25 . The repatriation tax. No, no. Oh the corporate tax. If we get to the low to high teens well be competitive with the rest of the world. What about entitlements . That remained off the table during the campaign. But youre somebody that likes to balance the budget. You talk about the deficit and care about the debt this countrys taken on. How do you do both . Thank you for bringing that up. This euphoria were in right now, by the way i dont see this as a mandate. To see if we can break the gridlock. Were not going to solve this debt crisis unless and until we save Social Security and medicare. Both trust fends go to zero in 15 years. But do you have any sense that this is an issue that can be addressed in this administration . Absolutely. Paul ryan said that when he became speaker. I think Mitch Mcconnell said the other dwa we want to get at saving Social Security and medicare. The very people who are going to get hit the worst are the people who need it most. When the trust funds go to zero, that means we cant pay out full benefits. We can save Social Security. Its not that complicated, its just politically difficult. Medicare is a little more difficult but it can be solved and weve got to do that right now. What about spending . Donald trumps also talked a lot about spending. Lets talk about spending. In 2000 last year in bill clbt we spent 2. 4 trillion under the federal government. Last year under this administration we spent 3. 7 trillion. Thats 1. 3 trillion more. And when you look at the departments, you can see where it is. Weve got to get control of that. Thank you. Great to see you. Good to see you. Joseph, you going to say hello to your golfing buddy here . He hes be careful, joe. That course, senator, you know the one that im talking about. I do. Is it me or is it just hard . Its you. I saw your swing. So thats what it is. All right. Yeah, you did. We didnt play together, but we did share one of those great onion rings together. Absolutely. Good to see you. Good to see you. And when we come back, josephs going to have some breaking economic news. We are minutes away from the read. Take a look at equity futures at this hour. You are watching squawk box right here on cnbc. Tokyostyle ramen noodles. Freshly made in the japanese tradition, each batch is small. Special. Unique. Every bowl blurring the line between food. And art. When you cook with incredible ingredients. You make incredible meals. Fresh ingredients. Stepbysteprecipes. Delivered to your door, for less than 9 a meal. Get 30 off your first delivery blueapron. Com cook. Lets take a look at stocks to watch this morning. Drug maker mallinckrodt beating estimates. Also beating forecasts on strength of double digit sales. That stock though right now down by just about a half a percent. Given an upbeat earnings forecast. That does come ahead of scheduled meeting with analysts. It expects to earn 9. 30 to 9. 60 a share. Up 3. 2 right now. Thor industries reporting a buck 39. Well above estimates of 123 towable trailers were strong. All right. Were just seconds away from a revision to Third Quarter gdp. What was it before . 2. 9 . Futures right now are indicated up 34. Rick santelli standing by at the cme. The numbers, please. Our Second Time Around the block on Third Quarter gdp. An extra 0. 3 . So 3. 2 versus what joe just reiterated 2. 9 was our first look. Lets go through the internals. Consumption important number. But we gained a bit. 2. 8 versus 2. 1 . If we look at the pricing index, 1. 4 versus our last look at 1. 5 . 1. 7 on personal consumption expenditures. And that is unchanged from our last look. If we look at corporate profits, i think we ought to, right . Preliminary q3 up 7. 6 . Thats a big reversal from the last look which was down just shy of 2 at down 1. 9 . Now, many are going to say a bit better than expected. You have to average everything in. We know that certain quarters borrow from other quarters. So it all levels out. Many including our buddy peter boockvar. Great respect for peter. Had him on yesterday. It is an old number. But what are the dynamics of the current rally. What are the assumptions about how congress both being republican, the growth. But there is still the foundation of what we can measure. In that regard we dont know how it always worked. The yield for tense. Should we close in the 230s. It should be the time we settled between 2. 30 and 2. 36. Last time we had such a consolidation in a tight closing yield range was august and part of september all in the 1. 50s. These are Building Blocks likely leading to higher rates. We want to monitor that. Its also about the eighth day in a row the dollar index has closed over 1. 01. Also 200 basis points on the difference. These are all important distribution consolidation. Most likely leading the more trend in the same direction. Melissa lee, back to you. Thank you. Looking at the Market Reaction just quickly. Weve lost a bit of steam before going into the numbers. We had been up four on the s p 500. Up three right now. So really minor here in terms of the 10year yield we went up to 2. 42 on the back of the numbers. What do you think . Well, i think its a better mix of things as you look that the Consumer Spending was up versus the 2. 1 . Less inventory bill that creates a little bit more potential for the fourth quarter. People only care about this because of what it might mean for the future. Business investment, though, revised lower from 1. 2 to 0. 1 . Structure is higher but spending is down when you talk about potential in the gdp and what can be done nap is clearly an area that has lagged. Housing investment better than the minus 6. 