Equipment. Well talk about that with two Security Experts who do business in las vegas. They are here to tell us Stephen Paddock should have been stopped before he struck. Meanwhile, House Speaker paul ryan makes the latest stop on his tax reform tour. Hes just wrapped up a question and answer session at a maryland business just moments ago, this after the house passes its 4. 1 trillion budget blueprint that now sets the stage for tax reform. Mr. Ryan will be holding a press conference later in the hour, and well have that for you live. And the house expected to take up the white houses 29 billion Hurricane Relief bill next week. Well go straight to san juan to dark to an architect to find out what the situation really is like there on the ground and if puerto rico will be able to rebuild its economy. We are less than an hour to the closing bell and another recordbreaking day for the markets. Im Ashley Webster in for hayes claman. Lets begin the countdown. Ashley guess what . Breaking news, we have another hurricane alert, i kid you not. Tropical storm nate moving across northeastern nicaragua, forecast models show hes taking aim at the central u. S. Gulf coast putting louisiana, alabama and mississippi directly in its path just in time for the long columbus day weekend. We are keeping an eye now on nate. But on wall street a perfect forecast for stocks. All three major indices climb to fresh record highs for the fourth day in a row. Tech stocks fueling Broader Market gains at this hour, the dow up another 105 points, the s p and nasdaq also up half to threequarters of a percent. Netflix currently leading the s p 500 after doing something that may not be so popular with subscribers, but netflix investors love it. The Video Streaming Service announcing plans to hike prices for its standard and premium services. Investors betting that all the netflix addicts will gladly pay more to get their tv fix. I guess well find out. Shares hitting an alltime high on that news. You bump up the prices, your stock price goes up, interesting. Up nearly 5 . And amazon also making big moves today and sending shipping rivals running for the hills. Shares of fedex and ups under pressure because amazon says its testing a new Delivery Service that will make more products available for twoday shipping. Thats what you get as reaction, shares of amazon up 1. 5 . Well, Sarah Huckabee sanders just finishing up the White House Press briefing where the focus was on future discussion of gun policy and the legality of those socalled bump stock devices following sunday nights massacre in las vegas. Blake burman has been asking questions today, hes at the white house with more. Blake. Reporter and, ashley, the timing on one was either coincidental or just teed up the White House Press briefing perfectly, because before Sarah Sanders came to the podium just a little while ago for the daily press briefing, the nra put out a statement in the which they basically said they will possibly be open to the possibility of looking into these bump stocks with further regulation. The nra saying in its statement, and i quote the nra believes devices designed to allow rifles to function like fully automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulation. So the nra leaving open that possibility there. At the press briefing, the White House Press secretary, Sarah Sanders, was peppered with questions about these bump stocks. She made it very clear that the administration is open to having a conversation about it but also left the impression that at this point there is no definitive policy stance from this white house. Here was sanders moments ago. We know that both, members of both parties and multiple organizations are planning to take a look at bump stocks and related devices. We certainly welcome that, would like to be part of that conversation. And we would like to see a clearer understanding of the facts. Reporter sanders also did not put a time frame as to when the conversation should happen about gun control policy, potential policy Going Forward. Meantime some news, as well, on the puerto rican debt issue. On tuesday the president made big news when he said in an interview that puerto ricos debt should be, quote, wiped out. The white house backed off that stance yesterday, and sanders was asked about it again today. She said that there is a process in place. That led me to ask her, well, if a process is in place, are you backing away from the position that the 72 billion plus in debt should just be wiped away . Here was her spends. The president wants that to go through that process, and thats the stage we are in this. Reporter so very clear there, ashley, there is a process on puerto rican debt not necessarily at this point the white house saying, hey, it should all be wiped away. Ashley . Ashley all right, blake, thank you very much. What has been yet another very busy day at the white house. Now, while authorities remain baffled about the las vegas shooters motive, new reports indicate that Stephen Paddock may have been scoping out other places such as boston and chicago as potential targets for his violent rampage. Meantime, the names of the 28 victims are now known, people like 