good news. job opportunities are finally opening up with hundreds of corporations. we'll have those good details. all those stories and more coming up on "the kudlow report," beginning right now. good evening, everyone. i'm larry kudlow. this is "the kudlow report". we're here live at 7:00 p.m. eastern and 4:00 p.m. pacific. obama care in deeper trouble. it's reported that fewer than 50,000 people enrolled in the first month. they expected 1.4 million. more than 4 million people had their health insurance cancelled. so far the numbers of uninsured is rising substantially faster than the number of newly insured. most experts believe that the self-imposed deadline of november 30th will not be met and i believe if and when the website does start working the obama care plan is still destined to fail. all right. let's talk our first guest tonight says the obama administration is in dire need of a plan b. we welcome back president of health policy and strategy associates. bob, as always, thank you. i tweeted your new website as i often do. plan b, you believe, let me get this right, the insurance companies can and should play a major role? >> they are going to have to. the insurance company websites are working, they are working today. you can go on and enroll with them today. there's a segment of business called private health insurance exchanges such as ehealth.com or einsurance. their websites are working. you can go on and buy a 2014 plan today. those people who qualify for subsidies can't get the subsidies through these other sites. the private insurance and private exchange businesses lobbied the administration to build a bridge between them and the subsidy calculator well before october 1. the administration sort of said they would do that but they were going to delay it, wait until the end of the enrollment period. that's a big mistakes. if the insurance companies can calculate the subsidies today, if einsurance could cal sue late the subsidies we would have a work around but we don't. until we get that we won't. >> the business about early renewal program. you mentioned this on the air when we had that wonderful woman who was fighting cancer out in michigan. you gave her some pretty good advice the early renewal program. will obama allow them to extend to -- yeah extend out to 2014. would they allow that? >> right now many insurance companies in many states are allowing people who have received the cancellation letter to do what's called an early renewal. they changed their anniversary date to december 1, 2013. under obama care you don't have to comply with the obama rules in the individual market until the first anniversary after january 1, 2014. so they are suggesting people change their anniversary date to the latest as possible which is december 20, 2014. that way they get a one year reprieve. however not all states allow that. the state of california does not allow it. there are 1 million cancellation letters in the state of california. and the california insurance authority said we're not going to allow -- they said this before, the obama care crashed but we're not going to allow this because this is sub jugatig obama care. everybody needs to be in the new plans right away. the poor people in california. don't have that option and some other states as well. >> bob, stay with us. i want to bring in two other health experts. a former omb associate director for health problems. and senior fellow at the manhattan institute author of the new book out tomorrow "how medicaid fails the poor." we have to dissect this on the radio. i have to look at it. jim, welcome to the show. what's your take? can insurance companies with the renewal notices help people get through this bad pared as bob suggested? >> well, it can certainly help. it can't hurt. we have a disaster on our hands. the train wreck is upon us. there's no way to really put this thing back together again in a very easy way. i think we're going to have to do a couple of things. the early renewal policies. states should be pressured to allow that took cure. that's definitely an option that should be on the table. the second thing is the bill that the house republicans are working on and senator johnson in the senate that allows the plans that are currently in existence today to continue into 2014. i know a lot of people in the insurance industry say it's too late. candidly we got to put this thing back together somehow. there will be some difficulty for sure but we have to allow it where it can and if an insurer wants to keep their old plan on the market they should be able to do so. the key thing is making sure the premiums will not go up dramatically. >> that's what's going to happen. >> it's going to happen anyway no matter what. >> you're talking about fred upton the chairman of the energy commerce committee in the house and ron johnson. you're in washington. you're covering the beat. jim, give me a quick pencil sketch. can it go through? if it does how long would it stay through. you see what i'm saying. would it be grandfathered for a long time, forever, how would it work >> first step is to make sure all the plans being lost right now at the end of 2013 can