Los angeles with a devastating drug. Im ali velshi, this is real money. The next president ial election may be around the corner, there may be a problem when it comes to taxes, the Party Continues to favour lowering taxes for everywhere, including the rich manners, dubbed supply side economics under Ronald Reagan, the idea is that lower tax rates for the top 1 of taxpayers will eventually benefit 99 of americans because of increase investment and job droeth. Most 99 ers are waiting for the benefits to trickle down. While the republicans tax dogma may win support from wealthy voters, it hurts them in competing for middle class people. Scott walker, and Texas Governor rick perry seek out advice from the father of supply side economics, art lather, a farmer Economic Advisor to Ronald Reagan. Opponents say you only need to look at what is happening in kansas to see the supply side economics dont work. David shuster has the story. Reporter when Ronald Reagan took office as president in 1981, the u. S. Economy suffered high inflation and an Unemployment Rate of 7. 5 . Together we are going to do what has to be done. Well put america back to work. Reporter to bring the economy under control, Ronald Reagan implemented a policy under a Macro Economic theory labelled supply side economics. It called for a massive cutting of taxes, coupled with decreases in spending for social services. Regan eventually lowered the tax rate for the wealthiest americans from 70 to 28 . The theory went that corporations and the rich would stimulate the economy by investing the savings into the economy, sparking spectacular growth. Some called it trickledown economist, critics called it videoedo chicks. Ronald reagan had to video u economics. Ronald reagan had to sign some laws. Despite what george bush said. Read my lips, no new taxes. He raised the tax rates for wealthy individuals. The dye had been cast, and a conversation around supply side economics and tax cuts dominated american domestic politics for the next three decades. Perhaps no one person epitomizes the antitax movement than Grover Norquist, his organization for tax reform came up with the Taxpayer Protection pledge, a promise to oppose tax increase. Its arguably become an influential american document for the 20th century. Today 1 cks 358 law mickers, including 1,358 lawmakers, have taken the pledge not to raise taxes, making norquist a powerful nonelected individual in washington. Over the past few years critics charged that norquists iron clad pledge contributed to gridlock in washington. Some republicans tried to distance themselves from him. Line to what House Speaker john boehner listen to what House Speaker john boehner said. All thought i was asking about a random person in america kansas governor, sam brownback, a poster child for trickledown economics is a paria for the g. O. P. , because his mass of income tax cuts did not produce the promised jobs. The sun is shining in kansas dont let anyone tell us different. They plagued kansas with a 289 million deficit and Credit Rating downgrade. Critics point out that brownbacks troubles are emblem attic of antitax movement, cuts without growth, and a symbol that trickle down may be fizzling out. David joins us now. This is an economic battle. Am ideological but it is almost ideological but it is a battle. If you are a republican, you want decreases. Developments are okay, but do want lower taxes. This is more emotional. Thats right. They talk past each other. The democrats they think if the government spend a dollar, you know it goes into the economy. If you give someone else a dollar, maybe they send it in the economy or overseas. The issue is where better economics know for sure that the government is spending the money. For republicans its about morality not just economics, and people should have the option to decide themselves how they want their money to be spent, and may spend it better. You mentioned Grover Norquist. Ill speak it him next. We described him as powerful unelected man. Hes so powerful. 85 of the republicans in the senate, nothing is done in the Republican Caucus unless norquist approved it. Hes been called the most powerful man in washington. Everyone agrees that for Grover Norquist to sign off on a policy, it can get done. If he doesnt give the okay, forget about it you would think what happened in kansas is approve to economics dont work. Ill put it to Grover Norquist, coming up after this. Protestors are gathering. Theres an air of tension right now. The crowd chanting for democracy. This is another significant development. We have an exclusive story tonight, and we go live. Tuesday. Did the police fail misty upham . If somebody did something to my girl, i need to know that. Was is a case of discrimination . We had no help from the police. A family pleads for answers. Stolen sisters, an america tonight special report. Tuesday, 10 00 eastern. Only on al jazeera america. Joop as we saw in david shusters story, kansas has been dealing with budget short falls ever since governor brownback began the march to zero income taxes. He insists the state will be on course, but proposed a massive increase in tobacco and liquor, sin taxes. Call it what you may, its a increase and has Grover Norquist angry, hes the founder of americans for tax reforms, one of the most powerful me in washington. Once a supporter of the governor brownback, he says the governor is headed in the wrong direction. You dont support the increase, but brownback drastically cut spending on social programs which, wouldnt you agree, disproportionately impact the poor. Kansass challenge is that theyve had 50 years of bipartisan overspending. They had a regan republican majority in the house and senate