21yearold jordan rivera, 54yearold thomas day jr. , ordinary people who were plumbers, teachers, fishermen even, some who had scrimped and saved the money just to attend that illfated las vegas concert. Joining us now with an update on the shooting and what we know or dont know still about the shooter is Hillary Vaughn who is in vegas. Hillary . Reporter ashley, police are now getting more information about how the vegas shooter, Stephen Paddock, may have prepared for his attack sunday night, and police in chicago and boston are now looking into reports that paddock may have been eyeing their cities as well. We now know that paddock had rented hotel rooms with a birds eye view of at least one other Music Festival called life is beautiful happening here in vegas, and now Chicago Police confirm theyre looking into reports that paddock booked rooms at the Blackstone Hotel this chicago that overlooks the Music Festival lollapalooza, we just got a statement from that hotel, they confirm there was a reservation made under the name Stephen Paddock saying, quote we can confirm that a reservation was made under the name Stephen Paddock. However, authorities have not confirmed this is the same person as the las vegas shooter. But Chicago Police tell fox news that they do not think at this time that this is the same Stephen Paddock based on intel that they have that theyre not willing to share at this time. There also are reports that paddock searched four thoal rooms in boston hotel rooms in boston, possibly near fenway park, and the Boston Police are following up on those reports as well. The Clark County Sheriff says they believe Stephen Paddock did notten plan to kill himself that night but instead plotted to survive and escape. Police also remain convinced that people knew about paddocks plans or had an idea that there was something going on, and they also think that he may have had an accomplice. Do you think this was all accomplished on his own . Selfvalue, face value youve got to make the assumption he had to have some help at some point maybe hes, you know, soup yahoo that was working out all this on his own. Finish but itd be hard for me to believe that. Reporter authorities are still trying to figure out what triggered the mass murderer, Stephen Paddock, so theyre looking what may have happened around this time last year because october 2016 is when they say he began to build up his arsenal, buying at least 33 guns between then and sunday night, the night of the attack. Most of them rifles. So far theyre coming up empty, ashley, and they still dont have any concrete inteling that points to motive or why this happened. Ashley are. Ashley that is the big question. Its very frustrating as we try and get that answer. Hillary vaughn, doing a great job in vegas, thank you very much. Lets get to the markets now. Oh, yes, another rally on our hands, up 103 points on the dow. The dow, of course, now taking aim at 23,000. Why not . Stocks getting a boost today on news the house passed a budget resolution. Lets get down to the new york stock exchange, our very oney coal petallides. Theres only one way to go for the market these days, nicole, its amazing. Reporter right. And you talked about records, and look how were approaching dow 23,000. When you ask traders, theyre pretty sure were going to get there at some point. Nobody can say exactly when, but their feeling is by the end of the year we will be higher than the current levels. Were, what, 240 points away from dow 23,000. Weve even heard talks of hats. You mentioned, obviously, whats going on in washington today. The Bigger Picture is the trump trade and the idea of a businessfriendly administration, a tax plan that would also help america, americans and businesses to grow. Were watching financials which have been moving higher. In fact, a few of them, morgan stanley, also bank of america, these things are at new highs as the s p financial index is at the highest level that weve seen in a decade. And as we with talk about sectors, technology and energy are doing well today. Of course, were watching energy and some of those energy names, leaders such as transocean, noble and apache on the same day were hearing about opec and russia and talk about curbing production. I know thats a topic we hear a lot about, but look at that, settling up 1. 6 with west texas right now 50. 70 a barrel. Back to you. Ashley arrows pointing up. Thank you so much. Make sure to tune in tomorrow for maria bartiromos monthly special jobs in america at 8 a. M. Eastern just before the release of the september jobs report. Jobs in america with maria tomorrow. Dont miss it. Lets take a look at the dow, as we mentioned, another tripledigit gain today, were up 102 points at 22,764. The markets just want to go higher. Meanwhile, lets get back to the devastation from Hurricane Maria. Its stopped commerce in its tracks in puerto rico. So the question is how soon can the island territory get back to business . Well have an eyewitness account from a san juan businessman when countdown comes right back. This woman is laughing because shes listening to a hilarious audiobook on audible. And this woman is laughing because shes pretending her bosss