Transcripts For FBC Varney Company 20171228

Yes theres still questions to it. How much do you keep . How much can you write off. But coming down pike one, two trillion infrastructure plan and continues to be optimistic to push for prosperity in your wallet Varney Company right here starts right now. Charles i know the frozen tundra is redundant but necessary the east coast and west coast in already a serious e deep freeze and it will helicopter into the new years. Youre looking at windchills check them out negative numbers across the board absolutely phenomenal. On the other end the scale higher oil near 60 last two sessions. But not because lots of people are using heating oil the big spark the last couple of days has been libyan where fallout after that pipeline blast and adam you have nor details on that. A blast they expect to have this pipeline back up and running in about a week but knocking 100,000 barrels off of the market so price was trading above 60. And highest it has been in a long time. West texas take a look at this opinion headline from the wall street journal, listen to o varney find a broader audience Fox News Contributor with wall street journal wrote that article and he joins us now. Sanders enforces trump middleclass tax cuts and seems like hes trying to somehow walk it back. I dont know if cnn caught hill at the end of a very long week and didnt mean to say what he said but what he admitted is one there are lots of middleclass tax cuts. 91 folks get a tax cut. Im guess closer to 100 but well take 891 from bernie and he said what he should make hem said the tax cuts should have been made permanent so i think he well knows the reason theyre not permanent is because democrats wouldnt negotiate and so republicans had to use a reconciliation process that prevented it but bottom line is senator majority leader mitch should bring a permanent tax cut to floor inen jay and sounds like you have at least one vote in the democrat caucus with Bernie Sanders. You know listen, i mean, i think once february hits people see tax cuts actually hit their wallets. You start to see the tide of Public Opinion change on this. The democrats are going to be a whole lot of pressure whether it is brought up again in january remains to be seen when infrastructure and other things on dock et but certainly there will be more bites at this apple. You rise a good point where reality is about to set in. We heard all of the rett reck before the vote where nancy pelosi was saying this is armageddon the ends of the world. Maybe that deep freeze in the midwest she was talking about. That would be more accurate wouldnt it. Because i think both politicians and pun dangts on the left now have to reckon with fact that despite what theyve been telling us or for week this is cut is actually across the board middleclass, upper class, all income earners all break from ets are getting a break so isnt that sort of the whats happened here because you know they do the fear mongering before armageddon in the world expfer afterwards actually probably looking ahead know that these are this is popular. Who is unhappy to keep more of what they actually earn this ridiculous so now the argument is hey, people should have gotten a bigger tax cut. Yeah, i think people are gong it see theres less withholding ton out of their paycheck and see their wages rise, and also were starting to see, obviously, a lot of companies announcing bonuses with their cash. But also what youre really going to see is increased investment. By u u. S. Companies in the United States, and thats going to have benefits that people are going to feel as well. Last tuesday night fedex talked about paying into pension fund but pensions matter to it a whole lot of folks. Thanks a lot be back to you many a moments. Huge year for a stock market and sort of spinning our wheel this is week but might break out todays and were going to get big question, of course, is now a repeat of this next year a lot of people would say issue that what we saw in 2017 had a lot to do with trump now i want to get back to politics to bring in katy, foxs contradict tore town hall editor after the new year theyll be high gear potion on the fbi and russia, is it time to shut this one down and in your mind maybe move on to some things luke the economy and other things that are really happen hadding in real time . I think that democrats is time for time to try to shut down narrative because it is gone nowhere for a year when it comes to legal aspect and we dont know when that will end and white house thinks it will be wrapped up quickly and didnt know that. Could be in it for another year oar come to close early in the spring were not sure. But in terms of the narrative democrats have to get together, which they will at the beginning of the year and decide what their running for in 2018 and what theyre running against President Trump and being part of the resistance is really going to be their strategy going into those districts. I think resistance hashtag resistance will probably be their hallmark if you will. But you know how do they resist because russia, russia, i think is is really starting to fade people are confused and james ill bring you in on had this and credibility with fbi and key folks involved in the investigation being questioned their animosity viz rile to President Trump, im not sure why they want to hang on to this one. This investigation from Michael Horowitz department of justice i. G. Is creating problems for that mueller inquiry. One exposing bias within his ranks. But also as we go forward i think what its going to show is all of the problems created by former fbi director james comey. And all of the ways that he did not follow protocol in the the clinton email investigation. You had basically bipartisan dpreement among former clinton, obama, Bush Administration officials that comey had acted way beyond the world of an fbi director in in dropping the case and speaking publicly about it and making decision that were not his to make. Last second changes, of course, to the statement the folks who were involved in that as well. Weve only seen a small portion of these Text Messages and evidence that official government offices that the fbi in washington, d. C. Were used to go after a political candidate based on personal feelings of agents working with on the Hillary Clinton case. So i think were going to see a lot more of that once we see Inspector General report. But question is really going to be what is being done about it . And is there accountability that is put into place because thats what the American People are so frustrated about. Whether its irs going after conservatives, and people like louis lerner walking away with a full pension there are questions about how fbi is being transparent and how theyre actually turning over a new leaf when it comes to making sure their investigations are free of personal political bias. So you think there could be some special investigate counsel fatigue listen, ting that democrats have now got ton precarious position because a lot of focus has shifted back to the handling of Hillary Clinton. Situation well democrats were demanding special kowj and thactd cut both ways. So im not all about investigations to investigate the investigator because when that is like a russian doll never get to the end of it. But there are questions about the accountability and as weve pointed out the i. G. Report is early february and well learn a lot from that. But there will be action taken to make sure that there are consequences for those actions. Ultimate outcome of the mueller case situation you know do you think it would be tainted no matter what . James, and to degree at least in a court of Public Opinion, will it have been worth it . Well i think the struck impeached tax do create a big problem in terms of credibility and i think it adds to the credibility problem jim comey created at the fbi during 2016 campaign. So it is going to be question i also i dont know if mr. Mueller has ever had to answer question of why does he have so Many Political activists on his staff and can you really not find competent lawyers who arent hacks . Thats a big question. Assuming he could. A lot of people are asking that. Next within for katy a new wall street journal poll shows that College Educated women before democrats over gop and 62 to 30 . All right katy now we have seen a shift in recent years, right . What do you think is happening here . Well, well have to see it depends on the election, right. So if theres an economic orn the table women tend to think about those in a way just like men do. But what this does not break down is a difference between single women with College Degrees and married women with with College Degrees, and overwhelmingly single women with College Degrees tend to work for democrats where as married women vote for republicans so the shift in this could be married women actually profell President Trump into the white house. Absolutely. Stlos a split between married and single women. I would make a joke and say well this is what happens when we seeds women to college. Because they learn all about ideas and those are things that you get out of college and use. A Pugh Research report this morning, and you know, republicans in general have frowned more upon College Education than democrats and in part because, you know, the cost associated and return on investment for money theyre putting into 100,000 in a degree so republicans do have some work to do, though, thats for sure. Yeah. At least i think they all admit that too. High fashion vanity fair magazine and a little bit of hot water poking fun at Hillary Clinton. Stay is there katy because we have with more on this coming cp as well. Well, its earnings season once again. Yeah. Lot of Tech Companies are reporting today. And, hows it looking . I dont know. Theres so many opinions out there, its hard to make sense of it all. Well, victor, do you have something for him . Check this out. Td ameritrade aggregates thousands of earnings estimates into a single data point. That way you can keep your eyes on the big picture. Huh. Feel better . Much better. Yeah, me too. Wow, you really did a number on this thing. Sorry about that. Thats alright. I got a box of em. Thousands of opinions. One estimate. The earnings tool from td ameritrade. Start by taking a look at bitcoin one of the big areas not only do they mine it there. But it is huge amongst just average traders so Government Intervention and bitcoin taking it down a little bit. And take a quick lock at gold had are really good week last week and nevertheless creeping closer to that major resistance point and breakout at 1300 a lot of gold bugs are saying what abouts . Okay now this. Theres a train station getting a new name in jerusalem adam l you have those. Israeli minister of transportation building high speed rail are from telaviv if you find you can take the train all the way to gurs jerusalem to a station near the western wall, and that station they proposed to be named after President Trump in honor of what he did few week back with recognizing jerusalem as israel capitol. Didnt get noble peace prize but a face named after. Not 100 picial but thats where they seem to be thanks a lot. Now theres this, tax bill we know is next big time on the agenda for the Trump Administration is this it trillion dollar infrastructure package i want to bring in former ray began economist laugher all right listen lets talk about a couple of things here. First economic boost more obvious in taxes where people are going to see february first, but how do you, how does a Republican Party argue for a trillion dollars in infrastructure and how that impacts everyones everyday life . Well it depends very much in what had the infrastructure is, with charles. If the infrastructure is high ways things that add to productivity a really easy sell if infrastructure is bridges to nowhere i think it will be a real problem but i think trump in this administration can really focus infrastructure make it work. And that would be really great. Its got to be a longterm project, though, you dont want to rush infrastructure. You really dont. You want to make sure it is well thought out done over a long period of time so achieves objective it wants to achieve and then infrastructure can really be a spectacular part of the overall spending program. Do you like the idea of going at it sort of with this three part three prong approach . Federal government ponies perhaps two or 300 sate is or local ponying up and private sector getting them involved that the right sort of mix there . That sounds cool to me to be honest i love Public Private partnerships i really think it is wonderful. I want to make sure they dont do a structural spending and stuff the same reason that w did and obama did to stimulate employment. Infrastructure is not an a employment stimulative unless it is really good products that are being built that will really add value over o the longterm. Just providing jobs to people who are out there is not a good idea it is a very bad idea but provide aring good infrastructure programs and Public Private partnership i think are fantastic. And what the government really is supposed to do. Highways, stadium, all of these things are really important. You are art i went back and i looked back at 19 50us and every year i studied the month to month job changes, and Eisenhower National Highway Program didnt necessarily stimulate that. But serge connected to country that brought us to life and thats when we peaked as world number one, you know, greatests share of the world gdp. That was a great, Great Program that iosen, however, did i knew when he was in high school, and he was no just choking. Joking but it did hook america together and it really add to the economic efficiency of this country. The truck aring industry is owes a lot to eisenhower, and a the advantages we did then trump can do Something Like that in infrastructure i think it would be fantastic for years to come. And our governor did a great job on highways. Within for you now art because this is something we thought about you first head coach Greg Popovich had words for those who dont donate to charity. Because we are rich as hell, and we dont need it all and other people need it, and you are a blank you dont give it. Pretty schism. Whats your reaction to that . Are rich obligatedded to give back . I dont think so. I mean you look i think it is whferl rich give to charities a lot of 501c threes out will are not charity but tax dodges a lot of them are, and so thats what they call charity when rich give and they give when they like it is whferl anyone gives it is welfare. And thats what were all about in this society is helping our fellow man, and any way in which we can but i dont think anyone should be shamed into giving or scream at us it if they dont give. It just doesnt makeceps. Remind everyone too were by par the most generous country in the world and given every way phenomenal as a country. With other countries as well. Charles. We give money technology, blood, sweat, toil, weve given everything to rest of the world. You know, for Little Things i think, but thats a different topic. I dont like anyone shaming into doing something. For you the best appreciate it. If thanks charles had yes we have more from that parody video from vanity fair remember any conservative magazine if they were to put Something Like this out it would be blasphemy so we want to react to it, next. You know Anderson Cooper you were telling him about alternates no trillion breathing you should try teaching a class. I used to have more hair. I used to have more color. And. I used to have cancer. I beat it. I did. Not alone. I used to have no idea what the American Cancer Society did. Research . Yeah. But also free rides to chemo and free lodging near hospitals. I used to maybe give a little. Then i got so much back. I used to have cancer. Call 18004944357 today. Your contributions to the American Cancer Society fund valuable research. But thats just the beginning. A cancer diagnosis can kick off years of challenge. And thats where your donation truly shines. You help us fund free rides to treatment. A live 24 7 help line, free lodging near treatment centers. And even efforts to expand access to insurance. So, please donate today at cancer. Org and help attack cancer from every angle. Or a little internet machine . It makes you wonder shouldnt we get our phones and internet from the same company . Thats why Xfinity Mobile comes with your internet. You get up to 5 lines of talk and text at no extra cost. So all you pay for is data. 