Will confirm the economy is growing up at a nice clip. When interest race back up it is reflection underlying economy. Well look at the pros and cons in the next couple hours. Well take a look at some data that supports stocks continuing to run up. As i just said, investors seeking out safe alternative like bonds. Whether this is the day to do that, hard to say. This much is not. Enough to weigh on stocks. A backup in rates enough to say for a lot of folks to say, maybe, maybe, we should step back a little bit from this party. But every time they have done that, they have regretted doing so, because people pounce right back in. Record number of individuals pouring money into this market. Better than 32 billion solely into equity fund. If you want to include etfs and the like, that much is north of 60 billion. Obviously individuals are coming in. There is contrarian argument, when individual come into the market they miss the party. That is not always true by the way. A lot of individuals come in early to a party like this. As the case with this one. Just much, much more over the last few weeks and months. Lets get a read of that. The president will, despite today no doubt be crowing about the economy, the markets, this uptick in activity and excitement that he experienced firsthand when he was in davos, seemed like everybody and his proverbial corporate uncle was sucking up to him get part of that American Financial juggernaut. So the president will talk up that. He will talk up infrastructure. Shared ideas how republicans and democrats can Work Together. Hope springs eternal ahead of a big speech tomorrow night. Blake burman at the white house. What he is hearing. Hi, blake. Reporter pretty light load for the president. That is normal leading into the state of the union. That will allow him to spend time working on the speech. White house aide told me the president spent bulk of this weekend gearing up for tomorrow nights speech. The president had a dry run in opening weeks of his administration, then it was coin ad joint address to congress. There will be a handful of items to get into tomorrow night. Among them jobs, economy, national security. But also two main ones that are being watched heading into this speech. Immigration and infrastructure. So much so, that at an event at white house moments ago, one of the two public events, swearing in of new hhs secretary alex azar. The president was asked about his speech and the very first topic he brought up is immigration. The president acknowledged if a deal is going to get done, something on daca, something on immigration in general, he is going to need and republicans will need the support of democrats. Going to be bipartisan. Republicans really dont have the votes to get it done in any other way so it has to be bipartisan. Hopefully the democrats will do it, enough of them will join us. We can do something great for daca and immigration. Reporter neil we expect to hear the president outline some of his infrastructure principles t remains uncertain leading up to this exactly what this white house or exactly what this administration wants. On one hand, you have president , some within his administration, talking about 1. 7 trillion infrastructure package. Others talking about a one trillion dollar infrastructure package. Pretty big gap there. At heart of it, 200 billion of direct federal money. They want the rest leveraged by incentives through Public Private partnerships. Remains to be seen with this immigration and daca deal needs to be struck, if that sort of taints the waters heading into an infrastructure package. Neil. Neil thank you, buddy, very, very much. As blake was talking we got a confirmation from political landscape, an institution, congressional legend is stepping down. The 6th prominent Committee Chair indicating to do so, House Appropriations committee and new jersey congressman rodney burring. His family is long steeped in history. His father was a congressman, senator. His relatives go back to the formation of this country. They are actively involved in government. A lot of people are interpreting down, a lot of incumbents anxious about their own fortunes in this environment. That makes 33 prominent republicans stepping down. A good many of them heads of many committees. Mr. Four he was facing a battle, everyone, his uncle, young single mom, background in the military, dedicated war hero challenging him on democratic side, polling quite well in largely republican district of his. He is stepping down, in other words, not seeking reelection. He will serve out his term. Fray. We have hadley heath manning. U. S. News world report contributor ashley pratte. Dont mind me pouncing on this news, new jersey republican, Top Republican opting not to seek reelection. What do you make of this . This will be a big problem for republicans moving forward, neil. I do think this will have serious implications not just for 2018 but for 2020. Were already seeing reports from the Koch Industries and all these different groups traditionally have these different pacs, koch has been pretty much a huge republican donor, supporter, lifeblood, so to speak for the Republican Party, fearing they will lose these majorities in the house and senate. These types of races, these people that are stepping down who have been strongholds or have been institutionalized in some ways in the senate and in the house stepping down does have some concerns i think at this point because they do fear what ends up happening if one, the president continues to poll as low as he does, doesnt get out of the slump. What is the future of the Republican Party . It is very factionized. A lot of people wonder what the future of it is. A lot of these people who have been in office for some time making kind of hard decisions at this point. Is it beneficial to myself and my family to continue serving if i dont know where exactly the direction of my party is going . Neil in other words, he had a