terrible story is funny. Still actually laughing. No longer making a human noise. Experience the comedy, not your commute. Dial starstaraudible on your smartphone to start listening today. Can i kick it . Yes you can can i kick it . Yes you can can i kick it . Yes you can well im gone so new touch screens. And biometrics. In 574 branches. All done by. Yesterday. Banks arent just undergoing a face lift. Theyre undergoing a transformation. A data fueled, security driven shift in applications and customer experience. Which is why comcast business delivers Consistent Network Performance and speed across all your locations. Hello, mr. Deets. Every Branch Running like headquarters. Thats how you outmaneuver. Ashley the white house is asking congrs to approve a 29 billion relief package to help americans affected by recent disasters including those this stormravaged puerto rico. Two weeks after Hurricane Maria made a direct hit on the island, puerto ricos still in crisis mode as it struggles to recover from a storm that killed 34 people and destroyed 100,000 homes if not more. Right now less than 9 of residents have electricity, food and water supply alarmingly low, hospitals still operating under emergency conditions. Puerto ricos infrastructure is so damaged it can barely distribute all the aid and supplies that are coming in across the island. Our next guest is a real estate and construction businessman from san juan who also sits on the Puerto Rican National infrastructure council. Lets bring in ad and v president Ricardo Alvarez key whereas. Ricardo, thank you for joining us, diaz. I guess my first question is on a personal level, can you go down to the corner store and buy milk and bread right now . Well, it depends actually, first of all, thank you for having me. I appreciate your time. Ashley yes. Well, if youre in the metropolitan area of san juan, those things are less difficult. I can, myself, im actually right now calling you guys from san juan, and im actually overlooking the command center where a lot of the coordination for many of the aid is happening. So i can literally come down and maybe get some milk and some water, but theres not that much water, and theres not that much milk. My biggest concern is outside of the metropolitan area which, of course, is a little more difficult to get to. Ashley youre in the construction business, youre an architect. You know what it takes to rebuild. How long is it going to take to get puerto rico back on its feet and in business . Well, i have to say that the first thing and the focus is the infrastructure. As you well said, only 9 of the island right now has electricity. A little bit over 50 of the island has water. And most importantly, communication. Only 40 of the island has phone communication to the cell phone. So, obviously, thats a key part. If we we get satellite, communication, water, electricity, well have a better idea. The sooner were going to get the business running and getting closer to what could be business as usual. But if you ask me at moment, this is going to take years. This is going to the take a long time. The amount of devastation in the infrastructure is immense. And i do want to say that, you know, i want to make the distinction between infrastructure and physical, you know, devastation. I think that measuring the amount of fatalities to see how big of a catastrophe or not is not the best way to measure this terrible catastrophe. Ashley how hard is it going to be to attract business to come to earth rico puerto rico . Theres already many businesses there, a lot of drugmakers have facilities in puerto rico, but how hard is it going to be to attract new business as you embark on this very long, drawnout process of rebuilding that infrastructure . Well, i think that if you look at our gdp which is 52 of it is actually manufacture compared to popular belief, many people believe that its tourism which, actually, tourism is an important part, but its only 7 at this moment. The manufacturing industry, the Construction Industry and most of the other industries are going to start theyre going to move, and theyre going to get back in business fairly quickly. I think that, of course, when you look at tourism, thats going to take a little while. Hotels, of course, weve been, what makes us very unique as american citizens is the beauty of the nature, the beaches, the greenery. And its incredible. You, it will be difficult for you at this moment to find something green. So i think that when it comes to tourism, its going to take a little longer. Ashley ricardo, this is, you know, long before maria this is an island thats struggled mightily with debt. Who do you blame for that, and what can be done to address that issue . Well, to be honest with you, this whole issue about who can you blame or who can you not blame at this moment i can tell you that after two weeks of actually a whole month of being hit by two hurricanes because we were hit by irma and then, of course, maria ashley yes. You know, it might not be the best time for me for you to ask me [laughter] ashley i understand that, but it is a big issue for the island. It is, it is. Ashley no doubt about that. I agree with you. No, no, but