Trish regan. Welcome, everybody, to the intelligence report. Joining me right here, right now, fox news strategic analyst Lieutenant Colonel ralph peters to talk about, colonel, always good to see you. Good to see you, dagen. Dagen the variety of subjects that nikki haley, our ambassador to the u. N. Hit upon, what do you think stood out to you as the most important . The most important thing to me is nikki haley. Nikki haley herself. She was crisp, firm, clear. How often do we actually hear somebody like that. Her positions on iran, firm, clear and sensible. We are going to, you know, were going to shame the europeans into getting real about iran over this, i guarranty you. On north korea, she expressed skepticism, but measured skepticism. On pakistan, i worked with the Pakistani Military back in the 90s, trump is absolutely right on this i can be tough on President Trump but on pakistan he is right. Theyre responsible for the death and mutilation of many an american in afghanistan through their support of the haqqani network, the afghan taliban. Were supposed to be very critical. Im always glad to find fault but nikki haley gave a succinct, hardhitting clear presentation that represented the United States of america very, very well. Dagen one thing stood out, colonel, when she was speaking about iran, president obama was silent during the 2009 protests and she said that all freedomloving people must step up. We must not do, make the same mistake we made back in 2009. She is talking about our government and she is talking about the europeans, but so far, the European Response has been restrained for lack of a better word in response to these protests. What can we do to insure whether it is through the United Nations or individually, to insure these people who are protesting this repressive regime in iran and the Economic Conditions, that they do have a voice, and that they do have, well, power in their own country . Well, the europeans theyre waiting to see which way the wind blows. Whether these demonstrations will blow up even broader or just go away because they dont want to spoil relations with iran, business, the nuke deal, et cetera. What can we do while waiting for the europeans to grow up to act like mature adults . Several things. First of all, there is one thing we shouldnt do, get heavyhanded and leap into the fray. Iranians can handle this. We can encourage them by expressing our moral support. We must beware of making promises we cant keep as we did in hungary in 56 or shia in iraq in 91. We need to push through ever of tougher sanctions. The demonstrations were see now are different from 2009. That was the urban elite protesting election. Now those who outright backed the current regime are rising up over economic issues. We americans, we like to think people go out and die for freedom. No, people go out in the middle east, go out and die to fight, to feed their families. This is now, these demonstrations have turned into demonstrations against the regime. They started out being about rising prices of good, inflation. Massive unemployment, especially youth unemployment, as high as 40 . So in parts of country higher than that expectation as of the nuke deal things would get better. All the while people in iran see the wellconnected, irans 1 doing extraordinarily well through corruption. This is a prerevolutionary scenario. Well have to wait to see if it turns into one. Meanwhile it is proof that sanctions can work given the right circumstances. So hit them with more sanctions. Make the regime hurt. Names. What we also do very publicly. We have information which iranians are getting corrupt. Voice of america, put out to the iranian people who in their country is stealing from them. There is a lot we can do. I just dont want to make promises we cant keep. Dagen it is all about following the money, colonel. Think about the money that went to iran, 1. 7 billion in cash we sent to iran as part of the nuclear deal. The rulers of iran promised the people they would feel money coming toward them. Instead not happening. No. Dagen the revolutionary guard funneling money likely to terrorist regimes, whether hezbollah, militias in yemen. You have the investment into the energy sector. That isnt being felt widespread, money we were talking about it, european companies, european countries, your average person in iran is not feeling that as well. That is is absolutely true. By the way as the protests over Economic Conditions morphed into political protests, including people shouting for the return, the old shahs son and attacks on the dictator, it is not death to america this week. It is death to the regime. Death to the dictator. They mean ayatollah ali khamenei. One. Things theyre protesting irans involvement in syria, iraq, yemen, supporting hezbollah. Dagen no gaza, no lebanon. Our lives are devoted in iran is one of the chants last week. Lieutenant colonel, always great to see you. Always wish we had more time. Happy new year. Dagen see you soon. Likewise. President trump returning to washington with an ambitious agenda for 2018. Republicans expected to have a busy year. Health care, infrastructure, immigration, welfare reform, priorities for congress and this white house. Joining Us Manhattan Institute fellow steve malanga. Always good to see you. Looks like the agenda, that developments around the world could set the again today for this white house. I dont want to say it is out of the white houses hands but the republicans in control will have to deal we went through the list, nikki haley did. First of all a president s portfolio principally concerns really foreign relations, foreign affairs. The thing is that there is a rich economic agenda out there right now too and the president only dealt with part of it