Ever since Reagan, conservatives have been telling us about welfare queens.

The way they put it, there are thousands of undeserving poor people in this country right now bilking taxpayers for all they’re worth all while you and me are sweating out a hard day’s work.

And here’s the thing: conservatives are right.

There ARE a lot of undeserving people getting rich off the commons and the working class.

But they’re not the poor (and probably black) welfare queens of popular conservative mythology -- far from it.

America’s REAL welfare queens are the corporations and corporate executives who, with the help of sellout Republicans, have turned our economy and tax system into their very own get-rich-quick-scheme.

Case in point: Big Pharma.

While big drug companies like to talk about how cutting edge they are, they really don’t do very much innovation at all.

They leave that to taxpayer-funded government scientists.

As a recent piece in the Los Angeles Times pointed out, “75% of so-called new molecular entities with priority rating (the most innovative drugs) trace their existence to NIH funding [the National Institutes of Health], while companies spend more on ‘me too’ drugs (slight variations of existing ones.)”

And, while there is a strong argument to be made against private corporations getting a free ride off taxpayer-funded research, there’s nothing inherently wrong with this situation.

This is what governments do and have been doing for much of the last century -- they fill in the holes in the marketplace and create incentive structures that wouldn’t otherwise exist.

But what makes Big Pharma’s dependence on public research so offensive is the fact it uses that public research to manufacture drugs that it then sells at absurdly high and often unaffordable prices.

And that’s not even the worst part.

Read more here.

-Thom

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Why is Big Business Funding Our National Conventions? (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

Monday's Daily Stack

Hour One: Baton Rouge: Sovereign Citizens vs. Cops?

- Mark Potok, Southern Poverty Law Center

Article: "Baton Rouge shooting: 3 officers dead; shooter was Missouri man, sources say" by Steve Visser.

Article: "Inside the Moorish ‘sovereign citizen’ movement that motivated the Baton Rouge cop killer" by Travis Gettys.

Article: "Sovereign citizen movement" by Wikipedia.

Law: Posse Comitatus Act (1878).

Article: "14th Amendment, July 9, 1868 (citizenship, representatives, public debt)

Article: "Louisiana Purchase" by Wikipedia.

Article: "10 Top Republicans Sitting Out the RNC Convention" by Michelle Moons.

Article: "Organizers Scrambling To Replace 'White Elevator' Signs At Republican National Convention" by Heather.

Article: "You'll Be Blinded by the White in Paul Ryan's Capitol Hill Intern Selfie" by Peter Wade.

Site: Bernie Delegates Network.

Article: "First Survey of Sanders Delegates: Potential Clash Ahead" by RootsAction.

Article: "Hillary’s VP Choice Will Show If “Unity” Talk Is Just Hot Air" by Jeff Cohen.

Article: "'Donald Trump was part of the problem': Cleveland's subprime lesson for Republicans" by Oliver Laughland and Mae Ryan.

Law: Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (1999) (Financial Services Modernization Act Of 1999).

Law: "Commodity Futures Modernization Act", 2000.

Article: "Full Transcript of Hillary Clinton's NAACP Speech: 'This Madness Has to Stop'" by Fortune.

Article: "Organizers Scrambling To Replace 'White Elevator' Signs At Republican National Convention" by Heather.

Live from the Republican National Convention
- Nomiki Konst, The Filter on Sirius XM

Article: "Explained: How anti-Trump groups hope to upend the Republican Convention" by Tal Kopan.

Article: "Republican National Convention Day 1 Will Focus on Security" by Ben Geier.

Article: "Cleveland police chaplain delivers invocation at Republican convention" by JTA.

Article: "Murdochs Have Decided to Remove Roger Ailes — the Only Question Now Is When" by Gabriel Sherman.

Article: "On Eve Of Convention, Paul Ryan Offers Glimpse Of The GOP's Road Not Taken" by Steve Inskeep.

Article: "Aggregate demand" by Wikipedia.

Event: St. Louis, Missouri: July 14-17: "Net Roots Nation".

Article: "Progressives Pressure Clinton Over Vice-Presidential Pick" by Eliot Nelson.

Case: "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission" (2010).

Case: "Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific Railroad", 1886.

Case: "Buckley v. Valeo", 1976.

Article: "Taxpayers Funded A Lifesaving Drug And Guess What Happened Next" by Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Article: "Mike Pence: Sarah Palin Without The Charisma" by Eric Schmeltzer.

Talk Media News Segment:
- Victoria Jones

Article: "Hate TV customer service? So does your senator" by Mario Trujillo.

Hearing: "Customer Service and Billing Practices in the Cable and Satellite Television Industry" by Senate Permanent Subcommittee On Investigations, June 23, 2016.

Article: "Vietnam vet who rescued dozens of US soldiers awarded Medal of Honor".

Article: "Stephen Colbert steals stage at Republican convention to mock Donald Trump" by T.C. Sottek.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman

Hour Three: Republican National Convention in Ohio
- Congressman Tim Ryan, D-OH

Article: "During the RNC, John Kasich Will Look Forward From the Outside" by Kailani Koenig.

Article: "2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt" by Wikipedia.

Article: "2016 shooting of Baton Rouge police officers" by Wikipedia.

Article: "2016 shooting of Dallas police officers" by Wikipedia.

Article: "The Congressman on a Quest to Make America More Zen" by Marin Cogan.

Article: "Trump suggests Obama’s body language reveals hatred of cops: ‘There’s something going on’" by Brad Reed.

Article: "Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories" (birtherism).

Book: Where's the Birth Certificate?: The Case that Barack Obama is not Eligible to be President by Jerome Corsi.

Book: Unfit For Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry by John E. O'Neill, Jerome R. Corsi.

Video: President Obama Roasts Donald Trump At White House Correspondents' Dinner!

Law: "Voting Rights Act of 1965".

Law: "Civil Rights Act of 1964" by Wikipedia.

Case: "Brown v. Board Of Education", 1954 (Segregation in public schools) (overturned Plessy v. Ferguson).

Case: "Plessy v. Ferguson", 1896 (separate but equal).

Article: "Southern strategy" by Wikipedia.

Video: Willie Horton 1988 Attack Ad.

Article: "Freddie Gray Case: Judge acquits highest-ranking officer" by Gary Gately.

Article: "Donald Trump’s Ghostwriter Tells All" by Jane Mayer. "I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization."

Article: "The Myth Of Mike Pence" by Think Progress.

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

I'll be talking to economist Austan Goolsbee about economic angle of the election in reaction to the RNC.

Plus, Curtis Ellis of the American Jobs Alliance will be calling in live from the RNC.

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...

Does BREXIT Signify the End of Globalization?

Vote here!

Full Show 7/15/16: Military Coup Underway in Turkey

Tonight’s Rumble discusses Trump’s pick of Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate, the release of the secret 28 pages of the 9/11 report, and how Congress won’t pass anything on Zika until after the summer. Thom gives updates on the military coup going on in Turkey and in tonight’s Conversations with Great Minds Thom talks gun control with former Brady Center Vice President Dennis Henigan, author of “Guns Don’t Kill People, People Kill People: And Other Myths About Guns and Gun Control.”

Thom Hartmann Book Club: Rebooting The American Dream - July 18, 2016

American Muslim Reacts To Attack In France.

Our Media Doesn't Care About Our Democracy!

The Opposite Of Addiction Is Connection (w/Guest: Johann Hari)