listen, im kidding, but i have to tell you we have were in great spirits here. Ill tell you, yeah, it is undoubtedly a situation that we had before when it comes to specifically the debt we had in puerto rico, the debt was as you know very well very large. Ashley yes. I think were going to look at the history of the economy of puerto rico is going to be viewed years from now as what happened before maria and what happened after maria. Ashley right. I think the devastation is going to even, in a way, it may it refocus and try to find, you know, solutions in infrastructure. And as you know, the energy and the electricity was in dire straits way, way before we were hit by the hurricane. Ashley right. Ricardo alvarez diaz, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us, and we wish you the best of luck as the island continues to try and are rebuild from a devastating storm. Thank you, we appreciate it. And i also want to mention fox business will have much more on the situation in puerto rico at the top of the hour, david and melissa will be talking to the governor of puerto rico, so stay tuned for that. Now a sad note today, Silicon Valley loses one of its bright, shining stars, former intel ceo paul out linney. He spent 36 years at intell, he retired in 2013. He was a great friend to liz claman, countdown and the fox business network. He was one of the first major ceos to support our network right after its launch ten years ago even as our competitor threatened to ban him if he ever appeared on fox business. He remained true to us. He was a brilliant Business Leader with the courage of his convictions while hugely successful at intel where he nearly doubled revenues to 54 billion. But pauls legacy will be the legions of brilliant young scientists and engineers that he inspired with his massive support of intels world renowned annual science fair. Paul ott linney dead at the age of 66. When youre close to the people you love, does psoriasis ever get in the way of a touching moment . If you have moderate to severe psoriasis, you can embrace the chance of completely clear skin with taltz. Taltz is proven to give you a chance at completely clear skin. 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And all of this occurred in four minutes or less. Within five minutes. I am absolutely grateful we all made it out safely. Its kind of one of those things you cant even. You cant even thank somebody. People you dont know actually care about you. To protect what you love, call 1800adtcares we cut the price of trades to give investors even more value. And at 4. 95, you can trade with a clear advantage. Fidelity, where smarter investors will always be. Ashley kind of a positive sign, the house passing its budget blueprint, the first formal step in the process to make tax reform a reality a passing the measure 219206 with 18 republicans voting no. So is this the momentum we need to finally fix the nations tax code . Well, its certainly the first step. Joining us now, charlie gasparino. Are we on our way . I would say those are the public signs. There are signs behind the scenes that that are very interesting. Ashley always. We do hear its getting some momentum in the house. And with senate. You know, theyre all working ashley isnt the Senate Version so different from the house . They have basic things they agree on. Let me just go through some of these headlines because theyre getting some traction on twitter. Congressional sources say the tax cut plan outlined by the president largely could be, you know, the blueprint could be through the house and the senate if this thing keeps going, if the momentum keeps building, the consensus remains the same among republicans could be basically put before the president by the end of the year. They believe based on what theyre hearing. Barring a major change heres one thing thats going to be interesting, the tate and local Tax Deduction will likely remain in the final bill. Remember, trump talked about getting rid of s. A. L. T. , state and local tax ashley Sarah Huckabee sanders said were not getting rid of that. Its not happening, or it may happen for very, very, very rich people. Ashley right, right. So thats, basically, going to be i think that remains. Now, thats a problem because it takes about 1. 3 trillion of savings out of the budget for the next ten years, so youve got to find ways to make that up. One way i understand theyre going to make that up is to cap, there are Capital Gains tax cuts in this bill. Taking it from Something Like 22 to 16 . Done, apparently doesnt have enough momentum to get into the final bill among House Republicans and even in the senate. So Capital Gains tax cuts likely out, thats sort of a consensus among republicans. State and local Tax Deduction, likely to stay in based on everything that ashley to appease the democrats. And some republicans, by the way. Theres a lot of republicans in blue states that ashley those blue states are the ones nay the highest rates pay the highest rates, get the biggest benefit of that deduction. Yeah, but they also get screwed on a lot of other the point is those republicans in those blue states, and theres enough of them, are balking at this. Heres