continue all the way through 2014. when we get into 2014, we can revisit it again. but step one is to make sure you don't have millions and millions of americans lose their health insurance in 2014 which is about to happen. now, look, it's not going to be easy to do, but it can to be done to some degree and should to be done. >> is the administration getting in the way? are they being helpful or being harmful? you heard bob's ideas. where that doesn't work you go to the legislation that jim talked about. i have no idea whether that legislation could pass but they got already over 40 signatures in the senate. can that work, a combination? will the administration play ball or be adversarial? >> they could play ball if a number of democrats agree in the senate to support the johnson bill. here's thing. i'm with democratic chairman of the senate finance committee max baucus who indicated train wreck. he said last week shut down the website until you get it fixed because right now people aren't getting accurate prices on those websites. they are not getting accurate information about the subsidies they are eligible for from those websites and their private information is not protected because privacy standards aren't there. so you're putting yourself vulnerable, making yourself vulnerable to hackers. get it fixed. what they are finding now is for every problem they solve three more problems crop up. they got to shut the thing down and delay all these mandates until they get it fixed up. >> bob, let me look at this. me, i think the chances of them shutting this down and delaying, delaying is slim to none. i might be wrong. there's a suggestion that delays will be very costly. they may not be able -- the insurance companies may be out of whack, they may not have enough premiums coming into the cover their own costs under a delayed scenario. how big a problem might that be. >> i think we've crossed the trip wire. the administration is not going to have this website operating smoothly by december 1st. cms held a conference call on friday and they admitted flat out that the deeper they get into the system the more problems they fine. they are finding things they didn't know were broken a week ago. they've admitted they don't know what they don't know. this site is maybe halfway through a four or five month testing period. i don't think it's going to be stable until late january or february at the earliest. so, we just got a train wreck. the dominos have started to fall here. it's unavoidable that there will be more and more of these problems and there's lots of people getting hung out to dry with these cancellation letters. >> let me go through this. i want to make sure i have this right. an actuarial group said if you delay you have a problem. you'll wind up paying out more in claims then you take in on premiums. what do insurance companies do under that scenario or just rely on the government subsidies. >> the president and his team shoult have accepted a full year delay. they should have accepted the republicans were pushing a full year delay on the whole thing. sure if you do a delay just on the individual man date yes it will cause some problems for the insurance stability system but in some ways that's the obama administration's problem. they are the ones who set this in motion when it wasn't ready to go. you can't make americans go into a totally dysfunction system. there's no way they can enforce this individual mandate all through 2014 with a system so messed up. >> let's assume that the websites go up. what does that mean? to me this central planning information technology system is absolutely impossible. that's point number one. governments can't do this thing. point number two the basic structure, what jenkins from the "wall street journal" calls a con game, the young healthy people will finance the older not so healthy people and the redistribution will not work. >> the mandate will have to be tougher than it is for the law for the school redistribution network. what you'll see is you'll see a lot of people who are happy because they are getting these subsidies if the thing works but just as many people who are hopping mad about the fact that they will pay more. they call it the affordable care act. we've been talking about the failed promise of the law. that's the biggest one that they have to be accountable for. >> i think it should be renamed the central planning health care act. i'll give it a capital. the central planning health care act. you might say the last central planning piece of legislation around the world. they are going to free markets. we're going towards central planning. bob, jim, thank you very much gentlemen. we appreciate it. tonight we honor all the americans veterans including those who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect america's freedom. god bless them. we got some good news about a rising tide of jobs for today's veterans returning home from war. but first up some believe this prolonged stock market rally is bringing back the retail stock investor and if that is true, is it a good or bad signal for the rally itself? i'll give you my take and we got with two ace investors