Thom answers questions and makes comments.

On Tuesday - in a rare-act of bipartisanship - the Senate passed the Small Business Jobs and Tax Relief Act. The legislation is aimed at giving some much-needed stimulus to America's entrepreneurs - by giving any small business that hired more workers in 2012 a 10% tax credit. It also gives away new tax credits for small businesses that invest in new major equipment. It's no secret that small businesses have taken quite a hit following the Bush Great Recession. But there's new evidence out now that suggests American entrepreneurial class has been suffering for a long time before Barack Obama - or even George W. Bush - moved into the White House. In fact - the evidence shows that American entrepreneurs have been getting pummeled for more than thirty years now. According to a new study released today by the New American Foundation, the number of entrepreneurs per capita has dropped by 53% since 1977. And since 1991, the number of Americans who are self-employed has dropped by more than 20%. In other words, Americans who use to be able to start their own businesses are increasingly being forced to join the ranks of the working poor. Our nation - quite frankly - has forgotten how to foster an entrepreneurial class over the last thirty years. So why is that? Could it have something to do with massive tax cuts for the wealthy and for transnational corporations that have made rich even richer and big corporations even bigger to force small businesses out of the marketplace? Or ...

Professor Luigi Zingales, author, A Capitalism for the People: Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity, joins Thom Hartmann. The LIBOR rate-fixing scandal is coming to America. Now - more than a dozen banks are being investigated by the US Justice Department to determine just how widespread the rate-rigging scandal, which might have cost consumers billions of dollars, really is. So far, only one bank - Barclays - has admitted guilt in the scandal. But several cities - led by Baltimore - are launching their own investigations to figure out if their pension funds took a hit as a result of the rate-rigging. During the financial crisis - the city of Baltimore was forced to lay off public employees and cut services. But the city now claims their fiscal problems were made worse by the manipulated LIBOR rates. Baltimore and other cities have filed dozens of lawsuits in a Manhattan Federal court against several banks including Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, and Deutsche Bank - accusing the banks of manipulating LIBOR rates during the financial crisis to boost their own profits, while screwing over entire cities. So it could be a matter of time before some banksters' heads roll. And by "heads roll" I mean a slap on the wrist fine - since we all know banksters are immune from jail time this day and age. Congress is jumping into the mix, too, with plans to bring Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to Capitol Hill for hearings ...

Mike Papantonio, Host, Ring of Fire Radio, joins Thom Hartmann. Mitt Romney has lied his way through the Presidential campaign - and he just can't seem to stop. What's he accused of lying about now - and can this modern day Pinocchio really be America's next President? As financial documents filed in 2003 - and obtained by the Boston Globe - show - Romney still owned 100% of Bain Capital as recently as 2002 - and even earned at least $100000 as an executive at Bain in 2002 - three year after Romney claims he had left the business. So now we can add lying about his tenure at Bain to the long list of other Romney lies, just as voters are demanding the truth about Romney's several offshore bank accounts and how he's using them to avoid paying taxes.