the interesting thing, the Corporate Tax rate looks like its going to stay. Ashley at 20. At 20. Looks like everybody is saying this is a red line we need to keep. So well see. You know, as of now. The notion of a fourth bracket on personal rates ashley yeah. Some people say the Senate Ashley we had Mick Mulvaney saying theres five brackets, but whatever, the fourth one, we dont know remember, now its three. They may move it to four. We dont know on that. Heres the sort of interesting thing as, believe it or not, they are counting votes particularly in the senate right now. Ashley yeah. The general consensus is that john mccain and rand paul dont ask me why rand paul are going to vote against this thing. Ashley dont they vote against everything . I mean, they have. Rand paul surprises me ashley why . Was he was always because he was always a tea party guy. You would think hes for giving people more of their paycheck back. Hes also a deficit hawk. So the scramble is to find, obviously, democrats to make up for those. But those are two players in the senate that they think are ashley susan collins, murkowski of alaskasome. Unclear, but those two are the names i hear are most definitely nos on tax cuts. Unless they water this down completely, then who knows. Ashley look, you talk to everyone, youve got sources. You say do you think this gets done by the end of the year . And is it retroactive, by the way . Dont know. Dont know about exactly where the income brackets go ashley right, right. Core respond to the tax corps respond to the tax rate. If i knew, i would tell you ashley i believe you. [laughter] especially since im getting the wrap, but the two big takeaways here, state and local Tax Deduction going to be in, it looks like, you can keep that. Everybody in new york state can thank me right now. Ashley thanks, charlie. The Capital Gains tax cut, looks like its not going to happen. Ashley no one gives the wrap to charlie. It says on the tshirt im only a spoke in a wheel. Ashley i dont wear a tie and i dont get the wrap. Thank you so much. Goldman sachs leading the dow 30 after Jpmorgan Chase raised its price target, also keeping its overweight rating. Microsoft, jpmorgan, apple also among the leaders today on the dow. Coming up next, still no motive for the las vegas mass murdererrers, but could security have stopped Stephen Paddock before he was able to pull the trigger . Our next two guests provide security to vegas hotels, both human and machine. Well ask them what happens next in the city where anything goes. Countdown is coming right back. This woman is laughing because shes listening to a hilarious audiobook on audible. And this woman is laughing because shes pretending her bosss terrible story is funny. 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It says, without commenting on specific ed, we understand ed, we understand information may come to light that we are pursuing to determine relevance. We have no information to indicate any additional threat. Now, in the wake of sundays mass shooting this las vegas, gun owners and enthusiasts have been rushing to purchase a modification device that allows weapons to fire basically like fullyautomatic rifles. The same device used by the shooter. At the same time, of course, there are calls for greater gun control legislation. Walmart and cabelas appear to have stopped selling the socalled bump stock device. Slide fire has also taken down sales of that device from its web site. Questions also now being asked about how to improve security at hotels, arenas and venues that allow for large gatherings. Lets bring in Weston Conwell and Martin Cronin whose company specializes in weapon detection systems, two people who can speak very clearly about what weve seen in las vegas. And thank you, gentlemen, both for joining us. Weston, your Company Provides security for las vegas hotels. Does shooting, do you think does this shooting, do you think, now change the way thoals handle security hotels handle security and how . I think were going to see yes, ashley, thank you for having me. Were going to see big changes coming. The problem is people want a stopgap. When Something Like this happens, they want to slap that bandaid on it and say that was it, this is what took place, this is what we can fix. Nobody can prepare for Something Like what went on. We cannot have people outside windows ready to go. And when you have a fornicate canner like this that can go out to any gun store and modify his gun to where he can mow people down on to the streets, what can the Security Industry actually do . We would love to see these measures go into place, wed love to see some things happen, but right off the bat we need to stop people from being able to bedazzle their machine guns and mow people down. Twelve of these items out there where he laid in wait, laid in perch where he was able to set this up in other cities and life is beautiful in chicago where he could get ready to do this. Yes, we need to put things into place. The wynn casino has already started putting wands and wanding people that come in. Ashley right. But these are babbledaid effects bandaid effects. In las vegas we have 130,000 hotel rooms. Try to