to weigh in. don't forget free market capitalism is the best way to prosperity. and thank god for our veterans protect our way of life. i'm larry kudlow. we'll be right back. i'm beth... and i'm michelle. and we own the paper cottage. it's a stationery and gifts store. anything we purchase for the paper cottage goes on our ink card. so you can manage your business expenses and access them online instantly with the game changing app from ink. we didn't get into business to spend time managing receipts, that's why we have ink. we like being in business because we like being creative, we like interacting with people. so you have time to focus on the things you love. ink from chase. so you can. ♪ ♪ welcome back to "the kudlow report". welcome back to "the kudlow report". even though it was a flat day for wall street, a win is still a win. take a look at the dow jones industrial average posting another record close adding 21 points. the nasdaq and s&p 500 added a point. after the bell newscorp reported weaker than expected first quarter earnings and revenues. the u.s. bond be market was closed in observation of veterans day. >> many thanks. appreciate it. here's some good news for america. main street is getting back into the market according to fund tracker, individual investors have sent $76 billion into the stock market mutual funds year-to-date. other people disagree with that inclauding the ceo of schwab who says that's not true. i'll assume it's true for a second. is this a good or bad omen for the rally if the retail investor comes in. i'll give you my quick take. profits are the mother's milk of stocks and profits don't rise at a modern sustainable pace. we're in record breaking stock market territory and we are in record breaking profit territory. so that all suggests to me the bull market can continue. future gains will not be as spectacular as this year's to date, 24% rise, okay. economy rising. the fed is going to remain easy. no inflation out there and i still believe the bubble heads are wrong. maybe the retail investor has it right. we have chief investment strategist and cnbc market analyst with o'neill securities. i don't know who to believe. retail investors coming in to the market or not? >> i don't really see it. i go to be honest. i love when i read the article and they say they are all in and coming back. because when you have a conversation with the retail investor, your neighbor, joe q. public, people still have the sense there's this disconnect between the market being at all time highs and how they feel about their own situation. so me it doesn't innocently -- it doesn't translate that that's going make the retail investor so comfortable to jump back in. >> so they will miss the whole rally? >> that same data, larry, showed that retail investors redeemed equity market mutual funds from 2008 to 2012. so there's a long way to go. the real bubble if there's a bubble is in bond market mutual funds and it didn't end until june of this year. mike tyson once said everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. if you were heavily invested in bond market mutual funds you got punched in the face in june. that's where the bigger unwind has to happen. a lot of classic signs from bull market top are not there. >> don't necessarily -- i'm not saying the retail investor is not in. i think the retail investor is in on a certain portion but i think he's under invested than maybe he should be. >> can i ask you a dumb question. retail investor doesn't do this for a living. why don't they -- i'm from the old-fashioned school buy and hold for long periods of time. john bogel, jeremy siegel. guys trading in and out their records. >> it's mixed. i agree. the investor should buy and hold. what happens is the way the world works linkedin, twitter, news passes around so quick, everybody thinks they are a trader. everybody tries to trade. they think they are smarter than everybody else which is a frustrating point when you think about these guys who say they are frustrated with the market. >> it's bad for your health. bad for your mental health. the economy is rising. no inflation. what's wrong with this market? >> there's nothing wrong with this market. people are nervous. earlier in the year i wrote a piece equities, there's no alternative. i really believe that because if you look to get returns above the rate of inflation, there's really no other choice. the fed is buying about 75% of the net new issuance of treasuries this year and this also talks to the disconnect -- >> indirectly. >> indirectly. >> but this talks about the disconnect that kenny is talking about because this is one of these things where the haves, actually a lot of these policies i'm convinced are doing nor help the people that administration and the fed aren't trying to help or don't want to help. so they are helping wealthy people, they are helping people with financial asset, they are helping people with homes. they are not getting down to helping the average person. monetary policy in my point ever view is a blunt tool. >> even though roughly half of americans own stocks. half of american households own stocks. i call at any time investor