good run. Leave on top. That would be the case. Fray link haasen. One thing for good names to leave, ins case of a lot of prominent republicans. Republican National Committee cant find republicans to replace them, big names. We saw that, you know certainly in a number of high stake races recruiting big names to replace the big names who are leaving is proving very, very difficult. What do you make of that . It would be great for both parties to get a fresh stable of new faces im afraid. Many times we talk about who is going to run in 2020, were recycling a lot of same names in politics and americans get kind of tired of this. But if youre a republican, youre looking conflicting signals politically. On one hand you look at President Trumps approval rating, doesnt seem to be very popular as an individual, as a politician, yet you look at some of his policies, for example, the tax reform legislation which is gaining popularity. Consumer confidence is good. All of our Economic Indicators are looking pretty good. Americans are feeling better about the direction of the country. Whether or not that translates to support for republicans or they warm up to the idea keeping majority parties in 2018 and 2020. Overall americans weighing how they feel about the economy and President Trump in the next election cycle. Neil looking at investment outlook, rewarded as investor go against the consensus or prevailing view. The prevailing view on the House Republicans will lose it on midterm elections. I have no doubts they will lose seats. I just dont see them losing it. I based that on improving sentiment towards the tax cuts, better and higher expectation on the part of corporations that share the loot so to speak. Were a couple weeks a Way Companies showing that to their workers. Improved net pay. I think a lot of that resonates with people or will register with people. They will start feeling better. Im not saying the number is enough to boost republican majorities. I think that will stave off the day. What do you think . Well there is no denying that the tax plan really helped republicans especially in some of those districts where it was looking maybe Hillary Clinton won or they were very close. That tax plan is coming. It is showing up in peoples pocketbooks and republicans are really hoping that rides out. What there is concern about, this is in some of little bit more conservative districts is the base turnout. Is tax reform enough to get the base that put donald trump over the top out . Especially if Something Like immigration they might give citizenship or Legal Protections which is something that conservatives in the far right of the party tend to be against, will they show up . There is concern about base. There is no denying that the tax plan really helped republicans. Neil no, no, you raise a very good point. Ashley, that usually these midterm elections it is other side brings out the vote because theyre galvanized or angry enough to come out and do so. Not so if youre feeling pleased with everything, which shows up more in president ial election i suspect. Play that out. What do you think . This is going back to the point of the Republican Party being so factioned right now. That, i think is the greatest problem here. You have the base at first very happy with their decision to elect President Trump, who came out to support him. Wanted the change. Wanted the swamp drained. They get very upset now we see this sort of bipartisan push to move toward a deal on immigration. That is one of the core tenets of trumps political agenda when he was running as a candidate. You will feel a lot of tension. As you mentioned, neil, the midterm elections typically does not favor the party that is the current officeholder of presidency which at this point is republican. So i do think this spell as bit of disaster for republicans moving forward. To hadleys point, tax reform is proving to be very successful. Were seeing a lot of corporations over the weekend giving thousands of dollars of bonuses to workers who are hourly workers. I think well start seeing some benefits toward that and some people rethinking what a republican economic agenda can look like and how that it can benefit the country. Neil i know im old enough, a lot older than all of you ladies, i do remember there was disconnect between the mainstream media, even wall street journal at the time attacked Ronald Reagans tax cuts too big, too risky, too dangerous to quote a journal editorial at the time. When people saw them, companies saw them, individuals saw what was changing in their net that was whole another thing. In other words people heard berating, seen for themselves, i like this. They might down the road worried about the debt or all this other stuff going to be a problem but, there was a delayed response. Individuals felt not listening to media reports disparaging those cuts, but, their own experience, do you think, hadley, that is one factor we just cant appreciate it maybe because it is still too early . Oh absolutely. I mean in america we have two side and people generally vote the party line but in the middle we have a lot of voters who decide elections. Theyre basing their decisions how have i experienced this . What does this mean to me personally . There is no factor more important than any governing party or any challenger. Neil, that will be the deciding factor in nip future elections. Neil eliza, how about the markets themselves . Do though provide on any wind for the republicans . Theyre certainly doing very well and that is something President Trump rightfully keeps talking b if youre an investor, right now youre feeling pretty good. Neil yeah, wellput. Ladies thank you all very much. I do want to harken back, for what it is worth, 1992 president ial election, very true. Everyone was afraid to challenge george bush, sr. , who at the time early on had 89 approval rating. Who would be foolish enough to challenge him. They called the eight dwarfs going to challenge him, the tallest guy who was this guy named bill clinton. He had no chance in hell. You know how that turned out. We have a lot more after this. 