during his first term. So its a dual challenge but lets face it, if things explode around the world, you see how quickly the domestic agenda moves to the background, almost has to move to the background. Dagen in terms of the domestic agenda what is priority number one . Much is talked about the oh, democrats could get on board with infrastructure. I say they will run on one word in the midterm elections, resist, resist. If you listen to other networks that is exactly what you hear . Right. Dagen you have to assume democrats wont do anything. Part of the problem priority number one is actually getting a budget and dealing with the dreamers issue which comes up, really the deadline is march. After those things if youre talking about that agenda, to make things better i think infrastructure is one where it will be hard for the democrats to run from that. They will have to stretch to find a way. This is one of those things that everybody agrees we should spend more money on. Dagen i dont think when im exaggerating to say president obama mentioned Infrastructure Spending as economic stimulus in literally every single speech he ever gave on the economy in eight years in office. And now shovelready was the other part of that. Dagen right. I guarranty you, that the democrats do not get, or, resist getting on board with any kind of Infrastructure Spending. Although they seem to love spending our money. I will have to look at the verbal gymnastics they will go through to do that. Heres the thing, the states themselves, including democratic states are yelling for this too. The democrats will have to figure out a way not just to tell their own members, but they will have to tell their own governors why theyre not doing it. That is one pretty powerful impetus because cities which are run by democrats and states which have democratic governors have this. Dagen how do you offset the budget deficit gone up two fiscal years in a row . We just passed a tax reform bill. The estimates are all over the place, but it will based on every estimate that i read add to the deficit over a 10year period. How do you balance those two . There will be more pressure on the white house and on the republicans in the leadership to not add to the deficit, not to add to our National Debt . One of the things about the tax reform is that, depending upon who you believe or should say depending how americans react, okay, that will add to the deficit possibly over time. I think they do this deal very quickly, right now, and justify it as stimulus. Dagen one thing that, they couldnt get repeal and replace on obamacare done last year. We actually heard that is frightened the republicans in the leadership actually stepping up to do something on the tax reform bill. But now, when you look at health care, when you look at obamacare, this tax reform law gets rid of the individual mandate. Right. Dagen so you will have people on the exchanges, on the national exchange, youre going to see Healthy People fall away. That means that the price will skyrocket for those people still buying insurance through the government exchanges. So they get hit with even higher premiums or the costs skyrocket or combination of both. So i think what they just did in the health reform, the tax reform, with the repealing the individual mandate is put them in a bind. I think thats true, however i think the real tripping point for Health Care Reform is medicaid. The states are getting hammered by medicaid, especially those that added and expanded. Now of course the graduate allly the phasein of the states having to pay more, that continues. Even republican governors are adamant, those that expanded, medicaid, they are adamant that any kind of a fix has to include more money for medicaid. You look at dagen but again, that goes back to my point, more money. It is not about reining in benefits. It is not about free market. It is about, a massive Government Health care program. We want more money, we want more money. That is ultimately one of the things that caused repeal and replace to fail last year. The republicans are as responsible for that as the democrats. The republicans have the vote if they wanted to but there are few republicans that will not get on board with this. I follow state budgets very closely. Dagen i know you do. This is very difficult environment, even though nine years into a economic expansion, this is very difficult environment for virtually every state budget, medicaid is the number one problem, again and again around the country you hear this they are spending more. They want more from washington to solve their problems. Dagen where does that leave their lawmakers in d. C. Who actually worry about the deficits and the debt . This is why you have this dagen go ahead. Because lawmakers in d. C. Represent states. The problem is, they are hearing, republicans are hearing from their own republican governors, oh, no, dont do this. Heres the thing. This is part of why states have a very shortterm outlook. They consistently expand programs in conjunction with the federal government. When the roof caves in, they say to the federal government we need more money dagen the issue is, this is now, the republicans own this. They can call it obamacare all you want, if you continue to move down the road and not fix the problems, i was looking at enrollment numbers on the National Government exchanges, down 4 . That is not much. Enrollment was up in states like washington, new york, california and minnesota. Again pressure on the republicans in the next year to fix this, because people are still signing up for it. More people are signing up for these state exchanges. Well in farther theyre signing up for it because they dont have alternatives, because there isnt a free market