On the way into my radio studio this morning - just outside the Judiciary Square metro stop here in Washington, DC - a man asked if he could shine my shoes.

I looked down - and they were a bit scuffed up and i had a few extra minutes - so I said, "Sure," and sat down.

As he went to work buffing out the scuffs - I also learned that this wasn’t an ordinary shoe shiner.

He was wearing a bracelet that I hadn’t seen before and I asked him what it meant and he showed me how it said "Veteran - USMC".

He told me that he was a retired Marine - that he had served in Lebanon a few decades back.

In fact he had the wounds to prove it - he lifted up his chin and showed me the hole where a bullet had gone through - knocking out his front tooth - which was still missing.

Anyway - we got to talking about politics - and he told me how horrified he was at how Republicans are treating the President.

We also talked about the economy and he told me that he was sure we’re headed toward disaster - that a far worse crash is coming.

It reminded me of a story that my old friend the late Gloria Swanson told me, that she said was told to her by her one-time manager and lover Joe Kennedy back in the 1930s.

Kennedy, she said, told her he got out of the market before the crash because a shoe shine boy - literally a teenager - offered him a stock tip - and that was his clue the market was overheated.

But my shoeshine guy - no teenager but a man who'd seen the world - knew what he was talking about - and was genuine about what he saw for the future of this nation - a future that he had fought for - been maimed for - and nearly died for.

He said to me - “Ya know - we don't make anything in America any more. It isn't like it was before I went to Lebanon, when you could get a job in a factory anywhere in America.".

And no - I don’t think he’s been watching this show.

But all the while he was working - I kept thinking how said it was that a United States Marine was shining my shoes on a street corner in our nation’s Capitol.

Really?? A Marine shining shoes - what the hell’s going on here?.

I frankly don’t think anyone should be shining shoes in America - the wealthiest nation on the planet - unless they’re a teenager looking for a few extra bucks during the summer.

But an American Marine? Shouldn’t he have better opportunities.

After World War 2 - President Franklin Roosevelt made a promise to our soldiers.

He said if you went out there and risked your life to protect our nation - then this nation will never forget about you for the rest of your life.

Anytime you need a hand - we’ll be there for you because you were there for us when we needed you the most.

The G.I. Bill was passed and it promised our returning soldiers a free education - 4 years of college and books and living expenses all completely paid for.

It promised them low-interest loans for mortgages and to help start small businesses.

It promised them weekly allowances of 20 bucks - about $200 in today's money - to get back on their feet and find work.

And the GI Bill made sure that anyone who was wounded would be taken care of - nursed back to health - and rehabilitated to enter the workforce in America - all of it free of cost.

10 years after the War - more than 10 million Veterans went to school on the GI Bill - and with the tools of higher education they found great jobs - settled and started a family - and we saw the Middle Class in American thrive and grow.

My dad served in Japan at the end of the war, and he went to college and bought a house on the GI bill.

He raised four boys and had a good pension until the day he died because he worked in a 13-man local tool-and-die shop - a union shop, thanks to Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Wagner Act.

Roosevelt had learned from the mistakes of the 3 Republican Presidents that preceded him - Harding - Coolidge and Hoover - who had turned their backs on veterans of World War 1 - denying them their pay - leading to massive tent cities across Washington, DC.

Google the story of the Bonus Army if you didn't learn about it in school.

Unfortunately today - those lessons have been lost.

Even though there are no tent cities in DC yet - veterans have been forgotten about.

There is no GI Bill for the men and women who serve in the military today or in recent decades.

Over and over again - Democrats have tried to create a new GI Bill - but each and every time their efforts are sabotaged by Republicans.

And today - our soldiers are shining shoes just to keep from being homeless.

During this course of this year - a half a million veterans will be on the streets without a home and without work.

And even though there are some benefits available - benefits that pale in comparison to the GI Bill - these benefits require people to wander through an endless maze of bureacracy to recover them.

And it takes years for their health problems - like Agent Orange or Gulf War syndrome or PTSD - to be recognized as legitimate war-time injuries.

It's no longer cut and dry like it was with the GI Bill where if you went to war - then you're getting a free education.

Now it's like if you went to war during such and such time - and did this and that - and satisfied this requirement during this time - then you qualify to receive a few of these benefits - just go wait in line.

We’re sending people to some of the worst parts of the planet - telling them to risk their lives in the deserts of Afghanistan - knowing that when they come back - they’ll be left behind.

Veterans today didn’t get the low interest home mortgages that FDR gave those of his generation - instead they got exploding subprime loans from crooked banksters - and are kicked out of their homes when the loans go bust..

We learned last Sunday just how invaluable our soldiers are - how they are willing to put everything on the line in a moment’s notice to make us all safer.

And we learned just how good they are at it - how efficiently they do their work.

It’s troubling to believe that the Navy SEALs who took out Bin Laden a week ago earn on average around $45,000 a year, while the average CEO makes $11 million and the top ten banksters on Wall Street average $2 billion a year each - and pay a maximum 15% income tax on that money, half of what a Seal could pay.

Talk about our nation’s priorities being out of whack.

And while these CEOs are getting golden parachutes when they retire - our retiring soldiers are getting a lead weight to hang around their neck - with no education and no job skills to make it in the American economy.

The Marine who shined my shoes today was a wise man - and no doubt a good soldier.

And it’s a shame that in today’s America - there’s no path he can take to find that elusive American Dream that he fought to defend.

That's The Big Picture.