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. Retail. Under pressure like never before. And its connected technology thats moving companies forward fast. Ecommerce. Real time inventory. Virtual changing rooms. Thats why retailers rely on comcast business to deliver consistent Network Speed across multiple locations. Every corporate office, warehouse and store near or far covered. Leaving every competitor, threat and challenge outmaneuvered. Comcast business outmaneuver. katy weve limited time but weve seen this clip our viewers are certainly not you know feeling us but what had do you think about it . Cheers to the video i thought it was funny i thought people are offended and vanity fair issued somewhat of an apology for offending people but this is a woman who sold cross stitched pillow and are framed cross stitched artwork on her campaign website. To make money, so please spare me the drama over being offended about that suggestion. Ed a milling it is a parody video and get out of your safe spas one of the most high profile people in the world and take from younger democrat voters. And a republican here. Young voters by the way for the most part chose varney and maybe the party does need to clinton os to go away finally. Only they do i think were that path out and see how 2028 plays out to hit the campaign trail if she can help herself. Good to see you. Now i want to take a look at the bitcoin because the big market story for the month, we want to see how it play out, of course, over next couple of l days remember action is by south koreas government putting a lot of pressure on it. This morning, weve got some time here before the market opens. Weve been spinning our wheels all week long nevertheless were just in a shadow of dow 25,000. Varney company, will be right back. All right folks opening bell and just a little bit more than a minute from u now. Now lets put everything into perspective one heck of a year for the stock market. Over o the last month so some interesting things have what haded technology has come back just a little bit. Nasdaq still leading pack but it is gap over the new York Stocks Exchange and dow industrial aj has come don a lot money rotates out of that into names that are necessarily the exciting gee wiz thing like material and industrial and done extraordinary well now another intrigues aspect in the last month utility stocks have come down dramatically and down 7 since november 14th. You can look at that two ways one thats smart money is saying hey dividends are are nice but 2018 go for bang for a buck and bring in jeff just before reopen here. Jeff. You know, i dont know where you are on market but action says smart money wants to stay invested not necessarily high pliers but they want to own equity. I agree with that and i think market will hit 25,000. I dont believe it is going to hit 25,000 in the next couple of cays. But the bottom line with this market is that it is going to ride this momentum for a while but as ive said for quite a while, is that sooner or later the fundamentals are going to keep up the value. Debate fundamental in a moment but right now opening bell is ringing look at the big board populating at the bottom right now it doesnt move a lot. Well talk about that laters a possible dog of the dow and gotd man sax leading the pack and American Express you have financial and home depot disney come on strong up 4 for thier and a lot in the theres month as it seems like theyve gotten their act together and folks are okay with them bleeding espn. Take a look at espn folks on really use as their game to overall market had a really great year as well. Not as much as other major but another goods yore and check on nasdaq again nays dag was far away the best performance still the best performer will be for 2017 but given up a quite a bit in the last month as has been had some profit taking in a high flyer there. Joining us now adam shapiro and james and jeff, okay guys perhaps still a couple of rallies away from 25,000 james what do you think . Well 25,000 this year. Look, stocks are not cheap as i often say but i think what is interesting now is we keep getting other expensive, though . Because i look expensive relative to their earnings relative to history. So for the ratio is about is right now historically it is like 23, 24, 5 when we have had major crashes so historic norm is around 15. Were above the historic norm but near a place where we should think theres a crash around corner. Not calling a crash but corrections do happen. Markets fluctuate 5, 10 not going to give a number. But heres the optimistic case and why i think were seeing, you know, s p up 20 this year you get the Economic News keeps Getting Better so it is not just perception it is not just good feelings its not just optimism about what this trump tax cut will do and i think it will do a lot. It is also that the economic numbers whether it is manufacturing gdp they keep surprising economists on upside and i think as long as thats whatting with growing earnings investors cant help but be optimistic about equity. So well come back to you because i agree with james in a sense that underlying fundamental with terms of manufacturing and terms of corporate earnings and Corporate America is telling us it feels like they are justifying this rise that this is not just a rise if you will. But theres a legitimate reason to be optimistic based on underlying trend you dont see that, though. Theres reason to be opt misit can but the problem many this market is this market have been driven by five stocks not to say that other stocks havent performed but 50 of the gain for if five stocks my issue with this market is that it is a narrow range are fundamentals are much better and much better than theyve been in quite a while but there does come a point where there needs to be more, breath of the market needs to spread out spreads out, though if its smart folks who are holding five names that you talk about decide okay now is the time to start taking profits and that money does not go to it sidelines but finds itself in avery you know, Union Pacific just names that arent necessarily associated with gee wiz but companies that have been arranged for 100 years and good economic would you be okay with the rally then . I would but that would change things but i dont think it will happen. I think thats a false expectation. I thinks investors have grown addicted to these five great names theyve become addicted to them. As hay go so the market impose and i honestly dont and even some of these crossexamination ohs do not feel their evaluations are justified. They know that theyre middle of a momentum rally they know they are delivering on a lot of what they promised it. But in terms of can it sustain itself . Only if the market spreads out. It doesnt, i think were going to have a pullback it might not be a dramatic pullback because i believe Small Businesses are in better shape. But theres going to be a pullback nonetheless, and we cant expect after nine years of this market rally for it to last forever. Pullbacks, obviously, happen then corrections, obviously, happen and some would argue overdue because of a long period of time are as investor watching this so someone with a money in the 401 k , though, and knowing that perhaps it is quote unquote due whats the action they take . Because having someone probably trying to guess the top has been a terrible, terrible thing for people since going back to 2009. Weve had a lot of people. I have a lot of investor who is didnt get into the market waiting for if next to drop ebb and since then even those who stayed in gotten out thinking guessing that this was the right biggest problem investors have all of the invests tore i talk to on daily basis say the same thing there are allocation in equities because bombs arent fable yields are terrible. People dont want to be in bomb market but allocation and you have a lot of people that are in line so only thing they can do is they could come out of the market and sit in cash. And cash people hate cash. And they doapght want to sit in cash. They would rather be allocated but the risk of what is much more extreme for those people. In a way if you guys if james if you look at this market the rally it has had versus the volatility this is one of the best market years in the history of the stock market. These would be a lack of volatility. Does it that is that creating comfort that we should have too much comfort display sang and people get neshes and these prices have is gone up. My hope is that when the downturn which inevitably comes markets fluctuate and it whats that this will be a signal that were moving to a different economy now. Driven by people in private market taking investment what i mean is unlike period weve going through Federal Reserve doesnt look at a downturn as moment where they need to act. We need them to stay on sidelines. To step become to let economics happen again. Talk more about volatility but somewhere where it has been pronapsed in bitcoin South Carolina announced to crack down and bitcoin as a consequence over a thousand earlier today. James, im not sure where you are with respect to bitcoin my son just opened up his bitcoin about the the other day. And he told me to four years ago so hes o got more authority track record on it than yods. I think it is a neat technology. I think it could potentially make expensive Bank Technology and i think maybe ultimately whether or not you use bitcoin but value of bitcoin i have not seen the case on why it is worth lets see 13, 14,000 now i dont know how you justify that. Ive seen a good cause but it is worth will nothing, and ive seen pretty good cases that it is worth nothing. But i have the case pretty good case of where it is wot worth a million. J but you talked about Cheryl Casone said belong chain is not bitcoin so proposed new legislation in south korea that would ban the use of bitcoin or cryptocurrency. But not the block chain technology. So thats whats going on. But you knows theres going to be a lot of debate over this because fiat currency you talked about the fed to precinct 12,000 in a blink of eye so wonder what is the value of the dollar of the any other currency thats or already out there. To be a currency you have to be received somewhere. Walk outside any town or city and walk down street and how many retailers take bitcoin now . Billionth coin is sexy name now and im a big advocate of block chain but i said if youre going to invest many it be prepared to lose it. Because it is a reality. Every day in a new crypto comes onis line. Take a look at amazon prime because amazon is just really done extraordinarily well captured holiday ecommerce sales jeff you like amazon this is a stock that you do like. Yeah ive loved diamonds and owned a lot of real estate around amazon thats benefited us tremendously. The reality about amazon is this subscription to growth of subscriptions millions and millions of people subscribe to amazon prime every single day and amazon is delivering on what they want. Which is two about three, four hour delivery which or theyre delivering on in certain cities right now. Theyre annihilating. How long do they keep advantage . Walmart has done a pretty good job and some others. I know listen the reality is that theyre making all of their money on their Cloud Business. Right, losing substantial money still in a retail side and all of the other bents that the consumer gets how long can they sustain that Business Model and obvious that folks are starting to figure it out and competitors are starting to make changes. Especially walmart and i think itheyre light years away. Heres the defining element of amazon. Alexa. Alexa is a search engine, alexa is going to drive a lot of people to buy more when they make the buying process more convenient. So when alexa fully materializes as their core component, you are going to see another upswing in amazon. Now sales are going to be up billions and billions of dollars to your point totally connect house to amazon. Well speaking of amazon other side of this is a big retail name that you know, now theres several that are in death watch for next j. C. Penney at the top of the list radio shack not sures that still arranged. Toys are us so filed for bankruptcy and retail bankruptcies this year, obviously, a lot more next year as well. Hearing for year how brutal it is for retail especially brickandmortar retail and it is. But if i could add a lighter note we did see a very good Holiday Shopping season and also and retailers had highest so benefit more than any other sector from a big Corporate Tax cut. Now does that solve competitive challenge of amazon et cetera, no. But i think theres reason for optimism we didnt have a few weeks ago. With when dust settles those stores that are left around will be competitive we have a retail clinch. They were exponential difference so a reckoning that had to happen one way or another. Thanks jim very great. Great having you guy this is morning. For trump it will be more market optimism getting economy become on track it is done extraordinary in first year next act a trillion dollar spending bill for infrastructure, the question is, democrats will they be onboard because we know theyre going to continue in particular russia. Russia. Whoooo. When it comes to travel, i sweat the details. Late checkout. Downalternative pillows. And of course, price. Tripadvisor helps you book a. Hotel without breaking a sweat. Because we now instantly. Search over 200 booking sites. To find you the lowest price. On the hotel you want. Dont sweat your booking. Tripadvisor. The latest reviews. The lowest prices. All right folks lets check on big board dow up 45 point. 