To climate change. Real or fake . What is the answer . Israel. You are the winner of this court is an authentic and bloodied meat cleaver. No way i can leave the building with that. The moment i walked out ive arrested by security. [laughter] john it is silly but it makes a point the next time politicians say recant that remember theres so much garbage sometimes you cannot tell what is fake. Thats our show. Thank you for watching. I am john stossel. Good night. Willis is up next. Gerri tonight on the willis report, the most ridiculous Resignation Letter ever, the ceos words like you never heard before. Also, some colleges dont care about gpas, what they are really looking for. Is jcpenney dead . What happened to the iconic american bran, and can it rise again . The willis report is on the case. Gerri no, no, that didnt happen, just kidding. Theres no apocalypse. Despite the white house making wild doomsday predictions if the automatic spending cuts, today, the sequester is a snoozer. The house and senate are not in session today. With more on this, grover nor qis, douglas holtzeakin, and a former cbo director and steve forbes, chairman and editor in chief of forbes media, starting with you, sir. Surprise that were still here . That western civilization continues as we know it . Oh, absolutely, and i think theyve got all the apocalypse talk because if you do a small cult, we lived with it, why not do more, and so we saw in new jersey, we have a budget today with the governor, governor christie, lower than it was five years ago. The sun still comes up in the morning in new jersey, we have occasional storms, but we survive. Gerri absolutely. Grover to you. Look at it. We have the payroll tax increase for so many working americans at the beginning of the year. Isnt it only fair that the federal government goes on a bit of a diet, too . Well, one of the challenges, of course, is the federal governments been on a binge, and just beginning to bring it back obama thinks that makes the world collapse. We could absorb a lot more budget restraint if it was done through reform in government. The republican budget, the ryan plan saves trillion over the next decade. This is only 1. 2 trillion. Its done awkwardly, but the republicans he a plan to do six times more in savings by reforming government. Obamaments to cut obama wants to cut it with a meat cleaver a little. Gerri doug, its not planned reform or sought out reform. Its a mistake, and were all going to live with it, and its going to be fine, but ated at the end of the day, its not that much money. its about 2 . What do you think of it . Its much to do about nothing. Its really 2 . You hear talks of a recession. Ive done the math. If this causes a recession, the stimulus bill should have traded 6 trillion in wealth. We have not seen that. Im pretty sure were safe from recession, and the reality is, we can absorb these cuts from the federal government. They are going to be some rough edge, but by and large, were still going to have more spending than w had last year, more money than the president , himself, budgeted. Gerri to that point, take a look another the chart, cbo numbersment the Spending Continues to rise with the cuts. Keep in mind, this is not a cut in spending. When people talk about the sequester being spending cuts, its not spending cuts, but reduction in the growth of feral spending haha, i just love the story because at the end of the day, people are so confused about this, and they dont know what to make of it. Fitch and s p says its not changing the ratings here. Yes. I think the white house is beginning to realize they overplayed their hands on this thinking the republicans would cave as they have in the past x and when they didnt, they were unprepared for it, and they are scrambling to say its a long process, so if the world ends in a hundred years, its because of that sequester. Gerri right, exactly. Were supposed to get news of the president igning this by 7 in the 7 p. M. Hour, thats the expectation now, the new news, this hour, and i want to tell you, the devils in the details; right, guys . Yep. Gerri the architects of capitol hill, the architects of the capitol, thats the job title, saying theres no furloughs. If you were worried somebody else there would be laid off, you know, a maid, somebody cleaning the toilets, its not going to happen. That is the good news. Grer, to you. There was a meeting with the leadership that lasted 45 minutes. The last one lasted about seven minutes. Is there going to be a coming together ever of the two sides . Well, the republicans would like to see a smaller expenditure by the government and lower taxes. President obamas made it clear in his four years he wants higher taxes and more spending. If somebody goes west and east, its a little hard to talk about what they can agree on. Certainly, we ought to be working on regular order, the house and the senate with the president signing bills. The party here is the democrat controlled senate. Everything we hear about it is the republicans in the house passing legislation, and the president , liking it or not liking it, but theres 20 democrats up for reelection in the senate in 20 2014. They are hiding. They have not done a budget in four years. We ought to shine a light over there and see what they do with their spare time. Gerri unbelievable. Unbelievable. Its your legal obligation to come up with a budget, and you sit on your hands. I dont understand it. Listen to this statement from the president about blame. Sure. Gerri listen to this. Ill get you a comment. I put forward a plan that calls for serious spending cuts, serious entitlement reforms, goes right at the problem that is at the heart of the long term deficit problem. I offered negotiations around that kind of balanced approach, and so far, weve gotten rebuffed because of what Speaker Boehner and the republicans said is we cannot do any revenue. What more do you think i should do . Gerri its not my fault, doug. I mean, come on. My hands are clean here. Thats what the president s saying. The