class many, many years ago. one way or another whether you have a direct brokerage account or a 401(k) or maybe more importantly you're in a pension fund, okay. you're a fireman and you're married to a school teacher and you live in queens, new york or who knows some suburb around the country you're benefiting from this stock market. this stock market is to some extent offsetting the unfunded pensions that are all out there. >> that's absolutely true. >> that's the worst thing in the world. >> no it's not. i agree with jason. i think the market is setting up to move higher mostly because of fed policy. it's fueling that. it's forcing that risk trade. they are benefiting and so they are very, very excited about that. i got to tell the part that makes me nervous when you speak to them is that when they -- they all say to me when i was out in illinois, speaking to the illinois pension fund they are talking to me saying what happens when the fed pulls out. that's the big question. they can't do it now. whenever they talk about it the market negets nervous and start to pull back. >> what happens? >> i think you saw some example of that earlier this year. i think the yield plays are most vulnerable. telecoms, utility, staples, anything that's a bond like will have a harder time. >> the stock market went down and came back. >> the cyclicals let it. i don't the market as a whole goes down. the yield plays gets hurt the most. >> why can't i just own the i shares, the etf. >> you can. >> not only am i not smart enough to time the market i'm not smart enough to know which sector. >> the reason the retail guy doesn't hold buy and hold stocks is mainly because of the volatility. but if you look at the great investors they stick with it. that's hard part. >> that's the message that has to get out. but i think after what we just lived through that crisis, it was the baby boomers, we got to have the money. >> i just make a bizarre observation. precisely because we had that crisis, a, we're not going to see another one like that for hundred years and b, even the dumb government policymakers will be able to do something faster and better. you do learn from your mistakes. the fact that you think -- i don't know. it's like the general fighting the last war. they always do that. not a good idea. i got to get out of here. they are yelling in my ear. thank you very much. chicago got its debt downgraded because of out of control pension obligations. we'll get a live report from chicago and try to figure out if the other big left leaning cities are headed down precise italy same road. all that up next on "the kudlow report". you so if you have a flat tire, dead battery, need a tow or lock your keys in the car, geico's emergency roadside assistance is there 24/7. oh dear, i got a flat tire. hmmm. uh... yeah, can you find a take where it's a bit more dramatic on that last line, yeah? yeah i got it right here. someone help me!!! i have a flat tire!!! well it's good... good for me. what do you think? geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. [ male announcer ] they are a glowing example of what it means to be the best. and at this special time of year, they shine even brighter. come to the winter event and get the mercedes-benz you've always wished for, now for an exceptional price. [ santa ] ho, ho, ho, ho! [ male announcer ] lease the 2014 e350 for $579 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. welcome back to "the kudlow report". oil prices are higher today and back above $95 a barrel after a deal fell apart. a deal that would slow iran's nuclear development in a deal to lift sanctions. now iran's foreign minister is criticizing secretary of state john kerry for making conflicting statements and damaging the progress made in the talks. but more talks will be held later this month. we'll see what happens. larry? >> thank you very much. just a real quick take. i think the usa is nuts, nuts to think about a deal with iran. there's no verification. they are enriching their uranium. they are building ing ing ingi plant. once you ease those sanctions you'll never get them back on. why lift them now. i hope john kerry dks it. the french have it right, we should follow france for a change. i'm sorry. it blows my mind. does anybody think about what netanyahu said over the weekend regarding israel's position on that. anyway. now, fitch is cutting chicago's debt rating because of the weak economy and huge pension liabilities. john yang joining us us with those details. >> as you say this is all about or a lot about the city's under-funded pension plans. moody's downgraded in july, s&p followed in september and now it's fitch and in their statement they say the downgrade reflects the lack of meaningful solutions to near and long term burden the city has been unsuccessful in attempts to negotiate a solution with labor unions. according to the pew center, chicago's four pension funds are the worst funded of any major city in the united states. they've only got about enough money for about 36% of its obligations. that's a short fall of about $20 billion. everyone is looking towards 2015, a little more in a year under the law chicago