Senator Marco Rubio dropped out of the Republican race on Tuesday after losing his home state of Florida to Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.

Jim Tankersley pointed out on Wednesday in the Washington Post, that of the three Republicans who are still running for nomination, none of them are “carrying the ‘reform’ banner that many conservatives once believed would win over the middle class"

Ted Cruz is running on a platform of supply-side voodoo Reaganomics that includes slashing income taxes for the rich, and putting a consumption tax in place on average people.

John Kasich is running on another traditional conservative platform that says that balanced budgets lead to shared prosperity, and the way to balance budgets is to slash public spending and to destroy public-sector unions.

And both of those candidates are trailing WAY behind Donald Trump, who Tankersley writes "is running a populist campaign that upends at least a half-century of conservative orthodoxy"

Trump fundamentally strays from the conservative ideal that says that when markets are "free", in other words, "free" of rule-setting by government, then people are free.

According to Tankersley: "He tells Americans the economy is a series of deals negotiated by their leaders in Washington, and those deals have been very bad for workers, and that he will renegotiate them, favorably."

And in reality, there's more than a little truth to the idea that the economy is rigged to make sure that money continues to flow upwards out of the pockets of the middle class and into the coffers of the economic elite in America.

But Trump's not the only candidate in the race who is exposing that truth.

In fact, he's only really started speaking out about our rigged economy since he started running for president, perhaps because he was personally benefiting from the rigged system for so long.

Senator Bernie Sanders on the other hand has been speaking out about how our rigged economic and political systems for his entire political career.

Read more here.

-Thom

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... How Long Did Snyder & Christie know They Were Poisoning Children? (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

Thursday's Daily Stack

Hour One: Rep. Pocan on The People's Budget
- Congressman Mark Pocan (D-WI, 2nd District)

Article: "The People's Budget: Prosperity not Austerity; Invest in America" by Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Article: "Pocan Introduces CPC Debt-Free College Amendment to House Republican Budget" by Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI).

Article: "Congress approves vast $1.1tn spending bill to avoid government shutdown" by Ben Jacobs, 18 December 2015.

Article: "President Obama Job Approval" by RealClearPolitics.

Article: "Congressional Job Approval" by RealClearPolitics.

Article: "Barack Obama, Joe Biden endorse Russ Feingold" by Mark Sommerhauser.

Article: "Open Letter: Let’s Sit-In to Save Democracy From the Billionaire Class" by Rhana Bazzini, Medea Benjamin, Ben Cohen, Jodie Evans, Joseph Huff-Hannon, Lawrence Lessig, Joan Mandle, Kai Newkirk, Carlos Saavedra, Umi Selah, Paul Song, Zephyr Teachout, Cenk Uygur and Winnie Wong.

Article: "The Economist rates Trump presidency among its top 10 global risks" by Daniel Lippman.

Book: "The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America--and What We Can Do to Stop It" by Thom Hartmann.

Book: "Threshold: The Progressive Plan to Pull America Back from the Brink" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "The Goal of the Neo-Liberal Consensus Is to Manage the Decline" by Gaius Publius.

Article: "One Chart Destroys The Talking Point Lawmakers Are Using To Protect Their Payday Lender Buddies" by Alan Pyke.

Book: The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot, Russell Kirk.

Bible: "1 Timothy 6:10" "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs".

Hour Two: The Media Malpractice That's Hurting Everyone But Trump
- Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation Magazine

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

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Is Merrick Garland a consensus candidate for the Supreme Court?

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Checking In With the Revolution

Free Trade: A Cancer Patient Exposes Big Pharma Bros

The Media Malpractice Going On...

Full Show 3/16/16: Bernie Down Just 251 Delegates with 28 Races to Go

Tonight’s Big Picture Rumble discusses Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, last night’s Super Tuesday results, and whether Hillary’s lies and half-truths are working. Thom discusses the media’s malpractice in the 2016 presidential race with The nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel, exposing the gateway to the TPP with Public Citizen’s Melinda St. Louis, and in tonight’s Daily Take Thom details how the political revolution will live on regardless if Bernie wins the nomination.

Governor Snyder - You Need to Resign!

The Media Malpractice That's Hurting Everyone but Trump

The Media Malpractice That’s Hurting Everyone but Trump

Is it Time to Scrap the Primary System?

Long-Time Democrat says He will Go Independent

FDR and the Debate Over Freedom...

Merrick Garland...Consensus Candidate Or Sacrificial Lamb?