only balanced budget you will see will be from the house of representatives in a couple weeks to balance in the first ten years. What you see coming from the democrats is higher taxes, more spending, more debt. There couldnt be a bigger difference. The president has not put out serious entitlement reforms, but taxes. If you say heads or tails, mr. President , and he says taxes. At some point, you have to think of Something Else as a solution to problems. Going down that route is damming to the economy and does not address the budgetary pressures. Gerri steve forbes, to youis it damaging the economy . No, its the first good news for the economy in a long time in the sense its not taking resources out of the economy. Where does the government get money . From you, either through taxing, borrowing, or printing money, another form of taxation. The president thinks taking resources from the productive people and putting it in the hands of bureaucrats. Its a little small piece of go news weve had. Gerri for the stock market, its good news. A couple very good days this week. Its like the bad wife syndrome, beating stops for awhile, oh, my goodness, this is not bad. [laughter] gerri funniest thing i heard all day. The president was just full of good statements today in the press. He said something about not being a dictator, grover, getting you to respond to that. Listen to this. I am not a dictator. Im the president , so, ultimately, if Mitch Mcconnell or john boehner say we have to go to catch a plane, i cant have secret Service Block the doorway. The fact they dont take it means that i should somehow, you know, do a jeddi mind meld. Gerri well, where are we going here, grover . The president is confused and shaken up. This sequester was his idea. I know he roughed up woodward and wishedded he had not said this, but we know it was his idea. The president thought that he signed the legislation to put this sequester into effect. He thought it up. He sned it. He did this ology instead of the reforms the house of representatives wanted. This is what he did instead of the reforms in the ryan budget in some form. He thought the republicans would recoil because defense spending woulnot have it, he watched too much Cable Television with a handful of republicans who would faint if thy didnt get every penny, but theres just four of those people. They dont represent the modern Republican Party or the american people. Gerri well, i got to ask you guys, tonight, right here, commit yourself, do you think whats happened with the sequester here today, likely to see the president sign within the hour, is it apocalypse now, or is it apocalypse no . If not, raise your hand. I want to see you. On the record, here, come on, guys. Apocalypse not . Grover . Looks unanimou in the apocalypse, i thought the good guys won, no . [laughter] gerri oh, all right, well, you know, grover, id expect you to come up with the detail there. Thank you so much. Great to have you here. Thank you. Gerri heres the question tonight. When it comes to the automatic spending cuts, the sequester, apocalypse now or not . Vote on the right hand side of the screen, and well share the results at the end of the nights show. Well see how you vote. A stark reminder what happens with fiscal mismanagement. Michigans governor declared a financial emergency in detroit. The citys broke, and on the brng of becoming the largest city in the country to have a state take over its finances. We talked both the issue last night, and if you missed it, renowned journalist and author, charlie, laid out in clear terms what went wrong if the motor city. A lot of things. Theres a big racial issue that we never confronted, like, the south did, anddownons took unions took a bite, management whept with it, made bad cars, japanese made the good cars, oil embargoes, trade pacts, a lot of things al at once. Dwaight comes, boom, the real estate collapses. The whole country feels the lack of manufacturing now i think. Gerri detroit was once the fifth largest city in the country, but a quarter of the population left in the last decade now ranking 18th. Sad story. Well, more to come in the hour incoming the downward spiral of the most popular retail chains in american history. Is jcpenney dead . One of the most talked about exits from a ceo ever. Next, why i think the former head of groupon sounds like a 10yearold. i gerri when it comes to saying goodbye, theres very memorable departures. Who could forget the fed up flight attenadapt who pull the emergency flight on the last day, even grabbing a beer before going feet first down the slide. We just had another high profile departure, not quite as dramatic, butt but the ceo of groupon was fired after a terrible earnings report. The Washington Post declared the ceo writes the best Resignation Letter ever. I actually think it was one of the worst. It sounded like something written by a 10yearold, so we have a special guest tonight to read the Resignation Letter. 10yearold actor who recently starred as Young Charlie chaplain in the Broadway Muse calg. Take it away. People of groupon, after four and a half intense and wonderful years as ceo of groupon, ive decided id like to spend more time with my family. Just kiddg. I was fired today. If youre wondering why, you have not been paying attention from controversial metrics in the s1 to Material Weakness to two quarters of missing our own expectations, and the stock price thats hovers around one quarter of the listing price. The events of the last year and a half speak for themselves. As ceo, i am accountable. You are doing a Amazing Things as groupon, and you deserve the outside world to give you a second chance. Im getting in the way of that. A fresh ceo earns you that chance. The board is aligned to be beline the strategy we shared over the last few month, and ive never seen you working to the more effectively as a global company. Its time to give groupon a relief valve from the public noise. If theres one piece of wisdom at the simple pilgrim would like to impart upon you, have