has to make a balloon payment. it could be as much as a billion dollars that could blow a big hole in the city budget. enough money to keep 4300 police officers on the street for the year. now this is something that's been building over the years. rahm emanuel has been talking about it since he got into office. there's been a lot of discussion about it. not much attend. not much action. the mayor has talked about raising the retirement age, increasing the contribution that city workers make to their own pension funds, freezing cost of living adjustments for a while. the labor union, of course, are against that. they say that would be a cut in benefits. now in illinois, it's the state law that controls ultimately controls the funding and benefits formulas for the city pension funds, and in springfield there has been a stalemate over this issue since the summer. the state legislature adjourned last week without taking any action on any of this. and with elections next year for governor and state legislature, it's hard to see how any of this is going to have, find a solution. >> we need a scott walker or chris christie to go into springfield, illinois, clean the joint up. john yank, thank you very much. so, is this going to continue? is this going to happen in all these lefty cities? i say lefty cities. i'm thinking especially of new york. okay. and i got jason here with me. >> it's kind of a last flight out of saigon. >> every single union contract was left unresolved by mayor bloomberg. we have mr. de blasio who owes his long election in large measure to unions. >> unions were originally created to help people in the private-sector with regard to capitalists. that was the whole idea. now there are more public sector members of unions than private-sector members of unions. it's become a political payoff between politicians and the people that they employ. >> private sector does not want to see higher taxes to fund these benefits from the public sector. you're right. no one represents the taxpayer at the table. >> there's an unholy alliance. you've seen that in a lot of cities between private and public sector workers. what happens is as margaret thatcher eventually you run out of other people's money and then you have to make very hard choices. detroit is one of the extreme example, obviously, chicago is nowhere near that right now. but you are going to have -- you can't suspend the laws of physics forever. eventually you have to make more contributions. >> longer retirement age. but, we also need a strong stock market. there's a growth solution here. not entire solution. but growth and rising stocks will help this. >> of course. the way to do that is to get private businesses to come in to the cities. you don't want them to be completely driven by -- >> illinois jacked up its tax rate. >> no. >> jason, thank you very much. we appreciate it. up next stock market bull run after president obama's re-election? it's one of the strongest in history. that's right. our question does he deserve the credit? plus several years ago art laffer fled california to tennessee. he explains why high taxes are making things worse in his former home state. i'm kudlow. we'll be right back. americans take care of business. they always have. they always will. that's why you take charge of your future. your retirement. ♪ ameriprise advisors can help you like they've helped millions of others. listening, planning, working one on one. to help you retire your way... with confidence. that's what ameriprise financial does. that's what they can do with you. ameriprise financial. more within reach. that's what they can do ♪ith you. (train horn) vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities. >> yes, indeed, president obama is enjoying one of the best stock markets of any re-elected president in history. only bill clinton and ronald reagan had stronger performances. and let's not forget the s&p has more than doubled since mr. obama came into office in early 2009. so, can the president take credit for the stock market boom? here now we welcome back dan gross global business editor at the daily beast and art laffer chairman of laffer and associates and former reagan economic adviser. clinton and reagan had better re-election performances but not by much. the market has gone up 24% after mr. obama was re-elected. how much credit does he get? >> i don't think he gets much credit. what's really happened to push this stock market higher, larry, is obama has lost a lot of his power and there will being election changes and markets tell you about the future not the past. and they are real indicators of the politics that will be not what has been. >> dan gross, do you give him any more credit than that >> i'll give him some. if you run a hedge fund on which president is in office you would go long every time a democrat was elected and go short every time a republican was elected. market did well under clinton, not so great under bush, really well under obama. did badly under hoover. more than tripled in fdr's first term. george bush i said i'll take my share of the blame for what goes on in the economy on my watch as long as i'll get some of the