We have a serious corporate welfare problem in this country, but Republicans would apparently rather spend their time trying to stop poor people from eating spaghetti sauce than do anything about it. Seriously, I’m not kidding.

Right now, the Wisconsin legislature is considering a bill that would ban food stamp recipients in the Badger State from buying any kind of shellfish. Introduced by Republican state representative Robert Brooks, this bill would also make it harder for poor families on food stamps to buy everyday household items like spices, nuts, and, you guessed, spaghetti sauce.

Brooks’ proposal is actually less extreme than some of the other food stamp clampdown bills floating around red state legislatures these days -- it doesn't, for example, ban the purchase of all seafood, just shellfish -- but it’s still terrible public policy.

Although they were unable to get an exact number, analysts with the Wisconsin Department of Administration estimate that it could cost the state upwards of “several million dollars” to so aggressively micromanage the food buying habits of the working poor.

This comes, of course, as Wisconsin faces $2 billion budget shortfall thanks, in large part, to Governor Scott Walker’s tax cuts for the rich.

In other words, Wisconsin Republicans are willing to bankrupt their state even more just so they can stop poor people from making shrimp scampi with red sauce. And that’s not even the worst of it.

At the same time as Wisconsin Republicans are clamping down on the apparent plague of lobster-eating poor people that’s ravaging their state, they’re also happily promoting a failed Scott Walker corporate welfare scheme that’s already wasted tens of millions of taxpayer dollars, and is set to waste even more.

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... 75% Chance of a LARGE Spill in Arctic Waters (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

Be sure to check out our newest video: RESTORATION - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners / Visit GreenWorldRising.org to check out all the videos: CARBON, LAST HOURS & GREEN WORLD RISING - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners

Big Picture Politics Panel:
- Scott Greer, The Daily Caller
- TJ Helmstetter, Progressive Change Campaign Committee
- Hughey Newsome, Project 21/MoveOnUp

Green report: 75% Chance of a LARGE Spill in Arctic Waters
- Andrew Hartsig, Ocean Conservancy

Best of the Rest: Librarians Throw The Book at the NSA
- Zoe Carpenter, The Nation Magazine

Tuesday's Daily Stack

Hour One: Here's What's Wrong With the USA Freedom Act
- Shahid Buttar, Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC)

Article: "Here’s What’s Wrong With the USA Freedom Act" by David Cole.

Law: "Patriot Act", 2001.

Article: "USA Freedom Act" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Section 215 of the Patriot Act Expires in June. Is Congress Ready?" by Nadia Kayyali.

Article: "Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act" (FISA, 1978) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Executive Order 12333" by Wikipedia.

Article: "NSA's phone spying program ruled illegal by appeals court" by Jonathan Stempel.

Article: "Docs show FBI wrongly spied on Keystone XL protesters" by RT.

Bill: "H.R.1466 - Surveillance State Repeal Act" by Rep. Mark Pocan.

Article: "Federal Government Issued Nearly 5.5 Million Work Permits to Foreign Nationals Since 2009" by Ryan Lovelace February 2, 2015.

Article: "Obama Knocks Warren On Trade: She Is 'A Politician Like Everybody Else'" by Caitlin MacNeal.

Article: "Who is writing the TPP?" by Elizabeth Warren and Rosa DeLauro.

Article: "The Trans-Pacific Partnership: A Threat To Global Health?" by Deane Marchbein.

Article: "Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement" (TPP) by EFF.

Article: "Lifeguard Rats Will Save Another Rat from Drowning" by Catherine Griffin.

The good: "Pope says many powerful people don't want peace" by ANSA.

The bad: "Larry Pratt: I'd Take New Citizen's Voter Card And 'Rip It Up Right In Front Of Their Face'" by Miranda Blue.

The very, very ugly: "Rush Limbaugh: Obama Wants To "Restrain The Police Department Presence" In The U.S. Because He Wants "Chaos"" by Media Matters.

Article: "US taxpayers subsidising world's biggest fossil fuel companies" by Damian Carrington and Harry Davies.

Article: "House Republicans Want To Block Predatory Lending Protections For American Troops" by Zach Carter.

Article: "Permanent normal trade relations: U.S. and China" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Sofia Vergara gets star in Hollywood, discusses Nick Loeb embryo fight" by Christie D'Zurilla.

Article: "Sofía Vergara’s Ex-Fiancé: Our Frozen Embryos Have a Right to Live" by Nick Loeb.

Article: ""Unequal Protection": The Corporate Conquest of America" by Thom Hartmann (women's rights).

Book: "Unequal Protection: The Battle to Save Democracy" by Thom Hartmann (read online).

Book: "Unequal Protection: How Corporations Became "People" - And How You Can Fight Back" by Thom Hartmann - new updated version out now!

Article: "Fast-track trade bill fails first test in Senate" by Krista Hughes and Richard Cowan.

Article: "Perfect Nails, Poisoned Workers" by Sarah Maslin Nir.