2 . Another area of potential gains. You guys were talking about potential gdp. Thought id bring a couple charts along to talk about it. Youre talking about 4 growth. I can tell you, guy, if you could get 1 above the current and many economists think that that is almost the outside of how much you can raise. Were talking about this. Not the ability of the economy to hit a single number in a quarter. But the ability to raise the potential growth of the economy through two things. The potential labor force is one. You can see that there. Thats steadily come down. Ive included the reagan years. You saw that pop up in potential. This is potential, joe. Okay. Okay. You can hit a number in there, but thats not going to change the overall potential growth of the economy. Then if you go to the next chart, theres potential productivity built in there. And thats really been you see that bumped up in the reagan years. Its come down steadily since 2000. So if youre going to raise potential growth in the country, youve got to raise the labor force or the hours worked and youve got to raise productivity. Thats why janet yellen said whatever you do, focus everything youre doing on the productive capacity of the economy. Things like business investment. Stan fisher mentioned education. These are things the fed what was Third Quarter last year . Third quarter a year ago . Can i have a second on that question . I didnt know right off. 3. 2 , are we going to have this crappy First Quarter again . You dont know. We know that theyve tried to change it in a way itd be funny if we did it again. No. If we did 3. 2 then we were off to the races above 3 again. Thatd be weird. I dont think anybody believes that the potential growth has changed a whole lot. I think were in this 1. 5 to 2 economy. It might. And i think theres potential. And i think theres potential for this economy to do 1 percentage point better. Im a little bit wary that you start to budget 4 . Then you have deficits that go along with the spending but only get 3 . But we decided i have you figured it out . You got it. No, no. Ive decided that watching japan for 20 years and watching how hard it is to engender some inflation that im not as i used to be volcker. I lived through that. 21. 5 or whatever it was. But now i think that we could even export a little inflation and help everyone else out. That a not a radical idea. The idea that if the u. S. Does better, it might be a reason, by the way this is outside my area of expertise, whatever that actual area may be. Small but melissas area here. If the u. S. Does better and the world does better are they selling emerging markets . Yes. You like that idea . Well, actually yeah. I mean, yes, but with some caveats. A stronger dollar is very difficult. But if the commodities demand picks up because of economic growth, then yes a lot of these yeah. And i have no doubt that you could loosen up some of the dodd frank regulations, loosen up some of the business regulations. Which by the way, ask your governors about this. It happens at the state level and federal level. If you dont get the state levels to get along with this, its going to limit how much potential growth. If you start investing in education and raise the productive capacity of the economy, we have to focus on this like a laser. Didnt end up making people more productive. I just want to tell you to be able to ask these questions tomorrow to none other than robert kaplan. Hes the Dallas Federal Reserve chairman. Unfortunately thats at 11 00 which is a very good show at 11 00 but he was not available to come on squawk box. I have to apologize. Do you do exercise bike weve ruled out. We have a treadmill already. I dont think youve ruled that out. I like the idea in the earlier to get you the present for her. I heard that earlier. That is what i do. But you gave ms. Leisman a fly reel . No. For our anniversary went out to a nice restaurant and went to see hamilton. Thats an excellent idea. Experiences. Ask courtney reagan. What would you do for the holidays . Look, i have this a fishing trip. They all come up together. I got to do all these things. Its not fair. I wish i could do that. But it doesnt work that way. Your wife agrees to celebrate the anniversary . Yeah. At least she puts on a good face. Hes celebrating. At least she puts on a good face. All right. Steve, thank you. Yeah. Thanks very much. You wore a red velvet thing on friday. Did you see that . I heard about it. I was told it was a good look and i was told it was a terrible look. I heard about it. Terry lundgren sent it from macys. I didnt know it was hip. Did you know it was in . Remember what george on seinfeld said about velvet . He wants to be ensconced in velvet. Remember that . Yeah. Which i had to give back according to our conflict of interest rules. Look andrews waving. Andrew joins us with a special guest in washington. Im going to try to find a trinket in washington for you. So you got to think about what you want. A little donkey pin. Ill bring you that. You got a bunch of those anyway. Im sorry. All morning weve been focusing on the trump transition, how it might impact the economy. One of the issues he promised to tackle is health care. To head the department of health and human services. For more on the future of health care and so much more, im joined by wyoming senator. You were in wyoming over the weekend. But in afghanistan for thanksgiving. Thanksgiving with the troops. The wyoming national guard. We have our Army National guard there. Had a chance to visit with them, talk about whats happening there. It was terrific to be with the troops and thank them. We want to make sure they have everything they need. They do and they miss their families. Thats an amazing thing you do. Eighth time youve been there. Yeah. Lets talk about health care and what you think can happen over the next hundred days and how its going to impact the Health Care Industry originally when donald trump was first elected Health Care Stocks shot to the moon. Then theyve come back a bit. Theres concern where its going to shake out. Number one is tom price has been nominated to be secretary of health and human service. Tom price, a doctor who took care of patients for long periods of time versus who barack obama chose and when he put someone in and it was a lobbyist for the lawyers. So the contrast is huge. I want to congratulate donald trump on that decision. Tom price knows how to do this from the standpoint