credit. >> how about reagan >> market did very well there too. >> one guy you forgot. you mentioned hoover. how about calvin coolidge. >> market okay. nixon years were also very bad for the market. >> yeah, larry. >> i would give -- i think he gets credit for in 2009 the economy was in free fall, we were shrinking at a 6% annual rate. the stuff that got started in the fall of 2008 with t.a.r.p. and all that that was carried through. found a basis for the panic to stop. and there was a recovery. >> let me go back to art. what about corporate profits? corporate profits have risen roughly the same amount as the stock market in obama's term. that's not a coincidence. >> what i think we just heard is that politics make a lot more sense than parties. you look at jimmy carter remember ronald reagan, bill clinton. bill clinton was a great president. i voted for him twice, larry. ronald reagan was a great president. you got, as you said hoover was terrible. then you got harding, coolidge. it's not republican or democrat. jack kennedy was one of the best presidents we ever had. what it is when policies start changing then i think you see these markets start responding and it's not republican, democrat, liberal or conservative it's economics. you're right on the profits. profits are way up and so are stock prices. >> that's what i want to get. everybody tells me this is a bubble. everyone tells me it's only because of the fed. i don't deny that the fed's policies are helping stocks. they are stock market friendly. i think profits and the behavior -- look, the resilience of the u.s. private sector and the u.s. companies large and small that resilience is phenomenal. >> it's amazing. just amazing. >> i think, dan gross, you have to give the companies -- >> you have to give them a lot of credit. they got the free money which is good for profits. corporate profits are at a record level. cash holdings are at record level. companies have been very good on one hand beating the living daylights of labor at home. wages haven't gone up. the stock market is really a play on the global economy and the ability of u.s. companies to thrive in the global economy. when you look at exports have risen substantially, the typical member of the s&p 500 gets half of its revenues or so from overseas, this is not simply a fed induced bubble because as you noted the profits are there and they are taking the profits and they are buying back stock at record levels. they are paying more in dividends than they ever did before. >> they are not investing because of policies. >> regardless of whether obama gets credit or not, you don't give him much credit. i don't give him any credit. >> i don't give w credit. >> let's put that aside. a rising stock market like this should be telling us that the future will be better. >> i think it is. >> i want to go to that. not just in political terms, art but economic terms and social welfare term. doesn't it mean something good about the future of america? >> i think so. i'm very bullish on the country. i think stock prices have a long way to go before they reach a natural level. frankly i'm excited about america. profits i'm excited about growth and employment. it's not going to happen for a while, larry. it's got to go through the political process first and the elections in 2014 and then in 2016. you know, this is a very political country that we're operating in right now and laws do matter. regulations do matter. and, you know, forcing companies to pay over exorbitant prices, that will stuff. >> little bit on tax migration. your favorite subject. you got a new piece and it's called "higher taxes don't mean a better life." you moved from high kax california to low tax tennessee. does california have a better life because of all these taxes? >> not because of these tax, larry. it has a great life. i miss california terribly. but they have much worse schools than texas, for example. they have worse prisons than texas. they have less people in prison, they have worse police force, worse ohio state. every one of the major public services with one exception they have a lot worse than texas. >> why is that? >> it's because they spend way more per full time on employee than does texas and they lose huge because people leaving, because of slow growth, higher unemployment rates and because of tax gaming as well. they don't get the money you would expect with higher tax rates because people try to get around it. i moved to tennessee and i don't have an income tax any more. i bought my house with my first year's tax savings. it's wonderful to keep some of your own money. >> dan gross, you know and i know and art knows plenty of people who moved down florida or at least tried to make their official residence in florida because there's no income tax do you agree? >> no. there's much more to life than marginal income tax. i think for the people who are sort of merely wealthy or just getting to be wealthy that extra 5% you might pay to live in connecticut or 7% you pay in new york makes a difference. for the truly wealthy the mitt romneys of the world, his residence is in california for venture capitalist it doesn't make a difference at