grasp that. Thats more citizens than small cities have, thats what we have in a Hotel Everything single day in las vegas. Are we going to put metal detectors . I would love it. As a security professional, lets do it all. Lets stop with strip searching and dogs to sniff them out, but what is the reality . Whats the practicality . If theres a technology that can be affordable that we can start putting in places that we can push to our clients immediately, absolutely. That way we dont have to look at the hollow eyes of our citizens that have lost people right here, the heroes, the Police Officers that gave everything. These are the heroes that we call on daytoday, and now we look at them, and theyre broken inside. Ashley weston it wears off and they have to go out here and see this. Its horrific. Ashley you bring up a good point about technology, and thats where i want to bring in martin. Martin, what technically, you know, what we talk about the wand, you know, we can scan luggage and so on. Can technology really play a key role Going Forward when it comes to security in a situation like this . Well, i think it can. Its important to remember that, you know, there are no silver bullets. But, you know, Smart Technologies coupled with new, you know, advancing on policies and practices can make a difference. You know, your last, you know, commentator spoke about the challenge of preserving, you know, thes sense of vegas. People go there for a good time. They want to move freely. They dont want to fundamentally change their way of life, and i think its really important that new security measures dont fundamentally change our way of life. So we have to be smart about the application of technology. And so what were offering with our technologies is an unobtrusive way of detecting conceal weapons when somebody passes by the sensor. People, i think, are prepared to give up a measure of convenience for safety, but people dont want to live in a fortress and least of all in a place like las vegas. People want to be able to go about their, you know, what theyre there for. So what we offer is a discreet means of detecting the presence of concealed weapons as somebody passes by that sensor. You know, this needs to be combined with all sorts of other aspects of effective security. So were working with our partners at westgate in las vegas to implement this technology and integrate it into the broader security ap apparatus. Ashley to follow up quickly, martinnen, we were showing video of your pat scan, basically go through a scanner and it will alert if someone is carrying some sort of weapon or, you know, if we had these types of machines at the front of all the hotels as people come and go, do you think that could significantly reduce the risk . Well, we firmly believe that if you dont mind me answering. Ashley hang on, let martin answer quickly, and then ill go back to weston. Mafort been, quickly, is that effective . We do believe it would be a gamechanging technology, but it is important, as i say, that were looking at all aspects of security. And bear in mind, of course, that, you know, many measures that people implement are always trying to stop the last attack, and we need to take a holistic approach to all threats. Our technology is a gamechanging way of detecting the presence of threats coming into a facility. Ashley westop, are your weston, are your security guards armed . We have armed, we have unarmed, we have the full gamut. Ashley all right. The thing i wanted to address is youre talking about a particular item. We need the look at everything. I just came back from barcelona, italy, london, germany, and one of the things i noticed was in italy when i was there, every monument you had soldiers with automatic weapons standing out front. And at first youre taken back, but then you realize the state of affairs in our world, and im comforted by the fact that that visual deterrent is out there. And the visual deterrent is a key to a lot of this. If people know there are efforts inside the casinos, the if people know that we have High Technology and theres an armed guard standing right outside to stop them, to look at them if they see the Police Officers on the street, we dont want to hide these things. Ashley right. We need to have it up front, in your face everywhere you see that we take this seriously. When i was in barcelona, we saw armed guards. Surprisingly, in london i saw up in, in germany i saw none. In paris, where they just had another attack, i saw nothing. And you start to wonder why is it we are afraid to have people out there and let it know that this is a tough, bad world right now, and there are fornicators out there that could do Something Like that, that we need to stand up and let them know that we take the security and the wellbeing seriously. But if theres a will, theres going to be a way, and we as a community and a humanity need to come together and send messages out there that we will not stand for this. Ashley thats a good place to end it. Gentlemen, thank you. Thank you very much for joining us this afternoon. Really appreciate your input. Thank you both. Lets check the dow markets for you, were about 15 minutes away from the close. My, oh, my, the dows still up 102 points, 22,763. 