20, 24, 800 less than 200 points away can we make it happen . Still a chance weve got 48 hours of trading. Also ept to take a look, of course, at tech names we check them every single day you can see all of they will are are higher today including apple which had a couple of rough day after some questions about iphone 10 o shipment index fund may have tech problems as well and jerry lewis on this with respect to whats happening at the new York Stocks Exchange you cant get too much of a good thing. Everybody thinks passive index is a great safe way to go. Such a great idea. But let me tell you youre exposing yourself to some risk and why because of the chart you just showed. Technology up and up. Big apple up 45 this year. Amazon up 57 . This year, talk a look at these numbers. As a result of all of this power in the hands of technology, the tech share waiting in the s p 500 here are the numbers, 23. 8 today. Ten years ago it was 20. 8 . So big increase in tech representation, in the s p 500 index you may be double down on tech and not even know it. So thats a big story for folks out there to know were investing many index tund. Charles. Real quick jerry ill tell you i look at people portfolio all the time and theyre so overweighted in tech not just index fund but new and a deep value fund and all of these Different Things next thing if people look at Top Ten Holdings they would be 40, 50 all tech so thats a great point you bring up we appreciate it. An important warning thank you charles. I want to get become to politics to bring this congressman matt gates republican from florida after the new year theyre in high gear. We think focus will still be fbi and russia. Now you allege extreme prohillary bias with respect to the fbi situation, and you want to see some action taken. Well absolutely charles. And thats not just my statement or my belief. These are the actual emails from the Current Deputy director of the fbi who is Just Announced his retirement andrew dealing dealing that Hillary Clinton investigation and hq special or head quarter special. You know charles in 2018 we have every reason to be optimistic a booming economy, stock market thats on the rise were slowing illegal immigration, and were slashing regulations and oh, by the way we just passed the biggest tax cut in American History the problem is that our opportunity in our prosperity could be limited this presidency is called into question by a sham of a russia investigation right now thats what it is. So how does it ultimately get resolved because i do sense also that americans on both sides of the aisle certainly a political type are sort of rei of more investigation how long do we investigate the investigators to investigate the investigators where does it end . First thing we need to do is acknowledge the fact that there was absolutely no collusion between President Campaign and Russian Federation i think now molar is trying to make allegation that we were all on the same internght together. So there must be some connection. Thats ludicrous. Necks thing we need to do is change laws so that this never happens again so that you never have an opportunity for someone like james comey to take the Hillary Clinton investigation out of the hand of the very confident professionals at the Washington Field office and instead use a process that really departs from the standard procedures so i think with the passage of some transparency legislation that provides adequate oversight over the department of justice and fbi, we can move past all of this and really get to what you describe. An infrastructure build that will rebuild this great country and hopefully we can pay for that infrastructure bill with some welfare reform so we dont continue to deficit spend but some some of the work force challenges that many of our Small Businesses feel. Do you worry at all, though that when you start to talk about the inability to these sort of investigations. Under premise premise that theyre independent and honest, and also the rhetoric against fbi that you make it harder for rank and file folks and a intenls community to do their job and do we want a nation that has that low lack of confidence in their Intelligence Community . Well its absolutely essential that we have trust and confidence in our Intelligence Community, and all of our democrat institutions, but here you have a circumstance where are Robert Mueller went fishing in the never trump aquarium to cure rate his team. I dont know if Robert Mueller was grossly negligence or careless and putting together this particular group of people investigating the president. But the American People are now aware of that bias. They will not tolerate any teat to remove or o undermine this president and meanwhile, the american had people are winning. You look at economic metric we talk about that every day but could there be some sort of a crisis for if Robert Mueller you want mol uer or fired right represent aretive gates . I do. If hes fired could that change the entire dynamic of our country buzz a large part of economic success is sort of enthusiasm its enthusiasm that you know, they call it Virtuous Cycle hard to manufacture when you get it you dont want to lose it. Youre absolutely is reeght and that enthusiasm is alive and well with the American People. Which is what is most important to President Trump. Stay there and president were to acquire mueller and said on one or more cases to fire thats the president job and foreign general job. Because trump are said that was not his intention sob should be clear on that and you think it is right thing to do even though dire consequences to confidence overall in everything about the government. I dont think that that would create the dire consequences i think dire consequences are created when you have the possibility of this Mueller Probe lasting for years. And undermining the legitimacy of the duly elected president of the United States. I think thats had the far greater risk i think having the attorney general step up acknowledge this investigation as reduce ared mog. And ending and then lets move on to very important work we have to improve quality of life for American People. Longer lingered on less credibility it has got son maybe something theyre probably pongeddering on their own right now. Representative gates great to have you on. Lets check market scan right now dow 30 board you can see over half of these names higher led by visa American Express spending over Holiday Season apple rebounding after two tough days caterpillar im calling stock of the yore and pounded it on my show over last go two years. Trending get this, less than 25 years from now china ask said to be will be number one economy in the world. Awakening the agents superpower, the question is, is america really to take a backseat . Thats next. I just finished months of chemo. But i dont want to talk about months. I want to talk about years. Treatments have gotten better, so. Im hoping for good years ahead. Thats thanks to Research Funded by the American Cancer Society. The same folks giving me free rides to treatments, insurance advice,and a place to stay during chemo. I need that stuff like you dont know. And now that you do, please give. Call 18004164357 today. Your contributions to the American Cancer Society fund valuable research but thats just the beginning. A cancer diagnosis can kick off years of challenge. And thats where your donation truly shines. You help us fund free rides to treatment. A live 24 7 help line, free lodging near treatment centers, and even efforts to expand access to insurance. So, please donate today at cancer. Org and help attack cancer from every angle. China overtake u. S. Economy 15 years come on in gore began author of comes collapse had of china weve been hering this for a few years but they continue to 6. 9 annual gdp growth and you know it is hard to to ignore this. Well the World Bank Issued a chart in the middle of this year. They didnt have gdp numbers on it but be you do a little bit of arit tuck it show world bank bleeds in 2016 china grew 1. . Look, this year theyre probably doing a little bit better. Maybe 2 . But you know with tax reform with the deregulation of the u. S. We have an economy growing 4 theyre going to be growing one on two so were a much bigger space than they are so theyre falling behind charles. Really so when kat pill selling more equipment to china and apple sells more products to china than america and u. S. Car manufactures need to china market to stay relevant what does that mean because it feels like theyre their economy is growing faster than ours. With caterpillar targe taking advantage of still plus thord to get that economy going theyre building, building and a sol reports you have caterpillar doing very well in will but thats not a real indication because look, right now they are spending like a dollar . Stimulus theyre getting about 6, 7 cents of gdp in output. So bottom line is this is mostly hype no concern that china will overtake my number one economy for a long time if ever. Not in this half century they said 2032 maybe 3032. But not in the next 20 or 30 years. Jordan thank you very much. The second hour of Varney Company, next. Think your Large Cap Equity Fund has exposure to Energy Infrastructure mlps . Think again. Its time to shake up your lineup. The alerian mlp etf can diversify your equity portfolio and add potential income. Bring amlp into the game. Before investing, consider the Funds Investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. Read the prospectus carefully at alpsfunds. Com amlp. Charles im Charles Payne in for stuart. Here are the headlines. Were following this morning. Wild swings for bitcoin. One Morgan Stanley analyst says the value to be a goose egg, thats right, zero. Gop tax bill signed into law. Trump Administration Reportedly considering a new measure that would let consumers buy Cheaper Health Care plans without all of those obamacare mandates. Were days away from ringing in the new year. Nypd taking extraordinary measures to make sure people remain safe in times square. The second hour of varney starts right now. Charles right now the latest read on mortgage rates. Adam you have the number. 30year fixedrate mortgage according to freddie mac, fannie mae, 3. 99 . Up slightly from if was a week ago, 3. 94 . Yearoveryear it was 4. 3 a year ago. So the 30year fixedrate mortgage still, despite the tax reform, still below 4 . 15year fixedrate are mortgage. Up from last week at 3. 8 . Mortgages still at historic lows. Charles people want to buy a house, particularly firsttime buyers that is huge, that is huge. That should factor into your equation. Got four days to get in under the new mortgage rules. Charles the dow is up 36 points. This we were up 50 points earlier in the day. This is the pattern were following, meandering. Apple had a rough session. Questions how many iphones shipped in the first quarter. Check on the price of oil. We flirted with the 60 number for west texas intermediate. It would be a break jut if we were to close above the 60dollar magic number. There is this on bitcoin. One Morgan Stanley analyst said the cryptocurrency may have no real world value. Right now bitcoin is 14,000. Joining us now kaltbaum Capital Management head, gary kaltbaum. Where do you stand on this . I have in my hand, bit highlighter. It is worth more than a bitcoin. If somebody paid 15,000 for it, wall street would start trading it, the futures exchanges would have you trading it also. You will have companies coming out instead of changing their name to riot blockchain, it would be riot highlighter. That is the nature of this before the. I have to tell you i dont know if it goes to 50,000, i dont know if the price goes to 100,000, what i do know when the music stops there will be no chairs left. Everybody will lose a lot of money. Dont be the last one in. Best way i can explain it to you. Charles sir isaac newton is considered the third smartest person involved in the planet, got into the mississippi paper play. He told his friend. Finally got in and bought in, lost all his money. One. Smartest man on the earth. How can people start to resist, it standers to go up and it goes to a million . Greed is one heck of a emotion. People right now are calling for 100,000, calling for half million, calling for a million. That would mean somebody would have to pay that price in order for you to get out. Put that around your head to try to figure that one out. Again weve seen this before. Amazing, just in 1999, in our lifetime, we saw companies change their names, add dotcom to it, announce a website and stocks would go up five or six fold. People would jump all over it. Aunt mary and uncle bob sell utilities to buy the stocks. A bunch went down 100 . Exactly the same thing going on. Nobody ever learns their lesson about the word greed. Just remember, all this is happening, all this noise is going on, after it is up 17 or 18 fold. My spam box right now, 20 a day from all sudden geniuses telling me how to trade bitcoin after gone from whatever price up to 20,000. Charles gary let me ask you one i think you will be warming up to a little bit more. Listen, two trading days in 2017. 