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. If youre not going to pay for the tax cut, if youre just going to borrow the 3 trillion, that it would take to pay for it, then it is perfectly appropriate neil you guys never paid for all the spending you did, austan. You guys never paid for all the spending you did. Added 10 trillion to the debt. That is not correct. That is not correct. Neil did the debt go up . Did the debt go up . Yes it did. I told you perfectly well we were concerned how to get the deficit down once we got out of recession which we did. Neil i have to respectfully disagree. We have two different memories of this. Part of the fun if youre not missing my live weaken level weekend show. Someone said the cavuto live logo looks like the turbotax logo. Maybe theyre right. If you find the Public Officials taxing. You have to watch. Former cbo director, douglas holtzeakin on that. It is interesting to go back and forth. I find it odd a party in power bemoans spending or tax cuts, is a little rich, having said that his point was, and is that its way too early to say these tax cuts are the great elixir. What do you think . I think it is true it is too early to see how big the impact will be. We know the direction of the business tax reforms. Theyre exactly for what the doctor ordered for a country bleeding headquarters and bleeding intellectual property overseas and having earnings parked offshore. Im quite confident it will go in the right direction. The larger point you did the math. The Obama Administration left behind a budget where spending was growing faster than the economy ever possibly could. The result was 10 trillion in projected deficits over next 10 years. In that situation they didnt address. Indeed the only thing they really did was these caps on Discretionary Spending if you notice every couple years we raised. They dont actually work. Neil we cant even stick to that. That backup financial backbone as you and i gotten into in the past. Let me ask you a little bit what the president wants to do as the we look debt piled up under administrations here. One of the things i noticed, that the president really is going to go as far as he is certainly gone thus far overtures to the other side particularly on infrastructure, calling for a trillion dollars in added Infrastructure Spending over the next 10 years. 200 million up front from uncle sam. Where is the money from that coming from . I dont know. I think that this is not in line with the genuine problems that face is looking forward. I know they want to leverage as much private capital they possibly can. If you get into bipartisan negotiations and bring into democrats, turns into bidding war, i dont think that end wall. We have targeted infrastructure program. Use existing resources to do that. You know, i think, we know the major drivers of the debt in the future. They are the large spending programs, medicare, medicaid, social security, Affordable Care act. We saw one run at those. The house bill last year, for example, did major reforms to the Affordable Care act and medicaid. That is something that is going to happen. The only question is when. Neil the only question is when is right. Douglas holtzeakin. Thank you my friend. Good seeing you. You might remember white i will get it right, whitewater investigator ken starr saying that the president could be in a pickle if it turns out he is lying, that lying is absolutely ground for a president to be impeached. He was referring to the possibility, the president was looking to fire mueller. Now of course he never did. Mueller is still in that capacity but the read from robert ray, another whitewater independent counsel who might have slightly difficult take on all of this. Hi, im mindy kearns. Its great to finally meet you. Nice to meet you too. Your parents have been talking about you for years. Sorry about that. Theyre all about me saving for a house, or starting a college fund for my son. Actually, i want to know what youre thinking. Have a seat. Yeah. Knowing that the most important goals are yours. With 15,000 financial advisors, its a big deal. And its how edward jones makes sense of investing. Neil did you guys see the ratings on the grammys last night . Record low 30 viewership from 2017. Wasnt that hot in 2017. So maybe it was all the heavyhanded politics or whatever. Maybe the acts. People didnt hear or know a lot of songs, they werent really into it. There you go, grammys getting slam mid. Lawmakers divided over legislation that protects bob mueller. This comes at a time where people wonder, when the president says one thing he never really wanted to fire bob mueller that might alone show a lie. Depends how you look at it. Ken starr who was handling the investigation of bill clinton some years back, saying that lying a absolutely grounds for a president to be impeached. Looking at the president as role what he said in public and what he did. Keep in mind whether the president advocated this or not, he says he didnt, this was something others argued batted around in the white house but obviously never acted on it, well, mueller is still there. Former whitewater independent counsel robert ray what to make of this. Always good to have you, robert. Thanks. Neil what is the legality here . If a president talks about firing a special prosecutor but denies every en10 teared it, if starr is saying that is impeachable event . If he is is, shouldnt be. Neil starr, correct . Starr i respectfully disagree with him. I didnt agree at the time 20 years ago, and i dont agree now. Your role aspects counsel or independent counsel to uncover facts to decide whether criminal proceedings are warranted. You are not supposed to make judgments about what the American People do or think whether its a good idea to be lying to th