23,000 just around the corner, perhaps. Coming up next, paul ryan about to hold a press conference on tax reform. Hes doing that in maryland. Well see what he has to say as adam shapiro will walk us through the tricky path that tax reform must take on capitol hill in order for it to actually be enacted. Countdown is coming right back. Who knew that phones would start doing everything . Entertaining us, getting us back on track, and finding us dates. Phones really have changed. So why hasnt the way we pay for them . Introducing xfinity mobile. You only pay for data and can easily switch between pay per gig and unlimited. No one else lets you do that. See how much you can save. Choose by the gig or unlimited. Xfinity mobile. A new kind of network designed to save you money. Call, visit or go to xfinitymobile. Com. Ashley House Speaker paul ryan just hog a press conference on tax reform, hes at dixon virginia and Coupling Company in maryland. Lets listen in for just a little bit. Sorry. Hey, youre not used to the microphone, are you . [laughter] no. Back in d. C. We dont have this. This is nice. Two questions. One is on taxes but, first, on kind of some news of the day. I know youve been asked about these bump stock issues after las vegas and the nra today came out and said that they support the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms reviewing whether these comply with federal law, so i wanted to clarify when you say youre open to reviewing this whether you think that should be done through the bureau reviewing whether it complies or whether you mean regulatory or statutory . Right. Yeah, its a good question. I didnt know what a bump stock was until this week, so i think a lot of us are coming up to speed. And and im an avid sports match, a lot of us sportsman, and a lot of us are are coming up to speed. Fully automatic weapons have been outlawed for many, many years, this seems to be a way of going around that. So, obviously, we need to look at how we can tighten up the compliance with this law so that they are, so that fully automatic weapons are banned. We need to go back and figure out how this happened in the first place. So i think theres a big regulatory question, and then we just have to do more research to find out whats the best way to make sure that the spirit of the law is upheld. Sorry, can i ask the tax question . Oh, yeah, sorry. The tax question is youve been doing a lot of these tours with businesses and talking to employers and their employees, but is there more you can be doing to message on the individual side . You did hear from somebody today how does this affect me. How do you drive that message home to individuals . Rue right about that. Theres more we all plan on doing, its a very, very good question. Do you know who we think about when we think about tax reform and tax relief . We think about the moms and dads who go to bed worrying about the next day whether or not they can make ends meet. Were thinking about the people in this country who are living paycheck to paycheck. So the purpose of tax relief is give middle income taxpayers a tax cut. Give them a tax break. And the things that were going to be doing that do that, lowering peoples tax rates, raising the standard deduction, making it so people can fill out their taxes on a postcard, increasing the child tax credit, removing the marriage penalty, all of those things give middle income taxpayers a tax cut so they can make ends meet because theres a lot of economic anxiety among middle class taxpayers and low income people in america, and we think we can help relieve that anxiety by cutting peoples taxes. That is something we definitely want to get more into. But the focus of these factory tours is to talk about how we can help these companies be more competitive and how we can help these companies expand and grow and raise wages and hire more people. It all leads to the same end which is help people become more prosperous, help people get better jobs with bigger paycheck s, help the American Economy be stronger and healthier. These things are all related, and were going to talk about all of it. Yeah. Right here. Eric [inaudible] eric watson, bloomberg. Twopart tax question. Very marylandspecific. A study out yesterday shows that if you eliminate the state and local Tax Deduction, maryland has the highest percentage of taxpayers who would see a tax increase. Can you update us, how firm is the idea of eliminating this entirely . And on the business side, you came and talked about full and immediate expensing here. The Tax Foundation has a study out that said that provides a, quote, sugar high to the economy, its not as lasting as some had thought i havent seen the Tax Foundation study. That would surprise me. Their model is a very capitalintensive model. I havent read that study okay, but on the general im shocked that the Tax Foundation said that i spent a lot of my time modeling this stuff. First of all, on your state and local question, im not going to get ahead of the ways and Means Committee whos going to be writing this bill, but heres the point of what were trying to do here. By removing loopholes or deductions