25k by end of the year, more importantly where does this rally go next year . First off it is remarkable what were seeing not just in price but in the fact there is no pullbacks. My only worry next year is we get a little bit of normality, doesnt mean the world is ending or economy going south. Five to 10 pullbacks are supposed to happen during a year. I would not be surprised to see one next year. That said, as long as Central Banks continue to do what theyre doing, as long as Interest Rates stay low, earnings will be strong and markets will do well. You know me as technician, if things start to change i will deal with it, right now i heard you mentioned earlier things have been changing. Technology is all weak. Energy and retail is strong. Go with my money there right now and well see how it plays out. Bottom line so far so food and the amazing part we cant even get a 2 correction in the dow. I havent seen anything like it that is the only worry going forward. I think were due. Charles i havent done the work, perhaps if you consider the rally coupled with a lack of volatility one of the best years in the history of the stock market. I do want to ask you about question of retail. You brought it up. Amazon prime reportedly helped amazon capture half of all holiday ecommerce sales. Amazon will get bigger in 2018. This is name a lot of viewers own. What are your thoughts in this one . I made good money in the last year on it. Jeff bezos is just a brilliant man. He has been able to combine the internet with product and with subscriptions. That little trifecta is working fabulous. Theyre making a ton of money. Most of their money off of the cloud. It is now a major brand name, probably top five brand names in the world. They are leading everybody else to catch up with them. Would i say only question is, how expensive the price of the stock is. Maybe that stops it from going up even further. Man, oh, man, what a Great Success story. What a emergency. Something to learn from. Charles that Cloud Business i think last quarter did four billion in sales an over one billion to the bottom line. Now they have a lot more room to offer the great discounts. That is where they are, right, the discounts and services. They cant be beat. Alexis says jeff bezos knows what the heck he is doing, my friend. Simple as that. Charles so does gary kaltbaum. Appreciate it every time youre on. Happy new year to you and your family. Charles i want to shift to tax reform. The gop tax plan we know that passed but sales pitch continuing into the new year. Americans for prosperity president tim phillips is here with us. Tim, your group is out there promoting this plan. What are you focusing on to get the low poll numbers higher . You know when the reagan tax cuts passed passed in 81, theyd 34 . Most americans dont trust washington. That is reasonable thing. We want americans to show exact benefit, they receive. Lower rates on individual side, standard deduction is doubled. Were confident in the wage growth because of corporate rate cuts. Well do town hall meetings, digital advertising, Broader Network and cable. Charles whole time youre doing this the Mainstream Media will say it doesnt work. They will dump on it every single day. Democrats will say it is maybe not armageddon but pushing us closer to the cusp. Those messages going against each other, could people start to see this on their own in their own personal realities, get the check in and keep more of their own. Rolling stones were right, time is on our side. It is on our side. We have to keep it in front of americans. The news cycle moves so quickly. We want to make sure they remember, hey, when you do your taxes at the end of next year for this year, even when you see paychecks, getting new job, wages going up, a lot of companies raising pay because of corporate rate cuts because of these tax cuts the administration deserves credit for and this republican congress. Charles companies have raised minimum wage. Great when it is done organically, not forced by the government state or local. No question. Charles next on health care, president signing an executive order aiming to make lowcost plans more accessible to consumers. What are your thoughts . That would be a nobrainer and fantastic because some of the plans in the obamacare package were mismatched for needs of potential customers. It is going to impact young people the most. I have three 20 something sons. They will be able to, here is shocking thought based on obamacare. They will be able to choose what is best for them, for them, catastrophic care, charles, you know that, with the young folks get less expensive policies because they dont need all the pileons that obamacare forced and it should increase choices or it will increase choices but charles that is a key component, competition, because thats what drives everything. Talking about amazon, people benefiting from amazon, watching the show one way or the other, bringing competition to the healthcare market. That is a key component missing. At this. If youre in Obamacare Exchange in this country, just under 50 of those in those, no choices have one company to choose from. Hopefully when you let Companies Offer more catastrophic or more detailed plans give consumers more choices it should increase competition because companies are going to see the opportunity to get out from government mandate perhaps make a profit, bring a good service, charles, that is the key. Letting companies create value, giving them the ability to do that, compete with each other, that gives consumers choices. Charles your sons can take the savings and buy some bitcoin. [laughter] im not too shower about that the last guy may be right on that one. Charles before i let you go, all of this comes under one big problem or one big pushback that is always out there, class warfare. Right. Charles the idea, i think its a bad look when someone belittles regular folks, regular middle class earners saying two grand is not a big deal, extra 40 bucks a week is not a big deal. Theyre so disconnected from needs of people in the economic area but also the notion that hey, yeah, you may get two grand but this guy is getting 60. How unfair is that to stoke that sort of envy . Here is key thing. As percentage of income, the middle class, lower middle class will benefit as percentage of income greater under this cut. We have to make that case to folks and weve got to push back envy and resentment that the left does. Envoy ask one of seven deadly since you dont get satisfaction out of it. Charles thanks. One new jersey town outlawing out of town drivers during rush hour. They are giving 200dollar tickets residents caught driving through the morning and evening rush. They are sending drivers into shortcuts. Clogging up their streets now. By the way number of Police Officers killed in the line of duty dropped to 50year low in 2017. Nations top cops are crediting President Trump with those amazing numbers. Nfl ratings are down again this week. The league is canceling their sunday night game on new years eve. The big question, will nfl get their mojo back. Brian kilmeade weighs in. Charles new york city taking unprecedented security precautions for new years eve as they expect more than a Million People to ring in the new year. Adam . Times square, right over there, more than one Million People jamming into times square for the drop to welcome in the new year. There will be thousands upon thousands of Police Officers. One number was estimated to be 7,000. Not all will be in uniform. They will also be plain clothes officers. Also multiple sand trucks, a garbage truck filled with sand at different choke points, someone wanting to cause mayhem to drive a car in, they will not be able to do that. Clearly after what we saw in las vegas and incidents in new york city, Security Forces not taking this lightly. If youre going to be in times square for new years eve, not here before. They let you in early in the day. If you have to go to the bathroom youre stuck. Once you leave, youre stuck. Charles as they say in a bronxs tale, now you cants leave. A Texas Public Policy Foundation director and former texas first attorney general joins us now. What do you see . Because we just see all kind of great news from the Trump Administration and statistics that show that administration has done a great job combating violence, Gang Violence in particular. What do you want to see more in 2018. As former texas elected prosecutor ive seen firsthand drugs and smuggling violence with gangs and Law Enforcement protecting our community. It is good news in set of weve seen decrease in number of Law Enforcement killed in the line of duty. My hope and prayer that is a trend, not an outlyer especially after 2016 was a fiveyear alltime high. But 128 Law Enforcement deaths nationwide this year, 14 here in texas is still too many. And i definitely credit President Trump and this administration for setting a new tone in 2017 to back the blue and also adopt policies and directing the federal government to enforce the rule of law and protect our communities. Charles rob, one of the big issues, this is where certain progressives and others are angry, attorney general Jeff Sessions curtailing a lot of obamaera tool like Court Approved consent decrease. What the Trump Administration is saying federal government is still involved with local policing but not as acrimonious. There is not, there is not the kind of friction that existed before. Is that a key element here . It is. There is a different tone with this administration and different approach coming out of washington, d. C. The role of the executive branch whether it be President Trump, attorney general Jeff Sessions, justice department, to enforce the rule of law, the rule passed by congress. Jeff sessions rand President Trump are certainly doing that, getting to back up local Law Enforcement and prosecuting crimes as theyre passed on the books, being tough to address the very serious issues that are threatening our community. Charles what about some other issues that the Previous Administration focused on with respect to the Police Communities relationship to local communities, to certain segments of the local community, have there been changes there . I know new york, one of the things i always thought was pretty good idea, smart idea, Community Policing if you will. Have those things been implemented to your knowledge and nationwide and certainly in texas and are they effective . I think they have been and part of setting the new tone. There is a balance there. We certainly applaud the fact that there were less Law Enforcement killed in 2017. That is a good indicator but you cant look past the fact there was an increase in killings by Law Enforcement in the line of duty. So it all comes with the tone set by the leadership. Restoring the rightful place of Law Enforcement in respecting the role they served protecting the community, being forthright and recognizing the real problems that are being caused by gangs and by drugs and having an eye open approach which this president and this administration has in addressing the real problems and looking for solutions and to do so in a way that respects local communities, local Law Enforcement and the states in having that balance between federal Law Enforcement and state and local powers. Charles of course there were a couple of, a lot of pushback from the federal government in the lasted a administration particularly with texas and some of the ideas texas had, new rules and regulations you wanted to implement. Where are those cases now because i lost track of them . But i do know there was a lot of accusations about texas and Law Enforcement, you know singling out certain ethnic groups and things like that . Well i think the focus here in texas certainly when i was elected as a prosecutor i dealt with a lot of drug and smuggling issues in my jurisdiction. You look at crime. You look at protecting the community. You dont look at a particular ethnic group and i think here in the state were just looking to protecting the community. We see that we now have a great partner in President Trump and this Administration Working with us. Charles right. There wasnt necessarily that cooperation with the past administration, you know, that was looking to really protect and serve. Charles rob, ill say, 128 Police Officers killed in the line of duty is 128 too many. Certainly great news on dramatic decline. I appreciate your time this morning. Thank you very much. Thank you. Charles well the Mueller Investigation is sure to dominate headlines in 2018 but arizona congressman andy biggs to end that investigation right now. The congressman is here to explain why he is calling it a witchhunt. I used to have more hair. I used to have more color. And. I used to have cancer. I beat it. I did. Not alone. I used to have no idea what the American Cancer Society did. Research . Yeah. But also free rides to chemo and free lodging near hospitals. I used to maybe give a little. Then i got so much back. I used to have cancer. Please give at cancer. Org. Charles at his annual christmas address pope francis says the world is on the brink of war and pray for peaceful twostate solution to the israelipalestinian conflict. Father Jonathan Morris joins us. Father, what is your reaction to those comments and observations . Gosh, not only in many places are on the brink of war, but owe is referring to the were a small community, global community, one small thing can have an impact across the word. Think of north korea for example, right now. That is not only a threat for the region but were looking now that a crazy person could actually bomb the United States of america with a nuclear weapon. That is very, very serious. And when he referred to the twostate solution, i thought, hey, thats exactly what everybody has been saying for a very long time. We think back to pope benedict, we think back to john paul ii. We think what President Trump is saying a twostate solution. Charles sure. They have major disagreements on certain things. But in this case yes, that is what we want. Charles when he talks about the brink of war, could you argue perpetually the planet is always in constant conflict and always hot spots and wars and always on the brink of greater conflict but there have been certain studies that suggested this may be one of the more peaceful times, visavis mankinds existence on this planet. Fair enough. Charles what is he saying driving us to be on the brink of war . Feels like the pope is cautioning something here but what exactly . Yes, there have been times there has been much more conflict globally but right now anything that happens in one place affects another place in ways that it never was like that before, never. We really have to be, i think of north korea right now, again because that is a big deal for us, for the United States of america. The solution there has to be peaceful. Otherwise, the results are going to be devastating. Charles diplomatic solution. Rex tillerson has an oped in the New York Times today talking about that. So hopefully that is where well be in 2018. Merry christmas. Always great to see you, father. Vanity fair catching a lot of flak for suggesting Hillary Clinton take up knitting in 2017. Did the magazines parody go too far or are the reactions over the top . Well be right back. Charles quick check of the big