Cenk well see you later tonight for a whole other the young turks on the young turks. Com. Viewpoint is next. [ theme music ] john Pope Benedict xvi is abdicateing the papacy. They have apparently decided there is no god. Karl rove is an arrogant right winger who wants to privatize social security, cut taxes for the rich and never admit hes wrong. Why does the tea party hate him . You think these people could put aside their differences, Work Together and get rid of the fighting and combine and join forces to ruin the country and make things better for rich people. Finally tomorrow night is president obamas state of the union address. Everyone is wondering what hes going to proposed proposed propose. Today is the 79th birthday of tina louise known as ginger from billgilligans island, and the great r b singer dangelo, and sarah palin with the greatest abdication of all time. This is viewpoint. [ music ] john good evening, im John Fugelsang. Coming up, equality delayed but not completely denied. We report a major headline last announced by town criers 600 years ago and the paterno family tries to smudge the line linking its late patriarch to the late state sex scandal. But first president obama will deliver the first state of the union dress for his second term tomorrow might night. The president will emphasize three economic points, one is turning the nation into a magnet for jobs and manufacturing. Providing the americans with the skills they need for jobs in a new economy, and ensuring that people can make a decent living from their hard work. The times said that the republicans should prepare for a confrontational mr. Obama to challenge them where polls show majorities back his positions on immigration, tougher background checks on gun buyers, Marriage Equality and tax increases on the wealthy. But with less than a month to go before 2 trilliondollar in cuts mandated by sequester to take effect House Majority leader eric cantor told nbc sunday that tax increases is out of the question. Every time you turn around the answer is to raise taxes. He just got his tax hike, and you cant turn around and raise taxes. John given that a deal without taxes could push america back in recession democratic senator dick durbin want them to do what they did the last time. What the president is proposing for the rest of this year is that we deal with the sequester the way we have the first two months evenly split between revenues and cuts. Thats a sensible approach and it does not pose to be a burden on middle class families. John for more on the g. O. P. Stone wall on revenue im pleased to be joined by robert reich. Welcome back to the show. If you were advising the president , what word would you advice him. One word he ought to use is jobs, jobs jobs. Its the word he has used, and he ought to be using it more. Its one issue on peoples minds. The unemployment level is coming down, and even though jobs look better than what they were, it is still a verye very anemic recovery. People are worried about their jobs. Inflation adjustment, and we have a huge unemployed who are unemployed for more than six months. And finally the ratio of the Adult Population that is working relative to the Adult Population that is not working is the highest its been over 30 years. Jobs is the issue. I think the president ought to pivot around the economy, around jobs, around wages and Everything Else ought to fit into that overarching theme. John if you were him would you mention the jobs bill that was killed in the house even though it was 60 tax cuts . I would. Batter them over the head. Things would have gone much better if the republicans had gone along with him. I would call for an increase in the minimum wage. 85 of americans on the last poll said they wanted an increase. Its justified. If the minute wage had kept up with what it was ten years ago adjusted for inflation, it would be over 9 right now. I think that the president can call foractually warn the public about the see questions see questions sequester and cause the economy to slow down substantially. John indeed, the kind of cuts that the public has not outlined for itself when the sequester takes effect. The speech is focused on the middle class. What do you think of the economic points hes reportedly going to be laying out. What more would you like him do . The ironry here is there is not much that he can do. Everything that hes talking about, bringing manufacturing back making wages better for working people, improving the skills that people have, all of that is going to require money. But whats called the domestic none portion of the budget is cenking. Not about military, medicare, medicaid, its down to the percentage gdp to a smaller percentage since the 1950s. Thats where you get all your education, your job training, all your skill building, money from. I dont know what the president has in mind. Framing the issue is very important. Around jobs and the economy. But coming up with specific programs that the republicans will agree to seems to me almost impossible in this environment. John he has the bully pulpit tomorrow in the brandest stage of his career. What would you do to encourage lawmakers to make public investment. Can he brow beat them. He can certainly do what he has done since the election. That is really maintain an election posture. Continue to go around the country, talking about the importance of jobs, of immigration of gun safety, of all of the issues that he thinks are very important for his second term. And by continuing the campaign, the Successful Campaign of 2012. The president is in a sense making is very difficult for republicans to maneuver. At the same time obviously there is a kind of a civil war going on in the Republican Party. That also makes it easier for the president because there is no spokesperson for the Republican Party to respond. John it has been reported that were going to see a more confrontational president tomorrow night. Is it important for him to say what hes going to do for the economy if they allow the