and raising the standard deduction for everybody and lowering everyones tax rates, we want to give every middle income family in america a tax cut. Thats the purpose of that. So its important to look at in the whole scheme of things, in its totality. Lower tax rates, higher standard deductions, higher child tax credits if you have kids. On the the the expensing, the economic evidence is really clear, i would argue, that if you encourage a busess to buy more equipment, theyll buy more equient. And if a biness buys more equipment, then thellire mo peopleo t run that equipment. And giving them the incentive to fully expense their purchase of equipment means more equipment is bought, higher productivity, higher wages, faster economic growth. And the model that the Tax Foundation clearly shows you may be saying tpc, would be my guess. Youre probably saying tpc yeah. Which i think tpc has shown their ideological and partisan colors with the fact that they put out an estimate on a mythical tax plan that hasnt been written, that doesnt exist, that they just made up a bunch of assumptions. Yeah. Who are you with . Rob lang, wbal radio in baltimore. Do you believe that banning these blocks that are under, now under review, could that finish would that have prevented or at least made what happened in oh, im not going to speculate on a strange hypothetical. See, you didnt even know what it was called. I didnt know what these things were come monday. Neither did i. So the point is we all have to get more educated as to what these are, how they became available in the first place. Was it a regulatory misstep by atf some number of years ago . And we all know and believe that fullyauto weapons are illegal, and is so is this a big gap that needs to be closed and, if so, how to close it. We need to go through that analysis. Very quick sorry. I just want to give her a yeah. Who are you with . [inaudible] with nbc news. I wanted to ask you, do you believe tim murphy should resign as soon as today, or should he serve out his term . Ive spoken with tim quite a bit the last couple of days. I think its appropriate that he moves on to the next chapter of his life. And i think he agrees with that. I wont go into the timing of announcements. But i think its appropriate that he, and its in his interest to move on to the next chapter of his life. And if i could ask on a different subject, there are report that is the president is supposed to decertify the iran deal, he might come out with that as soon as next week s. That a position you agree with . I wanted to see where you were on that. I think ill let the president make the announcement of what his policys going to be. Ive studied this issue greatly. What we need is a comprehensive iran strategy, ask we have not and we have not had one, we did not have one from the last administration. The only comprehensive to the extent the last administration had a comprehensive iran strategy, it was to get a bad deal in this iran deal. So i believe the administration is reviewing, much like they did in afghanistan, what does a comprehensive strategy to deal with the threats facing us and the region from iran, and can that is a strategy theyre developing, and i dont want to get ahead of the president whos going to announce the strategy shortly. Yeah. Hi. Ashley keller with cnn. Just in light of the president s statements this morning, do you think that congressional which statement are you talking about . [laughter] theres a bunch of them. He questioned whether the Senate Intelligence committee should investigate what he called fake news outlets. Im just curious, do you think congress should get involved in im not familiar with the statement. Sorry, i was pretty busy in the house today passing our budget. Do you think congress should investigate news outlets . Im not familiar with the statement. All ill say is this thing keeps dropping down. All ill say is we have a thorough investigation in the house, a thorough investigation in the senate, and it is to investigate just what happened with respect to russia and what did they do they, the russians to meddle in the elections and pass misinformation. You all know, i think its been reported that facebook had russian advertising. So the question is to what extent did the russians try to meddle in our political system like theyre doing to other countries of we have to uncover all of that, equip ourselves with tools and give our allies we are about ready for the market to close. As we finish the markets. [closing bell rings. Guess what, david asman, Melissa Francis will have it all for you, after the bell. Melissa all right. David it is a huge day on wall street as stocks respond to news of a budget passed by the house inside of the beltway. Looks like 114, may go up higher as it heads into the ultimate close. This is the fourth Straight Record close. S p and nasdaq continue the record streaks as well. A great day for your money. Im david asman. Melissa im Melissa Francis. This is after the bell. We have more on Market Movers but here is what were covering in the busy hour ahead. The house passing a major hurdle paving the way for historic tax reform. Paul ryan speaking at a manufacturing plant