board, dow in a Holding Pattern but were up 32 points this morning. Vanity fair under fire with poking fun at Hillary Clinton with some life tips. Roll tape. Time to work on sequel to your book, what happened. What the hell happened. Disable autofill on iphone, typing an f, doesnt become form executory committee in 2020. Charles i didnt understand that one. We have conservative blogger ali stuckey. What is your reaction overall . Vanity fair taking a lot of heat on this, and i didnt see anything offensive . Of course no. Havent at this fair is doing what the entire Democratic Party should be doing is distance themselves from Hillary Clinton the least liked candidate in decades. This same publication leveled any kind ever petty attack against donald trump they would call them advocates for change and some kind of social Justice Warrior or vigilante. When it is against the dear leader Hillary Clinton of course theyre up in arms. I think it is hypocritical and ineffective for the Democratic Party. Charles one of them said she should take up knitting. In this climate, you know, is that considered sexist . Or is it all because its a parody, just poking fun . By the way she talked about it inning herself in the past. Right. Less about her gender maybe a poke at her age which you could also argue is rude but any kind of comedic take on a politician is going to jab at them in some kind of personal and possibly offensive way. I think they have leveled the same kind of criticisms against other politicians. Certainly against, you know, people in the Trump Administration like sarah sanders. So i dont think people who support Hillary Clinton should take this so personally. Charles allie stuckey, thank you very much. Great talking to you. Thank you. Charles the fbi russia probe set to continue in the next year. In opinion piece today, air southern congressman andy biggs is calling on Robert Mueller to end the witchhunt. Here is air son congressman andy biggs. Congressman, why do you call this a witchhunt . Because it careened way out of control and way beyond the scope of the original purpose. That would be one reason. The second reason would be, the people staffing this investigation have an incredible bias and conflict that is now become apparent. They are having to let people go and terminate people, yet they still have people on board who have a tremendous antitrump bias and so this is not a open, fair, unbiased investigation. This is an attempt to get to a result. Charles some would argue we all have inherent biases, when we go to work and do our jobs we check them at the door. Have you lost faith rankandfile at fbi, even leaders at the fbi cant take perhaps a disdain for President Trump and park it as they approach the job in a more professional manner . Not in the rankandfile but this particular investigatory group, these are not just small donors to Hillary Clinton. They are big donors to Hillary Clinton. You had a couple people on the team thought they had a godlike theory they should affect the election themselves to prevent trump from being the president. So when you have these kind of biases, these are not normal biases where you and i might have where we really have to set them aside. These are overwhelming biases, conflicts. They are unusual. To get the staff of people in there, that have such deep speeded bias. It paints the whole investigation. I dont think they can get to a fair outcome. Charles congressman biggs, are you worried that you created even larger issues . Some even called potentially constitutional crisis if Robert Mueller is fired. Would that make this issue, which seems to be fading on its own even worse . Im not sure that you want to fire mueller. Mueller should do the right thing and step down. Need to go and Rod Rosenstein probably needs to go. Andrew mccabe is going. This whole host of people, they are the ones who have the conspiracy. The conspiracy is amount at this trump conspiracy, they need to go. Charles right. They need to do it bravely and courageously and step aside. Charles lets assume they dont do that and we ultimately get some sort of a report out of this, some sort of a conclusion, will that conclusion always be tainted, and if that is the case, where does it take us . To another special investigation . Well, yeah. I mean, it will be a taint, whatever they do, whatever they produce will have a little bit after stench to quite frankly. And thats bad. Thats bad for america. And thats bad for our history and what we have going forward. The other thing that youve got going, you have to the the Inspector General investigating everything how they investigated hillary. People are on this team working, essentially to exonerate Hillary Clinton. And, that is just bad form. That is why the Inspector Generals report will be so interesting which we hope is out in couple months. Charles yeah. Just does not seem to stop, there is no doubt about that. Of course, you know, now some folks are calling for, a different look a different retake, if you will on Hillary Clinton and james comeys handling of her situation in the middle of the election. Representative biggs, thank you very, very much always appreciate you having you on. That was a good oped. Thank you charles. Good to be with you. Charles joining us for fox news radio simulcast, brian kilmeade. Nfl canceling a Football Game and after season of low ratings and anthem protests. What are your thoughts on that . A couple things. Ratings is off 9 . Attendance is off at least that much the legal is still by far the most successful league in the country. Nbc said, new years eve, i dont see doing this again. I want to deal or no deal, get some ratings this is pretty much unprecedented. It shows a concern. But charles, overall this, is a warning shot to the nfl. In the offseason come up with a plan because the way youre digging in against the American Public and against the trends, instead of trying to dig your way out is disturbing. Look out for player of year or man of the year in the nfl. It is not going to kaepernick. He wasnt even in there. But there is a sense among the players whoever gets it will be pressure to get that man of the year award for the humanitarian efforts for the league, and give it to kaepernick. If that happens, that will be right in the face of all those fans who said, i would rather stay away this year because of the sitting and kneeling during the National Anthem, especially when he did it in other countries. So look out. Charles that is the Walter Peyton award, right . Who is the guy on houston who raised all of the money for flood victims . J. J. Watt. Charles in my mind he would have to be the top candidate at this moment by far. See what happens with him. The league though, as successful as it is there are cracks beneath the surface. If they come up with anything short of actually saying no kneeling during the National Anthem, youre back at this next year, arent you . Huge. If they do not handle it, i would be stunned. I would be absolutely stunned if they dont handle it in the offseason. I think it is pretty wild. Mark cuban comes in and weighs in, i would not invest in the nfl because its a dying league and a dying sport. Really . Is the problem mark cuban they wouldnt accept you because you have become bigger than the league. Speaking out on every issue. Maybe the nba as much as they benefited from a lot of things when you push, they have dont like when you try to go inside the club to be the most important member. They didnt like jerry jones for a while. Mark cuban started this whole thing about a dying league. Value of nfl franchises are double nba franchises. I salute the nba doing one thin. Speak out, steve kerr, Gregg Popovich, lebron james, i dont like the president. Fine. They do it before in the locker room or before practice. When they stand for the National Anthem and nfl made mistake because they brought it on the field. They tell son or daughter and theyre kneeling because, and they resent it. Charles new finds president obama and Hillary Clinton most admired man and woman in the United States. They topped the last for of the 10 and 16 years respectively. What are your thoughts about that. Doesnt surprise me. President obama, charismatic president , people liked his style even if you doesnt vote for him. Great family person. Not his policies. You can debate it. Were debating it. Way he handles himself he has a lot of class in my opinion. Im stunned by Hillary Clinton, i think Hillary Clinton destroyed her reputation releasing this book, pounding it out on every channel possible exempt yours, charles. Im resentful for you cars, because of that pounding it out looking like a sore loser. She sold books and came off terribly. Michelle obama drops on the list. Oprah is number three. Im struck by the fact these are all single digits. No one is really standing out according to this poll. Hillary, michelle obama, oprah, elizabeth warren, angela merkel, and Queen Elizabeth dropping big time. Nikki haley is like 11th. Is anyone done more for the reputation of america internationally than Ambassador Nikki Haley . Charles yeah. Female, former governor, mom, husband in the military. I dont know. Im surprised. It makes my doubt the whole sanctity of the poll because i believe Hillary Clinton is even getting resentment from the democratic, democrats. Charles she really is. When you read that list, until you got down to nikki haley, these are older folks around for a very long time. If they took one strictly 35 and under you would have whole different list. Nikki haley has good shot being first president of the United States. Brian kilmeade. Thank you very much, buddy. See you. Sieve you in the halls, charles. Charles i say angela merkel. President trump promises to tackle infrastructure in 2018. He is expected to unveil his 20 trilliondollar plan next month. Were asking if it really will be enough to get everything done. Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich had harsh word for wealthy people who dont know date nate to charity. Art laffer said no one should be ashamed when it comes to share. I think it is wonderful when the rich give to charities a lot of 501 c 3 s out there are not charities. Theyre just tax dodges, a lot of them are, so that is what they call charities but its not. When the rich give, they give what they like it is wonderful. When anyone gives it is wonderful. That is what were all about in this society, helping our fellow man in any way which we can but i dont think anyone should be shamed into giving or screamed at if they dont give. It just doesnt make sense. Charles we should remind everyone, we by far are the most generous country in the world. Charles apple ceo tim cook got a big pay raise this year. Adam, how much. 41 , to 12. 8 million is additional compensation. He took a cut year earlier. Apple beat sales targets, revenue projections and he is being rewarded well. Charles he is starting to move out of steve jobs shadow a little bit, isnt he . Yes and Gregg Popovich says he should give it all to charity. Charles im sure he gives a amount to charity because he can afford. Thank you very much. The president to announce a infrastructure plan next year. Here to join us now Heritage Foundation president he had edwin fuelner. We heard it before. Americans should be skeptical. The last trillion dollar infrastructure plan didnt do much. Charles, youre absolutely right. We have a builder in charge. A man who knows how to start a project, see it through to completion. The fact he is getting together with Mitch Mcconnell and paul ryan up at camp david this weekend they will work out details. Im very enthusiastic. The other thing is, my gosh, just a year ago, oh the stock market will tank, well never get above 2 economic growth. Were at 3 , saying next year. We ought to be shooting for four. New tax plan is in place. A lot of incentives going. Economy is really looking good. Im more optimistic than ever. Charles this powwow with mcconnell and ryan, apparently theyre at loggerheads of sorts, because of how much this infrastructure should be used, how much federal spending should be used on this i heard 200 billion, maybe more would be sort of deficit spending. They do have some work to do to figure out how they pay for the trillion dollars though. Oh, they do, indeed, charles. That is why Public Private partnerships i think will be so important in terms of, lets try to figure out how to do this in the best possible way, not just throw money after a problem. Weve got so much that needs to be done in infrastructure. And frankly, so much it that should be done on the local level. My wife and i were just in new york city and going through manhattans potholes you wonder about the priorities of that administration up there. Charles yeah. That is basically local. There is enough to do not federal level. Charles youre talking to a man who drives into manhattan every day of a jeep. After two years in a row paying 2 grand for front end. I hit a pothole i thought it was improvised explosive device. I thought i was in iraq somewhere. I know where youre coming from. I want to know how we pay for this thing. There is lot of economic optimism. Youre not only one out there. How do they keep this thing going . It is infectious, amazing and critical component. You can talk anything you want about economic plans. It has to be selffulfilling to a degree. Optimism in 2018, do you see it sustaining itself . I really do, charles. I was so glad you were able to interview successor. She shares my sense of optimism. My colleagues at heritage do. We had ups and downs over 50 years heritage has been around. Boy, this is a time for real optimism. This we have growth and president who now understands how washington works but brings his own unique perspective to it. Im really flatout optimistic going forward. Charles Kay Cole James ive been a fan of hers for a long time going back to the Bush Administration. You did a remarkable job. You will be in good hands. One more i have to talk to you about, roy moore, news overnight, refusing to accept the results im sorry, edwin i have to let you go, buddy. Thank you very much. Well talk to you again real soon. You have done a great job at heritage. Thank you. Adam, i want to go to you on this thing. Roy moore refused to accept the results and now filing a lawsuit. Filed a lawsuit last night in Circuit Court in alabama saying that there was voter fraud. Remember doug jones won that election, more than 22,000 votes but the alabama secretary of state is going to certify the election later today. Actually has said as much that they dont agree there are new claims of voter fraud, and that the election will be certified. Doug jones will become the senator from alabama, and mr. Moore will have to pursue his claims in court. Charles right. One of the people who he is presenting with evidence is also one of the people pushing this the seth rich conspiracy, if you recall seth rich was the young democrat that was killed. Charles we should point out that President Trump congratulated doug jones. Charles doug jones immediately after. Well see where that goes. Thanks a lot, adam. Check on the big board, because the market is higher all morning long. Still trying to break out, right if this is what we havent done. Were less than 200 points away from the magical dow 25,000dollar, 25,000 number. Rather. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo sending a message to President Trump. He pardoned two dozen immigrants to prevent deportation. Betsy mccaughey will weigh in. New tax plan will create new jobs but analysts warn there will not be enough workers to fill those positions. Were on that next. snap achoo snap achoo achoo snap snap achoo achoo feel a cold coming on . Zicam cold remedy nasal swabs shorten colds with a snap, and reduce symptom severity by 45 . Shorten your cold with a snap, with zicam. I just finished months of chemo. But i dont want to talk about months. I want to talk about years. Treatments have gotten better, so. Im hoping for good years ahead. Thats thanks to Research Funded by the American Cancer Society. The same folks giving me free rides to treatments, insurance advice, and a place to stay during chemo. I need that stuff like you dont know. And now that you do, please give at cancer. Org. I think once february hits, poem see tax cuts hit the wallets, tied of Public Opinion will change on this, democrats are under a lot of pressure. Whether it is brought up in january with infrastructure and other things on the docket. Certainly there will be more bites of this apple, right . You raise a good point. Reality is about to set in. We heard all the rhetoric before the vote where nancy pelosi is saying this is armageddon, this is end of the world. Charles maybe the deep freeze in the west she was talking about . Maybe. That would be more accurate. I think both politicians and pundits on the left are having to reckon with the fact, despite what they have been telling us for weeks, this cut actually across the board. Middle class, lower class, upper class, all income inners, all brackets getting a break. Charles isnt that sort of the what is happened here . Because they do the fearmongering before, armageddon, end of the world, then afterwards, probably looking this will be popular, who will be unhappy to keep more of what they actually earn . That is ridiculous. Now the argument hey, people should have gotten a bigger tax cut. People will see there is less withholding taken out of their paychecks. They will see their wages rise. Were starting to see a lot of companies announcing bonuses with their cash but also what youre really going to see is increased investment by u. S. Companies in the United States, and that is going to have benefits that people are going to feel as well. Charles last tuesday night, fedex also talked about paying into its pension fund, something that wasnt talked about a lot, but pensions matter to a whole lot of folks. In your car, youre sending about half a gallon of gasoline up in the air. That amounts to about 10 pounds of Carbon Dioxide every week. malo hutson growth is good, but when it starts impacting our quality of air and quality of life, thats a problem. So forwardthinking cities like sacramento are investing in streets that are smarter and greener. The solution was right under our feet. Asphalt. Or to be more precise, intelligent asphalt. By embedding sensors into the pavement, as well as installing cameras on traffic lights, we will be able to analyze the flow of traffic. Then that data runs across our network, and we use it to optimize the timing of lights, so that travel times are shorter. Who knew asphalt could help save the environment . Charles im Charles Payne in for stuart. Thats right, we have two, two full days of trading left. So can the trump rally hold, and perhaps can the dow hit 25,000 . Youve got to watch to find out. And also this hour new, the Trump Administration reportedly considering rewriting the Health Care Rules so that it would be easier to buy cheaper plants. Were going to break down what that means for you. And then theres this rush by homeowners in these highlytaxed areas to prepay the 2018 property tax bill. But the irs says, hold on, it may not be that simple. And the Trump Administration continues the optimism from infrastructure to the markets, the push for prosperity is here, so is the third hour of Varney Company, and it starts right now. Charles we start the hour with the Weekly Oil Inventory numbers breaking in right now. Down 4. 6 Million Barrels. Thats on crude oil. Well get the dis hate ares also. Distillates also. Weve seen crude oil come down dramatically each as america now pumping out almost 10 Million Barrels a day. You can see it having a small effect right now on the price of crude oil. Lets get back and check on the dow 30 stocks. You can see the vast majority of them are higher, led by American Express, ibm, apple rebounding after a couple of rough sessions, bringing the not even really down a lot. Dupont off 30 cents. Its been a good year, in fact, for dupont which merged with dow, so its dowdupont these days. A really good session shaping up, the dow is up 47 points. Of course, the question is what happens in 2018. Were going to ask scott market with King Scott Martin with king view asset management. Perhaps the dow hitting 25,000. Yeah. You know, charles, ive tried to make it get there, man. Ive hit every offer out there on the street charles start buying, my man im out of cash, man. [laughter] its going to be january, unfortunately. But, you know, thats okay. If theres one disappointment were going to see this year on the s p or the dow, i guess, in this case its that were not going to see 25k by the end of the year, but i think the first week of january isa sure bet. Charles this has been a remarkable year in so many ways, obviously, the market in and of itself. But if you correlate that and look at the lack of pullbacks, you could argue this is one of best years in the history of the stock market, and its the going to be hard to follow up. One of the best and dare i say one of the easiest. You had the erudite caught balm on gary cough balm on last hour, this stair stepping that the market does with very little in the way of volatility or pullbacks is not normal. So normality next year is going to be volatility, pullbacks and only of those hold your some of those hold your nose and buy stocks period. Charles one of the key components, own of the main reasons for this ab morality, amazon still rocking and rolling thanks to its prime unit. Prime alexa, the cloud, is there any stopping this juggernaut . No. The only thing that concerns me about amazon is how much, you know, other companies assets are they going to destroy. You know, amazon prime as we saw from some of the holiday numbers is the gateway drug to internet shopping. You mentioned the cloud services, charles, which some years ago werent even on amazons radar, now its a big leader for the company. Amazon can do whatever they want these days, and its a stock weve owned for a long time and that we plan to own for a long time. Charles it is, you know, i guess the ultimate creation, the ultimate Creative Destruction machine, if you will. Do you think that eventually runs them into some trouble . They got into furniture recently. Anywhere theres a buck to be made, and there are putting they are putting a lot of businesses, either pressing them or putting them out of business. Do you think that gets the attention of the federal government at some point . It might. Like any company weve seen over the course of history, you know, companies go too far, they get over they skis. Hello, financials, in 2006 and 7. But their kind of theyre kind of not your fathers antitrust lawsuit, right . They make things easier to do for a consumer, and they bring down price. So its almost like the antiantitrust issue there. Thats kind of a double negative, but you know what i mean. Amazons bringing so much value to the consumer, youve got to love them. Charles usa today putting together a list of companies on their own death watch list. I thought some of these had already filed for bankruptcies, and perhaps they have, but the idea they could be completely gone, what do you make of it, scott . Well, i mean, its definitely possible. Brick and mortars a tough business to be in. Theres all these talks and comments these days, charles, about how the get the consumer back in the store. Its like this experience thing, right . Youve got to go in the store and see santa or have a coffee, you know, really enjoy the store experience. I dont know, man, ive been in a lot of cool stores with these cool concepts. I still like going to paypal and paying for something and doing it from my couch and flipping the football charles have you seen that one . Do they have one near you, lollipop . I havent seen it. Charles theyve got, like, charleston chews, old school candies, new school candy. I think we finally found the amazon beater right there. If i could own that company, i would. Sounds like a place i should probably stay away from given my expanding waistline. Take my kids there, i guess. Charles youre speaking to the choir. By the way, everybody here wants to wish a happy birthday to your daughter, zien that. Yeah. Today is her 7th birthday. She was upset with me for leaving the house, todays her day, but i wanted to say hi to her, i love her. Shes 7 today, man, so she appreciates that, charles, very much. Charles beautiful. Have a great day and a wonderful new year. See you soon. All right, man. Charles tax reform expected to create jobs, but one of the real serious questions is there may not be qualified workers to fill those positions. Grover norquist, americans for tax reform president. Be right now there are about six million job openings. Every industry, every Earnings Report i look at the industry, and it could be truckers or anything else, grover, and theyre saying we dont have qualified workers. Well, its a challenge. We do have 4 unemployment and another 4 who, during the obama years, quit looking for work. So when they talk about u6, the different unemployment number that includes discouraged workers as well as people who are working, we do have 8 of the working ainge population working age population that could be brought into the work force. What was disappointing about the obama years was the Labor Force Participation went down. During a normal recovery. During a recovery they go, Work Force Participation goes up. More people enter the work force. The reason why unemployment looked like it was going down under the obama years, four points of that were people quitting looking. Charles sure. That was not helpful. So there are a lot of people out there. We do need to make it easier to get together with jobs and have job training on the workplace. Charles do you think corporations should be in charge of that . For instance, ibm talking about new collar jobs. You dont need a college degree, but you do need skills to get them. Well, i think youd be much better off having the Companies Providing the training for people for the job ises they want. Weve been doing it through all sorts of government jobs programs, and none of them have actually performed, unfortunately. So a lot of money being spent, but its not performing charles yeah. We also need to get rid of some of these workplace rules that we have where somebody has to have an occupational license to braid hair or interior decorators theyve tried to license. Charles right, right. Those give you a false sense of a lack of people looking for jobs where they come up with a barrier to entry that people cant get over. Its an unnecessary barrier. Charles reminds me of some of the complaints adam smith had, were still dealing with that kind of nonaccess. Yes. Exactly, the guilds. Charles optimism has been absolutely phenomenal. Theres these opinion polls, i dont know, these Opinion Companies put together, and then theres real confidence and then theres the real economy. You start to layer what weve got going on now with infrastructure, you know, listen, weve seen food stamps down, we see salaries are starting to bump higher. Do you think its sustainable, though, into the next year . It is because many of the things that trump did were undoing things that obama had started or put in but hadnt actually clicked in yet, but if Hillary Clinton had been president , some of the labor laws in this country wolf dramatically changed could have dramatically changed. Uber would be illegal because of the independent contractor changes they were pushing. You couldnt do franchises because everybody had to work for the same company under the Obama Clinton labor regime. Both of those were with undone. They were going to catalyze the entire internet. Charles right. So when that stopped, it really gave industry an opportunity to the go. And so much of the increase in the stock market and peoples sense is a list of things that didnt happen to them. Charles absolutely. Now were looking at going back and doing more deregulation of stupid stuff thats been around for 10, 15, 20, 50 years charles you start to remove those speed bumps, were already starting to see what happens. My nephew started driving uber, he made 500 in the first four days, not a bad gig. Grover, thank you. Good to be with you. Charles a massive outage shut down about a dozen rides at disneyland yesterday. The outage was caused by a malfunction with one of parks transformers knocking out par for several hours power for several hours leaving many angry visitors. Many, in fact, want their money back, but disney says it will not issue any refunds. And now take a look at this map. These are the states with the highest property taxes. New york democrat senator Chuck Schumer pushing residents there to prepay their 2018 property tax. But the irs is now saying not so fast. Were going to try to clear it up for you. Also, the Trump Administration reportedly considering ring with the health care rewriting the Health Care Rule. Betsy mccoy here to help break it down for us. The third hour of Varney Company is just beginning. Charles here it comes, raises. Apples ceo tim cook and other executives getting big ones. In fact, cook received the biggest spike in his pay, up 47 , 12. 