of patience. Hes going to go through regulations alone help patients and try to relieve this huge burden thats been put on people all around the country. So hes going to be terrific. In terms of legislatively, we have a way to do the repeal which includes some replacement but not a full replacement immediately. We put on the president s desk last year through reconciliation, we only needed 51 votes. The republicans were able to do that. The way to repeal the Health Care Law to try to get rid of the burden and president obama vetoed it. In terms of the timing, do you think you will actually have something to put on his desk on day one . We could potentially do that. Were going to work on a budget. You have to pass a budget first as part of this process. But its the way to give relief to families struggling under the burdens of the expenses of the Health Care Law. We want to make sure families are going to be able to buy insurance that works for them thats affordable and that really is families making decisions, not the government making decisions for them. And what do you think the transition period looks like . What we put on the president s desk last year had a twoyear transition. Peoples lives have been disrupted enough by president obamas obamacare legislation. We want to make sure its a smooth transition with enough time so that markets arent shaken by this in terms of making sure that people can actually get insurance. But whats happened over the last six years with health insurance, this isnt thats what im asking in practice. How do you make sure that people who have conditions, for example, that they are covered . How does that whats the mechanism that you see happening here . Because obamacares made it harder in some cases because states like mine we have a high risk pool. People with preexisting conditions to keep the insurance they have. But so many people have been gaming the system under obamacare. We need to make sure that its a fair level Playing Field for people. But you want to take care of people with preexisting conditions. My wifes a Breast Cancer survivor. Bobbys had three operations. As a doctor and a husband i know how important it is for people with preexisting conditions to continue to get care, have affordable insurance. But we also want to make sure younger people are able to be insured in ways that the costs are the right costs for them. So many of them are just opted out because its much too expensive for them under the way this scheme that president obama put in place. One other topic i wanted to ask about, infrastructure spending. Because we were talking off air about the different factions within the republican party. And how its all going to play out. Its not one single block, if you will. How do you see the spending issue, if you will . Thats the issue is how do you pa pay for this, who pays for it over a period of time. A Public Works Committee that has a lot of involvement with infrastructure. And i think what donald trump has proposed in infrastructure is very important. Its also expensive. And the question is can we use money brought back from overseas with tax reform and how does that play into the funding of this . Theres lots of people on the hill who are concerned about the size of the debt, the issues related to that. And we want to make sure that its responsible in the ways that what we pay for some of the Infrastructure Projects that donald trump has talked about. Senator, great to see you. Appreciate having you this morning. Thank you. Guys, when we come back, tis the season for shopping but can big box retailers keep up with the likes of amazon . Well sit down with former jcpenney chairman allen questrom. Thats next on squawk box here on cnbc. Welcome back to squawk box. Shares of tiffany rising this morning after the luxury goods retailer beat on the streets on the top and bottom lines. Joining us now to talk about the consumer, allen questrom. Always great to speak with you. Great to be with you. How are you . Im good. Thanks for asking. Given the new regime were going to have come january in the possibility of corporate as well as personal tax cuts, i wonder if its going to be a much better environment for the consumer overall. I believe it is. You could pick and choose what you like as president. But i like someone who has an idea of business. Our country falls around Business Practices where you create jobs and create ideas. I think because he is a businessman, i believe he is a pragmatic. He may not get all the ones everybody wants, but i think he really does want to see jobs created. You have to have demand in the marketplace. That causes wages to go up. Its not minimum wages. Its wages because you have more demand than there are people to fill them. I feel positive about him. I dont think he wants to go down as a loser because hes got a big ego. I feel very good. And i think right after the election, i think you saw people feel better. I think youll start to see people. Also saying that, i think the key to this Holiday Season for everybody is if we have a cold winter. Because thats clearly what we didnt have last year. I think that would be very helpful. Particularly for selling sweaters and coats. And coats this year are very much in fashion. All of those positive factors for the consumer which could create more money in peoples pockets. I wonder if that is enough to offset the decline weve seen in the Department Store space. Is that going to be enough to sort of throw a lifeline at the struggling retailers . Well, i think its broad based but i think the internet has certainly been a major issue in terms of people how to deal with it. I think the other issue that Department Stores have to deal with is how to deal with the millennial and the why customer. This is a situation where many of our Department Stores have lived with a baby boomer. And their aspirations are different than what this customer is. They need to understand the millennial needs inspiration, not aspiration. They come from a whole different era. And i think many of the