all. when you see what's happening in the stock market and where these companies are coming from, facebook does not move to wyoming after everybody there gets rich to take advantage of the fact -- >> they do. they do, seriously. >> they don't move to south dakota. tennessee is the 40th rank state for income. >> look at the numbers. you got to be serious. adjusted gross income we got the tax return data, larry, from '92, '93 on up to the present. huge amounts of out migration of wealth from california and huge in migration of wealth into texas. not only are a lot of people moving from california, a lot of people moving into texas, but the average income of those moving out of california is way higher than the state average and the average income moving into texas is very high as well. you know, it's just a natural move. i don't know where these people get their data. but it's always that way. >> i got to leave it that way. doesn't matter in new york if you move from 72nd street to he 96th street doesn't matter. you got to get out of the state. de blasio wants to raise taxes even more. he ran on that. thanks. i appreciate it. up next we'll gate live report from the philippines on the devastating storm there. i'm larry kudlow. we'll be right back. . in a world that's changing faster than ever, we believe outshining the competition tomorrow requires challenging your business inside and out today. at cognizant, we help forward-looking companies run better and run different - to give your customers every reason to keep looking for you. so if you're ready to see opportunities and see them through, we say: let's get to work. because the future belongs to those who challenge the present. ♪ ♪ [ female announcer ] with five perfectly sweetened whole grains... you can't help but see the good. the strongest storm ever to hit land, typhoon haiyan devastating the philippines. thousands are dead, thousands more are missing. let's get a report from the philippines. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, larry. day four now since this disaster hit on friday. and there are still numerous challenges, extreme challenges for the disaster relief agencies. first and foremost, this is a logistical nightmare. you have to appreciate the severity of this storm. yes, it was a typhoon. yes, the philippines is very well used to them. it's very well experienced in dealing with the aftermath of these typhoons. but they did not bank on the tsunami-like storm surge that was created by these 300 kilometer per hour winds and that's devastated some of these roads. it's knocked out the infrastructure, i'm talking about the communication, the power, and, of course, the accessibility. that makes the job of the disaster agencies that much more difficult. on the positive side there has been a huge outpouring of international financial assistance and logistical help. yesterday the marines arrived in manila, spearheaded by the third mat. these guys have experience with dealing with countries and dealing with helping to rebuild infrastructure, a bridge, roads, et cetera. so their help and of course their heavy-lift, aerial equipment is going to be much needed. so we should get some clarity on the relief efforts but right now it's a gargantuan task and accessibility is a very real problem. back to you. >> all right. many thanks. we appreciate it. up next on kudlow, hiring our heroes. today on veterans day, we commemorate america's heroes past and present who fought to defend our freedom. our focus turns to the national outrage of veteran unemployment which for young vets stands at 10%. and our next guest says that thanks to military friendly companies the tide is turning. the former navy pilot helped ring the nasdaq's "closing bell" and he joins us next with some good news. s. to make their money do more. (ann) to help me plan my next move, i take scottrade's free, in-branch seminars... plus, their live webinars. i use daily market commentary to improve my strategy. and my local scottrade office guides my learning every step of the way. because they know i don't trade like everybody. i trade like me. i'm with scottrade. (announcer) ranked highest in investor satisfaction with self-directed services by j.d. power and associates. ♪ if tomorrow things were gone ♪ ♪ i worked for all my life 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, armistice ending world war i and today on veterans day we give special thanks to our military men and women. as we continue to give thanks we must remember to find ways to help them. get this the overall unemployment rate for veterans stands at 6.9%. but for young vets those who served after the 9/11 attacks is a shocking 10% plus. that's a national disgrace. but there is some good news in this story. some employers are beginning to make a difference. in fact, some 185 companies have hired roughly 117,000 ex-military workers this year. this coming from veteran own victor media which released their annual top military friendly employers list. joining me now is former navy pilot sean collins and retired helicopter pilot who served combat in both iraq and afghanistan who is now a military adviser to concerned veterans for