sequester to take affect. I dont believe the mall sequester small tax increase, small spending cut is the way to go. Its taking us in the wrong direction. When you have high unemployment and under utilized capacity the last thing that the government wants to do is raise taxes on the middle class or cut spending in any way because thats going to reduce demand. What you need right now because so many people are worried about their jobs and cant get loans what you need to do is you got to increase demand, not reduce demand. John well, the g. O. P. Senators are said to be preparing a confrontation of their own, a balanced budget to be released thursday that would cap spending of gdp and require the super majority to raise taxes and increase the debt limit. I dont want to think about what that would do to the economy if allowed to pass. What is the point of this posturing . Are they stone walling more trying to do nothing in hopes that a stagnant economy would further hurt the Democratic Party . Theyre trying to do more than that. Theyre trying to make the public believe a big lie. That lie is that the reason the economic recovery is so slow, the reason why unemployment continues to be very high is the budget deficit. That lie is told over and over and over again by the republicans. It gets to their ideological goal which is shrinking the size of government, but it is not helping americans. John mr. Reich who was the last were president to balance of the budget . Eisenhower. John it was actually nixon. And bill clinton balanced the budget. Thats an important reality. John and its great to talk to a man who was instrumental of that. Robert reich author of beyond outrage and a man i hope runs for president so i can campaign for him, thank you sir, for your time tonight. Good night. John as i mentioned earlier in the program gone issues will play a strong role, and they are trying to Pressure Congress to listen to voters. Gabby giffords had this to say in a new ad released by her Political Action committee. We have a problem. Where we shop. Where we pray. Where our children go to school. But there are solutions. We can agree on even gun owners like us. Take it from me. Congress must act. Lets get this done. John and voters in some unlikely places agree its time to get something done on guns. This is part of an ad that is aimed directly at kentucky senator and minority leader Mitch Mcconnell. The guns meant for war could be used on civilians and children. As a gun owner and veteran i support the plan to ban assault weapons and keep guns out of the wrong hands. Senator Mitch Mc Mcconnell is funded by the gun industry. Hes opposed to the reforms. Senator mcconnell whos side are you on . John for more we bring on George Zornick washington reporter for the nation. Welcome back. Thank you for having me. John what is going on in kentucky . Couldnt Mitch Mcconnell run on that ad and win in some districts. When you look at the polling it doesnt look terrific for Mitch Mcconnell. By a slight majority people favor a weapons ban and kentuckians favor a background check. When we look at the overall gun problem in the country even the stuff that is being pushed right now, the assault weapons ban and high capacity magazines this is lowbar stuff. Good stuff but most people should be able to agree on. These numbers in kentucky show that there are a lot of people who just dont thinkeven if they own gunsthey dont think it should make sense that folks should have what amounts to military weapons in their homes or out on the streets. John sadly harry reid does not agree. Vice President Biden was in pennsylvania to push the president s gun control ban including that expanded background check and the end of the sale of largecapacity ammo clips. Do you think it will go over in pennsylvania as well. In most states even conservatives once youll see a split where gun violence is an every day problem and people are exposed to it and they have an issue with it. In the rural area even in a deep blue state like new york, in the rural areas where they dont see a lot of gun violence but they use their weapons for hunting youll see them with a backdrop of officers wearing the uniform badges and theyll have scary guns on display and cher scary, showing people this is the Law Enforcement problem. We have a gun violence problem. Police officers whether they be liberal or conservative dont want to see these weapons on the street. We need to solve it. Thats playing from rural areas of kentucky to obviously to cities across the country. John playing the responsible Law Enforcement card is a mighty powerful thing to do. But the president reportedly is going to do something bigger tomorrow night. Packing the galleries for the save thestate of the union address. Theyre apparently countering by inviting ted nugent. Who wins on that one. The president obviously does. Ive seen scoffing from people on fox news, they think its distasteful for the president to bring in victims of crime and hold them up on national tv to get a vote passed, but really in my opinion this is democracy at work. We do have a gun violence problem in this country. There are many people who want to change, including people whose families have been ripped apart by gun violence. Theyre showing up to congress to be heard seen and try to get something done. Certainly versus ted nugent i would say thats the upper hand. John as a comedian im a big fan of ted nugent. They would expand background checks but not much else. Are the senators behind the voters on this issue . What will it take for the leaders to catch up with the people . Theyre choosing the juiciest target. 