exchange, in case you missed it. >> what were the old annual deficits under republicans and now become the monthly deficits under democrats? the national debt has increased 30%. >> oh, lordy. that's a strong statement, except pulitzer fact checker po lit i fact has a claim as clearly false. specifically for cherry picking the numbers. he picked the highest monthly deficit number the democrats have ever run and compared it to the lowest monthly deficit number the republicans have ever run. fun times. bottom line is, both parties love to run deficits against our futures in an interest of their political expediency and political donors. and we don't have the money and we have the transparency to see what they're doing. the question is, will they change or will we have to get new politicians. education secretary arn yes duncan finds himself in a stormy controversy about hurricane katrina. he told washington watch that katrina "was the best thing that happened to the education system in new orleans." because it forced the community to improve low-performing schoo schools. at best, duncan's comment, a bad pr move. after all, thousands died in a preventable disaster. maybe not preventable storm, but the magnitude of the disaster, preventable with proper government. at worst, it is an indictment of the federal government, because if it takes a natural disaster to improve your educational system, why are you paying taxes in the first place? isn't it to have an educational system that need a natural disaster to wipe it out so somebody can fix it. and finally, paging dr. frankenstein. this kind of speaks for itself. the upcoming new orleans elections have taken a ghoulish turn. a candidate for parish coroner unveils a morebid attack ad at his incumbent opponent. he accuses minyard not over a policy issue, just over being an evilized hunchback frankenstein blood sucking surgical maniac. >> egor, egor? >> yes, doctor. >> i need a heart, a spleen, and a liver for tonight's sale. >> yes, dr. minyard. >> say no to dr. minyard and yes to dr. mckenna. >> oh, lord, talk about scare tactics. the ad alludes to lawsuits that were later dropped. alleging that body parts had been taken from the coroner's office. if this really is the basis of a political contest suting that your opponent hacks up bodies and then steals the parts, then we've got nowhere to go but up. we're back after this. thoug. i'm on an aspiriregimen now because i never want to feel that helplessness again. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. ta to your doctor, and take care of what you have to take care of. brand over the last decade... ...is now over the counter at walmart as prevacid 24hr - to treat frequent heartburn. over the counter. unbeatable prices. talk about a relief. save money. live better. walmart. s are demanding more for their money. good. this time, i'm watching fees like a hawk. i hate hidden fees. why should i have to pay for something that i shouldn't have to pay for? td ameritrade's pricing is clear and it's straightforward... it's spelled out upfront. no hidden fees... no bait and switch. no gotchas. and there's one flat rate for online equity trades... for big accounts... or small ones. that's the way it ought to be. time for fresh thinking. time for td ameritrade. today's "town square," an update on the corporation that is itself running for congress. the satirical campaign sparked by the supreme court ruling allowing corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on political ads as a form of free speech. >> we bought it, we paid for it, and we're going to keep it. that's why we're taking democracy's next step, running for congress. the way we see it, corporate america's been the driving force behind congress for years. but now it's time we got behind the wheel ourselves. we'll bring enlightened self-interest to put business first. it is a vision for the future. we can all be proud of. now that democracy is truly for sale, murray hill incorporated is offering top dollar. vote for murray hill for congress for the best democracy. >> that political ad, if you might not have noticed, is for murray hill incorporated. has been viewed more than 44,000 times on youtube. joining us from washington william cline. the corporation's campaign manager. mr. cline, how is it going so far? >> oh, very well, dylan. we're having an extraordinary success. people around the country are embracing our concept that the greatness of america rests in the country clubs, board rooms and lear jets of corporations. >> one thing that concerned me with your corporation in particular is whether it's too young to run. it looks like it may be even newborn. there are other corporations who have been around for decades and centuries who have a lot more political experience in min ip lating our government than yours does. >> that has been raised. we realize we're making new law here. and testing a new precedent. we do believe we have sufficient age and standing, and also the statute you cite was created for human candidates. we are obviously not human. so we believe that we meet all statutory requirements. particularly since the supreme court has ruled that we are corporate persons. >> have you thought about exploiting that fact that you are indeed a corporate person, and as a result, have limited liability, or no liability to perpetrate anything from breaking and entering in murder to complete your campaign, knowing full well the corporation can't be held liable? >> we, of course, are bound by the ethical standards and high more or less that corporations have demonstrated throughout our country's history. although we are against same-sex mergers. we do believe guns should be allowed in board rooms. >> are you expecting a -- is there a legitimate court challenge that's likely to be filed to your status as a corporation relative to other candidates who find themselves unfortunate as it may be as human beings? >> well, we do expect there will be some who question our standing, and we are prepared to pursue our legal action to preserve our rights as corporate persons. we do see this as a civil rights struggle. in fact, the next great frontier in civil rights. so if we have to pursue this all the way to the supreme court, which presumably would then have to recuse themselves, we're prepared to take that step. >> how does your particular corporation feel about the mundane and sort of dirty as expect of running for political office, like talking to people, kissing babies, actually interacting with other human beings that you may or may not like? >> well, again, we believe in removing the human interface from politics as much as possible. we think that the recent health care debate has proven that when you add humans to the equation, it just gets messy and diffused and not very efficient. we're planning on running a virtual campaign using social networking, astroturf, grass roots, robbo calls and computer generated avatars. >> sounds like a heck of a platform you're running on. the one thing i have noticed is corporations are much better at making money when they just exploit their ability to control the government as opposed to having to compete with other individuals to deliver a quality product. are you doing this because you find it easier to rig the game using the government than to actually produce something of quality or value for another human being? >> well, we to believe in privatizing gain in socializing risk, we do believe in keeping all the money and have the government bail us out. we do feel our corporations will be inspired to follow our example. we hope that's the case. our message is to walmart, aig, and pfizer, if not yoo-hoo, if not now, when. >> again, what of the task of actually driving the country forward, having a government that drives the country forward through strict rules for the custodians of our money, and liberal rules for investment and innovation, so we get advances in science, engineering and creative fields, because the incentive is not to pass the risk to the government, or control the government, but the incentive is to actually deliver something of value or quality to any other existing human being on earth? >> well, what is really something of value now, dylan? i think we're better off letting corporations decide what that is. and take the responsibility of setting the agenda and the tone for the rest of america. i think that most people will agree it's much better to have a benevolent uncle in the driver's seat than 435 people with their own agendas just going every which way. >> don't you find it easier to control the government and harvest the future labor of human beings weaker than yourself than to actually try to compete to serve them? >> well, we don't really believe in competition. we believe in himogeny. we hope for power and to make a profit. >> murray hill corporation, running to represent itself, i guess, relative to our democracy, it's a pleasure, mr. kline, to have you as the campaign manager. that will do it for us. i am dylan ratigan. chris matthews will start taking care of you right now. the walt over numbers. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. leading off tonight, budget baloney. president obama's face-off with house republicans on friday remains one of the most remarkable political performances we've seen in memory. one republican who got smacked down by the president was jeb hencerling of texas. he'll join us in a minute. we'll give him another chance. we'll ask him whether it's fair to blame president obama for a $1 trillion deficit when the president inherited trillion-dollar deficits. president obama answered questions this afternoon on youtube days after his performance with republicans. and his well received state of the union address. has the president got his groove back? plus, an true young is certainly getting even with his former boss, john edwards. if young's out-of-school tales about edwards' cheating are true, how did this man become a leading presidential candidate? also, why are so many conservatives bagging this week's tea party convention? how did the democrats lose massachusetts in well, check out saturday night live "'s take. >> our nominee, martha coakley, was the single most incompetent candidate to seek a caucus in this nation'st