americans. god bless to both of you. sean i'll start with you. i read a couple of reports on this. you got usaa, union pacific. you got verizon. nbc universal just hired a couple thousand vets. you're moving. taken a while but moving. >> we are. absolutely. it's nice to see the conversation shift from why hire military to how to actually do it. >> let me ask you why hire military? i mean discipline? leadership? guys and women who think on their feet? don't employers know that especially these big corporations? >> absolutely. i think they do. it has a lot to do with the intangible attributes that's instilled with military service. the message is getting out that hiring military isn't a cause for charity. it's a strategic business case. >> amber, you need discipline in life. you hear all these crazy stories u-read all these crazy stories and you look at the media covering this stuff. here's discipline, leadership, presumably well trained, particularly under duress. >> yes. >> why wouldn't that pitch be terrific for a company? >> well, what employers need to realize that it is hiring veterans is a good business sense. it's a good long term investment for their company. veterans are trained and skilled professionals in many skill sets and they have a work ethic that is greater than what most employers are used to from their employees. they have leadership skills, they have -- they are excellent at working with a team. but also as individuals. they are reliable. they show up to work on time. they are not complainers. they are hard workers. and they don't give up. what employer would not want those qualities in an employee? >> all right. so just give me one quick example. i'll come back to sean in a minute. gives me somebody who turns you down. what do they say? >> in a job. >> yeah. >> that i was looking for. >> you or somebody from your group. >> well, oh, there's plenty of veterans who are out there looking for work. as you said, the employment numbers for october was 10%. and that's hovering. september was 10.1. it's hovering right around 10%. there's plenty of veterans out there struggling that have those stories out there that are looking for work. >> sean, you're running or you run victor media. you go in and pitch these companies. okay. what do they ask? what do they ask? do they show any skepticism or what? >> a lot of reasons companies choose to engage with us is to find out the best practices that are all right out there across the fortune 1,000 for recruiting and retaining service members. we assess their programs and get solutions to put the right veterans at the right time. >> you help assess their programs. do you introduce them to individuals? how does that work? >> we don't. we have a data-driven survey process that's put together by an advisory board we run companies through. our data is certified by ernst and young. >> 185 companies is a big number. >> that's right. >> how did you get it? >> it wasn't that big. we've been at this for ten years. it's thrilling for us to see military hiring really go mainstream. we've had a 20% growth in our military friendly employers list from last year. it's the result of a lot of companies that were early adopters seeing success and those best practices being disseminated across companies. >> amber, are you satisfied with the way this country is treating the veterans to whom we all owe a lot it seems to me for defending our freedom. your satisfied? >> as far as the way the department of veterans affairs, the unstable economy, the high unemployment rate that we're seeing, no, i'm not satisfied. i think as far as the country goes, the american population, they are amazing. they under the sacrifices that veterans are making and that is much appreciated. modern day universities. we see the difference in the way we're getting treated today compared to vietnam veterans. >> thank you. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> that's it for tonight's show. thank you for watching. "god bless america". federal bless american veterans for protecting our freedom. ♪ hmm. ♪ mm-hmm. [ engine revs ] ♪ [ male announcer ] oh what fun it is to ride. get the mercedes-benz on your wish list at the winter event going on now -- but hurry, the offer ends soon. [ santa ] ho, ho, ho! [ male announcer ] lease the 2014 ml350 for $599 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. for $599 a month maestro of project management. baron of the build-out. you need a permit... to be this awesome. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. (aaron) purrrfect. (vo) meee-ow, business pro. meee-ow. go national. go like a pro. [ticking] >> last year, medicare paid $55 billion just for doctors and hospital bills during the last two months of patients' lives. it's a perfect example of the costs that threatened to bankrupt us and how hard it's going to be to rein them in. >> genes--as a result of them, you've inherited some of your family's finest qualities, along with predispositions to deadly diseases. you probably know that science has made giant leaps in detecting and treating some of those illnesses, but what you probably don't know is that at the same time, biotech companies haven