8 million. Lets face it, apple exceeded both annual sales and profit goals. Heres an interesting detail, the company also disclosing the board requires cook to fly on a private plane for all travel. They cite security reasons. Not a bad deal. Now this the Trump Administration reportedly considering rewriting the Health Care Rule that would make it, actually, easier to buy cheaper plans. Who better to ask about this than the author of the book, beating obamacare, betsy mccoy. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Glad to be with you. The Trump Administration has been working on this since mid october, really curing two of the biggest flaws in obamacare. One is it forces people to buy this onesizefitsall, washingtondesigned plan, right . Charles right. So that the 50yearold woman is paying for breast pumps and maternity coverage, the childless couple is paying for pediatric dental care. The Trump Administration wants people to be able to buy streamlined plans with fewer bells and whistles they dont want, right . Charles sure, sure. Secondly, the obama plans require Healthy People to pay the same high premiums as or very sick people who use ten times as much health care. So Healthy People are paying these exorbitant premiums with skyhigh deductibles and never getting any of it back. So the new plan charles but the problem though is youve got to pay for all of that, and thats why they did it in the first place. Well, lets subsidize health care for the people with preexisting conditions but spread the cost over everyone in society, use general revenue to do it instead of foisting the entire cost on the poor people when happen to be stuck in the individual insurance market, right . Thats unfair. Charles thats why repeal of the individual mandate is so popular. Very, very important. And its disturbing to see that in several states california, new york, new jersey, connecticut, maryland the insurance industry, lobbyists and activists are already in cahoots trying the impose a state penalty in place of the soon to be defunct federal penalty. Charles thats nuts. Get on the phone and call your state lawmaker and say, wait a second, i want my tax break. Charles can this also lead to greater competition . Oh, of course. Charles if you have now the ability to craft the right sort of plans, that sounds like more plans, more options and more competition. Yes. And theres going to be tremendous demand for these plans, especially after the removal of the penalty. Right now if you buy one of these new plans, theyre called shortterm plans, youre going to save money even if you also have obey the obamacare penalty to pay the obamacare penalty. Next year youre going to be saving a bundle. Charles i want you to take a look at this map. These are the states, of course, with the heist property taxes in the country. New york senator chuck pneumoniaer or is pushing residents schumer is pushing residents to prepay their 2018 property tax. Everybodys confused. Can you help us clear it up. Yes. The fact is you can pay, if you have a piece of paper that shows youve been billed, so some municipalities and counties have sent out bills for 2018. Maybe your property tax, the first installment is due february 1. You can pay that now. But dont try to pay all of 2018 or 2019. You can only pay what youve been billed. Charles so is and for state and other local taxes, would you still be smart if youve lived in new york, new jersey, to get ahead of the curve and pay that as well . You can only pay what youve been billed. Say youre planning to make a big Ticket Purchase like a new car. Do it before december 31st, because the state sales tax will clearly be deductible. Charles oh, wow, okay. I wish i needed a car right now. [laughter] i might sell one though. Anybody in jersey need a ride, let me know. Take your wife to the jewelry store. [laughter] charles you had to say that. Let me ask you about this one. You know new york politics better than anybody. Governor cuomo pardoned 61 people including 18 immigrants. Hes saying its based on their rehabilitation efforts. But by the same token p, he continues to criticize President Trumps hard line on immigration policies, in fact, saying in part, quote while the federal government continues to target immigrants and threatens to tear families apart with deportation, these actions take a critical step toward a more just, more fair and more compassionate new york. Well, i totally disagree with municipalities and states that have sanctuary policies and that are substituting law and order for this kind of keeping families together. Im a family person. I have a big family, and i love my family, but we need Law Enforcement. And when you look at what happened to somebody like kate steinle, we needfective Law Enforcement. Charles sure. Pay the penalty. Charles one of the ironies, the biggest folks who are hurt especially by Illegal Immigrants have been finish. Immigrants. Thats right. Charles youre the best. Have a great new year, thank you. We are watching the price of gold. Its not just about bitcoin all the time. There you have it, had a good week last week, major resistance point at 1300. Listen to this, the number of Social Security beneficiaries hit a record, nearly 62 million in november according to data just released by the social securitied a managers. A new gallup poll has named two people as the most admired. Can you take a guess who that might be . Betsy mccoy was in the running, but she didnt win. Well tell you next. [laughter] charles for the second straight year, disney is the box office champ. Films Like Star Wars the last jedi and beauty and the beast helped rake in 2. 7 billion in 2017, Warner Brothers finishing in second. The beauty and the beast reboot remains disneys top grossing film at 504 million. Guardians of the galaxy, volume two, with about 390 million, and there you are thor, 309 million followed by pirates of the caribbean, still around. Now disney, by the way, up 3 in 2017. Recordbreaking snowfall in parts of pennsylvania and new york as bitter cold temperatures grip the nation. Upstate new york issuing a state of emergency and a travel advisory. In lorraine, new york, firefighters rescuing a woman trapped in her home using shovels and a plow to dig her out. Bitter cold temperatures also moving into the northeast. The cold expected to last through the new year. And the Powerball Jackpot surging to 384 million overnight after no one hit it last night. Last night, of course, it was 337. The drawing now tied for the 25th largest in u. S. History, so check your tickets through because there were some small win ors. The numbers 3, 9, 16, 56 and 60 with the powerball number 3. Your next drawing is going to be saturday. Your odds of winning, not that bad, 1 in 292 million. Those Nuclear Fallout shelter sign signs found around new york city will soon be a distant memory of the citys cold war past. The city has started the remove the signs as they are no longer, well, they no longer present uptodate information or information about where to find shelters. Many of the shelters now are no longer functional. And a new gallup poll has named former president barack obama and Hillary Clinton as the most admired man and woman respectively, both retain their titles for ten years, but this year they won by very small margins, so maybe a new champ next year. Oh, boy, what a year in politics it has been, and were going to look back on it. Also the tale of two donald trump presidencies; the first way yachtic half and now the second much more orderly make America Great again half thats carrying into 2018. Tale of the tape, next. Charles first lets check on the big be, the dow 30, sort of meandering. Just cant get that sort of traction. Remember, though, this is sort of a doldrums period, just two days left in the year. President trumps 2081 agenda starting to take shape, its going to start with infrastructure. I want to bring in john fund, National Review columnist. John, the big question, of course, is bipartisanship in the new year, and certainly infrastructure has to be a great way to test that. Yes, but there are different way of building the infrastructure. What trump wants to do is encourage Public Private partnerships, he wants to get private sector money into building infrastructure. Democrats are a little more interested in shovelready jobs, trying to get money plowed into state and local projects with unionized workers and unionized wage scales. Charles but we tried that, right . I mean, president obama got a lot of money, about 800 billion, and hen later on sort of and then later on sort of admitted the infrastructure jobs werent there or the bureaucracy, the money was hijacked to local a lot of people dont have a problem with the money being hijacked, charles. They dont have a problem with that. Charles i think the voters in november might have said is, hey, we want things to be a little bit different. I think theres going to be an issue of accountability this time around. Watch this the house has passed a bill which makes the United States, like all industrialized countries, get a Public Private partnership to run our air Traffic Control system which is woefully out of date. It makes perfect sense. Countries from britain to singapore do it. It passed the house, stalled in the senate. If democrats really want infrastructure, the union in charge of the air Traffic Controllers is in favor of this. So thats really the first marker. Will the democrats actually go along with all the other countries and actually have a modern air Traffic Control system. Charles weve gone Dan Henninger of the wall street journal editorial page here. I just wanted your thoughts. Bipartisanship, infrastructure. If thats not a pipe dream no pun intended. Well, right. I mean, there is obvious infrastructure needs out there, but the costs are going to be enormous. Were talking about a trillion dollars. They just passed the tax bill, the difficulty was keeping it inside that 1. 5 trillion charles thats where the private should come in, right . Inevitably it has to come in. If the democrats think theyre going to do this only with public money, this is not going to happen next term. Charles all right, john, new jersey democrat cory booker circulating an online petition calling for trumps resignation over Sexual Harassment allegations. Whats your reaction to that one . I guess hes running for president along with everyone else. This is a way to appeal to the base. Its a headline. Its meaningless. As if donald trump pays attention to petitions. That much we can be sure of, he doesnt. Tom steyer in california is trying to do the same thing. Hes got three Million People signing a petition to impeach trump. Its a feelgood political device. It means nothing. Charles what do you think, adam . I think hes correct. Cory bookers one of the rising stars for the democrats because he doesnt have, for lack of a better term, the taint of the older people like nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer charles he hasnt accomplished much though. Cory booker, i mean, hes charismatic, and maybe that i dont know if the time is still around where thats enough. A senator, and theyre not in control. Charles as a u. S. Senator, he hasnt accomplished much. Dan and i remember cory booker when he ran for mayor of newark. You remember, he had some new ideas. He was a big supporter of school choice. He said im a different kind of democrat. He did nothing charles he was exciting back then. He really was. Status quo may or yo of mayor of newark, and he wormed himself into the United States senate where hes done nothing but grandstand. It shows you how left wing the Democratic Party has become. If you join that orthodox city [audio difficulty] dont forget that he talked about being a potential Vice President ial candidate for Hillary Clinton, so dont charles i know. Hes black, hes young, hes charismatic and left wing, but that kind of thing backfired on the democrats, i think. And, you know, im not sure its going to work. By the way, i dont think he lived up to the 450eu7 in newark. They were getting rid of that old school kind of political machine that really was corrupt, they suffered mightily, you know, he had a good show on cable tv, brick city, but other than that, dan, i dont know what he accomplished, and i dont i think this is belittling, that he would go this route. This seemed to be beneath the cory booker i knew a couple years ago. Yeah, i agree with that. Its kind of small potatoes at this point. The president s just passed a tax bill, democrats are trying to create an agenda, and hes raising an issue that was put in front of the American People, the entire country, during the campaign and during the election. All of this stuff was gone through. The American People knew about the videos, the audios, and they voted and they elected donald trump president. What is the point now of the democrats trying to bring it up now other than to try to simply drive down the president s Approval Rating. Charles john, im going to ask you because youve got a big article in the wall street journal, and the headline reads two presidencies in one year. You are the author of that. This is, of course, President Trumps first year in office. Yes. Of course, its donald trump, charles, which means one presidency wasnt going to be enough for him. [laughter] hes produced two presidencies. And i call in the one presidency is trump of twitter and the orr is trump of the other is trump of accomplishments. And trump of twitter is the one were all very familiar with that sort of dominated the First Six Months and i think is in large part responsible for the president s Approval Rating bumping around 40 or below for most of his first year. This was the presidency that produced mayhem in the white house. You had the battles between bannon and scaramucci and priebus, the press conferences of sean spicer. This simply couldnt go on, and it didnt. In july the president appointed hyten kelly as his general john kelly as his chief of staff, and the point of military discipline has one goal and that is to achieve success. Things calmed down relatively in the last six months, and thats the period in which the trump of accomplishments emerged. Youve got an economy now that has Consumer Confidence at a 17year high, unemployment at a 17year low. Its as though we just jumped over the Obama Presidency in terms of economic performance. Charles right. Going into next year because, to your point, there are even some socalled never trumpers, for instance, who are starting to say we were wrong about our assumptions, but their resentment or pushback against the president still revolves around that twitter trump, the president twitter that you talked about, and that hasnt completely gone away. It hasnt. But what weve seen here is the emergence of remember all those wonderful appointees the president was making in january and february, betsy devos in education, scott