operating. That is part of the problem right now. Dagen thank you, steve. Budgets, i love it, steve malanga. Look at the dow, nasdaq and s p 500. Riproaring a year it was in the past. Meantime, theres optimism going into 2018. Business leaders optimistic. Thanks in part to that republican tax reform. As well as President Trumps vow to cut all the unnecessary red tape. Will this translate into higher wages and more jobs . Here with analysis, bell point chief strategist dave nelson. Were seeing that, dave, but you have a stock market and a bond market looking very richlyvalued. Where do we go from here . Can this optimism and continued Economic Growth translate into significantly higher stocks and bond prices . That optimism youre referring to dagen, that started through most of the election and through most of the year. It was not just about tax reform. It was because this administration was starting to roll back the Regulatory Overreach of the last decade. There is a lot of agencies out there that dont like that. Agencies are about money. One thing they like is regulations this administration is kind of changed that. I do think it translates into better markets for next year. I dont think we can make, have a, you know, 20 plus returns like we did last year. Weve had a lot of multiple expansion in that time. We are going into next year with possibly 150 in s p earnings next year . That is 15 growth. Eight or 10 percent is a reasonable number for the s p this year. Dagen is this a wild card, dave, this goes to my discussion with steve and even colonel peters, Lieutenant Colonel ralph peters about the amount of money this government is spending. We doubled the debt over the last eight years of president obamas term but again, were running deficits. Is it a real headwind potentially higher longterm Interest Rates . We know the Federal Reserve will likely continue raising shortterm Interest Rates but higher longterm rates is not something that weve had to deal with really for the last decade . It is an important point and we are coming to the end of the experiment as you say. We have a Federal Reserve right now that moved on a path of normalization. Were not looking at much inflation yet but at some point in time the long end of the curve will start to rise. As the rates rise there will be competition for stocks. But the main part of this package here what were trying to put forward is really growth. Growth solves a lot of problems. Now ill grant you if we dont match that with fiscal restraint here in washington, then, of course, you could create problems down the road. My hope is that the administration will start to address that. Steve mentioned it earlier. Number one with a bullet right now, first thing we have to pass is a budget and it will be difficult in the backdrop of an election cycle. Dagen i guess higher Interest Rates and some Wage Inflation would be welcomed. If were saving money, sure. Dagen if its a bad thing and higher longterm Interest Rates could be bad. Were looking at the december jobs report estimate on average Hourly Earnings growth but there is a story in those, in the wall street journal today about you are seeing, im not talking about increase in minimum wages that are government directed and increase in inwiths in minneapolis where job market is so tight, employers are hiking wages and hiking salaries for people. I think the overall tax package helped set the stage for that. You mentioned wages going up. You have seen several Companies Announce in the last few weeks on the heels of this tax reform package that theyre raising wages and some very Cyclical Companies like Federal Express have come out and dramatically raised guidance and theyre all pointing to this tax overhaul. Going from 35 down to 21, that is a big relief for large and Small Companies here in the United States. Dagen at t and comcast, fifth third bancorp, wells fargo handing out bonuses. Boeing promised to invest more money in its own workers. Youre seeing the benefits of tax reform even before 2018 started. Dave, thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. Dagen breaking moments ago, longtime republican senator from utah orrin hatch will not seek reelection this year n a newlyreleased goodbye video, senator hatch noted that 2018 is time to hang up the gloves and retire after 40 years on the senate floor. Hatch leaves behind a leg ga sy of Great American success, passing americans with disabilities act, American Freedom restoration act, recently contributing mightily to the historic tax reform bill. When we talked about those republicans were not going to get it done, senator hatch played a big part pushing that tax reform through. Many people, most americans will feel that. We expect to hear from the white house any minute now. We will bring you the news briefing when it begins. The first of 2018. Meantime recordshattering cold weather blanketing much of the nation all the way down to south texas where it feels like minus 10 degrees in amarillo. At least five deaths are due to the deep freeze. When will we get some relief . The forecast next. Building a website in under an hour is easy with gocentral. From godaddy in fact, 68 of people who have built their. Website using gocentral, did it in under an hour, and you can too. Build a better website in under an hour. With gocentral from godaddy. 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. Dagen now to extreme weather. A cold start to 2018 as much of the u. S. Plunges into a deepfreeze. Temperatures dropping to recordbreaking lows as the clock turned over to midnight on monday morning with even more brutal cold anticipated this week. Fox news meteorologist adam klotz is here to bring us up to speed. Hey, adam. Hey there, it doesnt stop. Were looking at incredibly col