in the last two years. To argue that the problem is conservative republicans, they only recently got into office. What did happen was ta brownback attacked for cutting taxes and beginning the phase out to zero, won reelection, the republicans won reelection. Kansas rejected the democrat who wanted to slow down the move and chose to continue. I think that what they need to do is rain in spending, rather heights. The reality of tax cuts hitting budgets is true. Lets talk about Ronald Reagan, you brought him. Up. His budget director David Stockman explains that the 1981 tax cut blew a bigger hole in the budget, and Ronald Reagan raised taxes 11 times basically undoing half of the tax cut. It happened before, will it happen in kansas. No, look at all 50 states and the government. We have a regan republican party. He was the only rayingon it in reganite in washington d. C. You said Ronald Reagan started supply side economics, leaving John F Kennedy out who put forward a dramatic rate reduction, enacted under johnson and after world war i, the top rate went from 75 to 25. When we raised taxes under hoover, we had the collapse in the economy. So when we have cut taxes as the United States, we had growth. The idea that there are two leavers. Tax hikes or spending cuts misses two important leavers. Economic growth is the way to get revenue for the government and reduce the cost of social welfare programs, by having more people work and at work. The difference between regans economy and president obamas a regans recovery. If president obama grew at regan rates, 0. 4 instead of 3 , 10 million americans would be at work. Thats the damage. Taxes are lower than under regan. They are higher. What are you talking b. Income taxes are higher. The reduction that regan imposed was lower than what Ronald Reagan was able to do or suggested. Thats why we had more growth when the top rate went from 70 to 78 . If you dont have the top rates, can you see a repeat of what happened under Ronald Reagan, we cant cut as a percentage. No, what you can do is reduce the regulatory burden. They have spent too much, taxed too much, but stalled the efforts to get free trade around the country, slow down the ones bush had in line and we are thinking about european and asian buns that should have been bun. Theres a series of things that obama did wrong to damage the economy, and not have the growth that regan did what he has had is remarkable job growth under the president obama administration, considering where he came in, lets go back to kansas. They had a target, a 2,000 a month target that he hopes the state would add. They added 12, 800 for all of 2014, that is below the national everything. You said that kansas took a long time to get where it was, and it will take time to undo. How long do ut give the plan. Brownback doesnt give it that much time. No. There are two things, what brownback has done is set in motion a phase out of the income tax. Every time revenues come in higher than 2 growth, the income tax growth will be ratcheted down. This is not a kansas phenomena. North carolina is on the same trajectory of same cuts. The republican governor announced a constitutional amendment to do the same thing. They are looking for a phase out. The governor and legislature in louisiana. The mississippi is embarking on this as well. You have a number of states, because what have we learnt, the 10 highest income states in a sa year period lost 2. 4 million. The 10 lowest tax state. Mine have no number of tax grew 3. 8 million, people leave high tax states. Well save this for another conversation. A lot of low income states have other taxes, states like texas. Lets talk for a second about jed bush, he refused to sign the antitax pledge consistently. President. Well look at the candidates running, running for president on the republican side signed the pledge in the present capacity, made the excitement not to raise taxes and kept it. Jed bush has not been in office for 10 years. He has prekey party. He didnt raise taxes when he was governor, and he had some tax reduction, and so he points out that he didnt raise taxes. Its awkward for him to make the commitment because his father broke it. He has got to decide how to run as his own person, rather than defending dads mistakes. That. You hear people say how powerful you are. Im curious about your response to that. People say that republicans dont get elected if they dont sign the pledge. Is that true. Its true that the pledge is important tool in communicating with voters where you are on taxes. The tax issue is the most important and powerful issue in the United States, throughout our historiment we were founded as a nation in a tax revolt against british imperialism. The federal esque lost power after washington and adams because they raised excise taxes, and the democrat republicans under screfer son, madison and monroe took power. The party disappeared because of tax policies, its a powerful issue. Before the civil war, about slavery we almost had a civil war over the terror. So taxes matter. Where people come into contact with the government. It is the most powerful issue. Regan famously pursued Immigration Reform helping three million documented immigrants. You are a vocal supporter. I think you called immigration into america our greatest asset. Move . You have a challenge . 