80 of the people favor background checks. People favor the assault weapons ban but by a lower margin. What the president is doing. Hes pushing for everything, whipping up public support and giving congress a menu of things to choose from. Unfortunately harry reid is picking only the background checks off the menu. I think hes worried that in general he has a conservative approach to these things. Hes worried about some of his numbers in purple states who are up for a vote in 2014. If its not going to pass the house anyway, thats a fair point, but why expose them to this vote. If someone votes against it, even if it doesnt pass, lets see in 2014 can they be made to pay by voting to keep military weapons on the streets. Maybe they will. John do you think senator harry reid will support it or kill it in the senate . Hell support it but thats it. John George Zornick for reporter for the nation. Thank you. Thank you. John the world is in shock. Thats next. Stop looking at car interiors. Get inspired by other stuff. Yep. Yep. Ok. Sure. Why not . Woah. Touchscreens. Put that in your dash. Now, luxury stuff. Make your seats like that. That thing has wifi, why doesnt your car . You cant do that. Ignore that guy. Give it wifi. Yes make it fit 5 people. No, 5 actual sized people. Give them leg room, good. Destroy boring car interiors forever. And thats how you do it. Easy. John welcome back to viewpoint. Its time now for the thing of the day. Tonights thing is the delayed equality of the day. The pentagon will be extending benefits for same sex partners of service members. However they have to be careful not toughie late the defense of marriage act which for bids the federal government of recognizing any. This is a step in the right direction. Thank you, secretary. Net at a. Boy scouts, your move. The Catholic Church was rocked today when Pope Benedict xvi announced that he would be abdicating the papacy at the end of the month. Its incredibly uncommon but not unpressprecedented having last occurred nearly 600 years ago when pope greerry xii stepped down in 1415. A making his announcement at the vatican this morning to a small gathering of cardinals the 85yearold Pope Benedict cited his age and health as his main reason. After having repeatedly saying quote, after having repeatedly examined my conscience before god, i have come to the certainty that my strengths due to an advanced age are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine Ministry ministry. Here is sister campbell, returning guest of the show. Good evening sister glad to have you. Im delighted john. John there were speculations that he would resign if i was up able to perform his duties. But when you saw him go out there as his health got worse and never letting up, was it a complete surprise that the he abdicated this way . Its a surprise to me. When pope john pal Pope John Paul iiwas was ailing they said it was possible for a pope to resign, but i didnt expect it. I think the timing was a surprise if nothing else. John indeed, we heard of his schedule of travel and meetings has not been altered and it has caught even his closest associates by surprise. He referred to the sexual scandals as fifth in the church and thats thats a filth that cost the church. Do you think that has anything to do with his resigning . That is possible. The number of children and families that have been devastated by it is horrific. We cant really put a price tag on that. I think maybe that weighed on the pope to some extent. The fact that atoning for that sin has been something that the church has not effectively done, the leadership has not effectively done, and we need to do more. John to say nothing of the amount of lay people and catholic who is were driven away from the church in disgust of how it was handled all those years. Absolutely. The fact that it was hidden, and that perpetrators were just moved around has horrified many of us. But the fact is faith is deeper than those horrible events. I think that piece is the piece that needs to be lifted up. Cenk it was less than eight years but there are good and bad aspects of the bodys policies. I would like to first talk about some of the good he did. He was great on climate change, agreement on poverty consistently on the war in iraq. Hes the most famous living person to be opposed to the war in iraq. What are some of the aspects of his time as pope. Well, his fabulous letters to ought of the catholic world. He said you cannot have charity until you have justice and called on all catholics and especially in the first world to promote Economic Justice not just charity. And in our nation thats a mention that really needs to be heard. John yes in 2010 in one week the pope came out and said that it was okay for prostitutes to use condemn condoms to prevent the spread of aides. You can imagine how the sex he talked got the headlines but to give poor members healthcare was ignored by western media. That is true. That shows that were more interested in the glitzy glamour or what is seen as glamour in the media. But i think that the fact about healthcare being a right for all is a key piece of justice that he speaks about. John however, of course, we know very well that Pope Benedict also continued the vatican discrimination of gay christians female priests how difficult was it for youhow difficult was it to with stand a reprimand in some of the best work that our nuns have done . It was very painful to be told that because we work for those on the economic margin, thats exactly what our mission is that we were seen as suspect. But the thing john, from my perspective as a person of faith, the holy spirit is alive and well. That reprimand exploded our mission into the media allowed people to know about our work in a whole new way. What i say is the holy spirit is quite alive and well and making mischief even in the midst of painful rebukes and things i certainly would never support. The fact is that something good is coming from it. John shucks, sister, now i have to change the pope for coming down on the nuns. I know. John are we looking possibly at a younger pope or a pope from africa or latin america . I think thats quite a good chance that that would happen. But i know they say whoever goes into the conclave who goes in as pope comes out as a cardinal. I would not like to promote anybody who i think would be a good candidate because i want to make sure that the good candidates have a good