pruitt, epa, scott gottlieb, fda, those people have been going to work and doing their jobs, and finally i think their success has begun to emerge. On the deleg rah hair deregulatory front, the economy, the president has, relatively speaking, allowed his people to perform. And i think this is what President Trump should want. He is about success. Charles sure. And at the end of this first year, they are producing success. So if he can kind of unify these two personalities trump of twitter and the trump of accomplishment i think the democrats are going to have a hard time sustaining the idea that this man is personally unlikable. Charles its hard to argue, fewer selfinflicted wounds along with the economic record, john, could bode well for the party. Dan is right, were in a race between now and the midterm election. Will trump of twitter come back in the heat of a campaign, or will the accomplishments and i think the real world attitudes that i think are fusing this administrations policies will they have enough impact that voters are willing to vote for the accomplishments over the bombast. And i think, you know, with the economy turbocharged by this, theres a chance this happens. Three words. Economy, economy, economy. The rest of it doesnt matter. Charles thank you guys very much. Now this, the trump name could be showing up in israel. The countrys transportation minister wants to name a planned train station at the western wall after president donald trump. Remember, trump visited the wall last may, the first sitting u. S. President to go to the jewish holy site. And he recently announced the u. S. Will recognize jerusalem as israels capital. And President Trump still vacationing at maralago. No Public Events planned today as of now, but he is tweeting. Quote retail sales at record numbers. Weve got the economy going better than anyone ever dreamt, and you havent seen anything yet. Hey, by the way, now take a look at. Tesla, a key bank analyst slashing Fourth Quarter estimates for the model 3 deliveries from 5,000 to 15,000. Stock still ecking higher. And theres one country on track to outpace the u. S. Economy by 2035. Can you guess which country it is . Ill give you a commercial break to think it over. Well be right back. Life happens. Thats why feeling safe is priceless. With adt, you can feel safe with an adt starter kit professionally installed for only 49. 00. Call today, and install an adt starter kit that includes security panel, keypad, key fob, entry and motion sensors and for a limited time, get a camera included and installed at no additional cost. Thats a 449. 00 value, installed, for just 49. 00. 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A crown prince there trying to modernize the conservative economy and diversify its economic base. Amazon is expected to go into Cloud Computing there bigtime as smaller locals could get run over by amazon. Apple will have its initial store open there in 2019, and apple already the number two with player in that marketplace. Whats interesting here in that country 70 of those folks are under the age of 30. The crown prince really playing to his base there. People interested in technology, people likely to use technology. Well have more later. Back to you. Charles all right. Lets take a look at those big tech names. All of them were up earlier. Microsoft fading just a little bit here. Apple holding on to gains after getting hit the last couple sessions. And, of course, bitcoin, all the rage these days but under a lot of pressure the last two weeks. Overnight south korea authorities taking, implementing some new rules to sort of curb the action in bitcoin. Consequently, its down 943 right now. And now to this. Chai comma is set to be china is set to be set to overtake the u. S. Economy in the year 2032. Herb london, London Center for policy research, joins us now. What are your thoughts on this . Look, i think you have to put this matter in context. The chinese economy at the moment is roughly a 12 trillion economy. We have an 18 trillion economy. Theyre growing at about 2 a year, were growing at 3. 5 a year. So at least in the short term, we will outdistance the chinese. In the long term, its a different perspective. Charles why does everyone else use different numbers, saying 6. 9 , 7 i mean, part of the difficulty is that you never can get accurate numbers from the chinese. Charles right. For years, theyve been talking about 7 . They are not growing at 7 . Charles is it a danger to dismiss out of hand the notion that theyre going to catch us when its the largest market for luxury watches, for automobiles, its the largest, you know, when burberry, the luxury croating maker clothing maker went public, they decided to do it in hong kong because theyre closer to the majority of their new customers. Something is going on there. Look, the pivot in the World Economy is towards asia. Theres no question thats true. Its also true if you look at this matter at a granular level, you see a lot of trifling matters in the american economy. I mean, an app for tooth whitening. That may be part of the gdp. China is concentrating on technology and the silk belt, on a commercial avenue for the distribution of chinese goods around the world. Charles theyve invested a bunch, theyre investing a bunch of money in this whole right. That could be a kind of interesting moment for the United States, for us to come to the realization this our economy has to that our economy has to move in a different direction. Charles if we start to go into these new trade deals and more bilateral deals and, you know, rip everything up, it takes time to negotiate them with all these various countries involved. The europeans seem very open to this silk road and doing more trade with china and other asian countries. How do we prevent them from really, you know, not necessarily overtaking us, but getting a big jumpstart on us . Well, there are lots of things you can do from a strategic standpoint. Number one, theres no reason why we shouldnt create an economic anglesphere nations, england, canada, new zealand, australia, United States Work Together to create their own free trade agreements. And theres also no reason why the United States cant start thinking seriously about developing its own engineering sputnik moment. That moment where we start to put an emphasis on mathematics and Technology Training in the United States. Charles yeah. That is so essential for the future. Charles i really hope that happens. I know a lot of people dismiss these oecd grades with reading, math and science, but the numbers are horrific. I mean, they really are horrific. I do want to ask you about south korea, herb, because a lot of people are predicting they actually believe north koreas going to be open to talks in 2018, but President Trumps latest tweet makes it sound like its really unlikely. In fact, heres the tweet. Caught redhanded, very disappointed china is allowing oil to go into north korea. There will never be a friendly solution to the north korean problem if this continues to happen. Of course, you know, these reports have always been out there, that despite what china says, they still have this serious economic relationship with north korea, and they have to. I mean, if they were to completely pull back, that country would collapse thats right. 90 of all the food and fuel that goes into north korea comes from china. If the chinese turned off the spigot, north koreas paralyzed. Theres nothing they could do. So there is no doubt theres tremendous leverage that the chinese possess. Can we put enough pressure on the chinese so they act appropriately. Thats another question. Charles well, it seems like and i know secretary tillerson wrote an oped in the New York Times this morning, and it seems like hes talking more the diplomacy, theres hope for diplomacy to sort of prevail or at least to have a bigger role in 2018 with respect to north korea. By the same token, theyre constantly improving their Nuclear Technology and capabilities, and at some point, you know, we have to just say, hey, its too late for diplomacy, or were going to be pushed into that decision, wont we . Its quite clear that the military option cannot be taken off the table. Its also clear that the military option is complicated. After all, youve had three decades of tunnels that have built under north korea. Youve got movable launchers that can be moved from one spot to another. Trying to take them out with tomahawks wont be so easy. So the United States has very, very serious logistical questions that would have to be answered. But theres no doubt in my mind we would prefer some sort of diplomatic solution. Could that happen . Its possible, because the chinese have been saying for a considerable period now we can control the missile tests of north korea if you will control your rhetoric about military options. Charles by the same token, china seems to have said its okay for u. S. To have military intervention in north korea if north korea fires the first shot. Right. Charles what if we did something preemptively or felt the urge or need to do something preemptively . Again, preemption is always an option. Its a very difficult option because of the more consequences. Charles sure. But there is no doubt preemption is an option. And as i said, you cannot take the military option off the table. The United States has got to give very serious consideration the what we can do to forestall any further testing by the north koreans. Charles right. Herb london, thank you very much. Have a great new year. High fashion vanity fair manager zien getting into a little bit of trouble, poking fun at Hillary Clinton. Youre going to hear a clip of that next. I used to have more hair. I used to have more color. And. I used to have cancer. I beat it. I did. Not alone. I used to have no idea what the American Cancer Society did. Research . Yeah. But also free rides to chemo and free lodging near hospitals. I used to maybe give a little. Then i got so much back. I used to have cancer. Please give at cancer. Org. Its time to start working on yr book to the sequel, what happened. What the hell happened. Disable awe so is fill on your iphone so that typing an f doesnt become Form Exploratory Committee in 2020. You know on Anderson Cooper you were telling him about nostril breathing . You seemed adept. Take more photos in the wood. Take up a new hobby in the new york; volunteer works knitting, improv comedy, literally anything thatll keep you from running again. We all know you think james comey cost you the election, and he might have, but its a handful of other things, time to move on. Cheers to you, Hillary Clinton in cheers to you, hillary. Charles vanity fair poking fun at Hillary Clinton. And now they got response. Shes still very popular. You cited the poll, although falling, till one of the two most popular people, but at the end of the day, democrats have a problem if you look at the age in that video, theyre the younger set that were Bernie Sanders supporters. A the end of the day, what power does Hillary Clinton have at this point . She lost the election. She really cant do anything other than raise a great deal of money for people who support her. Maybe its time for all of us to just move on, because the only reason shes still discussed is because we discuss her. I mean, what is she really doing . Charles well, i dont know. I guess shes part of the resist movement mow . You know, shes written a book. You know, it feels to me though that if youre a democrat, at some point, you know, i dont know how much money she can raise anymore, but at some point the law of diminishing returns becomes to a negative. I agree with you. I think younger democrats want her to move on. She was a guest speaker at my synagogue fundraiser, i did not attend, but raised a great deal of money. Older democrats still like her. Again, theres aty min unking diminishing return, and what power does she or bill clinton have . I realize that our audience, i mean, the clintons bring up emotions in all kinds of people, but at some point were all going to have to quit this addiction. Charles spurs head coach Gregg Popovich had harsh words for wealthy people who dont donate to charity. Because we are rich as hell and we dont need it all and other people need it, and you are a blank if you dont give it. Pretty simple. What are your thoughts . [laughter] did you feel offended . No. Listen, i think i dont know if he was taken out of context. I do charles this is Gregg Popovich, so hes got a long track record [laughter] of saying inappropriate things. I think there are a great many people who are very wealthy, bill gates, warren buffett, who have in different ways said, look, we have great wealth, and were going to return this great wealth in the form of charitable contributions. I think a great many of us in the United States whether you are conservative or liberal believe that when you earn a great deal of wealth or even some degree of wealth that you have an obligation to help. Charles sure. So you can say that in different ways than mr. Popovych, but you dont get on tv if you say it differently. Charles lets get a quick check of the big board. The dow sort of in a trading range, but weve got more individual winners than weve had all day long. Merck leading the charge here. Maybe we break out in the second half of the session. And then theres cryptocurrencyrelated stocks all down after south korea announced that trading curb last night, but many stocks still significantly higher than they were certainly at the beginning of the year. More varney after this. Charles well my favorite story today, the dramatic decline in number of Law Enforcement officers killed on duty. I would love to see that continue into 2018. Adam, what is your favorite . That clinton video. For me it signals ae everyone tr 30. Charles somebody talking about the f button. Went over my head. I chuckled. There was the ultimate point. The Democratic Party belongs to millenials. That is not Hillary Clinton. Dave asman in for Hillary Clinton. David charles, i never seen anything go over your head partly because youre so tall but i dont believe that one. Charles thank you. David im david asman in for neil cavuto. A busy two hours ahead on coast to coast. Our top story, record breaking cold in much of the eastern half the country. Dealing with unbelievable snow fall amounts, several feet in some spots. New york city could be one of the coldest ever on record. Weather Company Senior meteorologist dan leonard here to break it all down. First how long will it last, dan . Dave this, is impressive cold shot not only because of the intensity of the cold but the duration as well. Talking about new years cold for east coast. It goes on