the courage to start with the customer. My biggest regrets are the moments that i let a lack of data override by intuition on whats best for our customers. This leadership change gives you some breathing room to break bad habits and deliver sustainable customer happines dont waste the opportunity. I will miss you terribly. Love, andrew. [applause] yeah ethan, way to go. Tong. Thank you. Well done, wow. Not what you expect from a ceo of a company; right . It lacks. Others did it better like steve jobs who wrote this, i believe apples brightest and most innovative days ahead of it, and i look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role. That was good. Even this, the ceo of Lehman Brothers sounded like a classic guy in the resignation saying, i believe that weve woed together effectively in achieving an prompt appropriate transition accordingly. Its time for me to move on resign as chairman of the board. In the end, the ceo is entitled to severance benefits because he was terminated without cause by the board as if chopping three quarters off the share price or abandoned thousands of employees was not good reason to can the executive boy. Running a Public Company is not childs play. Investors are not chumps to find your swiss bank accounts, and employees, well they are not fellow play mates. Later in the show, we asked the lawyers is it legal for a homeless man to sue his parents for his bad lot in life . Next, an american retail constitution, and now jcpenney on life support. Can it be revived or time to pull the plug . Stay with us. [beep] [indistinct chatter] [kids talking at once] [speaking foreign language] [heart beating] [heartbeat continues] [faint singing] [heartbeat, music playing louder] im feeling better since you know me i was a lonely soul, but thats the old me. Announcer this song was created with heartbeats of children in need. Find out how it can help Frontline Health workers bring hope to millions of children at everybeatmatters. Org. Gerri jcpenney reporting the one of the worst quarters in retail history. Is this the end of the road for the troubled company . Gerri well, in what could be one of the worst quarters ever, ever in retail history, jcpenney seems to be running out of options. Where contactually did the retailer go wrong, and does it have a chance to come back . Grant, an International Sales exterritory, and the author of the only difference between success and failure, grant, welcome to the show. Good to see you. Good to see you. Gerri any way the company can come back . They made big missteps. Sure, they can come back. When they when they go back to the founding principles of jane cash penny who founded it in 1902 based on customer experience, golden rules of retail, give the customer more than expected, which is not something they pay for. That goes beyond what they came to get with the product and the price, and they completely abandon those concepts. When they get back to hat, they have a chance of bringing back Customer Loyalty. Gerri look, the report was sales down 28. 4 . Boom. I mean, that is bad. I mean, brutal. Gerri terrible. Yeah. In a time we havean economy there appears to be recovering and other retail environments succeeding, automobile dealers doing great, macys improving, radio shack doing well, and jcpenney, a Great American brand is suffering, why . Its interesting. Gei screwed up. Yeah, well, penny used to say he believed it was criminal, a crime not to sell the customer. When you go to a jcpenney today, youre lucky to get greeted. You wont be acknowledged much less sold anything. Gerri gear they are not about that. We went to the street to ask new yorkers what they thought when they heard the name jcpenney. This is what they thought. Jcpenney, cheap clothes. Not happy with it anymore. Change. Too much change. We want the coupons and sales back. Okay . Like she said, cheap, just a cheap undertone now. I dont its sad. I dont shop at jcpenney. Apple computer. Company clothes. Jcpenney . Gerri shes a gucci girl. Ill explain something out of that. The fellow who said apple, referring to the fact that ron johnson was running the company, developed the apple store, highly successful Apple Store Concept everybody loves. It doesnt feel like a store, but a High End Hotel lobby or something. Why cant he make that translate . Whats the disconnect between developing the most successful retail format of the last 50 years, and whats going on right now in a Jcpenney Store in any city in the country . Yeah. Because the answer is a piece of new technology is different than the interest in a hanestshirt, you know . The price drives people to apparel. It doesnt close the transaction, and technology, the gimmick of technology, the interest in new technology, is what drives traffic so when johnson came in and went to the everyday pricing, its a nice gimmick, but the reality is, you know, youve abandoned 80 years of consumers getting being familiar with coupons and immediate sales and discount opportunities, which was driving the traffic. Now, jcpenney needs to figure out tow ho take the out how to make the sec and third sale. Gerri what do you do . Bring ba sales, okay, but what else . Hire company, like myself, come in to turn that company around. Seriously gerri thats shameless. They would turn it into a sales environment and say, look, were here to make a sale. We cannot create Customer Loyalty without assisting a client. Develop a Customized Training Program for the groups of jcp or jcpenney, whatever they call themselves, have from the front door, a greeting to the department to the Cash Register all the way to followup, and stay with the customer and create a Customer Loyalty experience that people want to pay for. Gerri if they had sales, people would be back. People want sales. Grant, good to have you here, good to see you, mister. Thanks for being with us to explain this really sad story. Thank you. Thank you, gerri. Gerri coming up, are colleges changing their criteria for admission . A story every parent should hear. Next, we ask is it le