2006 when bush was pushing for Immigration Reform, comprehensive immigration, president obama killed it with key votes, and came in with a letter saying this is over, it was written up in the Washington Post at the time. For the first two years of obamas presidency, he had supermajorities, enough to do immigration for two years, every day he woke up, didnt do it, went to bed. Ill never challenge you, you are never wrong on your history. Now we are today, its 2015. Thing . The argument is that we need to do h1 b visas to start with. Theres bipartisan support. We can pass it in the house and the senate. The president in the past threatened to veto the reform because it doesnt give them Something Else he wants. Because he never did anything when he was in power, i dont trust him. Neither does the congress. He fibbed too long. And never did anything. Anywhere. Its a problem. We need to get him to sign the h1 visa reform first. That can pass. Good to have you on the show. The founder and president of americans for tax reform. Tonight, al jazeera presents a documentary on the longest war, the war on drugs. When we come back, a sneak peek with a look at the man at the center of the crack epidemic. Stay with us. Tomorrow, a climate emergency. So a species could not be here in ten years. Nasa steps in to help protect the future of the planet. The tropics regulate our climate. Techknow heads to costa rica to see how one rainforest is fighting back. Wow some of these are amazing. Techknows team of experts show you how the miracles of science. This is my selfie, what can you tell me about my future . Can affect and surprise us. Dont try this at home. Techknow where Technology Meets humanity. Tomorrow, 5 30 eastern. Only on al jazeera america. The dark side of the 1980s, images of crack house, and the Ronald Reagans war on drugs crack, that could be smoked, spread like wildfire across cities in the United States. As many as 6 million admitting to smoking crack. If you were not watching the new, hollywood had you covered. New jack city focussed on druggies druggies. Starting tonight al jazeera is showing a 2part documentary examining the crack epidemic in the United States by focussing in on the former king of crack. Freeway rick ross, not to be confused with the hip hop star. Hes responsible for bringing crack into los angeles, one of the first large cities to be exposed, across the country. He showed and told me about it. I didnt believe it. He showed me something worth the size of a match head worth 50, how do this be, i thought. Ill get rich. I said im all in. He came over, and people said ill have to cook it up. What popped in my mind was cook it up for them. Jessie cats is a contributing writer, featured in the documentary. He says between 1982 and 1989 ross sold 23 tonnes of crack cocaine. In a conversation with cats, he said the epidemic had a devastating impacts on black and hispanic communities. Theres no question that the nations gaols and prisons are full of young men of colour largely because of the drug wars. Drug use cocaine, crack really knows know racial boundaries, its everywhere in america. Because it had a devastating effect on communities of colour, the areas were targeted by law enforce. And in the beginning, the communities suffered, suffered. You saw it in the hospitals with crack babies, on the streets in los angeles, with prostitution, crack houses. Literally outside the doors of your studio where im at, 25, 30 years ago there would be hundred, maybe 1,000 people swarming you if you drove down the street, trying to sell you something. It created a generation of some bys who are the addicts. And in it, you know, it activated a generation of entrepreneurs who were trying to make some kind of money off of that, off of that illness. It was as serious as the penalties for possessing cocaine made it seem. It was obviously a situation. Penalties for possessing cocaine were purchase stiffer and culted in longer prison sentences than penalties for possessing crack, were different than possessing cocaine or other illegal drugs. Yes, sure, there was a tremendous disparity between powder and crack. You look at that on the surface it looks fundamentally unfair. I think theres an argument to be head that crack had a more devastating effect than powder cocaine, not because it was necessarily a more noxious substance, although smoking it was more addictive than smarting it, but because it prayed on weakness within the community. It filled such a vacuum, and it it created an unregulated economy. When you have unregulated economies, you have violence, violence is used to enforce market laws where there is no kind of legitimate resource for business grievances. We are talking about rick ross. Tell me about him at his peak. Making. Freeway rick was probably the first guy to come from the street corner, starting with a couple of hundred, to become a multimillionaire. He did it probably at his peak, 8 had 85. He said that he was selling about a million worth of cocaine a day. Its probably accurate. I dont know that it is sustained day after day after day. That was the scale ta he was operating on. As mentioned, he probably, you know, moved somewhere between two and three tops of cocaine through the streets of south los angeles. Sorry, 2,0003,000 tonnes during the 1980s. It was a tremendous amount of cocaine. There were more tonnes entering and being sold during that time. I worry sometimes that hes viewed as single handedly responsible for the crack epidemic. He was a central figure. If you had to pick one person to focus on saying this was the guy who spreld the disease far and wide, you are on safe ground picking freeway rick. This was happening in other angeles. You can catch freeway crack in the system. That is our show for today, im ali velshi. Thank you for joining us. Hard work hard work dedication dedication hard work hard work dedication dedication i didnt ever tell yall this little story guys, about david and goliath. The big ol giant and the little ol david. That big ol giant it was the hurricanes, the ones that was always beatin up on everybody