Video: No to ‘Fast Track,’ No to Trade Treachery (Rep. Alan Grayson).

Site: ObamaTrade.

Article: "Republicans Move To Rescue Obamatrade" by Alexander Bolton (Drudge Report title).

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Bob Ney

Article: "Nepal Hit By Second Quake" by William McDonald.

Article: "Senate Votes Against Opening Debate On TPP Fast Track Authority" by TRNS.

Article: "The Killing of Osama bin Laden" by Seymour M. Hersh.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 5/12" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 5/11" by Victoria Jones.

Hour Three: How to Eliminate Joblessness
- Ravi Batra, End Unemployment Now

Book: "The New Golden Age: A Revolution against Political Corruption and Economic Chaos" by Ravi Batra.

Book: "Greenspan's Fraud: How Two Decades of His Policies Have Undermined the Global Economy" by Ravi Batra.

Article: "Commodity Futures Trading Commission" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation" (FDIC) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Competitive Equality Banking Act Of 1987" by FDIC.

Article: "US trade deficit jumps to $51.4 bn in March" by AFP.

Article: "Oil spills into Hudson River after Indian Point fire" by MyFox New York.

Article: "Allen West Thinks He Got Sharia Law’d at Walmart" by Evan McMurry.

Article: "North American Free Trade Agreement" (NAFTA) by Wikipedia.

Article: "General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade" (GATT) by Wikipedia.

Site: World Trade Organization.

Article: "Freddie Gray officer had innocent man prosecuted as part of lengthy feud" by Jon Swaine and Oliver Laughland.

Article: "U.S. government approves Shell’s offshore drilling plan in Arctic Ocean" by Rachelle Blidner.

Article: "NYC Mayor Announces Progressive National Agenda" by William McDonald.

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.

Site: MapLight.

Site: OpenSecrets.org.

Article: "New Oil-By-Rail Rules 'Leave Communities at Risk of Catastrophe'" by Nadia Prupis.

Article: "The U.S. Is Getting Serious About Oil Train Explosions. Here’s How It Plans To Stop Them" by Ari Phillips.

Article: "Oil Train Derails, Catches Fire, And Causes Evacuation Of North Dakota Town" by Katie Valentine.

Article: "STUDY: Facebook News Feed Contains Diverse Political Views" by David Cohen.

Article: "Church Of England Divests From Coal And Tar Sands, Citing ‘Moral Responsibility’" by Katie Valentine.

Article: "Commonly Used Chemicals Come Under New Scrutiny" by Eric Lipton and Rachel Abrams.

Article: "Out-of-Body Experience Is Traced in the Brain" by Tanya Lewis.

Wednesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET

Why are you Conservative vs. Liberal? That's what Sheriff Richard Mack and I will be asking each other.

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"

And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...

Please support the Hunter School, a unique therapeutic boarding school for young children diagnosed with ADHD, Anxiety, Sensory, Mood and related conditions...

Was the Obama Administration wrong to approve oil drilling in the Arctic?

Vote here!

Jeb Bush Isn't A Moderate, He's An Extremist Neocon

Unexplained Explosion at the Nuclear Power Plant Near NYC

The Legacy of Agent Orange Continues...

I Don't Believe This Anymore!

Geeky on Hormones!

The Good - the Bad & the Very Very Obsidionally Ugly!

Wow! 85% of People At Rikers Island Jail Are Not Convicted

Our Whistleblower Protections Don’t Go Far Enough

Full Show 5/11/15: CIA Whistleblower gets 3.5 years in prison for talking to the Press

Tonight Thom talks with Journalist and Media Critic, Norman Solomon, about the 3.5 year sentencing of former CIA officer, Jeffrey Sterling, for leaking information to the press. Although considered a lighter punishment than expected, Sterling’s sentencing was much tougher in comparison to Gen. David Petraeus’ probation sentencing for leaking classified national security information to his former mistress. Also tonight, Thom discusses prison reform and how the current system cheats out America’s poorest. Plus Thom looks into the growing number of Americans losing their religion and why it’s happening. And more than 40 years since the end of the Vietnam war, agent orange continues to affect Southeast Asian and Americans contaminated with the chemical. Thom explains why Republicans continue to demonize poor Americans on government assistance programs such as SNAP.

How to Eliminate Joblessness...

Who Does the Fertilized Egg Belong To?

Here's What's wrong with the USA Freedom Act...

Michelle Obama talks Racism and White Privilege...

Caller: Police Corruption Goes all the way to the Top!

The Libertarian Solution: Litigation not Regulation!

Thom Hartmann on Science & Green News: May 11, 2015

100 American Doctors Moved to Canada!

What Happened to the American Middle Class?

Even Conservatives Find Bernie Sanders Honest...

President Obama: Politician or Agent of Change?

Why Aren't the "Job Creators" Creating Jobs?

A Good Cop Targeted by Fellow Officers...

Lying: The Only Way Jeb Bush can Win!

Caller: Bernie Sanders Should Call Himself a Capitalist...